Here is the next article I have been working on.....
[align=center]Longsuffering[/align]
The fourth fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5 is longsuffering. We could talk about longsuffering toward mankind or longsuffering in our Christian walk, but in this article we will direct our attention towards longsuffering toward our fellowman.
[align=left] The Greek word for longsuffering is "makrothumia" which means patience, endurance, constancy, steadfastness, perseverance, slowness in avenging wrongs. It is an attribute that God in His infinite mercy has shown towards us, and in turn expects us to show to others.
[align=left] In Matthew 18:21-35 we find the parable that starts off with Peter asking the Lord how many times we should forgive our brother if he sins against us. Peter probably felt he was doing pretty good to suggest seven times, after all, how many of us find it easy to endure with patience toward somebody that has offended us over and over again without letting a root of bitterness spring up towards them? It"s hard to endure three of four times, much les seven! But to Peter"s surprise, the Lord"s answer went beyond seven times. The Lord"s response was "seventy times seven!" 490 times! Can you imagine that?
Then the Lord proceeded to tell them about the parable of the king that decided to have a reckoning with those who owed him. It was now time to receive payment for debts owed. There was found a servant who owed him 10,000 talents and had no way to pay. This servant fell before the king and begged for patience so that he could have time to pay him back. The king displayed great compassion in that he totally pardoned the debt. But what did this servant do? Instead of being humbled and grateful, he turned around and found somebody that owed him a very small amount of 100 pence. When his fellow servant asked for patience and time to pay the debt, he was thrown in prison until the debt could be paid.
What can we learn from this parable? Mankind falls miserably short from ever being able to repay the Lord. Over and over mankind turns his back on his Creator, sending the stench of his sin up to the Lord"s nostrils. But thank God for His patience and mercy. Thank God that He came and robed Himself of flesh and took all our debts upon Himself in order that our sins with its stench could be washed by His blood and our debts could be forgiven. What a huge debt we owed before we came to the Lord! And even after that, how many times have we stumbled along in our walk with God? So much has God forgiven us, how can we not turn around and forgive our fellowman? What makes us so self-righteous to feel that another doesn"t deserve our patience? You may say, "Oh, but you just don"t know everything that person has done to me. You don"t know how bad that person has gossiped about me." No, I may not know. But I do know that it could not possibly come even close to all that the Lord has forgiven you. (Remember the 10,000 talents compared to 100 pence?) The end of the parable shows that the king found out about how merciless his servant was with his fellowman. He ended up sending his servant to the tormentors until the debt could be paid. After the Lord finished telling this parable, He told His disciples: "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."[/align] [/align] Do we want God"s forgiveness to continually flow towards us? 1 Timothy 1:16 says "Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." He was longsuffering to the Apostle Paul, He is longsuffering to us, and we must show gratefulness by demonstrating longsuffering toward others. My sister, my brother, don"t let bitterness spring forth in your heart toward another. Forgive just as God has forgiven you.
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"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28
Forgive! You must forgive others. No matter what they have done.
It is the command of God.
To not forgive hurts you. If you desire God's blessing, you must forgive.
You may think it is impossible to forgive someone who has deeply wronged you. With God it is possible. He never asks us to do something we cannot do.
IF YOU WANT FORGIVEN MATTHEW 6:12,14,15 NKJ 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 14 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 "But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. MATTHEW 18:35 NKJ 35 "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses." MARK 11:25-26 NKJ
25 "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 "But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." LUKE 6:35-38 NKJ 35 "But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Highest. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. 36 "Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. 37 "Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you."
Whatever we measure out is what will be measured back to us. If we want others to show mercy to us and forgive us -- we must do that first. LUKE 11:4 NKJ
4 and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."
It is not enough to forgive only those people who have wronged us a little. We must forgive everyone!
HOW MANY TIMES? MATTHEW 18:21-22 NKJ
21 Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
Surely Jesus was not setting a maximum limit on the number of times we should forgive. He gave an absurdly high number so we would realize He meant for us to forgive without limit. LUKE 17:3-4 NKJ
3 "Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 "And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, `I repent,' you shall forgive him."
OUR EXAMPLE LUKE 23:33-34 NKJ 33 And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. 34 Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." And they divided His garments and cast lots.
This kind of forgiveness is certainly beyond normal human ability or experience. It takes the power of God to do it. EPHESIANS 4:32-5:2 NKJ
32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you. 1 Therefore be followers of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling aroma.
We are commanded to forgive others just as God has forgiven us! Having God's help is necessary to do that. COLOSSIANS 3:12-13 NKJ
12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. It is not optional. If we desire God's blessing and fellowship -- we must forgive others as He forgave us. Forgiveness is not a feeling. It is a decision to quit holding something against someone. When we forgive we must release them and forget it.
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Jesus said, "he who stands firm to the end will be saved" Mark 13:13.
Live Life in such a way that those who do not know Christ will come to know Him because they know you
I think we all know we are to forgive, but the question should be, is it really forgiven, is it's not forgotten? I am going through an ordeal right now, and I am really having a very hard time forgetting it.
Yer Rev.it is somrtimes hard to forgive and forget..but God forgave us and said he would rmember our sins no more so why can't we ? i guess it's because we are human..
Long suffering, a very important word in a Christrins life..it is patience to bear with those who have done or said things to hurt another..it is that ability to keep us from in restraint when someone provokes us in anyway..and we know that is an easy thing to do.. longsuffering is the opposite of being angry and is associated with mercy..I am so glad God is longsuffering towards me as i have a long way to go to be what i ought to be..
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wayne
"There's room at the cross for you."
I'm a long ways from perfect . . . .I can be kinda cranky and I have a tendency to a short fuse. Thank God it's not as short as it used to be. I've said it before, but I often give myself a mental picture of me standing before Jesus and telling Him why I'm so ticked off at someone. It's funny how the atrocity I imagined suddenly seems trite in front of the Master. It's hard to stand before such a forgiving father with murder in your heart over a trifling thing. Who am I that is so great that no one should dare to offend me? Who am I to not forgive and forget as one that has been forgiven so much, and not only that , it has been cast into the sea of forgetfulness? I just pray that I can be more like Him and if I show anger again it be justified. Who am I when I become at odds over a trifling thing with another . . .nothing but a prideful man with thwarted arrogance. A murderer in spirit.
__________________ And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
Rebel Hog I think I understand what you have posted here.
Where the "gray" comes into play imo is where does the line between socity and personal get drawn.
If a person harms me personaly then I will forgive him/her on a personal level. ( I know that the wrong I have/will done/do is just as bad if not worse).
A wrong need not be answered by me, personaly, but it must be answered socitial<sp> scale.
If you personaly forgive a person then the matter is settled, no further action needed.
If a person is forgiven by socity then it is time to tear-down the prisons because the person is considered forgiven, no further action needed.
Just trying to expand on the subject of forgiving a bit.
BTW I hope you get the chance to meet Chuck in Florida soon.
Thanks
Mr-Pirk
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A proud owner of a Flying Vee. Bestowed by the fine Gentleman VC1111 himself.
I must add something. I will use Corrie Ten Boom. as my example. During the concentration camp she watched the guards kill her saintly sister. She wrestled with the forgiveness part. Until......one day....while sharing her testimony,someone came to the alter.The person who came was the prison guard who had killed her sister. He had become a Christian and came to ask forgiveness. She did not want to because he had done such wicked things. he held out his hand. She did not want to shake it. However; sheobeyed God's Word She shook his hand and at that monent felt God's love flow through her. Forgiveness has nothing to do with feelings.It is being obedient to God's word.
I think we all know we are to forgive, but the question should be, is it really forgiven, is it's not forgotten? I am going through an ordeal right now, and I am really having a very hard time forgetting it.
Bro. Rev, you bring up a very valid point and I would like to address it. Just this past Sunday, a sister from church gave me a cassette that had a sermon on it by Bro. David Shatwell. The name of the sermon is "The Tragedy of a Wounded Spirit, How to Deal with Hurt." She didn't know why she felt led to give it to me but I am glad she did. It compliments my study on longsuffering very well. There is no way that I could portray all that was in the sermon but I will try my best to do it justice. The message was for everyone but on the most part it was directed to ministers and their wives. The Lord knows that if anybody is in the open arena for wounds it is them. So here we go:
Sometimes things happen in our lives that causes us to be cut so deep. God wants to heal those wounds. Just becasue we have gifts and talents doesn't mean we know how to cure/deal with/bear a wounded spirit. Forgiveness is the only thing that you can dump unlimited quantities of in your spirit and it not hurt in any way. Here are 4 steps of forgiveness to heal a wounded spirit.
1) Some people have been wounded and are stout enough in their human spirit that they have learned to cope with it and go on. they have enough room in their emotional reserve to leave that junk in there and still do most of their duties. They think they have it all fixed. But they will never be what God wants them to be while they have a wounded spirit. The first step to heal a wounded spirit is to describe to God in prayer what was done to you. Don't just tell God that He knows what happened. Describe it all to Him. Then tell God, "As of this moment, I forgive him/her and I release the pain and resentment." (Say the name of that person if need be.) Then let it wash out of you.
2) The next step we find in Acts 7:55-60 when Stephen asked God not to lay that sin in their charge. Stephen wasn't saying "I" forgive them. He was saying "God, I'm asking you to forgive them." Sometimes we forgive, but in the back of our mind we remember that whatever a person reaps, he sows, and we hold on to the thought that "one day He will repay." But when you go to the second step of forgiveness, ask that the day never come. This is a very humbling part of the process. What did Jesus say on the cross? "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." Ask God to wipe it off that person's record. Tell God, "This day I forgive him and I ask that you do the same."
3) Sometimes there are some people that maybe hold things in their minds against themselves. In these cases they must tell God, "As of this moment, I forgive and release myself."
4) Sometimes people, in their hurt, question God. "Why God, did you allow this thing to happen?" Satan will get on a person's shoulder and try to build resentment. They begin to ask God, "Why didn't you stop it?" Some people have situations that are so bitter that they become bitter not at somebody, but at the situation. Maybe you feel that life has not treated you right. For this last step, forgive God and release the resentment. The power of death and life are in our tongues. Say the words, "I forgive and I release you God. I hold no resentment for another day."
God can heal you. God wants to heal you. Allow Him to do so in Jesus' Name.
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"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28
Longsuffering
