THE WILL TO BE RECONCILED

IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT - HE CAME TO ME!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZJzO6E29gw&list=UUpUmxduWvxlTv1C-2JA4xtw



God and Sinners Reconciled! How absolutely wonderful.

 Surely God is not pleased with us. 

 Oh we stumble around and sometimes make some half hearted effort to apologize.  “I’m sorry I sinned,” we whisper, hoping that God understands our situation.  In fact, we’d be glad to explain the circumstances.  “They just lied to me.”  “They just took my things.” “They acted like I was a floor-mat—treated me like dirt.” So yeah God, “I’m sorry I took after them…I’m sorry I took from them…I’m sorry I took over.”  But you understand, right?

And actually, God does understand.  

I know my father is not pleased with me.  I know my mother is upset. I know my husband (or wife) doesn’t care for me. I know my brothers and sisters are at odds with me.  I know things aren’t right between me and my friend.  We rationalize.  “They were just mean.”  “They were so stupid!”  “They were just plain thoughtless.”  “They hurt my feelings.”

I would like to be at peace but that’s really not possible.  God understands. 

Yes, God does understand.

What God understands is that no matter how many injustices we have endured from others, He has suffered more—from our hand!  (Is that really so?)

What God understands is that no matter how many unkindnesses we have experienced, He has endured more—from us. (Is that possible?)

What God understands is that no matter how many times we have maliciously excluded others, He has been ignored and excluded more—by us.  (Is that true?)

I don’t like to face that.  I would much rather point out the faults, the failings, the sins of others, than to admit that I’m at blame.

Then God, “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” demonstrating His love for us, so that—“while were were God’s enemies we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son.” Romans 5:10. 

Oh what a Savior! 

The wronged pleads with the wrong—Let’s be reconciled. 

The selfless extends a hand to the selfish—Let’s be reconciled. 

The humble begs the proud—Let’s be reconciled.

The good comes to the bad—Let’s be reconciled.

The holy reaches to the sinful—Let’s be reconciled. 

And we who were at odds with God, humbly say, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”  The sacrifice of Christ is sufficient. We are indeed reconciled.  "The Spirit answers to the blood and tells me I've been born of God! "(Charles Wesley)

But there is more.   Reconciliation with God brings transformation in me!  “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.

In Christ I am no longer self-righteous, I am Christ righteous.

In Christ I am no longer self-sufficient, I am Christ sufficient.

In Christ I am no longer self-justifying, I am Christ justified.

In Christ I am no longer self-reliant, I am Christ reliant.

In Christ I am no longer self-centered, I am Christ centered.

In Christ I am no longer self-controlled, I am Christ controlled.

In Christ I am no longer self-made, I am Christ made.

This is not Christian theory.  This is Christian reality.

 The Dutch Christian Corrie Ten Boom, imprisoned by the Nazis for hiding Jews during the Second World War testified:

 “It was in a church in Munich that I saw him—a balding, heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken, moving along the rows of wooden chairs to the door at the rear. It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives.

“It was the truth they needed most to hear in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture. Maybe because the sea is never far from a Hollander’s mind, I liked to think that that’s where forgiven sins were thrown. ‘When we confess our sins,’ I said, ‘God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever. …

“The solemn faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe. There were never questions after a talk in Germany in 1947. People stood up in silence, in silence collected their wraps, in silence left the room.

“And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights; the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor; the shame of walking naked past this man.

I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were! [Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent.]

“Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: ‘A fine message, Fräulein! 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. I was 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. Fräulein,’ again the hand came out—’will you forgive me?’

“And I stood there—I whose sins had again and again to be forgiven—and could not forgive. 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 you 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. ‘… Help!’ 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”

(excerpted from “I’m Still Learning to Forgive” by Corrie ten Boom. Reprinted by permission from Guideposts Magazine. Copyright © 1972 by Guideposts Associates, Inc., Carmel, New York 10512).

God and Sinners reconciled!  How wonderful!