I begin this episode with a hymn made into a poem, "It Is Well with My Soul." Next a chapter from my book, A Course in Christianity, entitled, "A Major Hang-up." I finish with another hymn presented poetically, "Be Thou My Vision."
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Judgment is a rope around our collective necks, choking out our life. It really is. We judge, we condemn, we pull the rope tighter and tighter until we can't breathe. And then we cry out to God to save us. Save us? Yes, save us from ourselves.
Then God tells us that we must forgive. How often? 70 times 7. That does not mean just 490 times. It means forever, infinitely. Daniel 9:24-25 talks of the End Times and there is a reference to God’s ending all things in His timing cryptically indicated as 70 x 7. Hence Jesus’s alluding to the Old Testament reference of 70 x 7 at Peter’s question means we should forgive forever, until the end of time. So, if we still reside in carnal land, if we still think as the world thinks, we must take the forgiveness ball and run with it.
But, being worldly means we distort things. We do the opposite of what we are supposed to do. We forgive to destroy. We may say, “I forgive you, but I hope you spend eternity in hell!”
"I forgive you, but..." is not the right answer. When we do this, we are clutching the rope that I mentioned in the first paragraph of this chapter and pulling on it causes us to choke to death. Stop it! Forgiveness to destroy does nothing but destroy us. What we do to others (or even think about doing to others) we do to ourselves because God created us collectively, not individually. That is important to remember.
As a reminder, it is a scientific fact that we poison ourselves with negative emotions. In a strange twist of fate, when we despise others, they do not feel the poison released now coursing through our system. They do not feel our pain. There is a reason God has toxins swirling around OUR body when we hate and not our enemy's bodies. It means WE must stop judging and condemning, doesn't it?
Our purpose on this earth is to forgive to heal. We want to forgive in a way that the forgiveness counts instead of trying to fake it. That is the way we overcome this world as Jesus wants us to. He said, "I am the WAY." and from the cross he shouted sincerely, "Forgive them for they know not what they do." Then God raised Him from the dead after three days.
If we sincerely forgive from whatever cross we are bearing (all the way down to the depths of our God-created soul), then we, too, will be figuratively raised from the dead. We will have new life. Praise God for the simplicity of that practice and the effectiveness of it.
I'd love to hear from you! email: vic@zarley.net
