What Have We Done?

(Note; This message is rather long, it is recommended that you copy and paste to a word document and print it out for easier reading.  I feel this is an important message to the church.  It is directed mainly to the church in the USA, but includes the church worldwide).


We are facing a crisis in our nation that will determine its very destiny.  This crisis is not just a political one, not merely a social one, and not just a rights issue.  The crisis that is facing us today is a moral one.  The moral issue that faces us today has been brought about not only by immoral political leaders who want God out of government, and not only by immoral people who will not recognize God as their sole creator and who vote in politicians who support their own personal agenda, but by an immoral moral (lukewarm) church that has fallen asleep and not taken the God given authority to take control of their world they live in.  No political leader, may it be the president, a congressman, or any house of representative can solve this issue without the guidance from God Himself.  So the crisis that faces us today is where do we stand with God?  Our nation as a whole is at the brink of having God remove His blessing from us if we do not turn back to Him and soon.

We must now ask the question “What Have We Done”.  We could apply it to many different aspects of our lives, our community, our nation and even the world.  Watching a movie called “In My Country” portrayed what happened to the Afrikaans during the apartheid era.  A struggle over independence and rights of the blacks and whites was emerging into a conflict of who was going to be in control.

This seems to be the relative problem that faces the world today.  Who is going to be in control. Is man going to be in control or is God going to be in control? As the world heads for a battle of control each nation is faced with the struggle within themselves as to how to handle control of their own people when the world puts demands for extreme change within each of their boundaries.  The movie depicts the native Africans (the blacks) faced with the injustice they suffered for years and how they were going to bring justice under their own rule.  It was a matter of forgiveness and amnesty or just amnesty or no amnesty.   The movie begins with a song of which the words “What Have We Done?” is sung over several times.  It set the mood for the movie.  That is the question we must ask of ourselves and of our nation.

Every nation during its existence on earth as a nation has had to or will face the problem within itself as how to handle its own injustices.  The United States of America is reaching a point where as a nation they must face the injustices of many of the laws that have been passed to rule or control situations and or people.  The USA was founded on Judea-Christian beliefs and became a powerful nation run by, for the most part, people who put their trust in an Almighty God and followed the principles set by the same God.  These people were not perfect by any means, but did follow the principles set down by God Himself.  Take the Ten Commandments for instance.  When God gave these commandments to the Israelites He gave them as a permanent guide for their lives.  As long as these commandments were followed all went well with the nation. There were many other commands given by God which the Israelites were to follow, but the jest of these commands were to have these people listen to God and follow His ways. When the commandments were not followed the nation suffered severely for it.  When the USA was founded it was founded on these principles, the Constitution was established to protect the people from tyranny and injustice and allow the people to worship God freely without governmental interference, the government was to be an instrument of God to serve the people.  The constitution was established with the Ten Commandments in mind and the principles of God as the guiding values for the people and the nation.  In order for this to work all government had to be under God and in service to Him.  The government was to take directions from God and help the citizens of a nation follow the ways of God.  The government of our nation was not to supersede or replace God in any way.  

I am interjecting the “Ten Commandments” here to make a point stand out a little clearer.  Once, as written by God in its original form, and second, in a reverse form of which we seem to be headed or are already practicing.

First in the original form:

Please read them from the scriptures to get the full text and meaning.  I have put them here in an abbreviated form.  (Exodus 20:1-17)

1st commandment: “Thou shalt not have any other gods before me.”

2nd commandment: “Thou shalt not make any graven images (idols) and thou shalt not bow down and worship them.”

3rd commandment: “Thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain”

4th commandment: “Thou shalt not forget the sabbath”

5th commandment: “Thou shalt not disrespect your father and mother and make a fool of  them”

6th commandment: “Thou shalt not commit murder if you shall become angry with one  another”

7th commandment: “Thou shalt not be unfaithful to your spouse and commit adultery”

8th commandment: “Thou shalt not steal and rob from other people”

9th commandment: “Thou shalt not tell lies and bear false witness”

10th commandment: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife and home”

In the reverse form:

1st commandment: Thou shalt have other gods before me

2nd commandment: Thou shalt make graven images (idols) and thou shalt bow down and  worship   them (demon worship -- see 1 Corinthians 10:19-20)

3rd commandment: Thou shalt take the Lord's name in vain

4th commandment: Thou shalt forget the sabbath

5th commandment: Thou shalt disrespect your father and mother and make a fool of them

6th commandment: Thou shalt commit murder if you shall become angry with one another

7th commandment: Thou shalt be unfaithful to your spouse and commit adultery

8th commandment: Thou shalt steal and rob from other people

9th commandment: Thou shalt tell lies and bear false witness

10th commandment: Thou shalt covet thy neighbor's wife and home

Here are the instructions God gave the Israelites before entering the promised land.  Keep in mind that a whole generation had to perish in the desert because of their rebellion against God.  The Ten Commandments and all the laws and decress had been taught to a new generation of people and God expected them to follow His ways no matter what.  

“These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to posses, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and that  you may enjoy long life.  Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you.”

“Hear, O Israel:  The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord our God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.”

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

“Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land that the Lord promised on oath to your forefathers, thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the Lord said.”

Deuteronomy 6:18-19

“If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.  Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.”

Deuteronomy 8:19-20

“And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”

Deuteronomy 10:12

Is it just me or have we forgotten our Godly values and principles? Have we turned so far from God that we no longer want Him to rule our lives for the sake of individual rights, freedom to do whatever we want? Does selfishness and greed take precedence over love and compassion?  Are we so blind to the truth now that we cannot see the truth if it was staring us in the face?  Have we gone so far to allow satan to control our lives through deception and lies, and have we given over to his ways so much that we are willing to sacrifice not only our children but our very souls for the sake of choice and freedom from Gods principles?  Have we become so arrogant and selfish that we cast God out of our nation and lives and turn to listening and following the deceptive ways of satan by doing as Adam and Eve did?  

The problem today for our nation is just who is going to be in charge.  Who is going to rule this nation and who will determine which direction it should go.  Should it be the politicians who are elected by the people, the judges who are appointed by the President, or will it be the values set forth by God when the nation was first established as a nation?  If we could ask the question “What Have We Done?” back in time, in the beginning of this nation I believe the answer would have been simple.  Maybe something like this;  We have started a great nation founded on the principles  and values of Gods Kingdom.  A nation who is controlled by God through Godly men and women who kept their trust in God.  A nation who knew their destiny and the values they wanted to live by and not forgetting in whom they put their trust.  I am sure the forefathers could say back then that they have started something in which God was well pleased in, a nation that God wanted to happen and have men and women who would listen to Him and a government that was ruled by the very principles that God established for all His creation.

It seems that this nation has gone through a lot of changes throughout the centuries, some for the good of all and some that crippled the hopes and dreams of the masses.  Somewhere along the line the values that this nation was founded on began to be weakened by greed and selfishness.  God was beginning to be set aside for what man thought was more important, himself.  As God was and still is being pushed aside by laws that promote one group or individuals over others or served to promote ideologies over Gods principles have put a nation in jeopardy of losing its God given freedoms.  The question must be ask again today at this very moment in time, “What Have We Done?”.  

Looking back just a mere fifty years and mapping out the direction this nation began to take with the removal of prayer from schools and the idea that there is a separation of Church and State should give us a good starting point as to not only why we are where we are today, but just how close we are to having the judgment of God fall on this nation.  It doesn’t take a historian or a scholar to figure out that this nation is in trouble as Gods blessing is being removed from it.  Lets take a brief look back in time and see just how far we have come in the past fifty years.  Without getting technical on the exact dates we should be able to say without a doubt that we not only have turned our backs on God for the most part, but His bride, the Church or true believers have fallen asleep just before the wedding day and if the bride does not awaken soon it will be to late to make it to the wedding.  

I believe that many of our problems began back in the late 50’s and early 60’s when someone said they were an atheist and was offended because they felt their rights were infringed upon over prayer in school.  The Supreme Court judges seemed to agree and passed a law that made it unconstitutional for prayer to be in public schools.  Since that time a lot of other laws have been passed by the supreme court  to inhibit or push aside or do away with the rights of the Christian beliefs.  

The right to abortion followed not to long after the removal of prayer.  Women were given the right to choose whether they could abort their fetus or not.  It did not matter that life was already started, it just mattered about a woman’s right.  Instead of following guidelines set forth by God about the importance of every human being to God as one of His created beings full of His potential and purpose, the higher court decided that God’s guidelines did not matter.  As of this date there have been millions of babies aborted in the name of choice or rights.  We even got to the point that a partial birth abortion was being sanctioned by our courts, an abortion that literally killed the child just before the head was free from the birth canal, a sharp pick was forced into the back of the head of the baby into its’ brain.  This was all done in the name of choice and labeled as a method to protect the mother from physical harm or injury.  

Now that we have laws in place to protect certain individuals from hearing a praying Christian so they won’t be offended, and laws telling our schools that they cannot teach, mention or refer to God in their classrooms because they are a public school receiving government funds under the guise of separation of church and state, which is not in the constitution, we have a generation of children that do not know God but full of an evolutionary theory that has never been proven and in fact has been disproved by many leading scientist.  I have always wondered why if evolution can be taught as a theory, then why can’t creation be taught as an alternative to evolution? The question must be asked more loudly today than at any other time,  “What Have We Done?”  

When God has been taken out of our classrooms, and the people have been restricted from learning about God as our creator, when our laws forbid us to even mention God in public and have a most true statement from old that was stamped onto our coins and printed on our currency being slowly removed, “In God We Trust”, we must ask ourselves again, “What Have We Done?”  

When we see our schools wreaked with havoc and violence;  When we hear our children take Gods name in vain and have no regard for the law, when we see our nation attacked by lawless people and we stand idly by and wonder what happened. Where are the parents that should be teaching their children right from wrong, and most assuredly teaching them the ways and values of God?  Is letting our children make their own choices without guidance from their parents a wise thing? When society begins to accept the gay and lesbian life style as normal and allow this lifestyle to supersede God's guidelines for marriage as acceptable we must ask ourselves, "What Have We Done?"  When we hear of perversion in our church’s and a falling of spiritual leaders and when we see our young held in slavery to drugs, sex and alcohol, and when we see immorality in our nations capitol and our elected leaders not held accountable for their actions that all else are held to, we have to ask ourselves, “What Have We Done?”.  

When the Christian, the one who claims to be a believer in Christ and puts his/her trust in Him does not stand up and tell the truth about what is going on or does not speak out against injustice and immorality and does not mention Christ or God in his/her conversation, or is ashamed to be associated with Christ or His values, the Christian that does not set the example for his/her children of how God wants them to live their lives, the Christian who claims to know God does not stand at the front of the battle and wage war against the enemy, we have to ask ourselves again, “What Have We Done?”.  

When we ask ourselves this question which can be asked in different ways; for instance, we could ask in a way that ask, just what have we done to help change the situation or what have we done to promote the injustices?  Or we could ask in a way that we look back on what has happened already and ask what have we done.  The latter is how I prefer us to look at where we are at this moment.  Look at what has happened to this nation in the past 100 years and specifically at the last 50 or so years and see just how far this nation has fallen and ask in a very profound way “WHAT HAVE WE DONE?”  By looking at it this way we may want to look at our own hearts and ask God that same question about ourselves.  Ask Him if you have not been following His ways and obeying His commands, “What Have I Done?”  

Only when Gods church (those who believe in Gods Son and gave their lives over to Him) humbles itself and realizes that the fault does not lie with  anyone else but with us will God be able to bring healing to this nation.  Only when we realize that we, the Bride of Christ,  have let God down by not proclaiming His Gospel and doing what He has commanded us to do, and seeking His forgiveness will He be able not only to bring healing to His Church, but to our nation.  We were created in His image and we are expected to let His image shine through us to the rest of the world.  We can only shine when we have the redemptive power given to us through Jesus Christ the only Son of God.  The scriptures are there for us to learn, study, and use as a guide through the journey we are on.  If we don’t use His Word to guide us, then how can we expect to find our own way let alone try to direct the rest of the world to Christ.

These questions were asked at the beginning of Gods creation to Adam and Eve.  The first question was ask after the fall of man, “Where Are You?” Which refers to the lost state of man that he just entered.  The second question was “Have You Eaten From The Tree That I Commanded You Not To Eat?”  This shows that man was confronted with his rebellion.  The third question was “What Is This You Have Done?”  This statement gives an indication as to what man has allowed to come into the kingdom God established through man.  These are very serious questions and reflect as to what man was going to face because of his rebellion.

The question now is “What Have We Done?”  This should be asked not only to ourselves, but should be asked to God in an attitude of humbleness, seeking forgiveness.  Our nation can be turned around, but, it will only turn as God's church, the true believers in Christ seek Him first and seek His righteousness.  We can cause the blessing of God to return to our nation as we return to God and put Him first in all that we do.  Only then will God reach His hand out to us and bless us again.  Let us not wait to long for not only is the salvation of this nation at stake, but our very souls.  The scripture says that “We must awake out of our sleep for our redemption draws near.”  God is not going to sit idly by and let a nation continue to remove Him from their laws and from their presence without some sort of warning.  God does not break His word or allow a nation that once put their trust in Him to not abide by His commands and laws just because they were once blessed by Him.  Israel found out that when they followed God they were blessed and when they rebelled the blessings of God were withdrawn.

When we, as a people of God, begin to take a back seat to the world and not take a stand for righteousness and justice we have for sure become a nation most miserable.  When we, as a people of God, do not speak up for  God’s righteousness and by our silence we allow the way of evil to infiltrate our ranks, we most assuredly have invited the wrath of  God to fall on a nation that once trusted in Him.  When we, as a people of God, begin to look at our own rights over the will of God, we for sure have forsaken the concept of  “seeking God and His righteousness first”.   When we as a people of God forget the instruction He gave us to “humble ourselves and pray”  and find our time spent on television, recreation, work, and other ways of the world, we again find ourselves in a place that Adam and Eve found themselves being ask three very important questions.  “Where are you?”  “Have you partaken of the fruit that I commanded you not to?”  “What have you done?”

It comes down to the fact that we are in a spiritual battle and it is not a matter of who wins because God has never lost, it is a matter of who’s side we choose to be on.  We are either for God or we are against Him.  Gods enemies are satan and his cohorts.  We must realize that when God established His Kingdom on Earth, He established it through man.  He Gave man an awesome responsibility to rule over His Kingdom.  God allowed man to have control and would not supersede that control.  Even though man had authority over earth, God had and always will have ultimate ownership and authority.  God established the method to rule His Kingdom by going through man.  God also established rules for us to live by and if we followed those rules He would bless us, if we disobeyed or rebelled, the blessings of God were removed.  God has never changed and never will.  He will be true to His word no matter what man does.  God gave man a way back to Him through Christ after man rebelled and gained back the authority that Adam lost.  We have a choice to either do things Gods way or continue to rebel.  Gods word is clearly stated throughout the Bible, obey and follow my commands and live or choose to rebel and die.  Again ask yourself this question, “What Have I Done?”   Our nation is full of rebellious people; it doesn’t need anymore; choose life and follow the ways of God the Father.

We are still a strong nation and still have God’s hand upon us, even though it may be lifting; we still proclaim our Christian values for the most part, but we must realize that we must serve God with all of our hearts, souls, and minds.  We must unite together as a Christian nation and proclaim the Gospel of Christ loud and clear, we must repent of our sins and lack of prayer.  The scripture tells us plainly what God wants from all His people:  “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  2 Chronicles 7:14

May God bless this nation once again and may we all turn to Him in repentance of our sins, neglect, and rebellion.

Seagull's and You

In this message I want to relate some perspective through a story from Andy Andrews book, "The Noticer." I believe that we can learn a lot through what God has given us.  If we would just take the time to notice the  things that are all around us we could learn a lot and have peace of mind along with a forgiving heart. Don't allow the cares of this world to drag you down and destroy the very nature that God has placed in you. We are faced with decisions everyday, we either make those decisions or we don't.  One of the hardest decisions people have to make is the decision to change.  Change is difficult and requires each of us to examine ourselves and face the truth about those places in our lives that are not so pleasant, or in some cases down right wrong.  In this short message my hope is that each one that reads this through will face up to those difficult areas in your life and consider making the decision to change, not for the worse, but for the better.

If we are to make changes for the better then we must have guidelines as to what is better.  Here is a decision you will have to make already, who is to say what is better?  Do we look at society as a whole and base our decision on that?  Does our culture come into play in making this decision?  Should some form of religion be a bases for how we change? Or, what about just basing our decision on what God has to say about how we should conduct ourselves?  It helps to have a little perspective in our lives by examining our situation to see just what it is we need to change.  We all grow up learning from those around us, we all take shape by the life we live and how we allow those around us to influence us.  The problem is we don't stop acting or doing those things that harm us and those around us.  


Here is a small list of things that may be affecting you in one or more ways.  You can add your own situations or problems as you wish.  This list is only to get you thinking about "YOU" and the way your life situation is right now.  You need a new perspective on life right now.

• You are angry just about everything, you want to confront people and blame them for your anger.  You can't seem to find peace no matter where you search.

• You are faced with an unhappy marriage, your wife tells you she doesn't like you anymore.  She still loves you but just doesn't have that spark for you.  She wants a divorce.  You don't know what to do so you wallow in your own misery trying to figure out what it is that she doesn't like about you. Why should you change, isn't she the one with the problem?

• Your history seems to be controlling your destiny.  You were raised with an alcoholic parent, no time for you, got beaten continually, life was not pleasant growing up.  Your alcoholic parent passes away but you still allow your past to control you.

• You lived on the streets most of your life and had to fend for yourself. Your parents abandoned you because they couldn't handle life either. Now you find yourself not trusting anyone, you don't want to accept help from anyone because you are a self made person.  Because of this it is affecting your job, your family, if you have one.  Your so called friends seem to steer clear of you because you can't accept them for who they are.

• You feel you have outlived your usefulness, there isn't any real reason to go on.  You find yourself becoming a bit of a recluse. You want to help people or be an influence on them but your age or health are saying that it's not possible.  You long for the good old days but find it impossible to go back.  Now what??

• Maybe you feel life is not worth living anymore, why not just end it all. You have lost your family, maybe your job, or your finances are all gone and you have no hope of restoring them. Maybe you just seem to be all alone and you feel that no one cares about you anymore.  Why go on?

• You find yourself bitter and unhappy because of something that someone said or done to you.  You find yourself being eaten up by this and can't move on.  The hurt is to deep and painful.  You have buried it deep within the recesses of your mind.  From time to time this painful experience crawls back up to the surface and begins to eat away at you some more. This affects you in every area of your life and has caused you to lose family and friends.  Someone tells you to forgive, but you don't want to let this go because you are afraid that justice would not be served.

I could go on with many different scenarios, but I think you get the picture.  You may have your own story that you could list here.  The point is we all have decisions to make everyday.  The problem is we lose perspective on what life is really all about.  We can get so wrapped up in ourselves that we forget that there is a great and wonderful world all around us.  We fail to get a different perspective on life that would carry us up and out of our present situation.  


Christ said in Matthew 11:29-30, "Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”  When you find yourself struggling with life and just seem to have run out of options, try a different perspective, try looking at life through the eyes of Christ.  This is a decision that you must make, but a decision that could change the rest of your life.  


In closing, I want you to read the following quote from Andy Andrews book, "The Noticer."  It has to do with you and the difference between deciding to do something and actually doing it.  The quote is perspective for a man that was harsh with his workers, did everything for the company even if it drove people away from him, even his wife.  The person's name is Henry, and he has just reached a point where he knows he must change.  He wants people to see this change.  The person giving him advice is called Jones.

"My life is a mess," Henry said softly.  "Yes, it is," Jones agreed, "but only up to this moment."  The younger man looked up.  "What do you mean?"  "I mean that you can change. Now. You can change how you do business, how you treat your family, and how you treat the people whose working lives have been entrusted to you. You can change how you treat them. Right Now."  Jones peered carefully into the eyes of the younger man as he continued.  "Most people think it takes a long time to change.  It doesn't.  Change is immediate! Instantaneous! It may take a long time to decide to change... but change happens in a heartbeat!"  "Then I will change," Henry said.  "I mean... I am changed."  "You understand, of course," Jones said, "that it might take a while for your reputation to catch up to the change you have already made?"  Henry nodded.  "Most folks will be in that 'deciding to change' mode in their opinions about you for some time yet.  But the change you have made will show evidence of a different man, and sooner or later, others will change their feelings about you as well."  "One quick question," Jones said with an obvious lightening of the mood, "and to complete the change in all areas of your life, you will need to understand the answer. Are you ready?" "Okay..." Henry said warily.  "Five Seagulls are sitting on a dock.  One of them decides to fly away.  How many Seagulls are left?"  "Well... four."  "No," Jones responded.  "There are still five. Deciding to fly away and actually flying are two different things."  "Listen carefully to me.  Despite popular belief to the contrary, there is absolutely no power in intention.  The seagull may intend to fly away, may decide to do so, may talk with the other seagulls about how wonderful it is to fly, but until the seagull flaps his wings and takes to the air, he is still on the dock.  There's no difference between that gull and all the others.  Likewise, there is no difference in the person who intends to do things differently and the one who never thinks about it in the first place. Have you ever considered how often we judge ourselves by our intentions while we judge others by their actions? Yet intention without action is an insult to those who expect the best from you. 'I intended to bring you flowers, but I didn't.'  'I meant to finish this work on time.'  'I was going to be there for your birthday...?  (Andy Andrews, The Noticer, pg. 110-112)

If you have changed, you need to show evidence of it.  Show up for the birthday, get those flowers, stop treating your employee's harshly.  Call your wife and let her know where you are or that you were thinking of her.  Tell the one that hurt you that you forgive them.  I think you get the picture, it is time for you to decide.  Only you can make the decision that will change your life forever.  Change is up to you.

Have you considered inviting Jesus Christ into your life and making Him Lord and Savior?  Are you still on the dock with the rest of the gulls, or are you going to flap your wings and take off?  John 3:16 makes it very plain.  The first step to real change is through Christ.  Meditate on these words from God: "For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.  God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him."  Change is a matter of perspective, maybe you just need a new one.

Feel free to leave a comment by clicking on the word comment.  I appreciate your thoughts.

I Forgive you, Please Forgive Me

Back on November 11, 2009 I posted a blog on forgiveness.  I feel this is a most important subject matter that all need to be aware of today.  Without forgiveness our world will always be at war, only forgiveness offers us peace.  The following message delves a little deeper into this area...


I would like to talk to you more about forgiveness.  Forgiveness is something that we all must face from time to time whether we are the one's forgiving or desiring forgiveness.  I want to explore this concept for awhile and see if this is something not only I may need to dig deeper into, but you also.  There is far to much pain in our world today caused either by our own irresponsible actions or that of others towards someone else. You may be suffering from a deep hurt in your life that keeps you from fulfilling your potential and enjoying a life of freedom from the pain you are suffering from.  Take this journey with me and lets see if we either need to forgive or ask for forgiveness.


Forgiveness is not to be taken lightly.  When we look at the scriptures that Jesus gave us concerning forgiving, it doesn't take long before we realize that this command is far more reaching than a mere 'I'm sorry' or a mere 'would you forgive me'.  Although these mere request of apology acceptance or forgiveness are real, most are done with our emotions. When we realize that we have hurt someone and need to apologize we usually sense the hurt we have caused someone.  Sometimes we like children apologize because we caused someone pain by what we said or done to them and we apologize and ask forgiveness because we do not want to get into trouble, so we try to calm the situation with consoling our victims by saying I'm sorry.  The problem is we like children end up doing the same thing again.  So that brings up the question, 'were we really sorry in the first place'? In our endeavor to forgive someone who has hurt us we may find that asking for forgiveness based on our emotions may not be sincere enough and may not cut to the core of what forgiveness actually does.


Christ said in Matthew 6:14-15 "If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.  But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins."  This command given to His disciples was not a mere request from the Master, this was a condition of our relationship to the Heavenly Father.  When Christ was hanging on the cross He made this statement of forgiveness to His Father in Heaven, "Father forgive them for they don't know what they are doing," came after being whipped, beaten, spat upon, mocked, accused falsely and the suffering of hanging on the cross.  Christ set the stage for changing the world through His disciples by showing them the act of forgiving was to release those bound by a corrupted world could experience God's love through forgiveness.  God at the same time Christ was crucified was showing you and me that He still loved us very much. He expressed His forgiveness through His only Son's sacrifice.  So when Christ said to His Father in Heaven "forgive them" He did not base forgiveness on His emotion's, but made a decision to forgive, which is an act of the will.  He knew that to forgive would bring the love of God into their hearts.  Here we have Christ our Lord and Savior forgiving those who not only crucified Him, but all that were separated from the Father in Heaven.  Through this act of the will the love of God through the Holy Spirit was released.  In Brian Zahnd's book "Unconditional' the author makes this statement about what forgiveness accomplishes;

It is by the Holy Spirit that the possibilities of forgiveness are expanded to the infinite.  We are not called to infinitely forgive on our own.  This would be to ask the impossible. Rather we are called to make the difficult choice to forgive as an act of obedience to Jesus Christ, and then to become a channel through which the Holy Spirit brings the love of God into a deeply broken and alienated world.

What B. Zahnd is saying in a nutshell is that we are Agents of Reconciliation.   We must choose to become this agent by an act of the will to forgive.  Some may be asking just how far does forgiveness go?  To what extent are we expected to forgive?  To these questions we must look at what Jesus told Peter when Peter ask Jesus how often should we forgive someone when they keep sinning against us. Matthew 18:21-22, Then Peter came to him and asked, "Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times? "No, not seven times," Jesus replied, "but seventy times seven!"
Jesus was telling His disciples that to really forgive there are no limits.  He is saying that we must always find a way to forgive and suggests that the possibilities of forgiveness are endless.  This is an extreme forgiveness, a radical forgiveness, forgiveness that has no limits according to Brian Zahnd in his book Unconditional.  You may be asking at this point, does this mean that I have to forgive under any circumstance and if I do forgive does it do away with justice?  The answer would be yes you must forgive under any circumstance.  Christ while on the cross absorbed all of man's ugliness and ask His Father to forgive, no conditions were included, no 'if' involved.  When you do this, remember, you are doing away with vengeance and allowing the love of God to be released through the power of the Holy Spirit.  It allows not only for the one who sinned against you to experience God's Love, but it also releases you from a bondage of bitterness and hatred.  Justice is not done away with, for justice will still prevail, but God's Love will be exalted in all aspects in any situation.  Forgiveness goes so much deeper into the soul penetrating our very essence bringing reconciliation to all involved.


Consider people like Simon Wiesenthal, a holocaust survivor who was faced with forgiving one of the SS soldiers.  The following account is from Brian Zahnd's book unconditional.  The SS soldier is a twenty-one-year-old German from Stuttgart named Karl Seidl.  Karl has asked the nurse to "bring him a Jew."  Karl has been mortally wounded in battle and now wants to make his dying confession and he wants to make it to a jew. Simon Wiesenthal was in a concentration camp doing cleanup work in a field hospital near the Eastern front.   Karl is dying, he wants to confess the atrocities he has witnessed and in which he, as a Nazi SS soldier, has participated.  Most horrifying is his account of being part of a group of SS soldiers sent to round up Jews in the city of Dnepropetropetrovsk. Three hundred Jews, men, women, children, and infants were gathered and driven with whips into a small three-story house.  The house was set on fire, and Karl recounted what happened to his confessor in these words.  The following is a quote from The Sunflower which is quoted in B. Zahnd's book Unconditional.

"We heard screams and saw the flames eat their way from floor to floor... We had our rifles ready to shoot down anyone who tried to escape from that blazing hell... The screams from that house were horrible... Behind the windows of the second floor, I saw a man with a small child in his arms.  His clothes were alight.  By his side stood a  woman, doubtless the mother of the child.  With his free hand the man covered the child's eye's... then he jumped into the street.  Seconds later the mother followed.  Then from the other windows fell burning bodies... We shot... Oh God!"

Simon never spoke during the several hours he listened to this man's confession's, Simon did hold the soldiers hand and brush away flies. Simon gave the soldier a drink of water.  Simon never doubted Karl's sincerity or that he was truly sorry for his crimes.  According to Simon, the way Karl spoke was proof enough of his repentance.  Karl, after his long confession said this:

"I am left here with my guilt.  In the last hours of my life you are here with me.  I do not know who you are, I only know that you are a Jew and that is enough... I know that what I have told you is terrible.  In the long nights while I have been waiting for death, time and time again I have longed to talk about it to a Jew and beg forgiveness from him.  Only I didn't know if there were any Jews left... I know that what I am asking is almost too much for you, but without your answer I cannot die in peace." 

Simon Wiesenthal made up his mind and left the room in silence.  All the long hours Simon set and listened to Karl, Simon never said a word, he just listened.  Karl Seidl died that night never hearing the words "I forgive you."


The question that comes to the front of one's mind is "should Simon have told Karl that he was forgiven?"  The question that we must ask ourself is "should we forgive no matter what the circumstance?"  Jesus when He hung on the cross, having been accused falsely, beaten within inches of His life, mocked, tormented, and spat on looks out on the crowd, absorbs all of the selfishness, hatred, vengeance, greed, adultery, lusts, bitterness, jealousy, and all other sins of humanity and says "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."  Are we not called to imitate Christ in every way?  Are we not called to absorb the pain and suffering as Christ did from His cross and say "forgive them Father?"  Christ, by forgiving those who put Him on the cross stopped the cycle of vengeance and hatred when He  not only forgave them, He ask the Father to forgive them.  There are no limits to forgiveness.  There are no limits on God's love being released through us by the power of the Holy Spirit.  When Christ breathed on His disciples at pentecost so they would receive the Holy Spirit, Christ set in motion the power for each of us to absorb the pain and suffering thrown at us by the world and utter the words "I Forgive you."


One other act of forgiveness that most are familiar with.  We heard about it in the news just a few short years ago.  Brian Zahnd leads into this story in his book "Unconditional" with this intro: "Charles Carl Roberts IV decided that someone had to pay for the loss of his daughter.  She had died twenty minutes after her birth.  This left Charles full of bitterness and wanting vengeance.  There was no forgiveness to be considered. Charles Roberts could have had a good life with his family but instead allowed bitterness over his daughters death to consume him.  Roberts was angry with God, angry with life, and angry with himself.  In his mind, someone had to pay.  Payback was the foundational ideology by which Roberts related to God and to others.  Since Roberts could not make God pay, he would instead make others pay by taking his revenge out on innocent young girls for the death of his infant daughter.  Here is how Brian Zahnd describes how Charles Roberts acted out his vengeance on the innocent."

Charles Roberts's soul had become a tornado of destruction, and on a sunny fall morning he entered a small, one-room Amish schoolhouse armed with a .9mm handgun, a 12-gauge shotgun, a .30-06 rifle, two knives, and six hundred rounds of ammunition.  Driven by hate, Roberts had ceased to be human and had now become a monster desperately trying to erase the image of God from his soul.  In the schoolhouse there were twenty-six students and a teacher.  Earlier that morning the class had prayed the Lord's Prayer.  Children's voices praying: "Fogive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us... deliver us from evil."  Entering the schoolhouse, Roberts ordered the children to lie face down at the front of the room near the blackboard.  The teacher and the boys were allowed to leave.  He kept the ten girls, ages six to thriteen.  Roberts then barricaded the doors, bound the girls with duct tape, and announced, "I'm going to make you pay for my daughter."  At 11:05 a.m., three shotgun blasts were followed by rapid-fire pistol shots.  Charles Roberts had shot all ten girls in the head.  Five died, five survived. Roberts completed his descent into the abyss by turning the gun on himself..."

Unspeakable evil had invaded tranquility and brought life-shattering tragedy to the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.  It came in the most hideous form of all, child sacrifice, the slaughter of the innocents... This could have been the end of the story.  It could have been only the horror story of a madman and his senseless massacre.  But this was not the end of the story.  As the world shuddered from news of the Nickel Mines tragedy, the world would soon be stunned by a demonstration of radical forgiveness, forgiveness that transcended tragedy. 

Within hours of the killings, a group of men from the Amish community went to Amy Roberts's house to express... forgiveness!  They brought gifts of food to Amy and her children, telling Amy they had forgiven her husband and held no animosity toward her.

Only forgiveness.  The Amish had only one way to respond to the most wicked of all transgressions: only forgiveness.  There was no talk of reprisal, revenge, getting even, or making someone pay.  Only forgiveness.  They imitated Christ by offering only forgiveness. They took up the Sermon on the Mount by demonstrating only forgiveness.

Do not worry about justice, justice will prevail, whether here on earth or at the judgement seat of Christ. Only you have the power within to forgive and absorb the bitterness and hatred by stopping the vengeance that lurks at your hearts door.  We can choose to live our lives full of bitterness and hate, seeking vengeance or we can choose to forgive and stop the cycle of hatred, bitterness and the act of getting even.


If you are suffering from a recent or a past tragedy in your life and find that only bitterness and vengeance occupy your mind and soul, please, stop the pain and suffering now and forgive those who hurt you and release the Love of God into your life and the life or lives of those who hurt you.  The Holy Spirit will know how to heal the wounds on both sides.  Do not worry about justice, God will bring justice if not in this life, the next for sure.  Don't allow your enemy to win, allowing further destruction of your soul by being ruled by hatred and bitterness.  Choose forgiveness today and let God do the rest.


I suggest reading the books mentioned in this message to gain a deeper insight to this powerful aspect in our lives, Forgiveness.


I appreciate your comments and or testimonies.  Feel free to leave them in the comment section, Thank you.