Jacobs Thoughts and Doings

This is an amazing cabbage.  Anna Ruth chops it up and mixes with onions for a tasty salad.

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Matthew 18:35

Who are we?  A short answer is, we are those who, because we follow the commands of Jesus Christ, forgive others and glory in the fact that we are forgiven.  The hard heart is broken, all pride crumbles.  We stand forgiven because of the atoning work of Jesus Christ and we are prepared to forgive others so that nothing stands in the way of life-changing grace that shapes our response to all.

As I think about it, if the followers of Christ do not experience the forgiveness of God and do not truly forgive others, what, then, does it mean to be children of the Kingdom of God that Jesus came to establish?  I do believe that the hallmark of sinners saved by Jesus has to do with forgiveness.  Remove that from the picture and then what?  We are no different from the world!

Jesus stresses this point if we would care to listen to Him!  The main character of the story he just told could not forgive even though he was forgiven!

Jesus closes by reminding us that the kind of forgiveness he is talking about is not just a way to get what we want, but is the result of a mighty work of God in giving us new hearts that do in fact seek forgiveness and forgive others.  Jesus makes it clear, unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”  It is the “from your heart” phrase that shatters all pretense.

Again, the marvelous gift of crying out for forgiveness and then the willingness to forgive others is at the core of our love for God Almighty.  It is as simple as that, and as important.

One of our first plants to bloom in the Spring is the marvelous yellow aconite.  I photographed this one at Jane and Glenn’s yesterday. It is almost saying, “Hallelujah!  God reigns.”

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”  Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.”

Matthew 18:  21, 25

Jesus again stressed the importance of forgiving and being forgiven.  I love this little story that Jesus told.  A fellow owed a staggering amount, a thousand bags of gold!  Not ten thousand gold pieces, but ten thousand bags!  I have no idea how big the bags were.  Obviously, the poor debtor faced a mountain of debt that he could not pay, ever.  Even if the fellow had been given ten lifetimes to pay he could not have come up with anything like this amount. It was more than 8 million dollars!  It was not only a colossal debt but the derelict debtor simply could not even begin to pay it.  Pleading on his knees the master had pity on him and forgave the debt!  Wow!  Is this not how we feel when Jesus pays our sinful debts and sets us free?

But that is not the major point of the story.  This forgiven debtor in a short time almost killed a person who owed him a trivial amount.  When the person who had just forgiven him that huge amount heard of this, he was outraged.  “‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.”

Jesus’ point is as obvious as it is difficult.  God forgives us for which we are thankful but then we fail to forgive those who owe us something!  Withholding forgiveness is not only not God-like but it withers the soul and causes untold problems.

The secret of walking with God is to forgive and be willing to be forgiven.  That is powerfully spoken in this story.

In my mind’s eye, I see all 4 billions of Christians right now forgiving all and being forgiven of all spiritual debts.  Tomorrow, look out!  A new power is released.  Lord, may it begin with me!

Jane’s early crocuses.  I am impressed with their exuberance.  It is like they are welcoming the first warm sun rays of Spring.  My  mind goes back to our hikes in the Alps when such crocuses sprang up just where the snow was reseeding and the earth was pushing growth. Some of those memories linger and bless!  God is good.

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.  But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.  For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Matthew 18:15 – 20

I think it is safe to assume that Jesus taught this in his final days before his crucifixion.  I say so because Matthew, the writer, included the teaching in Jesus’ final teaching and, secondly, because he wants to impress on his disciples how important it is for them to agree.  If they hold things against one another and live in a state of disagreement, their prayers will have no effect at all upon God.

Jesus begins his teaching by insisting that his disciples must work hard on seeking agreement, especially regarding right and wrong.  He begins by assuming that a follower of Jesus sins.  Jesus does not define sin as such in this passage, just assumes the readers will be able to define it. His point is on how to maintain peace and unity when one among them sins.  There is not a more important issue in pursuing God-honoring and serving fellowship.

Then the pure words of Jesus.  “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  This is astonishing but true.  Oneness in Christ Jesus opens the doors of heaven.  We can pray our hearts out, so to speak, but if we are not experiencing unity in fellowship we are indeed helpless to bind anything, either here on earth or in heaven.

Jesus is facing the cross, that is why he can say what he is saying.  He will spill his atoning blood that will enable us believers to live forgivingly and loving with one another.  I believe this is one of the most fundamental truths of all.  May we live it and experience it!

At first glance, the female blue bird seems pale, lacking the eye-catching brilliant blue of the males, but the female colors are also marvelous in their subtlety and harmony.

 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?  And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.  In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.”

Matthew 18:10 – 14

I find it most interesting that, in his final parables, and in his statements, he had not the powerful in mind but the “little ones.”  The politics of the time wrestled with the mighty power of Rome and the limited power of the Province of Palestine.  That did not enter Jesus’ discussion at all!  He spoke not of how God loves the powerful but the little ones who have no power at all.  Further, he insists that we should be satisfied to be powerless.

To illustrate his point, he again referred to one sheep of the hundred who wandered from the flock and found itself in an absolutely desperate situation.  That, according to Jesus is the state of “the little ones.”  They cannot rescue themselves.  To survive they must be rescued!

Jesus goes a bit further – when the helpless sheep, the little one, was found and returned to the flock, it was indeed a happy scene.  I must admit, I would have used the occasion to remind all in the flock not to wander off.  The Good Shepherd did nothing of the sort.  The sheep already knew that.  The new and startling thing was that the shepherd welcomed the “little one” back into the flock with shouts of joy from all.

Then, this most wonderful of truths –  our Father does not want any of us, his sheep, to perish!  What a Shepherd!

I can not get enough of the winter bluebirds that visited our place and savored a little suet. Blue birds are, for me, harbingers of spring.