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Posts on Forgiveness
Biblically, a posture is a physical position in worship that reflects the heart's attitude of reverence towards God and our dependence on Him. At the beginning of this year, the Lord impressed on us that there are six postures—six mindsets—that He wants to undergird and inform our prayers for Forgiving Forward.
All for God’s Glory
Jesus Focused
Shepherd Led
Gospel-Centric
Abiding Trust
Self Denied
This is the sixth in a series of blogs unpacking each of the postures that guide the ministry of Forgiving Forward. The sixth posture is:
Self Denied
He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.
Matthew 10:39
Could it be that the biggest challenge to God's glory and position in our lives is us? Is it possible that we have met our own worst enemy, and it’s the dude or dudette staring back at us in the mirror?
“I have now concentrated all my prayers into one, and that one prayer is this, that I may die to self, and live wholly to Him.”
Charles H. Spurgeon
At the core of the original sin in Genesis 3 was the lure of self-determination, of choosing our will over God’s will, our choice over God’s command. With two bites of the fruit, the flesh of mankind was born, which spread into the DNA of every one of Adam’s descendants, all the way down to you and me. The flesh is the spiritual force that dwells within us which is anti-God and produces sin in us. As long as our earthsuits are breathing, even after we move from death to Life in Jesus, the flesh entices us to continue to eat from the same tree our first father tasted. And we do—constantly—and everything becomes about ME, what I want, what I think I need over God’s will. It always ends with the same results—Death! Not the same spiritual death Adam and Eve experienced, but relational death. We are still God’s children, but we lose the joy of His Life in us.
For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8:
We are taking a pause on our series called Our Postures to celebrate the greatest event in all of history—the Death and Resurrection of Our Savior, Jesus Christ. Believers around the globe will gather together in multiple services this week to commemorate Holy Week, culminating in Resurrection Sunday. The Gospel is fully expressed and wholly contained in the Cross and the Empty Tomb.
The Gospel can be divided into two parts. First, Jesus died for our sins, and the proof that He died is that He was buried. People are buried because they are dead. Second, Jesus was raised from the dead and walked out of the tomb on the third day. The proof of the resurrection is that people saw Him. Not just Peter and the disciples, but over 500 people saw Him at one time. The resurrection of Jesus is one of the most historically attested events. That’s the Gospel. Jesus died and rose from the grave. Hallelujah!
Why did Christ die? He died for our sins. He died so that we could be forgiven.
Biblically, a posture is a physical position in worship that reflects the heart's attitude of reverence towards God and our dependence on Him. At the beginning of this year, the Lord impressed on us that there are six postures—six mindsets—that He wants to undergird and inform our prayers for Forgiving Forward.
All for God’s Glory
Jesus Focused
Shepherd Led
Gospel-Centric
Abiding Trust
Self Denied
This is the fifth in a series of blogs unpacking each of the postures that guide the ministry of Forgiving Forward. The fifth posture is:
Abiding Trust
I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him,
he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
John 15:5
Several years ago, I heard Chip Ingram share that he had read a chapter in A. W. Tozer’s classic book The Knowledge of the Holy, which is an examination of the attributes of God, every day for over 30 years. Because I respect Chip, I was intrigued, so I decided to give it a shot. Since that time, my morning routine includes reading a chapter of Tozer’s book every day. There are 23 chapters, and when I finish chapter 23, I start over with chapter 1. I read it about 15 times a year. Why? The main reason lies in two statements Tozer makes in the book. The first line of the first chapter reads, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” The second statement is found in the preface, “The low of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of 100 lesser evils everywhere among us.” Tozer’s overarching premise is that our view of God determines and impacts everything we think, say, and do.
As I continue to saturate my mind with the attributes of God that He has revealed to us in His word, my perspectives on everything have been re-ordered and renewed. I have found that the more I get to know God, the more I find myself trusting Him more and trusting myself less. But it is a challenge, isn’t it? Here’s Tozer again, “Left to ourselves, we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms. We want to get Him where we can use Him, or at least know where He is when we need Him. We want a God we can, in some measure, control.” I don’t know about you, but I tend to downsize God regularly. How often do we view God as the “Heavenly Express Card,” something we keep hidden in our wallet and whip out when we need Him? The problem is that when we downsize God, we upsize ourselves, which is the root cause of most, if not all, of our troubles. The essence of idolatry, according to Tozer, is “the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.” Ouch!
Our Postures—Part Four
As I shared in the previous blogs, Toni and I spend time together at the beginning of each year seeking God’s heart for Forgiving Forward. The key question we ask is, “Lord, what do You want us to ask You for in the coming year?” This year, as Toni and I sat together, listening and processing, God took us back to the basics so that we could codify what had been our heart posture all along. Biblically, a posture is a physical position in worship that reflects the heart's attitude of reverence towards God and our dependence on Him. The Lord gave us six postures—six mindsets—that will undergird and inform our prayers for Forgiving Forward.
All for God’s Glory
Jesus Focused
Shepherd Led
Gospel-Centric
Abiding Trust
Self Denied
This is the fourth in a series of blogs unpacking each of the postures that guide the ministry of Forgiving Forward. In the previous blogs, we discussed “All for God's Glory,” “Jesus Focused,” and “Shepherd Led.” The fourth posture is:
Gospel-Centric
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2
One of the main concerns I have with most forgiveness models, including the one I used to follow, is that they do not address the “who pays?” question. When someone wounds us, there is a loss—something is damaged, a debt is incurred. Forgiveness requires the settling of the debt. Just choosing to forgive someone doesn’t eliminate the impact of what happened. The debt remains and must be addressed. Forgiveness simply shifts the responsibility for the debt from the one who caused it to someone else who will cover it. In most models of forgiveness, that someone else is us. Basically, intentionally or by default, we absorb the debt. We may deny it, “I’m OK, it doesn’t matter—It’s no big deal.” Or we may excuse it, “ They’re hurting. They didn’t mean to hurt me.” In either case, we absorb the unresolved debt, which will ultimately lead to bitterness and pride. “It’s not right, but look how spiritual I am!” However, in the Gospel, Jesus is the One who pays the debt. Jesus became human so that He could fully satisfy our sin debt to God by shedding His righteous blood on the Cross. Jesus, being fully God and fully human, was the only one who could pay that debt and thereby establish the basis for our forgiveness, restoring us to a relationship with God so that we could live His Life.
As I shared in the previous blogs, Toni and I spend time together at the beginning of each year seeking God’s heart for Forgiving Forward. The key question we ask is, “Lord, what do You want us to ask You for in the coming year?” This year, as Toni and I sat together, listening and processing, God took us back to the basics so that we could codify what had been our heart posture all along. Biblically, a posture is a physical position in worship that reflects the heart's attitude of reverence towards God and our dependence on Him. The Lord gave us six postures—six mindsets—that will undergird and inform our prayers for Forgiving Forward.
All for God’s Glory
Jesus Focused
Shepherd Led
Gospel-Centric
Abiding Trust
Self Denied
This is the third in a series of blog posts unpacking each of the postures that guide the ministry of Forgiving Forward. In the previous blogs, we discussed “All for God's Glory” and “Jesus Focused.” The third posture is:
Shepherd Led
The mind of a person plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:9
Most organizations and ministries spend considerable time developing their ten-year, five-year, and one-year plans, as well as their purpose, mission, and value statements. The strategy is to develop their long-term plan, then break it down into manageable action steps to get them there in the short term. So naturally, we are often asked, “What is your ministry plan?” I always answer the same way. Our ministry plan is “Savior, like a Shepherd, lead us.” That’s it! That’s all I’ve got because that’s all we need.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m OK with strategic plans. We have them, and we do use a calendar. We have a purpose statement, a passion statement, and a mission statement. They’re helpful in many ways as we lead Forgiving Forward, but they must be held loosely. We believe that the One who is the head of the ministry must be the One who guides the ministry. Jesus is the head of the ministry, and He gets to lead it. Our plan is to follow Him!
As I shared in the previous blog, Toni and I spend time together at the beginning of each year seeking God’s heart for Forgiving Forward. The key question we ask is, “Lord, what do You want us to ask You for in the coming year?” This year, as Toni and I sat together, listening and processing, God took us back to the basics so that we could codify what had been our heart posture all along. Biblically, a posture is a physical position in worship that reflects the heart's attitude of reverence towards God and our dependence on Him. The Lord gave us six postures—six mindsets—that will undergird and inform our prayers for Forgiving Forward.
All for God‘s Glory
Jesus Focused
Shepherd/Spirit Led
Gospel-Centric
Abiding Trust
Self Denied
This is the second in a series of blogs unpacking each posture that guides the ministry of Forgiving Forward. In the previous blog, we discussed the first posture: “All for God’s Glory.” The second posture is:
Jesus Focused
At the beginning of each year, Toni and I spend a day together seeking God’s heart for Forgiving Forward. The key question we ask is, “Lord, what do You want us to ask You for in the coming year?” The day is spent alternating between our individual times with the Lord and times spent together with Him. This is a sacred time because we never want this ministry to be about our plans or our strategies. Each year, God gives us a focus and a list of prayers He wants us to seek Him for in the coming year. We then organize these prayers into “prayer circles” that our team prays for during the coming year. We have seen God do amazing things in answering these prayers.
This year, we sensed that God wanted us to go deeper in our understanding of His purpose for Forgiving Forward and why He called us into it. As Toni and I sat together, listening and processing, we began to get clarity. God took us down to the basics so that we could codify what had been our heart posture all along. Biblically, a posture is a physical position in worship that reflects the heart's attitude of reverence towards God and our dependence on Him. The Lord gave us six postures—six mindsets—that will undergird and inform our prayers for Forgiving Forward.
All for God‘s Glory
Jesus Focused
Shepherd/Spirit Led
Gospel-Centric
Abiding Trust
Self Denied
Recently, a friend told me about a counseling course he had just completed. When they got to the subject of forgiveness, the presenter taught that one should not forgive until the offending party repents. They went so far as to say that it would be wrong to forgive someone before they repented. This is a commonly held position, and I understand why. It seems to make a lot of sense. The problem is that the Gospel message teaches the exact opposite. We don’t need to look any further than the Creation story to discover that, in God’s economy, forgiveness always precedes repentance.
Toni and I were in one of the darkest periods of our lives. In the previous four months, we had endured a campaign of slander, innuendos, and isolation, which culminated in the deepest betrayal we have ever suffered. I was broken, and both of us were discouraged, defeated, and disillusioned. We felt alone and abandoned. In desperation, we spent most of our days on our faces on the floor of our living room, crying out to God from our prayer spot.
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