I will forgive you this time, but don’t do it again!” These are words we often say to those who have done something against us. But what is the Biblical principle of forgiveness? According to Matthew 18:21-22, we are to forgive someone as often as they sin against us, remembering how often we struggle with sin against God, and seek His forgiveness. We read this and think, it so difficult to do this, and how is this possible? The reason this is possible in the life of the believer is because we have the Holy Spirit which enables us to do the things that seem impossible to the natural mind. While it is true that we do not have to be vulnerable to a flippantly stated “sorry”. We must be willing to acknowledge a heartfelt request for forgiveness. Unlike God, we can not evaluate the heart, we can only respond to the words of the repentant, as a result we are to trust the person into the hands of an omniscient God, who will work in their hearts to bring growth and change.… READ MORE

The hardest thing we do as a person, is to extend forgiveness to another, yet we are never more like God than when we do. Forgiveness is easy to talk about, but hard to live through, because we are often being controlled by the emotions of the situation. I was reminded today of Romans 12:17-21 as I prepared for this weeks message. I focused on verse 18, “As much as is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” We must understand that we can NOT always live at peace with people, but we can learn to allow the emotions of the events to subside as we learn to allow God to work in the lives of those who have sinned against us. We do not have to work to “get even,” and we do not have to allow their actions to control our lives. As we learn to give things over to the Lord, we find the strength to tackle life. We can know that God will deal with those who sin against us, in ways that we can not begin to understand, and while it is difficult to process, it is not impossible to … READ MORE

While the basis of fellowship is Salvation, the nature of that fellowship is sharing. In Acts 2:42, it tells us that after the church was born, the members were continually devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to fellowship. Then in verse 44 we are told that all who believed were together, not in a superficial way but in a profound way. They began selling their property and possessions and sharing with them all as any one might have need. It doesn’t mean that they liquidated everything and then spread it out equally, it was simply sharing to the degree that if someone else had a need, they would sell a possession in order to get what they needed to get to provide for that need. Aristides , a pagan, wrote about Christians, “When there is among them a man that is poor and needy, and if they have not an abundance of necessities, they fast two or three days, that they may supply the needy with the necessary food.” Fellowship is a continuous action based on a common life. This testimony was powerful in the lives of the communities the believers dwelt. This was not a social gospel, where … READ MORE