Posts Tagged: forgivenss

“Reveling in the Love”

On February 14, 2023 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

My 12-step affirmation for today is as follows:

“Today, with God’s help, I am reveling in the love of God and others and helping others to revel in my love for them. Let the reveling begin and never end!”

Happy Valentine’s Day! Are you reveling in the love today, or are you saying, “Wake me up when this is over”? Or worse, perhaps you don’t believe in love at all. A guy that I liked a lot back in my undergrad days was skeptical about everything: god, people, meaning. That was why I liked him.

“You don’t believe in love,” I said to him one day. To my surprise, he shot back with, “Of course I do!” When he had savored my shocked expression for a few seconds, he continued, “We couldn’t have tennis without it!” I’m not much of a tennis player, but even I know that love means nothing in tennis. To some of us, love means nothing. Yes, period, full stop, and a Forrest Gump, “That’s all I’ve got to say about that.” Some of us would have difficulty in reveling in something that we don’t even believe exists.

And we need to face it: There seems to be plenty of evidence for hate in our world today. Where on earth is the evidence of love?

Well, that’s a good question. For once, I have a good answer. Love in sleeping a few feet away from me. In a little, she will get up and fix breakfast. She will have already run a brush through her lovely grey hair. She doesn’t really need to do that; I like it when it goes every-which-a-way. But she wants to be presentable as she fries our eggs. She loves me for no particular reason. That’s good because there isn’t a reason.

Last night, my wife and I won a trivia contest. We were playing “The Happy Couples” quiz game at the RV resort where we are staying. One of the questions that I got right was, “What will your wife say is her best personality trait.” I was initially stumped. There are so many. I started to type “Helpfulness” into the phone, but then I thought, no, and typed in “Forgiveness”. She knew that’s what I would say. She knew right.

But my wife’s forgiving love is based on something: her awareness that God has loved her and forgiven her. I revel in her love because she revels in the love of God.

There is the story that is the New Testament about a cat named “Jesus of Nazareth”. He lived, taught, and died for the love of God and the love of us. He also loved us so much that he was raised from the dead. Apparently, it is true what they say: Real love never dies. Or, rather, real love does die, but not forever. It will rise from the dead, more surely than the sun is rising as I write this post. Real Love will also give us life and the ability to forgive.

Again, I say, happy Valentine’s Day!

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On October 6, 2020 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

DTEB, “Fair—and Merciful—Weights and Measures”

As I was out walking the dog and listening to my You Version Bible on my smart phone this morning, I was struck by the following verse:

Prov. 11:1       “A false balance is an abomination to the LORD,

                        but a just weight is his delight.” (English Standard Version)

I was even more struck with a rather personal extended application of the verse to my own sometimes judgmental attitude.   I did not like the application, but I no doubt needed it.

False weights and measures are, in the literal sense, an economic issue. Here is what Kidner says concerning the matter: “The Law (Lev. 19:35f.), the Prophets (Mic. 6:1f.) and the Wisdom Writings (see also 20:10, 23) agree in condemning dishonesty primarily for God’s sake. For the same reason we are encouraged to give not only in full but to overflowing (Luke 6:35, 38). See also 16:11 . . . .”  Christine Roy Yoder comments that, of eleven things that are listed as abominations of Yahweh in the book of Proverbs, three of them involve unjust weights and measures.[1]  (See also Amos 8:5; and Micah 6:10-11.)

However, the figurative meaning of this saying was what I especially needed and didn’t like.  I felt that God was asking me about my tendency to want mercy for me, but judgment for others.  Isn’t that having different weights and measures? Other people’s wrongdoing is heavier and more than mine, surely!  And, of course, my motivations are always pure, whereas the motivations of other people are often suspect.

I was hoping that I had misheard God’s Spirit, but was pretty well certain that I had not.  When I looked up Luke 6:35-38 (to which Kidner referred, as already noted), all doubt was removed.

“Luke 6:36  “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Luke 6:37   “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

Notice how Jesus intensifies this business of a fair “measure.” We are not simply to be just.  Rather, we are to be merciful and generous.  In fact, this merciful measure doesn’t stop with not being judgmental.  No!  Jesus calls his disciples to forgive!

And since I need a lot of mercy and forgiveness, I need to extend a lot of mercy and forgiveness to others. Measure for measure! The same standards of mercy for others that I need for myself.

Man, do I ever have a lot of work to do!

[1] Christine Roy Yoder, Proverbs, Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries (Nashville: Abingdon, 2009), 130.

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