7/490

When our family lived in Ontario, we attended Connexus Community Church.  The pastor (Carey Nieuwhof) did a very unique thing.

At the end of one of the services, as we were leaving there were people with buckets handing out key chains which had 7/490 printed on them.  It was mysterious and we were told that we would find out what it meant next Sunday, the number was a ‘clue’ to the subject of the sermon.  It was a puzzler that we often revisited over the course of the week that followed, which I’m sure was the point.  Can you guess what the topic turned out to be?

That’s right … forgiveness.   In my mind‘s eye and with a face palm, of course it means forgiveness!

Fast forward three years and almost 3,000 kms away from that Sunday, I am still reminded of the profoundness of these four single digits separated by a forward slash.

What IS this type of forgiveness?  It seems to be:  Never ending and resonating an eternal God that is unlimited in grace.

I know Jesus was speaking in hyperbole … but isn’t THAT the point.  I love they way He taught (teaches).  He could have said, “It’s unlimited Peter, for as many times as your brother needs it.  Just as it is with you and God … as many times as you need it.”

Hmmmm, this echos what Jesus taught with the example of the adulteress.  Whoever is without sin can throw the first stone.

Application:  If I no longer need 7/490 forgiveness from God through Jesus, then I can be the first one to stop offering it.

7

but

70  X  7

490

How will you fit 7/490 forgiveness into the framework of your marriage?

 

Learners and Doers

Can you learn to ride a bike by only listening to instruction?

Can you learn to draw by only buying art supplies?

Can you learn to write by only reading?

 

There are certain academics that are foundational for all of these activities.  But ultimately, a cyclist will never emerge until the bike is ridden.  A person will never be an artist until a sketch has been created.  And a writer is not a writer until words are formed into sentences and paragraphs are produced.  It is in the practical application that we transition from learner to doer.

Reading and studying are the groundwork but doing is the step to transformation.

God says that I should not fool myself into thinking that I am something just because I’ve heard it.  Listening to instruction on drawing or studying it and memorizing quotes from famous artists do not make me an artist.  In fact, if I listen to the instruction but don’t practically apply it, the Bible equates this to forgetting that I had ever learned it in the first place.

Is forgiveness any different?  If I study all of the Bible verse there are on forgiveness and read every book that was ever written on forgiveness, but cannot practically apply this in my own marriage towards my brother in the faith.  Then I am a learner of forgiveness, not a forgiving person.

It is the practical application that changes me into a truly forgiving person.

After all, if all I ever build is a foundation it doesn’t matter how strong, big and purposeful that foundation is, if there is no action to bring it to completion.  It will always be just a foundation … nothing more.

What foundation is God asking  me to act on in my marriage?

 

 

~James 1:22~ 

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but,

letting the Word go in one ear and out the other.

Act on what you hear!

Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later

have no idea who they are, what they look like.

My Focus, My Harvest

Focusing on the good takes work, lots of work. Especially when I’ve been hurt. Yet that’s what I am encouraged to do. I’m told to pay attention to the good and not the bad. When I’m hurt I naturally want to ruminate on it, sounds kind of sick doesn’t it. But this was typically where my focus would land … on my flesh. I had to consciously choose against the driving force of the wants of my flesh to advance in the spirit.

In what direction will I aim my focus? There are only two options. I can follow the advice given by God and pay no attention to a wrong suffered (1 Cor 13:5) which means that, if I’m not allowing my hurt to be the central point I must allow something else to be. You can’t not think about a hurt simply by not thinking about it, the very act causes you to think about it. I must replace the negative with a positive. So I think about believing the best in my husband. (1 Cor 13:7) This is focusing on the good and it will lead my actions to sow to the good thus bring a good result.

Second option, not so great. When I focus my energy on what has happened to me (focusing on my flesh — me) that is exactly where I lead my actions to sow, to the negative action, thereby bringing me a harvest of … negative.  The Spiritual Law of sowing & reaping is identical to any of the Natural Laws in that, it is real.  You don’t reap wheat from an apple seed.  When you are an apple farmer you don’t focus on wheat seeds, you focus on apple seeds because apples are what you want to harvest.

It is simple, just not easy.

When God tells me to focus on the good and not the bad, I don’t think He wants me to labotamize my mind or heart. It is both necessary and balanced to acknowledge my hurt, first to myself and then to Him … as I deposit it into His hands. He is far better equipped to handle it, and if I continue to hold it in my focus, God‘s Word will be proved out:  as a man thinks focuses, so he will be.  My actions will follow my thoughts and the law of sowing and reaping states that you reap in likeness of what you sow.

Focus on the negative = harvest of negative

Focus on the positive = harvest of positive

This is why God tells us to not keep a focus the hurt and sin done to us, because it entangles and ensnares (Heb 12:1).  I am given a simple and clear way to protect myself against it … cast it aside.

I give it all to You, all the sin I do, and all the sin done to me.