Saturday, March 02,
2013, 7:00 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with this song:
Near the Cross / Fanny J. Crosby / William H. Doane
Jesus, keep me near the cross;
There a precious fountain,
Free to all, a healing stream,
Flows from Calvary's mountain.
Near the cross, a trembling soul,
Love and mercy found me…
Help me walk from day to day
With its shadow o'er me.
In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.
Speak, Lord, for your
servant is listening. I read Matthew
18:21-35 (NASB):
Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord,
how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven
times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to
seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
“For this reason the kingdom
of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his
slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents
was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord
commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had,
and repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated
himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you
everything.’ And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and
forgave him the debt.
But that slave went out and
found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized
him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ So his fellow
slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience
with me and I will repay you.’ But he was unwilling and went and threw him in
prison until he should pay back what was owed.
So when his fellow slaves saw
what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord
all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked
slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not
also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on
you?’ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he
should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to
you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
Our Debt
We, as humans, are born with a sin nature and thus with the
propensity to sin. The scriptures teach us that all have sinned, and thus we
all come up short of attaining God’s glory. We all like sheep have gone astray,
and each one has gone his own way. No one is righteous in his own self or in
his own merit. No one can earn his own salvation. No matter how many good
things we do, we will never be good enough. We will always come up short. Our
sins, thus, separate us from our God. Our debt resulting from our sin is HUGE! And,
we have no way of repaying this debt. The result is death and eternal
separation from God and eternity in hell. [See Romans 3:9-26; Eph. 2:8-9; and
Isaiah 53:1-12]
God’s Mercy
God caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Jesus Christ.
He became our perfect Lamb sacrifice to take away the sins of the world. This
was God’s plan for our redemption. Jesus Christ was “pierced through for our
transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our
well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed” (Is. 53:5).
He was crucified on a cross for our sins, although he had
done no wrong. When he died our sins were crucified with him, and when he was
buried, our sins were buried with him, but when he arose from the grave, he
conquered death, hell, Satan and sin so that we could live victoriously over
sin and so that we could walk with Christ in righteousness and holiness, though
not with a righteousness of our own making. This righteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ is for all who believe in Him; for those who put their
trust in Him as Savior and Lord (master) of their lives. “For by grace you have
been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not
as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).
Repentance
We must humble ourselves before God and call upon him for
mercy. We must confess our sin and acknowledge our inability within ourselves
to be able to satisfy this debt. In other words, we must acknowledge our need
for the Savior, and for what he did for us in dying for our sins so that we can
go free from slavery to sin, free from hell, and free to walk in God’s
righteousness and holiness. Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he
must negate his self-life, he must willingly and daily forego (die to) his
former life of living for self pleasure and sin, and he must follow our Lord
Jesus Christ in obedience and surrender to his will for our lives (see Luke
9:23-25). This is what it means to believe.
The Apostle Paul, God speaking through him, said that the
way in which we come to know Christ is by dying to (forsaking; taking off) our
old way of living for self and sin, by being transformed in heart and mind (the
working of the Spirit of God within us), and by putting on our new self in
Christ Jesus, “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (see
Eph. 4:17-24). As well, he said in Gal. 2:20 that when we come to Christ, we,
i.e. our self-life is crucified with Christ and that “I”, “you,” “we” no longer
live. In other words, our self life is crucified with Christ and we no longer
live for self, but for God, who loved us and who gave himself up for us. Now
Christ and his life should be on the throne of our lives and his life should be
lived within and out through our lives. We are, thus, his representatives (his
ambassadors) to this world for the gospel. Now we live by faith in Jesus Christ.
Forgiveness
When we come to Jesus Christ on bended knee (in humility),
admitting that we have sinned and that we need the Savior to save us from our
sins (from slavery to sin daily), and we turn from our sins, and we turn to
walk in obedience to Jesus Christ, he forgives us of our sins and he cancels
the debt that we owe. He does this because he loves us so very much!
Yet, do we so easily forgive others their debts against us?
I mean, when others sin against us, and they come to us asking for mercy, do we
easily and readily release them from their debt against us? Or, do we refuse to
forgive? Or, maybe we think we have forgiven, but we are still holding what we
believe is their sin against us to their account. To forgive means to no longer
hold on to bitterness, anger, resentment, or a feeling of “pay back,” but we
release the offending party from his debt, just as Jesus did for us, only our
debt was much greater by far, and a perfect and holy God, who never sinned, was
willing to die for us so we could go free. If Jesus did that for us, how can we
not forgive others who have sinned against us, or even who we think may have sinned
against us? We must forgive, because Jesus forgave us. If we don’t, the Lord
Jesus may visit us in divine discipline and correction.
Awaken the Dawn /
An Original Work / January 15, 2013
Based off Psalm 57 (NIV 1984)
O my God, have mercy
on me!
In the Lord, my soul
takes refuge.
In the shadow of Your
wings, Lord,
I find shelter till
the storms pass.
I cry out to my God
Most High.
He fulfills His
purpose for me.
He sent His Son to die
for me,
So I could be saved.
I am in the midst of
lions;
Men whose teeth are
spears and arrows;
Whose tongues are
sharp; words accusing.
They spread a net, my
feet to catch.
They dug a pit, in hopes
I’d fall.
O God, be exalted o’er
all.
Let Your glory shine
to all men,
So they may be saved.
Steadfast is my heart,
O my God;
I will sing of all
Your wonders.
Awake, my soul! Sing
praise to God!
Early I will rise and
praise Him!
I’ll praise God among the
nations;
I will sing among the
peoples.
God’s love reaches to
the heavens,
So we may be saved.
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