The One About Forgiveness

This past weekend Matt & I attended a Weekend to Remember conference.  During one of the last sessions, Gary Stanley was speaking.  He asked the audience, "Do you believe God forgives sins?"  And of course we all said "yes."  And then he just stopped & looked at us... "Think about it."  He then proceeded to tell us that he has been studying what God does to sin.  He throws it behind him, rips it from East to West, stomps on it and had it nailed to a cross.  Does that sound like he forgives sin or that he hates sin?

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
"... He is faithful & just to forgive US our sins and to save US from all unrighteousness."

God forgives US... he forgives the person... he hates the sin. Sin is death to Him.

Let that sink in for a moment. It feels like it's so simple, right? But this statement was so freeing to me.  We do not have to forgive the sins committed to us.  We forgive the person.  We separate the person from the sin and forgive the person.  This message is so clear throughout the Bible that it's amazing that this was so freeing to me, but it was.  Very much so. 

Forgive the person. Make a choice to forgive. You don't have to forget. You will still feel the hurt. But choose to forgive & hate the sin, not the 'sinner'.

The One Nathan Wrote

The Human Body: Ears

Ears are almost the greatest part of your body. For example: When you hear Karah screeching it immediately brings the music right to your brain. Cool, huh? Any way if you didn't have ears you would have to have loads of paper in your pocket so you could talk to each other or write to each other. But it would be kinda good because you could get better hand writing like I need to work on. Anyway you are using your ears right now as you are listening to my report. Well hopefully. This is the end. I hope you learned something. See you later.