{"id":15958,"date":"2017-08-28T08:29:09","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T12:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=15958"},"modified":"2017-08-28T08:48:29","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T12:48:29","slug":"15958","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=15958","title":{"rendered":"Forgiveness&#8230;An Unfolding Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eYTnTorkkxg\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Forgiveness&#8230;An Unfolding Mystery   (From Richard Rohr)<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God. \u2014Matthew 5:9<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Spirit within us creates an unrelenting desire toward forgiveness and reconciliation. The entire Gospel reveals the unfolding mystery of forgiveness; it is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the Gospel\u2019s transformative message. The energy of being forgiven\u2014in our unworthiness of it\u2014first breaks us out of our merit-badge mentality. The ongoing experience of being forgiven (when we don\u2019t even think we need it) is necessary to renew our flagging spirit and keep us in the infinite ocean of grace. Toward the end of life a universal forgiveness of everything for being what it is becomes the only way we can see and understand reality and finally live at peace.<br \/>\nZechariah said that God would \u201cgive God\u2019s people knowledge of salvation through forgiveness of sin\u201d (Luke 1:77). Only when we experience undeserved love does this inward and outward flow begin to happen. Before that we are a dry, dead cistern. Before that, we are into \u201creligion\u201d perhaps, but not really any dynamic notion of God or even our self. Forgiveness given and forgiveness received are always the pure work of uncreated grace. Such unearned and undeserved forgiveness is necessary to break down the quid pro quo world that I call meritocracy.<br \/>\nGrace re-creates all things. Nothing new happens without forgiveness. We just keep repeating the same old patterns, illusions, and half-truths.<br \/>\nSometimes grace does not come immediately, but like Job we \u201csit in the ashes scraping our sores\u201d (Job 2:8). Sometimes neither the desire nor the decision to forgive is present. Then we must grieve and wait. We must sit in our poverty, perhaps even admitting our inability to forgive the offender. That is when we learn how to pray and how to \u201clong and thirst for righteousness\u201d (Matthew 5:6).<br \/>\nTrue Spirit-led forgiveness always frees and heals at least one of the parties involved, and hopefully both. If it only preserves my moral high ground\u2014as a magnanimous \u201cChristian\u201d person\u2014I doubt if it is true forgiveness at all. It must also quicken and invite the hearts of others, especially the offender. True forgiveness does not leave the offender feeling small and judged, but liberated and loved.<br \/>\nAt the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati I had \u201c70 x 7\u201d painted over the main doorway. New mail carriers thought it was the address! It was our address, in a way. It is the distinctive hallmark of a people liberated by Christ. Community is not where forgiveness is unnecessary or unneeded. It is where forgiveness is very free to happen. And if it doesn\u2019t happen\u2014on a daily basis\u2014there will be no community; without forgiveness the logic of victimhood and perpetrator rules instead of the illogic of love.<\/p>\n<p>Gateway to Silence:<br \/>\nCreate in me a clean heart. \u2014Psalm 51:12<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The Purpose of Prayer  (From Oswald Chambers)<\/p>\n<p>\u2026one of His disciples said to Him, &#8220;Lord, teach us to pray\u2026&#8221; \u2014Luke 11:1<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person\u2019s life will suffer if he doesn\u2019t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAsk, and you will receive\u2026\u201d (John 16:24). We complain before God, and sometimes we are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but we actually ask Him for very few things. Yet a child exhibits a magnificent boldness to ask! Our Lord said, \u201c\u2026unless you\u2026become as little children\u2026\u201d (Matthew 18:3). Ask and God will do. Give Jesus Christ the opportunity and the room to work. The problem is that no one will ever do this until he is at his wits\u2019 end. When a person is at his wits\u2019 end, it no longer seems to be a cowardly thing to pray; in fact, it is the only way he can get in touch with the truth and the reality of God Himself. Be yourself before God and present Him with your problems\u2014 the very things that have brought you to your wits\u2019 end. But as long as you think you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.<\/p>\n<p>To say that \u201cprayer changes things\u201d is not as close to the truth as saying, \u201cPrayer changes me and then I change things.\u201d God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person\u2019s inner nature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forgiveness&#8230;An Unfolding Mystery (From Richard Rohr) Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God. \u2014Matthew 5:9 The Spirit within us creates an unrelenting desire toward forgiveness and reconciliation. The entire Gospel reveals the unfolding mystery of forgiveness; it is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15958"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15958"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15961,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15958\/revisions\/15961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}