2 in a row
I should save this one for tomorrow but I wouldn't remember it if I did. So I can get so confused at times. I can debate myself in about any matter. One thing I talked about last night was that "Jesus forgave unconditionally". I had a person in disagreement in this. And then I got confused and tended to see their point. Their point was this: God forgives us but the condition is that we have to repent and ask for forgiveness. Another example was that Jesus said "your sins are fogiven, now go and sin no more". Is the go and sin no more a condition? If so, I know it's an impossible condition. The point I was trying to make is that we can't choose what we are going to forgive people for. We are told to forgive them, and forgive them, and forgive them. We tend to want to fogive people conditionally. I'll forgive you but....., or I'll forgive you if.... That's where I see we have a problem. Now I know this is hard. I've never been in a position that someone did something so bad to me that I couldn't forgive them. I know that their are some things that people could do to me that would challenge me to offer forgiveness. Anyway I get confused. Also didn't Jesus say (or am I dreaming) that we should forgive before we're asked for forgiveness? I thought he did (If he didn't say it I still think it's a good principle). The disagreer didn't quite by in to that either. Anyway, God works in mysterious ways. Every night before bed I read the Max Lucado daily devotion book ( I think it's called Grace for the moment). If you get a chance and have a copy, look at the one for April 24 (give or take a day, I sometimes get behind). After you find the one I'm talking about you'll see why I said he works in mysterious ways. After this conversation last night I went to bed, picked up the book and that was the daily devotion I read. It was on the subject of God forgiving with or w/out being asked and why we still ask if we're fogiven before we ask. Ok here's two posts that are just waiting for some scholarly comments. John maybe you could leave several comments, I'm making a collection out of your mug shot.
posted by Tommy @ 9:23 PM
1 Comments:
Hey...you're the second person to refer to my picture as a "MUG SHOT" LOLOL...you should see the picture on my chaplain badge for the hospital... people stop me to pray for me.
Anyhoo... on forgiveness. A big underlying fault in the thinking of your detractor is that we think we are good. We will even say we are not very good, but inside we think we are good. So good that we could actually know and remember every sin committed so that we could ask for forgiveness. Goodness is measured in lawkeeping. The ONE who could keep all laws said, 'why do you call me good'. Recall that it was a wealthy young ruler who called Jesus good ... and he thought of himself as good because of his lawkeeping. The reason so many in the COC reject grace as it is taught in Scripture is that they believe they are really good. We just need a little help now and then. We need a good dose of remembering where we came from, how much it took to save us, and how we can do nothing to merit our salvation. But I suspect your detractor will ennumerate the things he has done so that God will have to save him in the end. Any human who is saved is saved in spite of himself. Jesus forgives the saint unconditionally. We live in a state of grace, accessed by faith. Repentance is the state of heart in which we live, not somethign we do when someone sees us sin. Anyways, I'm chasing rabbits and this is a favorite subject of mine. Don't get confused, Tommy. If something WE do could save us, we wouldn't need Jesus. Jesus paid it all. Just sing it to them.
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