Tommy Mitchell / The Rurban Church Blog

A Matter of Forgiveness - Part 3

Today let me deal with the heart of the difficulty of forgiveness.  When we extend forgiveness to someone it means we are willing to bear the pain of what others have done.  In the first part of  Matthew 18: 21 - 35, a desperate servant who could not pay his debt was marvelously forgiven.  Literally, his debt was canceled by the master who had come to take everything the servant had.  But moved by compassion, the master marvelously canceled the debt. 

This act on the part of the master meant that he would absorb the consequences of the unpaid debt.  He agreed in that moment to just bear the disappointment and frustration and let it go.  Be sure to understand that I don’t mean the master just agreed to be disappointed and angry or frustrated the rest of his life.  It is at the moment of forgiveness that you bear the pain of what another person has done. But then you let it go to the mercies and ministry of the Lord.  It is part of that “casting all your care upon the Lord!”  

What the master did for the servant is obviously a picture of what Christ did for us. He bore the pain of our sin. Even on the cross as others mocked Him, spit at Him, and hurled insults at Him, Christ said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do!” Luke 23:34. We tend to forget that forgiveness, while essential to a right relationship with God and with others, is also a painful thing.  There is a cost to forgiving. 

Sadly, our account of amazing forgiveness in the scripture does not end as well as it begins. Again, in Matthew 18:21 - 35 the forgiven servant, having had his debt canceled, went out and found a man who owed him a much smaller sum of money.  The servant demanded that the man pay him.  The servant attacked the man, and choked him. Though the debtor begged for mercy, and in spite of the fact that the servant had just had his own debt canceled, he went to the authorities and had the debtor thrown into prison.  What an amazing response from a man who was forgiven everything, who had his family spared, and who had his possessions restored to him.  The one who had been shown mercy and grace was now showing retribution and nastiness towards others.  

Well, you can certainly say the servant was unwilling to bear the pain of the actions of his debtor.  In the next part, we will examine the remainder of this scripture.   But notice this.  We have been forgiven EVERYTHING by the Lord. If you want to think about how much that is, try to remember for just about one minute the worse sins you have committed in your life - you know - the stuff you hope nobody ever finds out about.  Christ forgave us.  He bore the pain of our sins on the cross.  And not just the ones we hope nobody discovers - but all of them. Having been forgiven, and having Christ bear the pain of them, how could we then EVER be unforgiving, unwilling to bear the pain of the actions of another.  I think of how many times I have doubted God’s love, accused Him of not being there, and fussed at Him for His plans!  All sinful. Yet, He did not walk away. He forgave me.  He bore the pain of my faithlessness, hopelessness, and doubt. 

We cannot walk in a right relationship with the Lord if we are unwilling to pay the cost of forgiving others.  It will mean that for a little while, we will bear the pain of what another person has done, and we will release it to the Lord.  Bearing the pain and letting it go will become practically simultaneous as we walk and grow in our relationship with the Lord.  

My prayer is that I will be forgiving - that it will be my default position!  Most assuredly I have benefited greatly, not only from the Lord’s forgiveness, but from the forgiveness of others as well. 

 

 

 

A Matter of Forgiveness

Over a few brief posts, I want to share some preaching and teaching I once did on the topic of “forgiveness.”  Neil T. Anderson heavily influenced my thinking on this topic several years ago.  It was a liberating experience. However, we all struggle with the issue of forgiveness from time to time.  A man named John Oglethorpe, in talking to John Wesley, once made the comment, “I never forgive!”  Mr. Wesley replied, “Then sir, I hope you never sin!”  We certainly need to be forgiving towards all that have hurt us and towards all against whom we have hard feelings.  This is a challenge for all of us at various points in time and circumstances.

Part of the struggle in forgiving is caused by our perceptions of the “other” party.  Perhaps another person has truly wronged us, but they have no clue or don’t see their action or actions as wrong.  Indeed, the other party at times may be right and we are wrong, but can’t see it.   How do you work through that?  Well, pray for clear vision from the Holy Spirit.  Understand that this side of heaven no two people will necessarily agree on everything.  And most of all - if you have hard feelings toward anyone, whether you are actually in the right or not, you must forgive.  

The default position of being forgiving towards all grants us our greatest freedom while on this earth.  God will square things up.  With this same default attitude of forgiveness in mind, sometimes folks ask for our forgiveness and we don’t really want to grant it.  We must! Christ forgave us.  We must forgive others - and it needs to be genuine. 

We all mess up in relationships from time to time. Sometimes we are aware of what we have done.  Sometimes we are not aware.  And sometimes people are agitated with us when they have no right to be.  But if all God’s children default to a forgiving spirit, love and unity will overcome disagreement and dissension.    

So, that is the introduction.  I will post some particulars over the next few posts.  I praise God for His forgiveness.  Certainly I do not merit it. Forgiveness is an amazing gift of God extended to me purely from His grace.  My prayer is that I will be as quick to extend and seek forgiveness as He was ready to do the same for me.

Christ - The Main Attraction!

Attractional church!  This term is most often used these days to negatively describe churches that use a variety of methods to attract people to attend worship.  The alternative term (and seemingly preferred method) is missional church.  This church supposedly reaches people by being on mission out in the community.  In my personal opinion, a church should be both - attractive because of a loving, caring, worshiping congregation and missional because they are inspired to go out and make disciples. 

Yet, neither the attractional church nor the missional church get very far without Christ! When did Christ cease being the main attraction in our churches?  In Colossians Paul wrote, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  In Corinthians he wrote, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.  In Philippians Paul wrote, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”   

These are not proof-texts.  The New Testament is chocked full of Christ. Paul didn’t need the promise of a pizza or the most expensive lighting for the worship sets to be attracted to church.  He didn’t need a preacher who looked like someone’s local majority view of “cool!”  Rather, he was totally, hopelessly, wonderfully, and devotedly in love with Christ.  

And Paul didn’t go to church! He was the church.  As am I. As are you!  And Paul was the church proclaiming Christ.  For Paul, Christ was sufficient.  Again at Corinth, Paul spoke of his approach with them, saying, "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2   

So, I wonder when Christ ceased to be enough for us.  I wonder when the sheer wonder of His marvelous forgiveness, the wisdom of His amazing teaching, and depths of His incomparable love ceased to be enough to propel us to gather together to praise His name and inspire us to go out into the community to proclaim His name. 

In my lifetime, and to this day, I have been hearing a plethora of things that the church must do to grow.  Sometimes the instruction is a method and sometimes it is an audience.  Get the right kind of worship (music) and the church will grow.  Get the right kind of management style and organizational structure and it will grow.  Or focus on the right demographic group and it will grow.  It seems that most of these things have failed since the church in America continues to decline overall.  

But Christ never fails.  And never will fail. Sometimes it seems that we get to feeling like Christ is not a sufficient message - or too rough a message - or too holy a message.  So the attempt is made to help people into the church with Christ watered down a bit. Listen to this word from Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:23 "but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”  Paul knew that the claims of Christ about sin and salvation were tough - a stumbling block and foolishness depending on who was listening.  But the claims of Christ are backed up by the convicting, convincing power of the Holy Spirit.  

We need to return to Christ.  We need Christ in our message.  We need Christ in our worship. We need Christ in our moment by moment lives.   In this day nearly every church is struggling with participation by the membership.  I say the real problem underlying struggling attendance, anemic giving,  slack participation, and missional impotence is the lack of Christ in our lives.  

Is Christ central in our churches? Is Christ central in our lives?  Is our devotion to a church (institution) or to Christ?  Is our interest in a program or ministry or is to Christ? Are we following a person or Christ?  

I more and more often ask myself, “Is Christ sufficient for me?”  or am I looking for something else - something more?  There is nothing else and there will never be anything that is more than Christ.  

May the unchanging Christ overwhelm our lives. 

How Do We Get This Done?

Sometimes I have one of those days that is equally gratifying and frustrating at the same time!  That was yesterday.  Yesterday I was in New Orleans with our Missions Team as we met in a morning strategy session with our mission partners in the 9th Ward and in an afternoon strategy session with our Metairie partners.  Several things were whirling around in my mind.

First I was again struck by the contrasts.  Although this is oversimplified, one might say the 9th Ward is an area where people are down and out while in Metairie they are up and out!  Whether “down” or “up” – they are out!  In one area the people are burned out by crime, poverty, and the neglect of caring communities.  The other is bound by clinging to a religious system rather than Christ, and seeing very little need for the family of God. They are easily neglected by faith communities because we don’t really think they need anything.  

But the similarities are striking.  In both communities families have problems.  In both communities the Gospel is desperately needed. And as I listened to both missions partners, it was amazing that they basically identified the same foundational needs – they need the Gospel presented, relationships built, and they both desperately needed their folks to be discipled!

Reflecting on that at 4:00 am this morning, my first thought is to be overwhelmed – because those are the same needs we have at Agricola.  So the question comes to mind – “How do we get that done?”  The task is enormous. Because God has commanded us to a worldwide mission, I am pondering how do we help those precious folks in New Orleans with the enormous task of reaching that city?  Because God has commanded me to shepherd the flock of God, I ponder how to disciple all these folks in Agricola! 

Well, I came to this conclusion after being awake for a few minutes – I can’t! We can’t!  All I can do is be faithful to God, faithful with the Gospel, and determined to disciple and provide discipling resources.  At some point – I have to trust God!  I have to trust God that He already has key relationships unfolding.  I have to trust that He will awaken sleepy-headed Christians to one day care more about His kingdom than this decaying, dying, temporary world and its stuff and distractions.  I have to trust that God who has commanded us to reach the Agricolas and New Orleans of the world will be faithful to bring it to pass as we proclaim the Gospel.

There were 9 of us adults yesterday planning some strategy for reaching our areas in Agricola and New Orleans.  There are more as well. Some we know about.  Some we don’t.  But what I do know is that God is faithful.  My life has already been amazingly blessed by our mission partners.  My ministry skills are being sharpened.  And I am more dependent on God than ever before.  And I am more optimistic than ever that God is going to do something amazing with the Gospel in our time.  God will get it done!

Everything But Christ!

In this modern day of instant communication it is interesting to watch the conversational trends regarding the church.  Daily my facebook feed is inundated with blog posts about various “great concerns” in the church.  Among these concerns are great and weighty matters such as how we are to greet guests without driving them away; how and what we sing; how long we are to preach; what kind of committee structure or team structure we should have; how we should or should not make announcements – the list is endless.

I suppose when Christ and His mission are no longer our primary focus, all these “grave” concerns fill our time.  Observation of the church around the world informs me that where Christ is the primary focus of the church, His Great Commission will be the primary task. And where people love the Lord and are obedient to make disciples, they aren’t worrying about how to greet people – they are scrambling to disciple them.  We cry out for the church to fulfill the Great Commission and then sit back and enable endless discussions about trivia in the church.  I realize that to the church where Christ is not central and the Great Commission is not the primary task, all these other things become the “cause of the day, week, month or year!” 

My own denomination does a lot of “peddling” regarding Christian interests.  Afraid you are driving your guests away?  For $49.00 they will tell you how to stop that.  Even though they could list the 5 themes, 10 ideas, 12 ways to not drive them away on a single blog post, you will need to pay $49.00 to know.  Or, we could just get busy loving Christ with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength – and our neighbor as ourselves. We could just get busy being in the Word of God, obeying it, and making disciples.  The church that is seeing professions of faith every week and baptisms every Sunday and new member classes filled to overflowing and the evident work of the Holy Spirit powerfully present in the body is probably going to be able to say “hey” to guests.  They are probably going to sing joyfully without getting all cranked up about their preferences.  They are probably going to to be hungry to hear a Word from God no matter how long it takes.  They are probably going to fill churches for prayer, and they actually do even fill stadiums at 5:00 am in the morning for prayer.  These folks aren’t worrying about how to make an announcement!

We really need to beware of being concerned about everything but Christ.  And we need to quit peddling ideas in the name of the Gospel!

Successful Bible Reading!

With the New Year just having started, I’m guessing there are a good many people out there who have resolved to read their Bibles daily this year.   Great resolution!  I’m also guessing there may be a few folks who have already broken that resolution.   How does a person successfully read their Bible?  Here are a few ideas.

1. Consider a plan – but don’t let it defeat you!  “Through the Bible in One Year” plans are out there and easy to find.  Just google them.  But be forewarned –  those plans can cause you to hate reading the Bible!  There is a fairly large reading assignment each day – some more difficult passages than others – and it can get discouraging when you get behind.  I know a lot of people who just give up.   I have read the Bible through in a year a couple of times – but I never had the time to enjoy the reading as much as I do when I read shorter passages.  However, some folks thrive on the one year plan.  Just know that there are multiple approaches to reading the Bible.

2. Consider reading through a single book – for a month!  I like to read a few verses at a time and really “mull” over them.  I like to taste them, smell them, put myself in the story.  In the past I have said that new readers of the Bible should especially consider shorter passages – but I don’t limit that to new readers anymore.  I have been reading the Bible for about 50 years.  Reading a few verses, a passage, a chapter, has been and I suspect will always be my preferred reading style.  The more you read in a session – the less detail you can enjoy.  So, on a shorter book, I will read a few verses, maybe a chapter a day – and when I finish it, I will read it again, staying in it for a month.  I will usually read the book through once without taking a note – then the next time make some notes about it.  

3. Read the Bible Daily!  This is the most important part of Bible reading.  Read it daily. Just pick it up and read some verses.  Become accustomed to this time with the Lord, because a believer in the Word is going to encounter God.

4. Understand Your Help in Reading!  We are accustomed to the “Help” tab in software and apps.  You come to your Bible with no less than the Holy Spirit to help you through each reading.  The Spirit of God brings the Word of God alive like no other book.  I enjoy reading all kinds of books, but when I read the Bible it is piercing, life-changing, and always timely.  It addresses me directly.

5. Read it for the relationship – not just to read it!  Some people can read the Bible and still act like ….. well…..the devil.  I have known folks who bragged on their reading of the Bible but treated other believers like garbage.  What’s up with that?  They just read it to say they read it– to check off a list.  When we really “read” and “hear” the Word, it will transform us into His image.

6. Read it Prayerfully!  Prayer is one of your helps! You might pray before you read, asking the Lord to open up your heart to His Word.  Pray while you read, for understanding.  Pray after you read, thanking God for the time together.  Don’t be surprised if the Word comes rushing back to your heart and mind at a later time as the Lord continues to illuminate your heart.

7. Don’t let a missed day get you down!  I have been a pastor for 36 years, and there are still days that I miss sitting down to read the Bible.  I used to beat myself up about it.  I don’t anymore.  Some days the work and activities get away from me.  However, having spent so many years reading the Bible, I can easily call scripture to mind on those days.  So, while I may not sit down with a physical Bible, it does not mean that I have not thought about His Word.  Don’t become slack in reading the Word, but don’t become a legalist about it either. 

Remember this – God rejoices every time you pick up the Word and respond to Him!  Just enjoy the Word, and be faithful.  The Word is all about Him – and He will bless you for reading it!

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