tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044571629293488418.post2266910840333851749..comments2023-07-23T09:53:50.773-04:00Comments on Bags All Packed: Here's Whymeemahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09104303592278897991noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044571629293488418.post-41981207178742880972015-09-30T10:34:11.694-04:002015-09-30T10:34:11.694-04:00Simplistic, but in it’s reduced essence, yes, forg...Simplistic, but in it’s reduced essence, yes, forgiving someone for doing harm to you is basically you not harboring any ill-will or thoughts of retribution or desire to see harm come to the offender. All of which can only be real if it is genuinely felt in the heart, not based on merely adhering to a law. Of course higher levels of forgiveness will include sincere good will toward the forgiven but to say that means there must be more than one level of forgiveness. <br /><br />And why not boil this down to the basics? Religion has made it all so complex and ultimately put huge inescapable guilt loads on Christians for daring to stand up for Christ or themselves lest it appear they are not ‘forgiving’. It’s a classic tactic used by satan to disarm us with our own self aware goodness. Numerous mega churches use this as their rationale for letting the wolves in and watering down Christ’s simple Way.<br /><br />While ‘vengence is mine’ saith the Lord covers what happens down the road to those who seek to disable us, there is a point, in the heat of battle where we are allowed to use discernment and make choices that might not seem very forgiving. Timothy 4:14 comes to mind.<br /><br />(2 Tim 4:14-15) Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord will render to him according to his works: (4:15) of whom do thou also beware; for he greatly withstood our words. <br /><br />In one short, simple statement, Paul is saying two things - he is declaring that Alexander the coppersmith did harm and that God would render to him his reward AND he should be avoided. In the modern interpretation of goody goody Christian, this would have been said differently. He would have proclaimed that Alexander was just misunderstood and that everyone should seek him out and hug him and evangelize him. <br /><br />But nope. Paul handed him over to satan in 1 Corinthians 5:5 to give him the opportunity to repent. Paul didn’t determine if Alexander would or would not repent. Instead what Paul told his disciples was to ‘beware of him’. Though I don’t believe we have the power that Paul had to turn anyone over to satan we do have the option to pray for our enemy which is a powerful mandate. Sometimes the prayer is to bind up and disarm, sometimes the prayer is to open eyes and redirect, sometimes the prayer is just to deliver us from evil. The prompt we follow is determined by the circumstances. <br /><br />So, what I take from all this is that we are not to take revenge but that doesn’t mean we cannot take measures to defend ourselves. The key, and what God sees, is where we stand in our hearts. Are we standing for the right, God approved, reason? <br /><br />It’s so complex and yet so simple. Humans are not really smart enough to understand such simplicity. meemahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09104303592278897991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044571629293488418.post-60027538056629757492015-09-30T08:49:20.266-04:002015-09-30T08:49:20.266-04:00Interesting. Are you saying that forgiveness just ...Interesting. Are you saying that forgiveness just comes down to not having any ill-will? Isn’t that a little simplistic?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044571629293488418.post-66115826196424136662015-09-30T07:42:22.877-04:002015-09-30T07:42:22.877-04:00Point taken. I can’t argue with your comment. For ...Point taken. I can’t argue with your comment. For me, everything is defined in two ways, things of the flesh and things of the spirit. Forgiving, in whatever form it takes in the flesh is not as important as the way it resolves in the spirit. <br /><br />In other words, our actions and our proclamations mean way less than what is honestly felt in our hearts. And God knows our hearts even better than we do. Some folks are inclined to be vindictive, grudge bearing and unforgiving and yet they can present themselves in self-righteous pretense to be forgiving. God knows the difference though.<br /><br />And then there are those who genuinely forgive and forget and move on from and out of harm’s way and it might appear they are disingenuous but, in fact, they meet God’s definition of forgiveness, which is lack of ill-will.<br /><br />I guess it is up to us to make sure our hearts are right and that can only come through the process of surrender. meemahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09104303592278897991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044571629293488418.post-80053128505117071722015-09-29T17:05:20.720-04:002015-09-29T17:05:20.720-04:00The whole issue of forgiveness and forgiving has a...The whole issue of forgiveness and forgiving has always been a unsettled thing for me. I can easily forgive people who have wronged me, but that doesn’t mean I want to welcome them back into my life unless they are willing to do differently. In other words, sometimes you forgive people who cannot or will not change and probably do not feel they have done anything wrong and so would do wrong again in a heartbeat. In that case the forgiving is definitely for the forgiver to let go and move on. I get that. But what about, say in this case of this woman who was wrongly accused, what if she had been convicted? Would she have been able to forgive those who put her in prison?<br /><br />That’s where the forgiving thing gets all murkey for me. That takes a special kind of forgiving, maybe even the most real kind. I mean it's kind of easy to forgive your enemy after you have won the war, right?<br /><br />VLAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com