Forgiveness, Love and Peace

The bible tells us that if we forgive men their trespasses, our heavenly Father will forgive us our trespasses. But if we do not forgive others their trespasses , neither will our Father who is in heaven forgive us our trespasses.

God is telling us to be merciful to others as he is merciful to us.

Be kind to others, give to the less fortunate, help your neighbor in need. God will bless you for it. The more you show love and reach out to others the greater blessings you will see in your life. God loves a loyal servant carrying out his commandments. God says be ye doers of the word, not hearers only.

God tells us to not judge others and we will not be judged; do not condemn others and God will not condemn you; forgive and God will forgive you.

The word of God tells us in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and have come short of the Glory of God“. By confessing our sins to God we have been forgiven and by our faith in Jesus Christ, have received salvation.

In Romans 6:23 the word of God tells us, “for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord“. Confess your sins to God and he will forgive you of your sinful ways and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. If God forgives us; should not we be willing to forgive others?

If we do not have forgiveness and compassion in our hearts as God does, if we allow hatred and strife into our lives it can destroy us. God calls hatred and strife sin. But if we love one another, the word of God tells us that this love will cover our sins. The bible says, God is love - and if we have love in our hearts we dwell in God and God dwells in us.

Above all else we need to love one another because love comes from God. If we have the love of God in our hearts, and show that love to others we can know that we are new creatures in Christ Jesus, having our hearts and minds renewed by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. We are not capable of truly showing God’s love to others if we do not have Christ dwelling in our life.

If God loved us so much that he left his home in Glory to come to this earth as a human being in the person of Jesus Christ, for the sole purpose of dying on the cross for our sins, surely we can love one another. If we live our lives in the manner that God desires us to, we can truly know the love of Christ, which passes all knowledge and we will be filled with all the fullness of God.

If we want true peace in our lives we must have forgiveness and love in our hearts, true peace is not possible without it.

I am sure there have been things that have happened in all our lives that may have hurt us. If we dwell on these things without forgiveness we will never have peace in our lives.

If you want total peace in your life, surrender yourself totally to Jesus Christ. Jesus, the one who took your sins upon his body, suffered and died on the cross at Calvary, who was buried and then rose from the dead, proving that we can all have victory in Christ Jesus. Listen and believe what Jesus is telling you.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

PHIL 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

My prayer for you today is that you find perfect peace in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The following is an e-mail that Ginger wrote to a friend of hers from church. This friend suggested we post it as a postscript to my message;
I didn't think to tell you that my brother Darrell passed away Sunday evening about 8 PM. I had spoken with his wife, Wanda earlier in the day and she told me the nurse had told her she didn't expect him to last through the night. It's a sad situation as he and Wanda, are raising two of the grandchildren. It's fortunate that one of the childrn is a teenager and the other is around 12 years old. Darrell and I had issues all our lives and were estranged most of our adult lives. We had been communicating for the last couple of years. He had 4 children by his first wife who became schizophrenic and that issue along with his temper didn't help the children. His oldest son committed suicide several years ago. He was estranged from his two daughters. Hence John's message. John said when he began to think about all the families that have these issues he felt led to do this message about forgiveness, love and peace.

I don't plan to go for the memorial and his wife understands. She and I communicated all during the time he was in hospice. During that time period when I had called she asked him if he wanted to talk to me. By that time he wasn't talking but knew everything. When he would call me he would do all the talking and I couldn't get a word in. Occasionally I would call him and tell him up front that I was paying for the call so I get to talk. This was hard to speak to someone who can't answer back, especially Darrell. When Wanda tried to take the phone back from his hand she told me he wouldn't release it to her. So I finally began telling him some of the memories that John and I had talked about that morning of when Darrell and I were kids. Then I talked to him about the song, The Old Gospel Ship, that John's Mom loved and we sang at her funeral, I then sang it to him as well as another old gospel song we grew up with. Since I don't sing well and was ad-libbing somewhat that was interesting. Wanda told me that during that period the tears began to come into his eyes. When I had finished that I told him I had to go and she said he surrendered the phone. He would have been 77 years old in March. I am sorry he is gone but glad that their ordeal has ended. I feel he has gone on to his reward and Wanda agrees with me. I'm just so sad that his daughters chose to not be a part of his final years regardless of their issues.

Ginger says this leaves her the last leaf on her family's tree.