How good are you at Forgiving? - 4Giveness Part 1

Today I received a Facebook message from a friend that started like this...
"Years ago...you spoke on Forgiveness. Maybe you remember or maybe not."I do remember speaking on forgiveness.
I don't remember what I said.

I do know that the subject of "Forgiveness" is just about the hottest topic out there. We have more visceral reactions to this topic than any other issue I have ever written about, talked about and preached about.

My friend cannot remember exactly what I said on the subject of "forgiveness" but she does remember that it made a positive impression.

Today my friend is in need of forgiving some things/people/events and needs to draw on some of those resources in order to move forward.

My iWitness...

This will not be an exhaustive treatment on forgiveness.
Perhaps we can spend a couple of days on the topic.

We are called to forgive as Christ has forgiven us.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4. 32)

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive."
(Colossians 3. 12- 13)

This is incredibly difficult!!!!!!!!!
Let me say that again....
This is incredibly difficult!!!!!!!!!

The hardest aspect of forgiveness is that the forgiver
bears the burden,
     carries the cost
          absorbs the aberration.

You come into my home and break my lamp. You ask for forgiveness. I grant it. You leave my house. Who has to pay for the new lamp? ME!!! I bear the cost. I am the one who has to go out and buy the new lamp.

Forgiveness costs!
That is why the Bible is so true to the point...
"Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." (Hebrews 9.22)

Forgiveness cost Jesus his very life and blood on the cross. We broke the commandments, we broke the relationship, we abandoned the advice of the One who created all things. In order for us to be forgiven someone had to pay the price. Someone had to bear the cost.

And that someone is Jesus!

And so now we return to my friend and perhaps we turn to you now as well.

In forgiving are you willing to bear the cost?
Your reputation has been spoiled. Your ego crushed. Your trust shattered. Your career sidelined. Your heart broken, squashed and flattened. Your dreams thrown out the window. Your future down the drain. Your innocence stained. Your friendships betrayed. Do I need to keep going?

The cost can be overwhelming.
If you are willing to bear the cost, hear the good news...

We have Someone who comes up beside us and puts his arm around us and says, "I know something about bearing the burden, carrying the cost and forgiving the unforgiveable. Let me help you with this."

When we let Jesus help us "forgive freely at great cost" the most incredible phenomenon takes place...
In setting others free from condemnation and judgment and grudges...
We are the ones who ultimately experience the greatest joy of full forgiveness -
"Freedom!"

Forgiveness equals Freedom!

And that's my iWitness...
Laugh often and Fear not!
David!