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Sunday, May 26, 2013

Verily, Verily, I Say Unto You: Just a Little Word...or...Two.


Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:3-17 (KJV)
I have experienced periods of silence many times during my life, periods when no words would come. It is distressing for a writer to have nothing to write. I had been suffering writer’s block and there was a long period between my last essay and this at the time it was written.
So I wanted to ease back into the water with just a word.
In John 3, Jesus said several times, "verily, verily". Actually, Jesus didn't say "verily". That is an old English word used by the translators of the King James Version. The translation was hardly necessary for the word Jesus spoke is still used today across the world in many languages every day. It is a Hebrew word that transcended the transliteration through Greek and Latin and has been said by us all at one time or another and quite often and regularly by some of us, although we don't usually put it where Jesus did, at the beginning of our statement.
The word is amen.
Every time we hear a prayer we hear amen as the last word. We have heard it that way so often many people probably think it means "the end". We probably think after the last scene of ancient Jewish movies a black screen with the block letters AMEN appeared and we all went home.
It doesn't mean the end, but when it comes at the end it means, "so be it" or "so may it be". We in the church pretty much follow the custom  as used in the synagogues. In those, after a discourse and solemn prayer was read or said, those assembled would respond "amen". This is more than just confirming the message; this is taking it as one's own.
But Jesus didn't wait until the end to say it. He started off with, "Amen, amen". Didn't he know better?
Sure he did. It was a word when used at the beginning had a slightly different meaning. It meant, "this is a truth", "truly" or "surely". Jesus doubled it up. What he was saying is, "this is the truth of all truths". 
Amen, amen, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit." John 3:5 (NIV)
Sometimes we Christians disagree on interpretation of some passages. But in John 3 we have Jesus giving us the truth of all truths and we cannot disagree on this and call ourselves Christians.
We cannot accommodate the wishes of the world either and downplay what Christ has said. These are amen, amen statements. People who believe otherwise judge Christians as judgmental and narrow minded as they insist we must believe as they do. But then if we would not hold to these principles, we would not be Christians. I am not intolerant of other's beliefs. I do not wish to force them to have my views. You can't force faith on anyone. I am not judgmental of anyone because I don't know their heart. However, I don't keep my belief to myself, because I love them and wish them no harm -- ever and because the Lord commanded us to do so.
Amen, amen, I am narrow-minded because the path is narrow and few find it. I am narrow-minded because there is Christ and no other. Amen.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Chess Master


Let's pretend you are a Chess Master, the greatest in the world. You enjoy a relationship with other chess players. You also enjoy their respect and admiration. You create a beautiful chess club for them and it is your hope through following your example, listening to what you teach and following your guidelines, they will develop as close as possible to your skill level. You often sit down and play the game with one of them and you bask in the praise they give you, in fact you expect it.   It is not that you need it or that you have an inflated ego. It is that you deserve it because of what you have accomplished and what you have provided to others to allow them to enjoy the game.
You know that new converts to the game don't always understand the subtleties and complexities of Chess. Many start out only knowing the moves of each piece and wouldn't know castling from taking en-passant. It doesn't matter, you hope by their constant playing by the rules, they will learn, and as long as they listen to you and trust the knowledge you have written in your Chess Manual, they will get better. 
When you sit down to play you have a purpose and a plan. Unlike many of your opponents who only have the purpose of winning, you know all the different named strategies and defenses of the game. Your purpose is to capture their King and your strategy is to control the center of the board while at the same time building a strong defense around your own King. Your plan is already many moves ahead of your opponent even before the first piece is moved.
Because you are the greatest Chess Master in the world, you easily can anticipate what your opponent will do and as the game progresses, your plan is working flawlessly. There is never a doubt you will win the game against this opponent. 
But then the opponent makes a move out of the expected. Perhaps it was simply a fortuitous accident, or perhaps the person made their move consciously and independently of anything you ever said in your manual. It may not be the move you would have made, may in fact be a poor move, but you don't interfere and force them to make the move you would have. They have a mind of their own.
You may have to alter your next move from the scheme you had in your head, but it still doesn't alter your plan. You can see ahead enough to know three or four moves will put you right back where you planned to be and the game still remains your certain win.
Now your opponent notices that your Queen is one move away from being helplessly exposed to their Bishop. They quickly, almost salivating, move their Bishop into position, seeing now a direct line to her and that she is cornered and no piece of yours can be positioned to block the Bishop. So they release their hand from the piece and sit back, stifling a self-satisfied smile, when they suddenly become aware this has put their own King into checkmate. They quickly grab the Bishop and move the piece back to its original position.
What do you do now?
They have broken a rule. When they released the piece, that became their move and they had no right to reset the Bishop and play another piece. You could reach out and move their Bishop back and say this is the rule, you must keep it no matter what and then go ahead and take their King.
You didn't make them make a bad move. You didn't make them break the rules. They did all that independently on their own.  But now you have intervened and enforced the rule and placed their King in jeopardy. You had every right to do so.  They did independently break the rules. They did independently make a bad move.  Now they will suffer the consequences of you taking their king. They are totally dependent on what you do.
You could do many things, whatever is in your will to do.  You could ignore the action and allow the move to stand, knowing it was a neophyte mistake and also knowing it will not prevent you winning the game. You can see the moves to make to quickly take their King, even if they do now capture your Queen. You may even see from their body language they have learned and won't make such a mistake again, so you show grace and allow it and forgive it.
On the other hand, you could point out they broke a rule and allow them an opportunity to independently decide to correct it, expecting they will repent of the breach and learn from it. If they choose not to do so, you might break the relationship and not play them again.  You could even banish them from the club. They are completely dependent on you for such results.
You could also point out to them they broke a rule, but tell them you will allow it this time because they have played the rest of the game well and you really do want their company and to share Chess with them.
Or let's consider something else, which could happen and compare it to prayer. Suppose after the opponent realized their poor judgment in making the Bishop move, they asked you if they could please replay the move. You could refuse their request and allow them to suffer the consequence of losing their King. This would not be wrong. It would be what they deserve and would be just and fair. Or you could allow their request seeing they understood both their error and the rules, but wished to be forgiven. This is showing mercy and granting Grace. They got into the situation independent of your actions, but are now dependent upon you for the results.
You know, the Pharisees and Sadducee continually played a kind of mental Chess with Jesus, trying to trap him and throw him off his game plan. There are many instances of this, but consider this one from John 8:1-11:
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
   But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
 These "Teachers of the Law" had independently decided this woman was guilty of adultery and they knew the Law. They confronted Jesus, not because they respected Him, but because they thought they had found a way to destroy his standing with the people or with God. Jesus did not answer their question. He knew the woman was guilty, but they were not acting in the spirit of the Law, but were acting independently of what God intended.
But Jesus, God, did not interfere with them. Nor in a sense, did he make the woman dependent on Him (Jesus-God).  Jesus said, go ahead and stone her, but let the sinless one cast the first stone. Each man decided independently to walk away, Jesus-God didn't make them drop the stones by Divine power or force them to go away. But He knew they would do this, he just didn't make them do it.
Jesus-God may have influenced their thought by his statement, but he did not hypnotize them or threaten them or cause them in anyway to spare the women. They had condemned her independently and they spared her independently. He could have chosen to make the outcome totally dependent upon Himself if he had wished. He could have "slipped" away with the woman, just as he had slipped away that time when people were about to throw him off a cliff.
Jesus then showed mercy to the woman. He certainly judged her sin was real and could have condemned her, but he did not. He said, "Go now and leave your life of sin."  This shows what? It shows indeed she was living a life of sin and was guilty. It shows he forgave her the sin. It shows he showed mercy. And it shows he left her to independently choose to leave her life of sin. He did not say, "Go now, for you will never be able to live a life of sin because all your future actions are totally dependent upon me."
In the story of Job, we can see Job was entirely dependent upon God for what he had. God allowed Satan to whisk all Job had away in an instant. Job had no input in the matter. Yet, when Job had originally gained his riches and built his family, he had done so by making independent decisions and by independent action. We are dependent on God for everything we have, but we are independent on how we get it. We are totally dependent on God for our salvation, but we independently brought on our condemnation.


Photo is me playing myself, which is why I never lost,  and I took it sometimes in the 1970s when I still had hair.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

So, What's Bugging You...



So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.

 His wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!"

 He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" 
In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. Job 2:7-10

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:27-28

There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him. For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath. Deuteronomy 4:28-31

[I realize that last quote from Deuteronomy was made by God through Moses specifically to the Jews. But all Scripture is given for enlightenment and I believe those words also apply to Christians and fit what I am about to write.]

When I say I came to believe in God from listening to the struggling last heartbeats of my doomed child, some say how? When they learn this was the seventh child my wife and I lost, they ask how can you believe in a God who would allow this? When I say the child lived briefly and died before the eyes of her mother, they ask how I find any good in this?

How, because I trust God has a purpose and uses all things to accomplish His purpose. I find nothing but good in what happened.  We did not abort any of these babies. We wanted them to be born and did all doctor's instructed to accomplish their birth; therefore, we did not commit the sin of cutting short God's purpose for these beings. It was God who counted the seconds of their lives to his purpose and plan and I believe it was fulfilled even in their short existence in the womb and in this world.

How can I find any bad in this is the real question. I believe when babies and young children die, they go straight to the outstretched arms of Jesus. These babies were spared the grief and troubles of this world. They were given a "Get Out of Jail Card", "Do not pass Go, do not collect $200", but come gain a greater treasure, eternal life in Heaven. My babies did not enter this world, they were taken and they did not die, they live.

But what if one of them, or any of them, or all of them, had made it? What kind of life would they have had? They wouldn't have been abused, that was not my wife or my nature. However, they would have been subjected to a different set of values and beliefs, exposed to Atheism and even much superstition and the occult.  They would have lived with someone who was a stumbling stone to their salvation. If they had lived they may have lost their soul.

And if they had lived I may have never gained mine. So where is the bad?

Because of that long line of loss, I came to Christ and I changed. My father, seeing the change in me, came to Christ, and I am sure the change in him influenced others to seek the Lord. So where is the bad?

Then when all medical science said it was impossible, God allowed my wife to have three children, the second (again although totally impossible according to men) with no pre-birth medical attention. This presented a testimony to the Grace and Mercy of Our Lord, His power and also the power of prayer, for a whole church spent hours over months praying for that first living child. So where is the bad?

We see things through a glass darkly here, don't we? We think because some suffering comes along, great or small, it is bad and how often to we blame God or question Him? Oh, sometimes we blame that other guy. We say, the Devil made me do it. But you know what, we aren't really giving the Devil his due. We're trying to escape our own failure and passing the blame to someone else.

But often suffering and pain has a purpose we cannot see with human eyes. Sometimes we find out the purpose later, sometimes we never know the real reason on this earth. Let me give a couple of examples:

Perhaps you have heard of a Dutch woman named Corrie Ten Boom (pictured right looking at a picture of her father). She was a member of a Christian
family in Holland who began hiding Jews from the Nazis, until someone ratted them out and they were arrested and thrown into concentration camps themselves, where most of the family died.
Corrie and her sister, Betsie, eventually landed in one of the worse of these places, called Ravensbruck. At what seemed great risk, for guards stood outside the doors and could burst in at anytime, the sisters spent nights in the filthy barracks preaching the Gospel to the other women imprisoned with them, and bringing people to salvation. But in all the months and nights of doing this, those guards never once came in and interrupted.

Each night, the sisters would pray out loud before going to sleep. Corrie would thank God for her shelter, for her food, for everything in her life, except one, until her sister said, "Corrie, aren't you going to thank God for the lice?"

She refused. She hated the lice, they tormented them all the time, itching, crawling and multiplying on their bodies. But her sister persisted and finally Corrie also began thanking God for the lice.

Later she discovered the reason those guards had never stopped their preaching and praying. There wasn't a single Nazi guard who was going to step inside those lice-infested cabins.

So, what's bugging you? What do you think God wouldn't allow if he were really a loving God with our best interest at heart? 

Let me give another:

Recently, because we have a newsworthy man with the conceit, without accomplishment, to compare himself to Lincoln, a TV network did a special on Lincoln saying they would answer questions such as "Was Lincoln an Atheist?" I didn't watch it, so I don't know what they said about the sixteenth President. But if they said he was an Atheist, they were wrong.   

It is true Lincoln once said, "I am not a Christian. God knows I would be one." He explained he "did not read the Scriptures like those clergymen in Springfield who opposed his election because of his skepticism".  Yet, Lincoln lived like he was Christian better than a lot who claimed to be. Still, he claimed he just couldn't understand the Gospel message. One of those closest to him, his law partner, Presidential secretary and long time bodyguard said: "the melancholy that dripped from him as he walked was due to his want of religious faith."

But something happened one day that brought the greatest sadness of his life. His son Willie got ill, lingered for some time and died. So ruined in spirit by this, Lincoln grieved every Thursday (the day of the week the boy died). Alone, seeing no one, he spent Thursdays in mourning, week after week, weeping and lamenting. What possible good can we see in this, the President so devastated by his child's death he is imprisoned by a shroud of depression?

The good was to come. The Rector of Trinity Church in New York, Dr. Frances Vinton, a family friend, came to visit. He was blunt when he was allowed to see Lincoln and found him slumped over lost in grief.  He told Lincoln he had no right to this indulgence, but Lincoln was not hearing until the Doctor's next words: "Your son is alive in paradise with Christ, and you must not continue." 

Hardly moving, Lincoln said, "Alive? Alive? Surely, sir, you mock me."

Dr. Vinton replied, "No, Mr. President, it is a great doctrine of the church. Jesus himself said that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."

Lincoln jumped to his feet, grabbed the Doctor in an embrace and through tears cried, "Alive! Alive! My boy is alive?" 

Something happened in Abraham Lincoln at that moment and he changed. 

Then in the midst of our bloodiest war, Lincoln stood at Gettysburg to dedicate a cemetery to the fallen. What good could come of such somber events, I wonder? 

Preserved in the Ford Theater Museum is a letter from an Illinois Preacher who spoke to Lincoln shortly before his assassination. It reads: the clergyman said to Lincoln, "Mr. Lincoln, do you love Jesus?" Lincoln replied, "When I left Springfield I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes, I do love Jesus."

So what's bugging you? What sadness hides God's love from you?

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"

So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. 1 Peter 4:12-19

The Photo at the top of this post is of my daughter Noelle's hands preparing a syringe during a medical mission in Ethiopia 2006 (Official U. S. Army Photo).

Monday, May 20, 2013

Anything for Love, But...


The Beatles once sang, "All you need is love, love; Love is all you need.
If all you ever need is love, then why does the couple have gifts behind their back to gave each other?
We Christians speak a lot about love. We say we love God. We say we love Jesus. We say we love each other. We say we love everybody. Is love really all that important?
" ‘...love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.' " Leviticus 19:18b
Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.' " Matthew 19:18b-19
" 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30-31
He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " 
"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." Luke 10:27-28
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 13:8-10 
Apparently, love is very important for the Christian to have. That is easy to say, but is it easy to do? I love my neighbors. But I have very nice neighbors who will help you if you need help and who are always friendly, and if they are going to do something they think may offend you, like put up a fence, they come and ask if it is okay with you.
Maybe it isn't so easy loving a neighbor who plays loud music all night or throws trash in your yard. Of course, it may be beneficial to show some love to your neighbor, even those bad ones. After all, maybe if you do, they'll throw the trash in the yard on the other side of theirs and not yours, or turn down the music if you ask, even lend you a tool on occasion.
But we're not suppose to love someone for what we can get out of it, are we? We're not to approach each other with those little bribes (and secret motives) hidden behind our backs.
Neighbors are one thing, we have to live with them, but love our enemies? That becomes a little harder. Do I have to really love my enemies? They do grievous things sometimes. What if they enslave people, take away their freedom, fight a war with my country to destroy my beliefs.
Yes, I can, because if I can't, they have already destroyed my beliefs.
It doesn't mean I don't fight the wars against injustice. It doesn't mean I don't condemn bad behavior. It doesn't mean I allow slavery. When we rail against those things, we do it out of love. When a child misbehaves, we punish that child out of love in order to stop the child from continuing their wrong desires and ruining their lives, not to inflict pain for pain's sake. And when the punishment is doled out, when the bad deeds end, when the wars are over, there is something else we do out of love, and we can never ever truly love ourselves if we don't.
"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass
away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether'.
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."  Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address 1865.
After the Civil War had ended, Abraham Lincoln traveled to the home of his enemy, the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis. Mrs. Davis greeted him at the door holding her young daughter in her arms. She told President Lincoln her husband wasn't home. 
The little girl was reaching out, trying to clutch him. President Lincoln took the girl from her mother and held her to his breast and she kissed him on the face. When he handed the girl back to her mother before leaving, he said, "Ma'am, tell your husband for the sake of that kiss, I forgive him for all." 
There was a song by Meat Loaf called: "I'll do Anything for Love, But I Won't Do That." 
We cannot love our neighbor. We cannot love our enemy. We cannot even love ourselves unless we do something, which too often we say "but I won't do that".  Yet we are commanded to do it by God and Christ, and we can with the help of the Holy Spirit. This brings us back to the full verse of Leviticus 19:18.
" 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.' "
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.' For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins Matthew 6:12-15
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment! James 2:8-13
We can never love, ourselves or anyone else, if we have never forgiven those who have hurt or wronged us. Do you really think there is someone in your life you cannot forgive?
Corrie Ten Boom, some time after the Second World War when she was free from the concentration camps, where her family and her beloved sister Betsie had perished, gave a speech and at the reception afterward she saw a familiar man coming toward her. Here is how she told it:
"Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; the place was the Ravensbruck concentration camp and the man who was making his way forward had been a guard – one of the most cruel guards.
Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: “A fine message Fraulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!”
And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course – how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?
But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. It was the first time since my release that I had been face-to-face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.
“You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard there.” No, he did not remember me.
But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, “ - again the hand came out - “will you forgive me?”
And I stood there – I whose sins had every day to be forgiven – and could not. Betsie had died in that place – could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?
It could not have been many seconds that he stood there – hand held out – but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
For I had to do it – I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If ye do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in Heaven forgive your trespasses.”
I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality. Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.
And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion – I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. “Jesus help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”
And so, woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes
“I forgive you, brother”, I cried. “With all my heart! ”
For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely, as I did then.
But even so, I realized it was not my love. I had tried, and did not have the power. It was the power of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Romans 5:5 “...because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”  by Corrie Ten Boom
I do not hate anyone. And I can say I have forgiven everyone I ever perceived had done me harm, to the point I cannot remember most of those hurts. There is one I remember because it was the hardest for me to forgive and my forgiving only happened recently. That was the Doctor who refused to come when my wife, alone and fearful, lost our first baby. This was the Doctor who came too late, when the silence corpse of that child lay curled within a pan, and said when asked what to do with it, "you can throw it in the garbage for all I care."
How did I forgive this? Because I do not know what was in that man's mind when he said that. What was he thinking? What terrible thing was in his heart? What burdens did he carry in his own life? There must be some deep hurt inside to enable such cruelty, especially from a Doctor pledged to do no harm. How can he be healed without forgiveness, and how could I have been healed from picking at the wound from that lash, so as to make it bleed over and over, and wound me over and over, if I wouldn't forgive him. If he is dead or alive, I pray he found true forgiveness from Our Lord and escaped Hell.
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. Galatians 5:13-15
When I write, I pray the Lord will guide me. But I am not Paul or any of the Gospel writers. I may quote God's words, but I am not writing as the voice of God. I believe what I write, but am not safe from imperfection and making an error of interpretation. I pay attention to what others say and review my thoughts against theirs and then test their thoughts and my own against Scripture. If I make a mistake, I ask your forgiveness. If I disagree with you in some matters, I ask it as well.
Sometimes when I read comments I see disagreement. Please do not allow disagreements to become bickering. We live in an evil world and we need each other to stand against Satan. If we disagree on some matter, and we have tried to resolve it and can't, we need to forgive each other and agree to disagree, unless the error is such it threatens the core of our beliefs and could bring harm to our brother. But still forgive and reach out and leave the judgment to God.
Even if we come under the most erroneous attacks as Christians, we must still forgive and pray for the attacker. Always remember:
When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One." Luke 23:33-35

The Illustration at the top of this post is not of so innocent love as it appears. It is a statue in a Korean Garden dedicated not to love, but to sex. We cannot have true love if our innocent front hides dark secrets and wishes for revenge against anyone. We are called to love and called to forgive.