It is never too late to forgive and be forgiven.

The scripture that kinda jumped out at me this morning is Galatians 1:6. Paul writes “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.”

I have long held that it is not a bad thing to question religion – so long as you still understand that Jesus is the Christ. That he lives and because he lives we will also live throughout eternity. Where we will live is the question. Certainly if we have denied Christ and refused to follow his teachings we won’t live with him. It seems a very strange thing to those of us who know Christ and are filled with his peace and love that those who have not accepted Christ the thought of him is terrifying.  The scriptures tell us that when he comes again this last time the wicked will pray for the mountains to fall and cover them.

One of Satan’s tools is to make us believe that we are so bad that it’s too late for us. I see this a lot with children who have been molested or have been enticed into sexual misconduct. They feel so bad about themselves that they have lost hope and believe that they must continue down Satan’s path. Suicide to them is the only way out, the only thing that makes sense to them and yet the thought of facing God or Christ terrifies them. Please realize that not all suicide is for this reason. But for those who cut and punish themselves this is often for this reason. Often they repress the act, and don’t remember this thing that someone else did to them that makes them feel so bad.  In fact the more righteous, pure and good they are, the more difficult this horrible secret is to face.

This is not where I intended to take this scripture this morning. I thought I was going to talk about how weak we are and how we often backslide into our old ways. The only cure for our removing ourselves from the grace of Christ in either case is to forgive ourselves and renew our promises or covenants. It is never too late to forgive and be forgiven.    

Unconditional love does not mean that you don’t protect yourself, or that you allow yourself or your children to be bullied or hurt by others

What is Christ-like Love? How does Christ love?

We often think that God loves us because we are righteous and good. That’s not true. He appreciates it when we are good because goodness makes us feel happy and great blessing just naturally come to us because goodness is its own reward. Oh, to be sure bad things happen to good people, but it’s all right because even if our hardships are unto death we go to heaven and have no more sorrow or pain. It’s all good.

But we all stumble. We all fail somewhere during our lifetime. But we either pick ourselves up, and repent, or we wallow in our failure. The results of our choices do make a difference in how we feel and the effect on our lives, but not on Christ’s love for us. He atoned for each of us. He is our advocate with the father. All we have to do is to accept his love and repent and all is good. The past is forgotten.

In the world we call it un- conditional love. It is easy to love someone who is nice to you and accepts you. But to love someone who is mean to you, or to themselves; someone who keeps making mistakes because they lack confidence, or are even a danger to themselves and others is called unconditional love or Christ like love. It does not mean that you don’t protect yourself, or that you allow yourself or your children to be bullied or hurt by others. You must be standing on a firm foundation in order to lift someone else, or both of you will fall. You can only change yourself, and repent for your own sins, though you can and should forgive them. Forgiving others is for you more than for them. It lets you heal.

They do not even need to know that you forgave them. I fact if you really want to get even with someone who deliberately hurt you, tell them that you forgive them. They will be so mad that their evil devices did not wound you that they will be filled with all that bad stuff – hate, anger, guilt and etc. The scriptures say you are heaping coals of fire upon their heads. If you don’t let go of the pain and hurt then you also will be filled with all that bad stuff. If you deliberately tell them you forgive them to hurt them that kinda backfires on you as well so be careful.     

 Unconditional love means that you accept them as they are, hurt, wounded, broken or disabled. That is who they are right now. And you recognize that, but you care about them, and pray for them and for you to understand. You change yourself and still love them. If they choose to follow your example, good, if not you still care about them. When Christ took upon him our sins he did not know which of us would repent and accept his gift but he did it anyway. That is unconditional love.

“Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)

Sin is its own punishment

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (1 Corinthians 15:19)

Hope is that small spark, the first glimmer of thought that perhaps there is an answer, that maybe there might be a positive alternative. If hope is all you have, and it never advances to a belief, and faith it can never become that knowledge that yes, God does live and Jesus is the Christ. If we fail to hope and let that seed grow and never repent – never accept the gift of forgiveness we are not only miserable we are stuck.

I understand and Christ certainly understands because he took up on himself the lives of each of us. He went through all the hurt, abuse, wrong doing, and illness of each of us and because he suffered with you he can be our advocate with his Father, who is also our Heavenly Father. He can say, Father forgive this individual. He/she was told they were worthless. They just wanted to be loved, accepted, wanted to feel worth something, or whatever burden we carry. He can do this if we let hope grow into faith and knowledge that Christ live by repenting and accepting the gift.

We have many hidden and unseen blessings which we do not recognize, but it does us little good that Christ went through the atonement if we blindly continue to make the same mistakes.

Sin is its own punishment. Angels aren’t standing over us and writing down every wrong thing we do. Nope. Not at all. In some cases guilt is the punishment. I say in some cases because I am astounded at the way we humans can justify our behavior. We can justify it all we want, but the results are the same. It’s one of those laws I like to talk about. Like the law of gravity. You drop something and it will fall, unless it is intercepted by something. That is what Christ does if you let him he can keep the falling object from hitting the ground or rock etc. Likewise, righteousness also has its reward.    

It takes time and experiences to understand

Paul talks to the Corinthians about being carried away unto dumb idols. Dumb as in inability to speak things like money, or other possessions. Of course he specifically was talking about wooden idols, but sometimes we worship other things as well. Then he says, “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)

In other words if you have the Spirit of God you cannot say that Jesus sinned three times as someone did tell me once, likewise, it is by the Holy Spirit that you know and can say that Jesus is Lord. As we are in the process of learning we make mistakes and get carried away. It takes time to understand a truth and internalize it so that we can share it with other people. When we first start school and learn basic math concepts we do not understand higher math concepts. It takes time. When we first believe that Jesus is the Christ we do not understand it well enough that we can withstand a test such as Abraham endured.  Neither can we understand how to convince another of truths we were perhaps raised with. We learn precept upon precept, little by little with study and experiences.      

Anna recognized Jesus. Can we?

“Your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:5) Previous to this Paul says, I came to you not with excellence of speech or of wisdom. I don’t know anything except Jesus and him crucified.

 I am right there with Paul. I know nothing except God lives, and Jesus is the Christ. I don’t know how the world was made or all the laws of science or the creations. I know a few things because of experiences I have had that are solid and concrete. As I read, and live the gospel I learn more. Maybe if I live long enough I will know as much as Noah, who walked with God, or Abraham or Esther or Mary, or Anna a prophetess, who departed not from the temple but served God with fasting and prayers night and day. Anna recognized the baby Jesus when Mary and Joseph went to the Temple to present the child to God as was the law of Moses. Can we find him here in our day? Not without seeking and not without repentance, and not without faith.