Forgiveness

What is the basis of Christianity? Ask people that question and you'll get a bunch of different answers. I have my own personal answer : forgiveness.

I've been reading through the Bible in a year with You Version or whatever the App is on my ipod touch. To be honest with you, I'm a little behind. I'm not fretting, though. I'll catch up or just not worry about it. So what if I read the Bible in a year and 3 days? Who made those rules up anyway?

I read over a story, though, very quickly that I couldn't get away from. It's the story of two brothers: Esau, a hairy older brother who sold his whole birthright for a measly pot of stew and then got angry because he was "cheated" out of his birthright, and Jacob, a liar and trickster who swindled anyone he could come in contact with until he eventually became the victim of someone else's swindling. These brothers had a hate-hate relationship. Esau vowed that after the death of his father he would kill Jacob. Jacob ran away to his Uncle and vowed not to return. This is where God comes in. God tells Jacob, after much (literally) wrestling, to return to his homeland. Knowing that Esau is waiting with baited breath, Jacob devises a plan. He's going to bribe his elder brother with gifts, put others between them, and hide in the background, just in case he's still hot about the whole stealing his birthright and his blessing thing.

Well, as you can see with the picture above, their meeting was a little different than Jacob imagined. I can just see the terror in his eyes as they met the love in Esau's. What a moment! Hugs and affection and reconciliation. It really is beautiful.

I was kind of thinking this through, and I just really had a frying pan moment with God. You know, one of those moments where God subtly speaks to you, you have this thought, and it's like DUH! (like somebody hit you with a frying pan). Forgiveness is like the whole basis of Christianity.

So, here's my thinking. God forgives us. He forgives us of all of our sins - our bad things. When we walk in his forgiveness, we are walking in the power of overcoming all the bad habits and sins that we struggle with. But His forgiveness is two-fold. He forgives us and we must forgive others. You can't have one without the other. When we don't forgive others, we can't walk in the freedom from sin. We continue to struggle with those sins. But when we walk, forgiven by Him, and forgiving others, this beautiful freedom comes where we are walking in the power of His freedom from sin and giving it and showing it to others. It really is a beautiful picture.

I know that seems kind of elementary in Christianity. It was just one of those moments where what has been in my head as knowledge for so long sunk into my heart as revelation.

My prayer now is "God, I want to forgive others, so you can forgive me. I want to be free by freeing others." And the amazing thing is, He does.

Loving this life in Him!
~ Sam