Forgiveness

Church Update
Here are some new pics that I’ve been promising. These first two show our new, white, sealed metal roof (plus some autumn leaves). Much better than the previous red-and-white fleck, and it has kept much rain out of the gym!

Here are a couple of the new road, too. العاب للايفون You’ll notice the roof edge and light post from our property line in both of them to help you see proximity.

Pew plug again: If you know of a church that is looking to purchase pews and doesn’t want to have to pay for new ones, we are trying to sell ours. Visit http://www.usedpews.org/usedpews.htm#neast and look at set #1971.

Personal Update
Well, I start the next class in my master’s program soon. Just waiting for the CDs and notes to get here!

Saralynn will be gone this weekend, so I’m spending Sat – Mon with just the kids. I wonder what we’ll come up with. العاب بلاك جاك Whatever it is, it should be good. : )

BTW – If you are looking for a personal laser printer, I have a couple listed on eBay as “Buy it Now”. Check them out here

Scriptural Thought of the Week
The languages of the Scriptures are very precise – much more so than English. I read a quote today from an old rabbi who said, “Reading the Scriptures in a translation is like kissing your bride through the veil.” I study the languages in order to see behind the veil to what is really there. And then I pass along these gems when I can.

In Ephesians, Paul used the phrase kathos kai six times. The basic meaning is one of pattern – “just as also”. Over the next few postings, I’ll share some of these great patterns God has left for us to follow. Here is a familiar one:

“You all are to be toward one another kind (loving, benevolent), good-hearted (compassionate), graciously forgiving one another, just as also God in Christ graciously forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32 (my trans.) 

The pattern that God gave us was not just one of pardoning sin but rather a generous, gracious, unconditional forgiveness of those who have wronged us. It comes from a heart of benevolence and compassion for those around us – desiring their good ahead of ours. That is God’s attitude toward us, and we are commanded to make it our own toward others.

Quote of the Week
On this topic of unconditional forgiveness, John Ortberg writes,

 

“We are always to pursue forgiving people who have hurt us, even when the offenders don’t ask or deserve it. God commands us to forgive because it is the best way to live. He commands us to forgive others because he has forgiven us; he is the Great Forgiver. He commands it because the only other way is to remain a prisoner of the hurt for as long as I live. God commands forgiving because to refuse to forgive means I allow the one who hurt me to keep me chained in a prison of bitterness and resentment year after year. No human beings are more miserable than the unforgiving. موقع 1xbet

Quoted from: John Ortberg, Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), p. 160. ISBN: 0310228646

 

 

Until next time,

Dan’l