Former ABC Chief White House Correspondent, Sam Donaldson was one of the most controversial reporters that Washington has endured. He was an equal opportunity nuisance, treating presidents of both parties with equal lack of deference. He was especially hard on former president Jimmy Carter, though.
Donaldson told about traveling with Carter to a small village near New Delhi, India to see how the village solved its energy problem. This was at the height of concern over the energy crisis. This particular village solved its energy problem by throwing all the cow manure from its herds into a large pit, then siphoning off the methane gas from the manure to light the village lamps.
So, it came to pass that the reporters and the officials with Carter all stood on the lip of this manure pit inspecting the process. “If I fell in, you’d pull me out, wouldn’t you, Mr. President?” joked Donaldson.
“Certainly,” Carter replied. Then he paused and added, “after a suitable interval.”
If you’ve thought about getting even today, forget it. You cannot get “even”, anyway. You reap what you sow.
Tags: forgiveness, Pres. Carter, Sam Donaldson, strife
I read the story of an astronomer making observations of the setting sun. As he was adjusting his lens, he noticed the top of a hill several miles away. On the hill were two boys stealing apples from an orchard. One was shaking down the fruit and the other was standing watch. They thought no one was watching them, but the astronomer saw their every move.
I think its like that with the all-seeing eye of God beholding everything we do – whether in the open or in private. This is a disturbing thought that could lead us to despair. But God not only sees and tremembers, He also forgives if we come to Him in repentance and confession.
The Lord promises to do these things with our sins:
- Forgive them all (1 John 1:9).
- Cast them into the sea (Micah 7:19).
- Take them away (Isaiah 6:7).
- Cover them up (Psalm 32:1)
- Blot them out (Acts 3:19).
- Put them away (Hebrews 9:26).
- Remember them no more (Hebrews 8:12).
Since we can’t hide our sins from God, let’s confess them and accept His gracious forgiveness.
Tags: forgiveness, hiding, sin
All sin carries a price tag. Its consequences may range from minor to major, but the bill always comes due. Somebody always pays.
There is a story about a boy whose father pounded a nail in the barn door every time the boy did something wrong. Soon there were many nails in the door. Then one day the boy accepted Christ as Savior and began living for Him. To impress upon his son the wonder of being forgiven, the father took him to the barn and pulled out every nail from the door. “That is what it means to have all your sins forgiven,” he said. “They are gone forever.”
The boy was deeply impressed. Then looking at the door, he asked, “But father, how can I get rid of the holes?” “I’m sorry,” said the father, “but the holes will remain.”
When the disciples first met the resurrected Christ on Easter morning, He showed them His hands and feet, where they saw the scars. These scars will always be there because sin leaves holes behind.
Tags: forgiveness, scars, sin
Sunday afternoon and Monday I took on the project of repainting our living room. It hasn’t been repainted since we moved in in 1995. So, my biggest project was prepping the walls before painting. Having raised three teens in that house, there were nicks and dings are over the place. Each dent needed filled and sanded. Every gouge the same. When I pried loose the cracked plastic corners on some doorways, the steel corners under the drywall flexed and broke big chucks of drywall patch loose. It was a mess.
But I carefully removed what was loose and patched the holes. Some holes required multiple patches. Then I carefully sanded them level. Then I covered the patches with drywall primer, and finally two coats of colored paint. Today the paint has dried and you can’t even find where those former blemishes were. Its like a huge eraser swept through the room and made it new again.
Love between brothers and sisters is supposed to work like that, as well. John said, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” Have you allowed brotherly love to cover the sin of another, like dried paint on a wall covers blemishes? Think about this today.
Tags: born again, cover-up, forgiveness, sin
God has a way of teaching us powerful lessons. For example, consider this is true story:
“One day my husband and I got into an argument and ended up yelling at each other. I retreated to the porch and sat with my head in my hands, crying. Our two-year old overheard the argument. ‘I love you, Mom,’ she said, as she sat beside me and put her arms around me. ‘I love you, too,’ I said. She rested her head on my shoulder, hugging me hard. ‘I wish you could love Daddy, too,’ she said. Talk about ripping your heart out! ‘But I do love your Daddy. We just had a disagreement.’ With that my daughter smiled, got up and walked away. ‘Where are you going?’ I asked. She replied, ‘I’m going to tell Daddy you love him!’
If you are going to expose your children to your anger, be sure you also expose them when you forgive each other. Teach them how to deal with the issue – without attacking the person. You may need to teach them things you were never taught. Forgive when you’re hurt and don’t take your resentments to bed. Jesus said you must forgive “so that your Father in heaven may forgive you” (Mark 11:25). So, do it for your children’s sake.
Tags: forgiveness, love, marriage
The headline in the Grand Rapids Press wasn’t good news. Fifteen million gallons of partially treated waste water suddenly disappeared from a storage lagoon in a water treatment facility. Just outside the small town of Sand Lake, Michigan, a 500-by-500-foot pond disappeared into a sinkhole. The problem was that nobody knew where the wastewater went. According to a county spokesperson, “It will depend on where it went before we can say what happened.”
Imagine all the wrongs of your life being like that missing filthy lagoon. It was certainly there, yet its now gone. Where did that sin go? Its a mystery, but it’s gone!
Where did it go? Buried in the deepest sea (Micah 7:19), as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), erased from the eternal books of heaven’s justice (Colossians 2:13-15). Think about that sinkhole and your sins today.
Tags: forgiveness, sin, sinkhole
When I was a kid I lived right on Main St. (US 6) in Butler. I had a friend who lived a couple of blocks away on the same street. We hung out a lot. One summer day his cat got hit on the busy highway and we took it out behind his house, in a field, and buried it. We had a childish funeral service and went our way.
A couple of weeks later we were passing by that spot and decided to dig it up and see how it was doing. We meant well, but learned a valuable lesson. We were more concerned about what we would see than what we would smell. It didn’t take us long to get that cat re interred and never went back again.
That was a gruesome experience for us boys. But the lesson was simple: once you’ve buried something, let it lie. Digging it up from time to time just doesn’t help. And so it is with our sins. When they are buried, we must let them lie. Digging them up again only brings up what once was there. Leave the cat buried!
Tags: cat, forgiveness, sins