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Each Day Already is a Challenge #463639 added October 27, 2006 at 8:33pm
Restrictions: None
It doesn't matter
As I sat in church today, a thought came to my mind about something I learned in a lay speaker's class many years ago. I'm not sure why it popped into my head during our worship service, since it really didn't fit my worship experience today. Oh well, perhaps someone else needed to hear it. Or I'll need to remember it again sometime soon. 
The thought? It really doesn't matter if you are in a church where formal hymns are sung and you prefer more contemporary music. If you're in a Christian church, it really doesn't matter which one it is or what format of worship they use. It's not about you, but about pleasing God and about worshiping God.
Each time we enter God's house, we should ask that we be able to experience God through OR IN SPITE OF the pastor, the choir or praise team, the ushers or the people sitting around us.
Like I said, I have no idea why I remembered that lesson from long ago, but I did.
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Today, our pastor spoke of forgiveness. He was not saying anything new, but perhaps with all that has happened in my life (and the lives of others close to me) over the past several years, it was probably time to have this topic revisited.
Before he started his sermon, he asked us to answer four questions with either true or false. I got them all right, but I venture to say that not everyone did.
Here they are:
1) A person should not be forgiven until he asks for it.
2) Forgiving includes minimizing the offense or the pain caused.
3) Forgiveness includes restoring trust and reuniting a relationship.
4) You have not forgiven until you've forgotten the offense.
The answers for each one were "false."
Pastor John reminded us that forgiveness should be instant, but that trust has to be rebuilt, and that forgiveness - like love - is supposed to be unconditional.
He said, "Hurt people are the ones who hurt people." He's right about that. And I made sure to write that in the margin of my sermon notes with a star on it.
I marked two verses in Matthew to further study:
Matthew 10:8 NIV Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
Matthew 6:15 NIV For if you forgiven men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
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My mind doesn't always wander in church, but sometimes it does. Today, I thought about putting a bumper sticker (actually something not permanent - magnetic or clingy) with just the reference of a Bible verse number, without the actual verse. Then if/when someone asked, "So what does Philippians 4:13 say?" (or whatever the Bible verse referenced) I could hand them a card with the verse printed on it. Strange...
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That's all for now. I'll try to be back again tomorrow. I didn't know that their were reminders sent when one doesn't write in a blog for over 15 hours. |
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