Forgiveness brings peace

One of the readers of this blog sent me something that ties in well with the book excerpt that I posted a couple weeks ago.  This moving account relates what it's like for a person when his view of God is misshapen by persons who fail to focus on God's great love for us in Christ.  Author’s name is withheld because of the deeply personal nature of the account.

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To live without forgiveness is to live without peace. It is going through every day wondering if you have been good enough. Day after day, you constantly have to make sure you did everything you were supposed to do. When you go to bed at night, things that may have been left undone may creep into your head as you drift asleep. You must make sure you have done every little thing that you may have not done right. If you do not, says your conscience, you might go to hell if you die.

Someone in your life holds grudges against you. You never can seem to get this person to forgive you no matter what you do to make up for what angered him or her. The silent anger of this person burns against you even though you beat yourself up as a terrible human being. You are told that you should feel terrible. You are told that it is good to feel that way. You are never told you are forgiven. You “know” that you are hopelessly wicked. You get upset with yourself, believing you are a very bad person. How can you ever be good enough? Your soul is tormented by the thoughts that maybe you are not sorry enough for your sins, or maybe you really don’t have faith. You don’t know where you will end up if you die. The thought of death can bring terror that will rob you of sleep.

The fears of what God may do to you rob you of so much peace and scare you so much, you push them out of your mind. You try to stay busy with things so you don’t have to think about your terrible situation. You try to push your fears out of your mind--but they won't leave. There is no peace, at least it has not become a reality to you.

You imagine God like the person in your life who held grudges against you, whose silent anger burned against you and turned a deaf ear to your cries for forgiveness. You fall into sin and feel that God has turned his back on you. He is not there to help you because he wants nothing to do with you--at least that is what you feel. You feel God’s anger burning against you as you beg for forgiveness. You feel that God will not listen to your prayers because you have been too bad. Life in this sinful world as a sinner is torture. Your conscience screams in pain.

Then something happens. Someone helps you learn about forgiveness and even says, “I forgive you.” You are shocked in a good way. You see that there are no strings attached and you don’t have to earn this forgiveness. You learn that is the way God forgives. Jesus came to die for you, before you ever were sorry for even one sin. He wants you to be his precious child. You learn that you do not need to try to pay for your forgiveness by beating yourself up. In fact, you can’t pay for your forgiveness. It is impossible. That is why Jesus came and paid for all of your sins. He took them all on himself and died so you would be forgiven. You are completely washed by Jesus’ blood. When God looks at you he no longer sees your sin, he sees Jesus’ perfect righteousness. Your forgiveness is not dependent on how sorry you are. It is not dependent on your faith's strength. It is a fact that was completed a long time ago when Jesus said, “It is finished.” His resurrection is proof that you are forgiven.

Forgiveness is so wonderful for you. You like to just think about the wonderful things God has done for you! You think about Jesus and how he died for you and how amazing that is. Because of your past when you lived in the law, without forgiveness, you see forgiveness as something completely amazing.

Forgiveness brings peace.

The Lord Cares for Me

          I'm sort of in-between material from student writers in my courses.  So meanwhile, I'll share something else of my own writing here.  This longer-than-usual blog post is an excerpt from the book, The Lord Cares for Me: Stories and Thoughts on Psalm 23, which is available from Northwestern Publishing House.  I wrote the book at the request for our national church's Prison Ministry work as well as for use by Multi-Language Publications.  They wanted narrative-style messages -- something that showed how the words of God apply in real-life sorts of situations.
          This particular story is based on a real person I encountered in my ministry years.  I extrapolated in order to make more of a story of it and apply a certain angle of thought from the psalm.  If you find it edifying, there are more such stories in The Lord Cares for Me book.

- David Sellnow

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The LORD gives me peace

The LORD is my shepherd …

He lets me lie down in fields of green grass.
He leads me beside quiet waters (Psalm 23:1,2).

The story of Tammy Jo

Tammy Jo grew up in West Texas.  She never like going to church. Church frightened her.  As a little girl it hadn’t been so bad … but still wasn’t a happy experience.  As a child, she went to the children’s church room.  There they learned Bible stories and were taught to be good.  The constant emphasis on “being good” bothered her. 

Tammy Jo remembered lessons like …

• Adam and Eve ate fruit that God had told them not to eat.  They did a bad thing when they went against what God said.  We should always do what God says.
• God told Noah to build a very big boat because a flood was coming that would cover the whole world with water.  Noah did what God said.  Because Noah and his family obeyed God, they had a safe place when the flood came, and many animals were kept safe with them.
• Jesus spent forty days in a dry desert area.  While he was there, the devil came and tempted him to sin.  Each time Jesus answered the devil with a quote from the Bible, and he did not sin.  We should be like Jesus and fight against sin.  We must learn the Bible well so we can say no when we are tempted.

The lessons in children’s church weren’t scary, but they weren’t comforting either.  All the lessons had the same sort of idea: Be good if you want God to be good to you.  Tammy Jo never felt like she was good enough.  So she never felt sure that God loved her or would care for her.

Church got worse for Tammy Jo when she became a teenager.  She didn’t go to the children’s room anymore.  She began to go to the main worship room with her parents.  That’s when things got really scary.  The preacher looked angry and spoke angry words.  He yelled about how everyone was going to burn in hell if they didn’t quit all their sins and start living right.  And then some of the old men suddenly would get full of the Spirit (or that’s what the preacher said was happening).  They’d run around the worship room screaming and waving their arms wildly.  Sometimes they’d fall on the floor and start shaking.  Their bodies would twist and turn.  Their eyes rolled back into their heads and spit spilled from their mouths.

All of this made Tammy Jo shake a little herself.  She was scared and uncomfortable whenever she was in church.  She told her parents she did not want to go anymore.  That only made them angry, and they were harsh with her.  “Do you want to go to hell?” her father scolded her.  “You will go to church!  You must go to church … or else!”  When Tammy Jo tried to stay home one Sunday, her father took off his belt and beat her with it several times, then pulled her to the car. 

Tammy Jo obeyed her father (and his belt) for the next couple of years.  But when she got done with high school and turned eighteen, she planned to leave home.

An aunt in Memphis had invited Tammy Jo to come and stay with her.  Tammy Jo used money she had saved from her part-time job and bought a bus ticket to Memphis.  Her aunt, Gracie, welcomed her lovingly.  Gracie could see how much Tammy Jo had been beaten down and made afraid.  The poor young woman hardly ever smiled.  She was timid and unsure of herself.  She was very quiet and spoke just a few words when she did say anything.

When the weekend came, Gracie said to Tammy Jo, “I’ll take you to church tomorrow.”

“Please, I’d rather not,” Tammy Jo begged.  “Church was the main reason I left home.  I don’t think I can take any more of the ranting and raving, telling me I’m not good enough and scaring me about the devil and hell.”

“I understand,” Gracie said.  “A lot of churches can be that way – and it’s the wrong way for a church to be.  They aren’t understanding God’s message to us very well.  Yes, the devil and hell are real … but Jesus is the one who rescues us from those evils.  We don’t have to do it ourselves.  We don’t get to heaven by our own effort or goodness.  We need Jesus.

“When Jesus was born on earth, angels from heaven showed themselves to simple, everyday people like us.  They came to shepherds out in the fields near where Jesus was born.  They said, ‘Do not be afraid.’  They brought a message of great joy for all people.  They told the shepherds, ‘Today a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. … May glory be given to God in the highest heaven!  And may peace be given to those he is pleased with on earth!’  (Luke 2:10-14).   Jesus came as God from heaven to be with us here on earth, to save us and not to frighten us.  The most famous passage of the Bible, John 3:16, tells us that Jesus came because God loves us.  God does not want to condemn us or send us to hell.  Here’s what it says:  ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son.  Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.  God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world. He sent his Son to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17).

“Hmm, I didn’t hear much of that in my church back home,” Tammy Jo said.

“Come to church with me,” Gracie invited again.  “I promise it will be different.  It’s a place where God brings peace to us, not a place where you’re shouted at or made afraid.”

Tammy Jo agreed to go.  When they arrived at Gracie’s church on Sunday, right away people greeted Tammy Jo with friendly smiles. They made her feel welcome.  The worship hour began with a song, “Amazing Grace,” and already Tammy Jo could tell there was a different feel to this place.  The preacher spoke about the grace of God – love that he gave to us when we didn’t deserve anything from him.  He talked about sin and the fact that we aren’t good enough, but said that’s why Jesus came as our Savior.  The promises about Jesus said he would be called “The LORD Who Makes Us Right With Himself” (Jeremiah 23:6).  We don’t become good in God’s eyes by the things we do, but God sees us as good because of what Jesus did for us.  And knowing Jesus is our Savior and our Brother, now we have strength to do good things that we never could do by ourselves.  “Jesus said he is like a vine, a root in the ground, and we are like branches connected to him,” the preacher said.  “‘No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain joined to the vine. In the same way, you can’t bear fruit unless you remain joined to me,’ Jesus said (John 15:4).  So our lives depend on Jesus.  We can do everything by the power of Jesus.  He gives us strength,” the preacher said (see Philippians 4:13).

After church was over, as they drove home, Tammy Jo said to Gracie, “Thank you for convincing me to come.  I’ve never felt so much peace in my heart as I did today.  Going to your church was like getting rest for my frightened and weary soul.  It was like getting a cool drink of fresh water when I was so very thirsty.  It’s just what I needed.”

“That’s what church is meant to provide, Tammy Jo.  It’s a place where God speaks his words to us, and he speaks words of rest and peace and refreshment.  It’s like the psalm from the Bible says about God being like a shepherd to us:  He lets us lie down in fields of green grass. He leads us beside quiet waters” (see Psalm 23:2).

The lesson:  The LORD gives us peace

Can you imagine a shepherd who mostly screamed at his sheep or beat them with a stick?  That would be a harsh and uncaring kind of shepherd!   That’s not the kind of shepherd that Jesus is.

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).  Jesus doesn’t yell at us and demand we do things for him.  He came and gave up his own life for us.  He said about us as his people, “I have come so they can have life.  I want them to have it in the fullest possible way” (John 10:10).

Jesus’ message to us is one meant to give us peace and hope and joy because we know he is on our side.  He loves us.  He forgives us.  He encourages us.

Life in this world often isn’t very encouraging.  People push us down and treat us harshly.  Sometimes even our own parents and families are the ones pushing us down, discouraging us or threatening us.  Sometimes even people we think are our friends push us down, hurting us or being mean to us.  Sometimes even churches are the ones pushing us down, scolding us with angry messages, beating us up with harsh words because we aren’t good enough.   We so very much need words that refresh us, that give us hope.  Jesus gives us those words in the Bible.  Families and friends and churches that know the hope Jesus gives will speak those refreshing words of Jesus to us.  And when we know the hope Jesus gives, we will speak his refreshing words to others.

“The LORD is my shepherd,” David wrote in Psalm 23.  “He lets me lie down in fields of green grass. He leads me beside quiet waters” (Psalm 23:2).  It’s like we are sheep that are worn out and tired from the hot sun and the LORD finds a cool shady place in the grass for us to rest.  It’s like we are dying of thirst and the LORD takes us to a pool of clear spring water to revive us and give us strength again.

As people who belong to the LORD, we learn to look for the “green grass” and “quiet waters” where God brings us comfort and peace.  We look for a church where the emphasis is on God’s grace – on his endless love for us, forgiving us all of our wrongs.  We look for Christian friends who will support us with words of hope and encouragement in Jesus.  And we try to be the sort of friends and family members who provide refreshing and encouragement to others by pointing to Jesus.  He is our Savior, our good shepherd.  He gives us peace.

A health check-up

As a new college semester gets set to begin, my turn rolls around to provide a brief devotion for our campus's faculty/staff newsletter.  Writing for that purpose, I thought I'd share the item here too. - David Sellnow

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A health care worker expressed frustration with her patients.  “That's the second time this week I've had to use the warning, ‘You could die!’ ... and again it didn't work.’”   A diabetic man with blood sugar numbers off the charts keeps neglecting to take his insulin.  A woman whose EKG shows she's in the process of having a heart attack says she doesn’t feel that bad and refuses to be admitted to the hospital.

When it comes to spiritual diagnosis and treatment, are we much different?  We think, “Meh, my sins are not that bad.  I’ll be okay.”   We’re not eager to deal with our problems, our failures, our chronic iniquities because we’ve become accustomed to living our lives with those issues. 

Jeremiah once lamented, “Is there no balm in Gilead?  Is there no physician there?  Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?” (Jeremiah 8:22)   Plenty of balm and balm-applying physicians did exist in Gilead.  And plenty of gospel healing was available to God’s people in Israel—but  they did not avail themselves of it.  And they suffered as a result.

God help us to listen when the Great Physician points out our sins and offers treatment—the balm of his invigorating forgiveness.   Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Luke 5:31).  And in reality, everyone remains continuously in need of treatment for sin-sickness.  Our only path to health and life for our souls is in Jesus.