Tag Archives: Devotions

Christian thought, Lenten Devotion, Wholeness/Christ

Forty Days of Forgiveness (Day 16-20)

March 6, 2009 Paul Leave a comment

Day 16: And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another and forgiving each other. whoever has a complaint against anyone; JUST AS THE LORD FORGAVE YOU, so also should you.” Colossians 3:12-13

Having received the forgiveness of Jesus, we are to take on the very nature of Christ in our lives. From exemplifying his compassion to expressing his patience with each other. Jesus had to put up with the egos of James and John, the mood swings of Peter and even the betrayal of Judas. He forgave Matthew (Levy) of his sins as a tax collector, He forgave Peter of the denial and He put up with their constant doubts.

Jesus has put up with us with all our faults. We are to treat others just as He has treated us. If He can forgive us enough to accept us into eternity, we can forgive enough to live in this word in peace, one with another.

Sometimes it is hard to forgive. Sometimes it is hard to be patient with my neighbor, family and friends. Sometimes they offend me. But You O Lord, are ever forgiving. Teach me how to live with a forgiving heart. Encourage me, empower me and stand over me that I might grow in forgiveness as You have instructed. Show me the humility of Love that I may grow in a forgiving heart. Amen

Forty Days of Forgiveness (Day 11 – 15)

March 2, 2009 Paul Leave a comment

Day 11: “For His unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our rebellious acts as far away from us as the east is from the west.” Ps. 103:11-12

The whole of Psalm 103 tells of the great mercy and loving kindness of God. He treats us as his favored children, He fails to punish us as we deserve. He does not hold grudges or remember how often we fail Him. When God forgives our sin, it is forever. There are no conditions put upon us. Should this be motive enough for us to resolve to forgive others? Wouldn’t this be cause to change our sinful ways for the ways of Christ? “His Salvation” extends to the children’s children of those who are faithful to His Covenant, the Covenant that is Christ Jesus.

While we were still living in the rebellion of all that is right, God was there ready to say to us, “You are forgiven! Return to Me!” To Him we are the great pearl that He gave His all to buy. We can live in the forgiveness as we live for His grace each day.

Thank you, My God, for the patience that you bare for me. Thank you for the grace of your forgiving ways. Thank you for continually loving me even when I had no love for you. By Your Grace, Your Mercy and Your Love I am restored into the Family of God. Heal my braking heart as I repent the ways that separate me from Your Love. Amen.
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Day 12: “With my authority, take this message of repentance to all nations, beginning with Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness for all who turn to me.’ You are witnesses of all these things.” Luke 24:47-48

Jesus wants the message of the forgiveness spread to all the world. Even as those who persecute us, mock us or simply deny that God is real, it is we who are to take the message that as God has forgiven us, He desires to forgive all who turn away from the world of sin and denial and reach out to Christ. Who is unworthy of forgiveness? None! Who dos God refuse to give forgiveness? No one! Who will He reject Nobody that turns to Jesus!

While there are those who will continue to reject God, we are to offer to them the grace that we have received. While the forgiveness is given freely by the sacrifice of Jesus, We are to let the world know that it is there for them.

Jesus, I hear Your words but it is hard to share forgiveness with those who fail to hear. Give me the strength to endure and to persevere in that sharing of Your Merciful Forgiveness. Make my heart an open vessel to the give forgiveness as easily as I have received it from You. As I have turned to You, Let my words of forgiveness turn those who fear You into those who love You. Amen
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Day 13: “Oh, what joy for those
whose rebellion is forgiven ,
whose sin is put out of sight!
Yes, what joy for those
whose record the LORD has cleared of sin,
whose lives are lived in complete honesty!” Ps. 32:1-2

What a blessing it is to live in the knowledge that our transgressions are not only forgiven but that they are wiped from the record of our life. But there is one thing that God asks of us, that we live our future lives without deceit! For this we must always go back to the Lord, Our God, as sinners and ask for mercy. We are to live our lives being honest with others, with God and with ourselves. We are still weak and live in the flesh. Until we shed this vessel and live totally in the Spirit, we will continue to make mistakes. We will sin again and again. God forgives those who repent, and strive to change but we are still going to mess up. We are not perfected in Christ as we would like to thing. Yet we can still make the effort in complete honesty to reform our lives so that the forgiveness of God is not in vain.

Grant me the understanding, the willing heart to live in the Honesty of the Word. Show me how I must walk, talk and work in Your Word, O LORD. I desire to be a worthy steward of Your forgiveness. What joy it is to receive your Grace. Lead me to the path of righteousness, to walk without deceit. Amen
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Day 14: “It is for discipline that you have to endure. god is treating you as sons. for what son is there whom the father does not discipline? if you are left without discipline, in which we all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” Heb. 12:7-8

Hebrews 12:10 says that we are disciplined for our own good that we are to become holy. So many times we look at the way the world treats us without looking at what God wants for us. We fail to see that perhaps, God is disciplining us for some transgression that we are not even aware of. Maybe our “works” have become vain. Or we have developed a prideful spirit. We may have placed our “ministry” above God and work for a purpose other than the sharing of Christ’s Love. Yet if God does not bring us into correction by His Righteous Love, we would end up as the heathens relying on false religion rather than on the grace of His Holy Word.

Correct me, O Lord, show me the errors of my ways. Walk with me and take the lead that I may follow in your footsteps. When I wander from your instruction, show me how I am wrong. When I rebel against Your Way, cast my eyes on things that are evil, chastise me and pull me back into your strong hands. I see only to live with your forgiveness. Amen
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Day 15: “But this I have against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” Rev 2: 4-5. “Those whom I love. I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” Rev. 3:19

Oh, be joyous in your love for the forgiveness that has been given to you. Search within yourselves for the awareness of the pain and anxiety that you cause Jesus and the Father by your the way you have abandoned His Love. Repent of all things unholy, not just those things that are blatant offense of God but also those little things that you say will not matter. Seek to please God in all ways of your life. Search for the pure way of the forgiveness and resolve to do no other.

I repent of the way I have forgotten how much I love you, O God. I regret how I have neglected your forgiveness. Teach me to live in accordance of your loving kindness and show me how to live in your forgiveness. I seek to be in Your Way all the days of my live, turning away from those things that distract me and pull me away from your mercy. Amen

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Christian thought, Lenten Devotion, Wholeness/Christ

Forty Days of Forgiveness (Day 1 – 5)

February 24, 2009 Paul Leave a comment

Day One: “They refuse to listen, and did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had preformed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt But you are a God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate; And You did not forsake them“ Nehemiah 9:17

Often we turn away from the grace of God and want to return to the ways of slavery to sin. So many times, we in our weakness, want to return to old habits. Let us use this time of year, the forty days before we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the grave to examine ourselves to see what weakness of faith and obedience to the service of God we can purge ourselves of.

As Our God is a redemptive God, eager to forgive and wanting to ever welcome us, we are assured that when ever we stray from His way He will welcome us back. As we are seeking the easy way or the life that we left behind, He is wanting us to stay on the righteousness path of Salvation. Let us concentrate on the wondrous deeds that Christ has preformed in our lives and choose not to be lead back into the ways of the World. Let us focus on the Way of Christ and the Road of Redemption.

O God, be merciful upon me, a sinner, and waken in me the remembrance of Your Everlasting Kindness. Show me the errors of my walk and quicken my soul into your righteousness. Grant me your peace and comfort me. Confound the ways of the world that I will not stray into them. In all things, I give You praise and Glory, amen.

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Day 2: “The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness; forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.” Num 14:18

While we are quick to accept the forgiveness of God, we still must remember that God will judge us according to our hearts. Because of the sacrifice of Christ, the guilt has been removed and we no longer face the punishments due us. But that does not remove from us the guilt that we carry about. We carry the generation sins of our “fathers” by the attitudes and habits that control our lives that are not the will of Christ. Addictions, Attitudes and Actions demonstrate the “sins of the Fathers” that we still hang onto as a lack of Spiritual Awareness.

Grant us O LORD, the power to imbrace your forgiveness and to rid ourselves of those things that Hide your mercy from us. Awake in me the Spirit to withstand the onslaughts of my weaknesses, my depravity, my sinful nature that separates me from your Love. I can not do it with out You, O LORD, Be my strength when I am temped to return to sin. Amen
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Day 3: “The gift is not that which came through the one who sinned; for in the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.” Romans 5:16

Though the gift of Christ, given by the Father so that we might have been reconciled with the Father, we are free from the punishment and the guilt of Adam’s transgressions. God has freed us to live without transgressions against Him. Which life do you choose to live now? One of continual offence against the giver of the gift or a life that claims victory over sin by sharing forgiveness and righteous love. As Christ so loved us, we shall love each other.

Teach me, O LORD, how to forgive as you have forgiven me. Show me how to live in the freedom of Your Grace, forgiving as you have forgiven, loving as you have loved. Show me how to walk without condemnation because you do not condemn me. Amen
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Day 4: “But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned with the world.” 1 Cor 11:32

As we grow each day in the faith of God, we are called to be of a contrite heart. That is a heart that seeks goodness rather than the ways of the world. We seek to change ourselves from the nature of the world and conform to the nature of God. In this way we are disciplined, not as a punishment, but as an action of reconciliation. By Grace we are no longer of the world, by forgiveness we are restored to a precious creation of the Father of creation.

Judge me O Lord by the intent of my heart. Mold me and shape me in the way you so desire so that I might be made a worthy vessel of Your Love Eternal. Grant me the wisdom to judge as you have judged me with the sweet correction of Your Love. Amen.
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Day 5: “(Jesus Christ our Lord) through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake. among whom you also are called of Jesus Christ.” Romans 1:5-6

We are called into the forgiveness who were not deserving of forgiveness. We who are Gentiles, outsiders and foreign to the Word have been forgiven by the Blood of Jesus. How more fitting is it that we are called to obedience for the sake of Jesus and His sacrifice. We are called into the Spirit of Holiness because of the forgiveness. Yet it is us who are called saints, brothers and beloved disciples. We are summoned by the grace and Gentle Love of God to be numbered in the Book of Life, let us live in the Word and the Forgiveness.

By Your Grace I received forgiveness, by Your grace I choose to live with a forgiving spirit. Grant me the power to be merciful as your are mercy to me. Let me hold no grievance against any man lest you hold grievance against me. As You have forgiven me, unworthy as I am, let me forgive those who have grieved me. Amen.

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Tag Archives: Devotions

Forty Days of Forgiveness (Day 16-20)

Forty Days of Forgiveness (Day 11 – 15)

Forty Days of Forgiveness (Day 1 – 5)

R.E.S.T. in the Lord