The Plumbline

Forgiveness is the final form of love. (Reinhold Niebuhr) Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. (Proverbs 17:9) While it might seem odd to begin a new year with the intention of focusing on 'faults', let me assure you there are probably more than a few who brought relationship hurts into this year, as they have in years past. It has become a weight around their necks, dragging them down, but from which they cannot figure out how to be free. The truth of the matter is that forgiveness might not begin in the 'other guy's court' as much as it needs to begin in ours! Love prospers when hurts can be quickly mended. Whenever we allow our hurts to become huge, gaping holes in our hearts, we will find it harder and harder to let go of that hurt. It festers long after the one who inflicted it has left the scene.  What may see counter intuitive to some is that forgiveness often begins with the one who is offended, not the one who ...

Do you think God wants to judge anyone 'guilty' as they stand before him? If you know anything about scripture, you will know it is quite the opposite - for God "did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him." (John 3:17) God's greatest joy is to receive us each into his great big family through the work of his Son, Jesus. If we desire to be free of guilt, we only need ask for that gift! The Light has come into the world, but they did not want light. They wanted darkness, because they were doing evil things. All who do evil hate the light and will not come to the light, because it will show all the evil things they do. But those who follow the true way come to the light, and it shows that the things they do were done through God.” (John 3:19-21) When we ask for light, we receive it and so much more. Grace comes in waves upon waves. Aren't you glad that grace is limitless? How is it that grace begins to do more...