7. Father Forgive Them

Father, Forgive Them

“I used to have golf balls in the glove compartment. When I drove down the road and someone cut me off, I would drive ahead of them, take a golf ball, and toss it out of my sun-roof, hoping it would dent the car that had cut me off.” Now, I really didn’t do this, although, sometimes, I wish I could. This was a conversation I heard from Rob Bell‘s Nooma video clip, Luggage. But haven’t we all done things like that? We are so caught up in seeking revenge--only to find that revenge does not satisfy.
About a year ago, I went through a rough time with one of my good friends. She had done some things that had really hurt me and I held a grudge, not wanting to forget those past actions. Proverbs 16:25 says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." I discovered firsthand the energy it takes to harbor anger, hatred, and resentment towards others. It is exhausting. Every bit of energy we give to negative activities and dwelling on regrets, robs us of the energy we need to become the person God wants us to be. Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend, co-authors of Safe People, state that safe relationships, those that involve people helping you become more like Christ, are grounded in forgiveness. I eventually said that I had forgiven her. But I didn’t mean it. I never wanted to forget what she had done. But Beth Moore, the speaker and author of Breaking Free, said, “Forgiving someone doesn’t mean that what they did was alright. Forgiveness is doing what God has told us to do and then leaving the revenge to Him.” Forgiveness does not mean what my friend did was acceptable; it just means that I must not let her past actions bring me any further resentment, anger, or pain. I had discovered what Archibald Hart said in Love Must be Tough, was true “Forgiveness is surrendering my right to hurt you for hurting me.”
If anyone had a reason to feel anger or harbor unforgiveness it was Joseph. His story can be found in Genesis 37. Joseph, one of Jacob’s twelve sons, was obviously his father’s favorite. This caused his eleven brothers to hate and resent him. Their hatred was so strong they plotted to kill him but settled with only selling him to slave traders. This horrible journey, however, ended with Joseph emerging as ruler of all Egypt. Years later, a famine struck his homeland, causing his brothers to come and seek grain in Egypt. They did not recognize Joseph when they approached him to ask for grain. Joseph, however, recognized them! When Joseph finally revealed himself to his brothers and forgave them for every cruel thing they had done to him, he said, “You meant this for evil. But God meant this for good.” We, too, should forgive those who have wronged us no matter what they have done.
William Arthur Ward, author of Thoughts of a Christian Optimist, expressed his belief on forgiveness when he said, “We are most like beasts when we kill. We are most like men when we judge. We are most like God when we forgive.” Imagine the courage and the strength it would take for someone to forgive the murderer of a family member. Corrie ten Boom was arrested and imprisoned during the Holocaust for hiding Jews in her home. She was sent to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp along with her sister, who was murdered just days before Corrie’s release on December 31, 1944. A few years later as she traveled throughout Germany spreading the message that God forgives, she saw him- the guard from the concentration camp, the one who had abused and murdered her sister. The thoughts and the sights of that horrible and terrifying place began to pour into her memory. After her speech the guard approached Corrie and said that he had become a Christian. He stated he knew that God had forgiven him for all the cruel things he had done, but now he needed her forgiveness too. He stretched out his arm and asked, “Will you forgive me?” As difficult as it was, Corrie knew she must forgive, for the Bible teaches in Matthew 6:15, “If you do not forgive men their sins, then neither will your Father in Heaven forgive your sins.” After prayer, she stretched out her arm and with a current of healing warmth filling her whole body, she cried, “I forgive you, brother! With all my heart!”
Rob Bell concluded, “Maybe a friend turned their back on you. Maybe someone you love betrayed you. We all have wounds and we end up carrying around these things that people have done to us for weeks, months, and sometimes even years. It isn’t always easy to forgive these people and after a while these hurts can get really heavy. So the only way to feel better seems to be somehow getting back at the people that hurt us, to get revenge. But does revenge ever truly satisfy? Perhaps forgiveness isn’t something you do for someone else. Perhaps forgiveness is about you. God didn’t create you to carry these wounds around. God created you to be free.” Just imagine what it must have been like to be Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God who was crucified on the cross for our sins when he had done nothing wrong; but still he chose to forgive, stretching out his hands to his Heavenly Father and saying, “Father, forgive them for they know what not they do.” Let forgiveness set you free.

6. Every Knee Shall Bow

Every Knee Shall Bow

“I think that so often we try and make our job to make the gospel easier for us to preach and easier for other people to hear in order to not get in trouble…to not be confrontational. You see, here’s the truth, you just can’t preach the gospel and not get into trouble. You can dress it up any way you want but if you’re really preaching the gospel, you’re going to get yourself in trouble. Because the cross is both beautiful and offensive and it must be both: there is no other gospel for you to preach. We’re not doing anyone any favors by making the gospel easier to hear because it ceases to be the gospel. You know, it’s not safe to boldly preach the gospel…it’s not…Safe is not a word that should characterize Christians, or Jesus, or the gospel wet€™re preaching…if it is, then it might not be the gospel we’re preaching…” In this quote from the CD, The House Show, Derek Webb states that the Gospel is not safe but if we are to have every knee bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord then we need a passion for the cross, perseverance to stand up against the world, and patience to develop relationships. The Gospel is not safe but it is truth.
In Romans 1:16, Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…” If we are to bring God’s message to every heart, then we must first have a passion for Christ. An example of this zeal was seen by our youth intern, Jonathon Watts, on a recent trip to China. Watts told a story of a young Chinese girl who at worship recited about two chapters from a book in the Bible. After she was finished, she began to weep. They asked her why she was crying and she replied, “Someday, I am going to jail for what I believe in and what I have memorized here is all that I am going to have to tell those people about Christ.” Wow! You can truly see that this young girl has a deep bold passion for Christ and the furtherance of His Kingdom. You don’t have to be a missionary to share the Gospel. When you are so in love with Jesus it makes you bold; you want to say things, you just can’t help yourself.
According to Galatians 1:10, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Someone who perseveres keeps on doing the will of God even in the face of adversity. That is just what one man in the heart of Africa did. According to former journeyman to South Africa, Terry Dent, there was a man, who lived in the jungle who suffered from elephantiasis; a condition which causes limbs to swell abnormally and become leathery. It is a very painful disease. He met Jesus through a medical missionary in his village. He wanted to share his new faith with everyone in his village, and he went door to door with excruciating pain but a joyful heart. After many believed, he decided to traverse the jungle and all its dangers and go two miles to the next village where he proclaimed God’s love to each person. As night fell, he had no place to stay and began the long journey back to his village through the dark and perilous jungle. The next morning the medical missionary found the man lying on his porch, bloody and cut, but with a joyful smile. The pain was great but the joy of sharing Jesus was greater. The Gospel is costly and it requires us to get out of our comfort zones and often through the process we find that not only have we changed the lives of others, but we have also been changed.
2 Timothy 4:2 says “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction.” Someone who is patient will let things occur in God’s time. If every knee is going to bow and every tongue confess, then we can’t become discouraged when people don’t accept the message of Jesus Christ right away. It takes patience to create relationships with people and develop those until you have trust. Take the story of CD, a Southern Baptist missionary, who lives in a country where it is illegal to be anything but Muslim. To even speak her name could bring death. CD has begun planting seeds in her area. One of those seeds, L, has chosen to except Christ as her savior despite being shunned by her family and her culture. It took two years for CD to see this seed planted grow in L, but the wait was worth it. Christ is interested in building relationships. This desire to foster relationships has become a growing trend in churches and the community. In Atlanta, Pastor Andy Stanley and the congregation of North Point Community Church‘s motto is “invest and invite” as everyone’s attitude should be to dedicate their time to build relationships and invite them to partake in the experience of going to church; thus resulting in every knee bowing down in submission to God.
Our mission as Christians is to speak to the nations so that every tongue will confess and every knee bow down in submission to the Heavenly Father. The passion for God gives you the perseverance to be patient with others. Remember the passion of the young Chinese girl. Remember the hardship that the man overcame with perseverance. Remember the patience that CD developed while fostering a relationship with L. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. There is a time for being bold and a time to wait. Let’s not wait- Let’s Go! The fields are ripe for every knee to bow!

5. One Nation Under God

ONE NATION UNDER GOD
Just imagine; you are a businessman making a routine flight from your home base in New Jersey to one of your customers in the Midwest. You have flown this route many times before without mishap, but today it will be different. The plane that you are on has been hijacked by a terrorist group who have taken over the cockpit of the plane. One terrorist has even strapped a bomb to his chest with a red belt. These terrorists believe that bringing down the plane and killing innocent souls will bring glory to their god. You realize you have only minutes to make the toughest decision of your life- to do nothing or to do the heroic. This is Todd Beamer’s story. And with his famous last words, “Let’s roll!” he stopped these terrorists from killing thousands more innocent lives on that infamous day, September 11, 2001. About 3,500 citizens from eighty-seven nations perished due to terrorist attacks upon the United States of America on 9-11.
What would YOU be willing to do for your nation? Would you be willing to assassinate a major leader? How about plant a bomb in a car to explode in a populated area of the city? Better yet, why not infect thousands by placing a drop of anthrax on a stamp? Some nations in this world teach that these terrorist acts are glorifying to their god. The website article, “Motivation of the Islamic Terrorists,” states that a much higher, a religious, motivation exists. According to the Koran these terrorists are definitely not committing suicide but showing respect to Allah. So, what does it really mean to be one nation under God?
Some believe that the United States is a Christian nation. Is this true? By definition, a Christian nation is a group of people with a common culture that are conformed to the image of Christ and profess belief in his teachings. I John 2:6 declares that whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. After all, if one is not “within” God, one must necessarily be “without” God. We have been preserved these many years, in peace and prosperity and have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But as the website article, “One Nation under God? - What’s Wrong with Our Nation” states “We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.” Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.“ “In God we Trust,” our national motto, is slipping away from our memories. In a nation where the freedom to murder unborn persons is a cherished “right,” the freedom to express one’s religious views is politically incorrect. Christians must not bow to political pressure to be silenced. However, we are not the first generation to abandon God. In Deuteronomy 32:4-5, the Bible says, “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation.” In Christianity Today‘s article, “One Nation under God- Sort of,” it expresses the thought that we have placed to much hope in political and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life.
The Pledge of Allegiance has become a very controversial topic in the world today. In that same article from Christianity Today it reveals that if reciting the Pledge is unconstitutional simply because it refers to a nation “under God,” then reciting the Declaration of Independence, which refers to the Creator as the source of rights, is surely cast in doubt. If they remove the phrase “under God” from the Pledge then does that mean they can take it from our hearts? That’s FALSE. If God is in our hearts, then he will forever be there, deeply branded into our actions each and every day. On the contrary, saying the Pledge and actually pledging allegiance are two totally different things. Just by reciting the Pledge and verbalizing it does not mean that we have given our allegiance to Him. Our nation has to promise our loyalty to Jesus Christ, pronouncing that we are His and He rules our nation.
Are we one nation under God or are we citizens of the secular world? Ephesians 4:4-6 says, “There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to one hope when you were called- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all in all.” Get the picture. Here, let me help you. The keyword is ONE. We must be united as one group of people established on the belief of Christ. The Bible says it well when it declares that where two or more are gathered in my name, there I will be also. If our nation truly walks with Him, then it will be obvious who we are- a Christian nation. In John Piper’s sermon, “What the Law Could not do, God did, Sending Christ,” Piper replies, “The true and only God sent this divine Person, Jesus, into the world and in his flesh condemned sin, sentenced it, punished it, and executed it. This is the gospel we preach to the entire world.” According to Piper, God did this so that all who believe might be saved from his wrath and for his glory. The most loving thing we can do for our nation is to peacefully, meekly, and sacrificially proclaim to them the gospel of Jesus Christ, without which no one will be saved.
Now, here’s where you come in. Remember the story of Todd Beamer. He had a choice to make. We, too, have a choice to make- will we stand firm and become a nation whose basic principles are from God or do we just let our society continue to decay? Personally, I say, let’s truly be one nation under God- Let’s Roll!

4. Are you rushing?

So on Thursday I proceeded to make my way from chapel (very interesting) to the courtyard outside the cafeteria where I would spend the next twenty hours. I arrived and looked around anxiously awaiting the arrival of "the guy" who would start the campout. No one wants to be that guy and so everyone was looking around waiting for someone else to start it. Finally, I met with a couple of guys and we agreed that we would wait until like two to start it and we would go grab some lunch and hang around to see if someone else started it before then. We left and got lunch in the cafeteria and someone came back, but with a huge bag that contained the makings of a tent that would be set up. So at this point everyone out there that was waiting for the campout to begin came over and we were like well I guess we better start it so we started the campout at 12:00 knowing that we would be out there until seven the next morning. NOT A SMART MOVE!! We started way too early!
It was a lot of fun though and I got to meet some amazing guys. We were confined to the courtyard area unless someone took our place while we went wherever we had to go. Some amazing freshmen girls brought us some great-tasting food: cookies, brownies, pigs in the blanket, cake, hot chocolate, pizza. It was great and very much appreciated. I ate way too much, but it was okay. Everyone needs a fat day every now and then. :) Thank you for those of you that came out and hung out with us or brought us food or anything for that matter. We watched a movie on a screen we hung up. It got quite chilly during the night and I received no sleep at all. I bundled up with sweats and blankets and a cup of hot chocolate. It was great. I had fun. Then at 7:00, we made our way above the caf and signed our names for the club we wanted. After that, I went to my 8:00, 9:00, and 10:00 classes. Then, I spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon in bed ASLEEP. I was exhausted.
I am excited though about rush because of the fact that it is a brotherhood. It is a great way to be surround by amazing Christian influence and serve the Lord and your fellow man. It will be challenging, especially with my major being pre-med and all the homework and studying associated with it. But it will be well worth it, as I am told.