Tag: Forgiveness

Morning Musings: Genesis 33:4

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“But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

One of the interesting things about this story is that while it appears that Esau forgives Jacob, the rest of the history of the relationship between the descendants of the brothers (the nations of Israel and Edom) reveals that it either didn’t really take, was only skin deep, or more likely that the two had already passed enough bitterness toward each other along to their children that the well was poisoned.  Israel and Edom were bitter enemies and the latter was usually the aggressor. Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Psalm 130:4

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“But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

The fear of the Lord is a poorly understood concept even among His people.  This is quite simply because we think about fear only in a single sense: terror.  To be afraid of something isn’t good.  Thus, while perhaps we should fear the Lord because we’re told to do so over and over and over again in the Scriptures, this isn’t something that ultimately draws us closer to Him.  We fear Him so that we’ll do what He says.  Once we develop the pattern of doing what He says, then we begin to grow closer to Him, at which point we don’t need to fear Him any longer.  The logic here seems just about airtight…and it’s just about completely wrong. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Jeremiah 3:25

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“Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us.  For we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Genuine, heart-felt repentance is tough to do.  It requires a couple of things that we are pretty loathe to give.  It requires first a recognition that we have done something that was not right.  It was wrong, not in an abstract way, but in a way that was deeply personal for us and also for the other people who were affected by it.  This is tough in and of itself.  Often, when we have gotten caught doing something wrong we recognize the abstract, but not the personal.  We are inconvenienced by the attention to our misdeeds, but not truly sorry we did it.  This is the politician’s apology.  In other words, we are more sorry that we got caught than that we did whatever it was we have been caught doing. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Ephesians 2:4

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“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us…”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Have you ever wondered how and why our God could be such a merciful God?  Perhaps not.  Perhaps you’ve wondered more often why God seems like such an angry God.  If that’s the case, you haven’t been taught very well about the character of God.  That’s not your fault.  It’s a symptom of our culture. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Psalm 107:6, 13, 19, 28

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“Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

This refrain echoes four different times in this Psalm.  “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.”  This was the God they served and the people of Israel experienced it over and over and over again.  They found themselves in all kinds of trouble, most of which was of their own making.  Each time they fell headlong into the mess and from the perspective of the moment, it looked like they were going to be goners. Read the rest…