[Faith-talk] FW: [thefamilyoffaith] God Forgives..... Period!

[Eric Calhoun]

Original Message: 
From: "TONY - Family of Faith" <familyoffaith at tampabay.rr.com>
To: <thefamilyoffaith at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [thefamilyoffaith] God Forgives..... Period!
Date: 
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:50:12 -0400



GOD FORGIVES!

(Isaiah 1:18 KJV) - "Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD:
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." 

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Why are you carrying the burden I see on you? You have forgotten haven't
you? It is okay to forget some things, but your forgetting right now has
you in bondage, is causing you grief, and is not for your benefit. You are
not designed to carry what you are carrying. I too forget sometimes, but My
forgetting is for your benefit. I forget your sins and remember them no
more. Put the burden I see on Me. My design is to carry your burdens. The
reason I carry your burden is because I love you. I gave up My life for
you. This is what I want you to remember.

(Matthew 11:28-30) - "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and
I will give you rest. "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am
gentle and humble in heart, and You will find rest for your souls. "For My
yoke is easy and My burden is light." 
 
"Be Willing To Give It To Others"

God changed a sinner into a saint. Paul was deeply religious before his
conversion, but he relied on good works and a pious nature to gain divine
acceptance. When he met the Lord on the road to Damascus, the future
apostle learned that all of his religious zeal meant nothing. The only way
for people to be acceptable before God is to receive the saving grace of
Christ-He replaces our sin nature with a righteous spirit. And even though
saints will sometimes falter and make mistakes, our heavenly Father remains
patient and loving toward His children. He uses our failures to teach us
more about Himself and His ways. 

God changed a servant of sin into a servant of the Lord: (Rom. 6:16) -
"Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as
slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-whether you are slaves to
sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" 

Paul was welcomed into the kingdom in spite of his hostility toward the
church. He'd promoted blasphemy, punished believers, and cast his vote
against those being put to death: (Acts 26:10-11) - "And that is just what
I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the
Lord's people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote
against them. 11 Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have
them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed
with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities." 
The lesson here is that no one can sin beyond the Lord's capacity to
forgive. 

You don't have to know a lot of religious terms. The one thing you must
know is that no matter what you've done, how wicked you may have been, his
repentant ones will always be precious in his eyes. Christ said, "Behold, I
stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I
will come in..." (Revelation 3:20).

Why is he knocking? Because your life is precious and he won't let you
go. He doesn't come to push you around, but time and time again he'll come
and speak to your heart: "Call on me now in your need," he whispers. You
may have been in churches where people condemned you and put you down. But
all they did was judge you by what you look like on the outside and God
doesn't do that. He sees your potential. He'll give you joy and beauty in
place of the dirt and filth and ashes. He'll set you free!

There is not one sin that the blood of Jesus cannot eradicate. His blood
is all-powerful. And as a result, there is no excuse for a Christian to be
offended. No one-no matter how heartbreaking, horrific, or desperate the
situation-can develop an excuse for being offended that is acceptable to
God. 
You may have convinced yourself that your basis for offense is a worthy
one, but you will never persuade God. He gave His Son to die so that all of
humanity could be forgiven of their shortcomings. If you have accepted
God's forgiveness, then you must be willing to give it to others. "For if
you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive
you." (Matthew 6:14)

One day in 1514, Professor Martin Luther was in his private office on the
second floor of a tower attached to his monastery. He was studying Paul's
epistle to the Romans, and he came to (Romans1:16-17). Luther began to
grasp the fact that God's justice and His grace are at cross purposes. 
Justice would require that we be judged for our sins, but grace provides a
way of escape. "I see the answer," said Luther. "God punished Jesus in my
place, the same Jesus who had kept God's holy Law. But punishing His Son,
God carried out His threat that sin will be punished by death. All I have
to do is accept this fact and I need not fear that God will punish me with
eternal death. I am holy in God's sight because I know and believe that
Jesus is holy for me and has taken my punishment."
When we realize this and accept Christ, we have our own "tower
experience." Our sins demand justice, but God gives grace; and that's why
we are not ashamed of the Gospel!Faith is a living, bold trust in God's
grace.
Martin Luther
The Prison of the Past

(LUKE 4:16-21) - "He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and
on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he
stood up to read. 17) The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.
Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18) The Spirit of the
Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight
for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19) to proclaim the year of the
Lord's favor.20) Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the
attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened
on him, 21) and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is
fulfilled in your hearing."

Imagine a man named Dan who, after serving his full sentence of 20 years,
has just received his prison release papers. Now, after two decades behind
bars, he's going to taste freedom again! Before leaving, he makes a strange
request: "Please take this cell door off its hinges and strap it to my
back." The jailers comply, and the freed man spends the rest of his life in
this condition. 

Dan's story sounds ridiculous. Yet many of us carry around guilt like a
prison door strapped to our back. Jesus Christ liberated us, but we have
trouble leaving the old jail completely behind. The problem is that we
don't believe God has really forgiven. I've often counseled Christians who
say, "I pray every day for the Lord to forgive me!" When I point out that
God has already covered their sin, I hear, "Yes, but . . . " 

There is no "but." Either God forgives or He doesn't. If you've trusted
Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you are free of sin. (Col. 1:14). The
Lord promises that He will not hold our wrongs against us or even remember
them. (Heb. 10:17). No good can come of dredging up the old failures and
sinful habits that He has put behind His back. The Liberator has torn down
the walls of your prison. So lay down your guilt and live free. 

When God looks upon a believer, He sees a spirit washed clean of all sin.
Don't allow guilt over past wrongdoing to hold you captive a second longer.
Take God at His word, and believe that "He has removed it from you as far
as the east is from the west." (Psalm 103:12). 

According to Paul's epistles "we have redemption through Jesus Christ's
blood: 
(Eph. 1:7) - "In him we have redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace."

We are "justified by His blood" 
(Rom. 5:9) - "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much
more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!"

We are reconciled to God by the death of His Son" 
(Rom. 5:10) - "For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to
him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled,
shall we be saved through his life!"

"We are made nigh by the blood of Christ" 
(Eph. 2:13) - "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have
been brought near by the blood of Christ."

And "we are made the righteousness of God in Him" because God "hath made
Him to be sin for us" 
(2 Cor. 5:21) - "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in
him we might become the righteousness of God."

The "covenant" of the law was abolished by the cross: 
(Col. 2:14)- "having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which
stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the
cross." 

The curse of the law was removed by the cross: 
(Gal. 3:13) - "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a
curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a
pole."

The "middle wall of partition" was broken down by the cross: 
(Eph. 2:14) - "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups
one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility." 

And believers in Christ are reconciled to God in one body by the cross: 
(Eph. 2:16) - "and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through
the cross, by which he put to death their hostility." 

Little wonder Paul calls his message: "The preaching of the cross"!