The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

The Propers for today are found on Page 215-217, with the Collect first:

The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.

The Collect.

O

 GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Dru Arnold read the Epistle for today, which came from Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians beginning at the Seventeenth Verse of the Fourth Chapter.  Typical of Paul, he uses a spiral argument with a seemingly confusing structure to further instruct the people on how to become the New Man.  Our nature is not good, but rather straying from good.  We have to work at good, by ourselves good is not attainable, but through Christ, we can attain good.  Paul asks us to lie no more, particularly to ourselves, but rather to “speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.”  If we are angry, we must “let not the sun go down upon our wrath.”  We should not live off others, but rather, “labour, working with our hands the thing which is good, that we may have to give to him that needeth.”  Speak good, speak that others might learn.  Put away ill feeling, give in to God and be “kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”  God wants us to be happy, to be good and to enjoy life.  If you find this no other place, listen to the words of St. Paul.

T

HIS I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Hap Arnold read today’s Holy Gospel came from the Fourth Chapter of  the Gospelaccording to St. Matthew beginning at the First Verse.  Jesus came upon “a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.”  Present were scribes of the temple.  They thought to themselves., “This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house.  Sometimes we are tempted to view the troubles of this world as the only issues we have to confront.  Surely the trouble we have here pales to that we have if we make the wrong choices here and end up in the pit.  Many can heal the palsy; only through Jesus can our sins be forgiven.  In this case, the sins were forgiven and the problems of this earth resolved.  The power of Jesus was again made manifest.

J

esus entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house. But when the multitudes saw it, they marveled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.

Sermon – Rev Deacon Jack Arnold – Time and Action

The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.

The Collect.

O

 GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The collect continues on the theme from last week, that without God’s mighty help through the Holy Spirit, we would not prevail in our battle against the sin of this world. This trend is evident in the Epistle, where Paul writes to the Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 17. “Yet henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened and alienated from the life of the God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”

Paul basically is saying that we should not do as the world does and look into ourselves for guidance for our spiritual lives. That is just inviting a nasty disaster for our souls when we die and wake up from our death to find that we are not only physically but have died a spiritual death, a permanent separation from God, as we are away in that “fixed gulf.”

Going on, Paul says that we need to fix ourselves upon the waypoint of Christ and God and not use ourselves for a moral compass. For if we use our sense of direction, we shall not get far and indeed we will be in much distress, though we would not think of it otherwise due to our easily corruptible minds. However, if we rely on Christ as our navigator, He shall never fail us in His directions, if we will but listen to him. He, unlike us, will never let us down or withhold anything that we need to know, but the catch is that we have to be willing to listen to him.

We move on to the Gospel, where Jesus, attending to a sick man, picks up on the evil thoughts of the temple scribes., who think to themselves that Jesus blasphemed. However, if they realized who truly the Son of God was, Jesus, they would be shocked if they realized that they had just accused God of being a liar and blasphemer. However, their darkness in their hearts, like the vanity of the Gentiles minds that Paul talked about, prevents them from seeing the truth of the person of Christ.  Then he asks them, which is easier, to say that the sins are forgiven, or to actually say “Arise and walk”, or in other words, the command or the actual physical action of the healing, of which is more important?

The command is important, but we find Jesus doesn’t just talk to hear himself talk. Unlike some of the more modern “Christian” televised preachers who do, but to make a point and to act according to that point he makes. If we believe His commandments, we will keep them. The book Acts of the Apostles, isn’t “Meditations”, “Philosophies” of the Apostles, but Acts.  Jesus puts forth emphasis on “Actions speak louder than words” through his actions.

If we profess to be Christians, then we need to act like Christians, not just say that we are Christians. As the ending sentence at the end of the sermons I have given thus far go, “Be of God”, “Live of God” and finally, last but especially not least “Act of God.” We have to Be of God, and Live of God, to live our lives in a Godly and Christian way, which means as Paul said “Henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk”, so should we not walk in the ways of the world but that of God and His Heavenly Kingdom. Though originally, the term Gentile meant non-Jews (Ephesus was an early Gentile Christian church), nowadays Gentiles are those who conform to the world’s philosophies, including Christians that are Christians in name only and not in deed/actions, who do not follow “Be of God, Live of God and Act of God.”

To Act of God, we must follow the commandments of Christ and act according to them, loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. If we do the three step process “Be of God”, “Act of God” and “Live of God”, we will find ourselves in a much better position than walking in the ways of the World.

Be of God - Live of God - Act of God

Bishop Ogles’ Sermon

We are oft fortunate to get copies of Bishop Jerry’s sermon notes.  Today is one of those Sundays.  Today’s sermon starts off with the collect, and like always, it will give you a lot to consider in your heart.

Sermon Notes

Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

14 October 2012 Anno Domini

The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.

The Collect.

O

 GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

1 And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. 2 And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. 3 And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. 4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? 5 For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? 6 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. 7 And he arose, and departed to his house. 8 But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men. (Matt 9:1-8)

            As the Collect for the day says, we are not able to please God in the ways of righteousness, but we can be pleasing to God in the strength of our faith in the Righteous One – Jesus Christ.  Even the little acts of faith we exhibit are not ours, but come at the mercy of the Holy Spirit.  If He rules our heart, our ways will be pleasing to God. There is no other way in which we can please Him.

            Jesus, in the previous chapter, has just cast demons from two young men which He sent into a nearby herd of swine. The two men were set free from these demons, but the swine rushed over a cliff into the waters below and perished. The herdsmen rushed into the city and told all. We are told the entire village turned out to meet Jesus – not to express gratitude for the goodness to those possessed of demons – but to prevail upon Christ to depart from their shores. They feared loss of revenue more than loss of their own souls. So Christ departs, since He is a gentleman and does not impose His company upon those who do not welcome Him, and proceeds across the Sea of Galilee to His own hometown. It is here that we pick up on today's text.

And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city

            It is likely that multitudes were anxiously following the movements of Christ by word of mouth. Every rumor of His coming was eagerly received. Were it the same today!

And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed

            Amazingly, there were men who had early heard of Christ's crossing to them from the Gaderenes. They had already, by their strong faith, gone to the home of their cherished friend and prepared him on a stretcher to bring to Christ. We are not told of the faith of the man afflicted by palsy, but the faith of his friends would prove sufficient.  The man being brought to Christ had a serious illness. It was a CHRONIC illness much as sin is to every man born of woman. His illness had taken away his liberty to move, to associate, and to speak out on matters of faith and life. Doesn't sin steal away our liberty in the same way?

            Now this man is being brought to Christ, on the strength of his friends' faith, to make him whole. It is much like the woman taken in adultery being dragged before Christ – the only source of healing and forgiveness – by men who intended her no good at all. We have all needed a friend, or even a stranger, to bring us to Christ and introduce us to that great Personage and Lord. The man with the palsy was in a most miserable of human conditions. So were we before we were brought to Christ.

            There are two powers revealed here in the text – the power of sin to destroy and make miserable, and the power of Christ to make whole and impart joy and liberty. We see in this account that our own faith may be essential to bring another to the point of being made whole in Christ. We learn, too, that often the efforts of more than one is necessary to bring one to Christ, and these must work in unison (in carrying the bed level at all corners).

Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.         

            Jesus' notice is fixed on the faith of the men who bring the victim sick of the palsy – not the victim. He sees THEIR faith and is moved to compassion and amazement. One point I will make at the onset of the account: the furthest thing from the mind of the man afflicted by this horrible ailment is most likely not forgiveness. He desires, above everything else, to be made free of the disease.  But he does not realize that faith precedes freedom and liberty. In first aid, we learn that the most important consideration in treating a victim of some violent crime or accident is to STOP THE BLEEDING, if there is any bleeding. This is the medical procedure of `triage' which requires treatment of the most serious and life-threatening condition first. Our most serious affliction is not leprosy, or palsy, or physical blindness! It is SIN. Sin kills finally and forever! Jesus treats that affliction first! Be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.

And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.

That's right! That same old gang of detractors and doubters that followed Christ everywhere. They still follow Him and doubt the miracles of life and love of which God is benefactor.  They saw Christ heal blind Bartemeus; they saw Him call Lazarus from the grave at Bethany; they saw the young daughter of Jairus restored to life – yet, they believed not. Why not, do you suppose? I believe it was because they did not WANT to believe! If we believe Christ, we must abandon self. Our free wills must be exchanged for that Will (Mind) which was in Christ! No longer would they be king of the mountain, but Christ would be – so they traded their birthrights in God for a bowl of Esau's porridge. But never doubt – our thoughts are not kept from the notice of Christ. He knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves.

And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

Be not deceived, God is not mocked! Jesus knows all of our thoughts – past, present, and future! Perhaps these rascals were shocked that Jesus read their hearts without their speaking. Why do ANY of us think evil in our hearts? Because, until we have known Christ as Lord and Savior, we have all of the traits and characteristics of our father, the devil.

For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?

Jesus Christ is God also. He has His seal of authority to prove all things. Any man could falsely proclaim, Thy sins be forgiven thee! But what would be the result? Our sin would remain just as excessively as before the words were spoken. But when the same words are spoken by Christ, they bear the seal of Divine Authority! In truth, they are not the same words when spoken by Christ. Our words are like gold-colored lead coins compared to His 24 karat solid gold words of the Realm of Heaven. He proves all things by the Power of His Word. It is easy for man to speak false forgiveness, but what of speaking true healing? Forgiveness is an inward and invisible work of Grace granted by God. Physical healing is an outward manifestation of miraculous proportion. The first is greater, but the second is more observable! The foolish high churchmen (Pharisee) have been asked a question they dare not answer. Nonetheless, the answer is immediately revealed to their doubting eyes!

But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

            The Seal of Authority of Christ is a plain manifestation to those who doubt. The man, stricken with the palsy, has been healed of his most critical disease (Sin) and is now given liberty to move and to shout after being healed of his palsy. He not only arises from his bed, he obeys that voice of authority and picks up his bed, and carries his bed to his house. Liberty in Christ is a TOTAL liberty! We are no longer held down and bed-ridden, but have liberty not only to move, but to bear burdens and to go to our wonderful home that awaits all who belong to Christ. And he arose, and departed to his house.

But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men

            It is paradoxical, indeed, that the multitudes of common folk recognized the miracle as coming only from God, but the Pharisees did not! Of course, even the multitudes did not recognize that it was God Himself that stood before them, in Christ, to perform this miracle. How many today see the miracles but not the hand of Christ behind them? How many walk the lonely road to Damascas, wanting to see Christ, when He walks right beside them?

Behold, I am with thee always, even unto the end of the world!

AMEN

Bishop Dennis Campbell’s Sermon

Bishop Dennis is a brilliant speaker.  He is able to take biblical precepts and make them perfectly understandable, even to me.  Oft he provides the text of his sermons and I take the utmost pleasure in passing them on:

Our Help to Please Him

Psalm 72, Ephesians 4:17-32, Matthew 9:1-8

Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

October 14, 2012

The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.

The Collect.

O

 GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"… without thee we are not able to please thee... ."

These words from Collect for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity lead us immediately to that aspect of the Christian life into which we hope to be encouraged and strengthened today, pleasing God.  What does it mean to please God, and how can we, weak and foolish and sinful as we are, ever hope to achieve the lofty goal of pleasing God?

We must acknowledge that an essential part of our calling into Christ, is pleasing God.  I think contemporary evangelicalism places too much emphasis on what God saves us from, and too little emphasis on what God saves us to.  It tends to give the idea that Christ died only to forgive our sins and take us to Heaven.  But He died to accomplish much more than that in us.  He died to make us into a new kind of person.  He died to bring us into an Empire of peace.  He died to form us into a kingdom of priests who offer up continual sacrifices of holy living in accordance with the moral and spiritual teachings of the Bible.  These moral/spiritual teachings are just as much a part of the Gospel as being forgiven of sin and saved from hell.  The verse that says, "If ye love Me, keep my commandments" (Jn. 14:15) is just as much a part of the Gospel as the verse that says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."  In fact, that verse, Romans 8:1, goes on to describe those who are in Christ Jesus as those "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."  In other words, it is those who live the new life in Christ who are the saved.  Or, as we read in James 1:22 in the morning readings last Tuesday,  it is those who hear and do the word of God who are the real Christians, not those who only "hear" it.

The Epistle for this morning pictures the new life we are to live as Christians.  The new life takes us out of the former habits and values of spiritual darkness, which Ephesians 4:22 calls "the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts."  Putting off such things is a necessary part of being a Christian.  They must be put off like filthy, vermin infested garments, and we must put on the "new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24).  The rest of the book of Ephesians is about how the new man lives the life of righteousness and true holiness.  All those verses about speaking truth, and working to earn your living, and submitting to your husband, and loving your wife as Christ loves the Church, and honouring your parents, and provoking not your children to wrath, and putting on the whole armour of God, and watching in prayer, are about the way you are called to live if you are a true Christian.  And it might be a good thing to ask yourself right now if you really intend to be a true Christian or not.  Are you really willing to follow Christ, or are you just playing games with God to salve your conscience?  Seriously ask yourself this, because you are to examine yourself before you come to the Lord's Table, and because the consequences of playing games with God are eternal.

Listen, please, because this is very important.  I constantly encourage you to pray and read the Bible daily and to come to church every Sunday.  I don't ask this for me or for my benefit.  I ask it for your benefit because I want you to grow in the knowledge and faith and strength and communion of God.  This is a very important part of being a Christian.   I think the Bible clearly teaches that those who cannot find the motivation to do these simple things have reason to doubt the validity of their faith.  But, being a Christian is more than prayer and Bible reading.  In fact, you can read the Bible daily, spend hours in "prayer," go to church, and receive baptism, confirmation, and Holy Communion, yet still be far away from God in your heart.  You can know the Bible well, and be an expert in Hebrew, Greek, and all the various doctrines of the Bible, yet still be mentally and spiritually aloof from God.  That is why James wrote that we must be doers of the word and not hearers only, for those who hear but will not do the word, deceive themselves.

But who has been a doer of the word?  Who has lived life according to the Spirit instead of according to the flesh?  Who can say with confidence, "I have kept the commandments of God?" Would we not be more correct to say with Paul, I am chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15) and with the publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner?" (Lk. 18:13).  Thanks be to God it is not our works of obedience to His commandments that make us acceptable to God.  It is the sacrifice of Christ, bearing our sins in Himself and dying for them on the cross that makes us acceptable to God.  And thank God also that we are not left to our own devices and power to live the Christian life.  Without Him, that is, without His help, we are unable to please Him.  Even with His help we will not be perfect in this life, of course we can do far better than we are currently doing, if we really want to.  In A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, William Law asked why most people who call themselves Christians never live devout and holy lives.   His answer? Because they never intend to.  They go to church and they say the prayer asking God to enable them to "live a godly, righteous and holy life," but they don't mean it.  They don't really want to live that way.  I believe he is correct, but I beg you not to let that be true of you.

Truly we need God's help if we are going to live lives that are holy and Godly and pleasing unto God, but, is God willing to help?  To answer this question let us turn to the Gospel reading for this morning.  Here we see Christ healing the physical ailment of a paralysed man.  Our Lord makes it plain that He is not merely healing the disease of the the flesh; He is primarily healing the disease of the soul.  "Thy sins be forgiven thee," He said to the man.  Why do we read this passage in connection with the topic of pleasing God, and how does it answer the question of the willingness of God to help us?  Because it shows the compassion and help of God.  If God was willing to help the man whose legs were paralysed, He is also willing to help those whose faith is paralysed.  He who is willing to forgive sins at the cost of His own life, will also freely help His people live the life of faith as surely as He who freed the ancient Hebrews led them from Egypt to the Promised Land.

So, we need the help of God if we are going to live the Christian life, and God has promised to help us.  This means two things for us in practical, daily life.  First, we must ask God to help us.  This might mean that our prayers need to have a change of focus.  We may need to pray less about getting the physical things of the world, and more about help to be the husbands,wives, daughters, sons, parents, employees, church members, and Christians God wants us to be.  In other words, we may need to spend more time seeking help to live a holy and Godly life.  Second, we must avail ourselves of the help He gives.  If you ask most Christians how God helps us, they will usually say something like, "by the power of the Holy Spirit."  By that they mean God somehow infuses us with Heavenly power and we are able to conquer sin and do all good works He has prepared for us to walk in.  But how does God infuse us with that power? Primarily through the means of grace received in faith.  He helps us as we read the Bible in faith.  He helps us as we pray Biblical prayers in faith.  He helps us as we worship at home and in Church in faith.  He helps us as we come to the communion table in faith.  These are the things God has ordained to help and succour His people, and to enable us to put off the old things of sin and self, and to put on the new things of God and holiness.  These are the means by which God helps us please Him.

O

 GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Rev Bryan Dabney of Saint John’s Sunday Sermon

We are fortunate to have Bryan’s Sunday Sermon.  If you want people to come to The Truth, you have to speak the truth, expouse the truth and live the truth.    This is really a good piece and I commend it to your careful reading.

The Sermon - Forgiveness from the heart

St. Paul understood the concept of godly forgiveness. He had been in and out of prisons on account of the faith and had suffered beatings of every sort, and was even stoned because of his preaching of the gospel (II Corinthians 11:24-26). He could well have asked God to strike his persecutors with lightning or worse. But instead, St. Paul asked God to forgive those who harmed him. In his second epistle to the youthful Timothy (4:16) the apostle recounted how no one had supported him against Alexander the coppersmith; but in spite of that, he asked God that they not be held liable for their lack of effort. Notice he did not include Alexander in his prayer request because he had resisteth the truth in unrighteousness. The apostle’s prayer was for those of the flock of Christ who had not resisted in unrighteousness but had not stood with him against the unrighteousness of Alexander. Alexander’s offense was more against God than the apostle. Those who had failed to support St. Paul had offended the apostle and thus his request that God forgive them. As he explained in our epistle (Ephesians 4:32), And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

God will forgive us of our sins and trespasses if we repent and turn to him. We need only consider the very words that our Lord taught us to pray saying, ... forgive us our trespasses to know this. But there is a qualifier: as we forgive those who trespass against us. Yes, God will forgive us, but we are called on to forgive one another from the heart, and to forgive every offense regardless of the number of times we are wronged (St. Matthew 18:21-35). These are hard words for us because we are prideful creatures and when we are injured by others, we often react vengefully. God would rather have us leave that desire for vengeance in his capable hands, and for us to possess a forgiving spirit. He knows that we cannot be effective messengers for him if we have opened ourselves to demonic influence (Ephesians 4:26-27).

There are other biblical examples that will validate our Lord’s command that we forgive our trespassers. Examine the story of Jacob and Esau (Genesis 33:4-15). Jacob had supplanted Esau as the inheritor of the right of the first born. Esau in turn had sought to harm Jacob and so Jacob fled to his uncle Laban’s land for refuge and to take a wife there. After God had directed Jacob to return to the land of Canaan, God brought Esau into the mix again. Jacob heard that his brother was coming out to meet him and he was greatly concerned. But God turned the heart of Esau from hatred for Jacob to forgiveness. Jacob was more than pleasantly surprised to discover this when he met his brother. For at that meeting God’s love for Jacob was displayed in Esau’s warm greeting and brotherly embrace.

The story of Joseph includes not only his mistreatment by his brothers, but his forgiveness of them as well (Genesis 50:15-21). Joseph had been sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers who hated him from the heart. Joseph was mistreated by Potiphar who had believed his adulterous wife rather than righteous Joseph. Joseph had been seemingly forgotten in an Egyptian prison until his gift of interpretation of dreams was made known to Pharaoh. When Pharaoh was given a dream by the LORD which he could not understand, he sought out his wise men and priests. But they too were unable to explain it. It was then that an advisor to Pharaoh, who had been imprisoned briefly with Joseph, told his master of a man who could interpret dreams. Joseph was brought to Pharaoh and provided him the message God had intended for him to know. Afterwards, Pharaoh appointed Joseph as second only to himself in the kingdom for the purpose of saving Egypt from the approaching seven years of famine. When his brothers came to purchase grain, Joseph was troubled by their presence but, he forgave them because he had seen the hand of God in his life. As he reminded his brethren, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them and spake kindly unto them. That is forgiveness from the heart!

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ also forgave those who persecuted and crucified him (St. Luke 23:34). Consider his words, Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do. St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, asked God to forgive his murderers (Acts 7:60) saying, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. These words were offered in the martyr’s prayer as he was being stoned to death. Even facing death at the hands of a detractor, we ought to ask God to forgive them and not carry any hatred and bad feeling into our meeting with the Lord face to face when we “cross the bar.”

Consider Psalm 86:5 wherein it is written, For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. In the book of Isaiah (43:25) God said, I even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. And further on in the same (55:7) we are admonished, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Are you in accord with God? Have you sought from him a pardon for those who have sinned against you? Are you prepared to let go all hatred, and all malice against those who have hurt you in any way? If we desire God’s forgiveness for our sins and trespasses against him, we must also forgive them who are our persecutors and pray for them who spitefully use us, that perhaps God will turn their hearts as he turned ours. Make it your prayer this day that God will not only grant you true repentance, but that he will also give you a heart to forgive others. Give these persons over to him. Let God decide what to do with them and be at peace within yourselves for that is what God wants for his elect.

Let us pray:

L

ORD, we hand over to you all who have harmed us in any way, and we also pray for their redemption; that they too might come to the knowledge of thy truth and be made members in the fold of Christ; for these things we ask in the name of him who forgave all at the cross, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Have a blessed week, Bryan+