Forgiveness

For Christians, it is very easy for us to see people as "sinners."  When someone does us wrong we end up holding it against them and even say that they owe us for the wrong they did to us.  Many people get turned away from Christianity because we are very unforgiving, even if the whole message of Christianity is based off forgiveness!  But, we have our excuses; we say, "They have scarred me for life," or when trying to forgive ourselves we continue to focus on that thing that needs forgiven instead of forgetting it.  Forgiveness is not easy, it comes with a price.  Hopefully, some words from the Lord's Prayer will be encouraging and help you to search for forgiveness.

Jesus sums up forgiveness in one verse by saying, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matt. 6:12).  This is a tremendous switch from what most of us have been taught.  Some of us believe that if the other person forgives us then we are able to forgive them.  However, that logic does not really make sense because the other person is waiting for you to forgive them as well!  Jesus here says that "AS WE have forgive our debtors," so we will be forgiven.

The Greek phrasing of this verse says,

Kaiv a[feV hJmi:n ta; ojfeilhvmata hJmw:n, wJV kai; hJmei:V ajfhvkamen toi:V ojfeilevtaiV hJmw:n`

The word forgiveness comes from the word, a[fesiV, which simply means, "forgiveness, pardon."  When looking at the word a[feV, it is recognized as a verb that is in an imperative.  An imperative verb in the Greek language adds emphasis to the word.  Almost like adding an exclamation point right next to the word.  This is not the same as the other word for forgiveness, ajfhvkamen, because this word is simply recognized as a verb.  But, this verb also is in the plural form saying that "we forgave."  I understand the "we" here to point to Jesus and the disciples praying, as well as identifying all of creation as this "we."  We all should be people of forgiveness and be willing to be the ones that take the first step to forgive.

Forgiveness is a hard thing to be able to do.  What I find amazing about this sentence is that we are all called to forgive.  When two people are involved in a conflict, neither one is excused from forgiving the other no matter what happened.  That is not the easiest thing to understand, but I believe that forgiveness comes from two things, forgiving oneself and seeking for forgiveness from the other person.

Forgiving oneself.   This one is the hardest to accomplish.  We feel that we are left broken and find no hope in doing anything right in life.  We become so skeptical of ourselves that often we begin to find comfort in other things to try to get away from hurt that often does not help.  Sometimes, we need to find help from others to find forgiveness for ourselves.  It takes opening up to others with what happened and seeking guidance to be able to forgive yourself.  Praying is also another huge area to find peace with both God and yourself.

Seeking Forgiveness.  Once you have forgiven yourself, it makes the process of asking the other person to forgive you a little bit easier.  This part is important because that other person may need to know that you have forgiven them to be able to forgive themselves as well.  Do not neglect this part once you have forgiven yourself.  It may be what you need to finally forgive yourself as well.

Daily Bread

Christmas time has come and past and a lot of people wish that the season of giving would continue.  It is something about getting and especially receiving gifts that makes us all feel good inside.  We all wish we could celebrate and have fun every day.  But, imagine if that could actually happen, wouldn't that be amazing to wake up every day with gifts under a tree and a huge family meal?  This dream seems to good be true.  In my last blog post I talked about Jesus' prayer for the invitation of God's kingdom here on earth.  Following this is a stand-alone phrase, that has its own verse, that say's "Give us today our daily bread" (Matt. 6:11).  This verse has so much to say on its own and I would like to write what this verse means for us to pray.
In the original language the verse reads: To;n avj;rton hJmw:n to;n ejpiouvsion do;V hJmi:n shvmeron.  Translated to English this verse would read, "The bread of ours the daily you gave (!) to us today."  What I would like to mention from this verse is just the word ejpiouvsion that is translated "daily."  This word shows that a dream of Christmas everyday could be a possibility.  Except here it talks about our need for "bread."  A scholar Ralph Earle says there are 4 meanings for daily: 1) necessary for existence; 2) for today; 3) for the following day; and 4) for the future.  So, this word has deep meaning of existence for everyday!
Now, some may translate this verse to say that God provides for all of our needs such as bills, money, food, etc.  Yet, this “bread” that creation is given may just be spiritual.  Bread would have been a resemblance to the Passover meal when God brought Israel out of exile and for today it resembles the price that Christ paid on the cross.  In both cases an offering of bread because of the salvation we have from God is revealed.  In other words, after we pray for God’s kingdom and will to be done, which is revealed in the previous verse, we then pray for salvation from exile and from forgiveness for our sins.
Although this verse has no reference to having communion daily, John Wesley saw importance in it.  Wesley, during his time at Oxford, took communion daily because he wanted to remember the sacrifice that Christ had made on the cross.  A better example is how John Wesley prayed to God daily.  Wesley sought out God every day to provide for his spiritual needs.  These may be very broad examples from one man’s life, but I see them as ways that one person sought out God’s calling to daily come to Him so that God can provide our spiritual needs.
Kneeling before God and asking Him to provide for our daily needs may get hard.  It may feel like God is not providing for our daily needs, or we may think we only need to pray this prayer once so that God just has to provide for us now.  Yet, I believe that we must have faith and come before God every day.  Prayer has meaning and all of creation has the freedom and the choice to come before the God of the universe to pray that His kingdom may come and that salvation and God’s Holy Spirit may come to us, His creatures, so that we may live out a kingdom life.