In our readings this morning, I was drawn to one of my old favorites, Psalm 130: 1 I cry out to you from the depths, Lord— 2 my Lord, listen to my voice! Let your ears pay close attention to … Continue reading
Out of the Depths
Tag Archives: Forgiveness
Day Fifty-Three with Mark: Mark 14:26-42
Today in Mark, we look at Chapter 14: 26-42:
26 When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 27 And Jesus said to them, “You will all become deserters; for it is written,
‘I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered.’
28 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” 29 Peter said to him, “Even though all become deserters, I will not.” 30 Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, this day, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” 31 But he said vehemently, “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And all of them said the same.Jesus Prays in Gethsemane
32 They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. 34 And he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.” 35 And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.” 37 He came and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour? 38 Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 39 And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. 40 And once more he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to say to him. 41 He came a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Enough! The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.”
A couple of things stand out to me about these passages. First, let us remember, that it wasn’t just Judas that betrayed or didn’t stand up for Jesus in the moment. Everyone (but for John) deserted. And here is the thing to remember about Jesus in this. He still loved them. Even though the failed, even though they weren’t faithful, His love for them did not change. Remember, Jesus love for us is not based upon our actions or our faithfulness, His love for us is based upon who He is.
We are not loved because we are good. We are loved because He is good. And it is His goodness that in time makes us good.
We see this the most in Peter. Peter was the leader and after Jesus says that He will be left by everyone, Peter says, no, not I. And Jesus says, you will deny me three times.
We see the disciples begin to fall away, when Jesus was praying. And to me, that’s the second thing that stands out in this passage. Look at how Jesus prayed. Look at the passion, the pain, the hurt. Remember that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. He knew the cross was coming. He knew what was going to happen. He knew what awaited.
And He still chose it. Because He loved us. He loved His disciples that would deny Him soon, and He loves us, who do much the same. He knew what must be done for the salvation of the world.
No one took Jesus life from Him. No one murdered Him. He willing chose the cross.
So when you read the story of the Garden, remember the prayer He prayed, remember the help He sought from His Father, remember the passion and strength it took.
Remember the choice He made, for us and for the world. Remember God’s plan, from the very creation for our redemption.
Remember how much you are loved.
Tomorrow we’ll look at Mark 14:43-52.
What questions do you have? How does this strike you? Shoot me an email, comment below, or connect with me through social media.
If you’d like to receive these thoughts by email, be sure to click here and join my email devotional group!
The Greater Gift
In today’s reading, we hear a story that we have all heard a lot, and those are always fun stories. Stories that are familiar, stories we love. Listen to part of it, Mark 2: 1-5:
1 When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. 3 Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
You’ve probably heard sermons about friendship, how far we should be willing to go to help our friends meet Jesus. Perhaps about the power of their faith. If you were to keep reading this text, you’d see that Jesus tells the man that is paralyzed to get up and walk, showing His power to heal those that are sick.
But when I reading this morning, something else spoke to me. Notice what the very first thing Jesus does is. He says – your sins are forgiven. In fact when we see Him heal this man, that healing is really evidence that He has the power to forgive sins.
Yes, we do see healing take place. But we see in this text what the greater gift is. Forgiveness.
Of all the things that Jesus can give you, the one that we may be most tempted to take for granted is that greater gift. Forgiveness.
Life is not perfect. There are troubles. There are hurts. There is pain. There is loss. There many things that really do bring troubles to our soul and to live our lives. And hurt. And Jesus wants to heal them. He is the healer of the nation.
But first, He wants to heal our greatest need and hurt. Hear those words of Jesus. Today, your sins are forgiven. Hear that again. Today, in and through Jesus, you are forgiven.
You may face the same trials today that you faced yesterday. You may face the same hurts. The same pains. The same temptations.
But hear it again. You are forgiven. For real. You are. Through the power and love of Jesus, you are forgiven. The mistakes of the past, the stuff you’ve done wrong, the things that weigh you down, you can let them go. Because Jesus has.
Today, no matter what has happened in your life, He offers you the greater gift. Forgiveness.
Today, may we live in that gift.
If you’d like to receive these thoughts by email, be sure to click here and join my email devotional group!
The Greatest Gift
Today I was reading a passage that we have heard many times, a passage that we’ve probably all heard a lot of sermons about.
It’s the story of the man that’s paralyzed and his friends bring him to Jesus. It’s a great story. I read it as found in Mark 2: 1-12. There are so many things that I like about the story. The way that the friends are willing to do anything to get their friend to Jesus.
How Jesus heals the friend and impressed with their faith.
His response to the Paraphrases and religions leaders.
But today, something jumped out at me that I didn’t notice before. Look at what happens in the end of this story in verses 8-12:
And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic — “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
What is the greatest gift this man gets? His healing? Well if you look at the text, the healing isn’t there for its own sake, but it’s there to show and prove that the greater gift was given.
The greatest gift Jesus gave this man wasn’t His healing. It was that Jesus forgave His sin. That’s the greatest gift that Jesus gave to this man, He forgave him for all that he had ever done.
That was Jesus greatest gift to this man.
And that’s Jesus’ greatest gift to us. Forgiveness. He has forgiven you. In spite of everything that you’ve done, you are doing, you will do, if you repent and confess, you are forgiven.
That’s the greatest thing ever. That’s where true healing begins. True healing in our lives, in our families, in our relationships, in our families, in even ourselves, that’s where it begins. With forgiveness.
With God forgiving us. And our realization that God has forgiven us.
And then we forgive others.
Today, in Christ and through Christ, you are forgiven.
That’s the gift He wants to give you today.
Will you accept it?
Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones, and you thought our app, you can now watch our worship services from Asbury too!
How Confession and Forgiveness Work
This past Sunday at Asbury, I preached the last message in our series Thankful. In this series, I talked about the things that we have to be thankful for, we have so many gifts, God has given us a purpose, and finally, I talked about our healing.
The word salvation in the Bible can also be understood as being made “whole.” It isn’t just that God has saved us, but He has made us whole. He had healed us. He has forgiven us.
Forgiveness is a powerful concept. But, how does it work? What is the role that we play in our forgiveness? What is the role that God plays in our salvation?
One of the things that we have done have done is that we have made forgiveness, salvation, all the stuff of God something that we have to earn. We have to do something to be forgiven.
No. We have to accept it. God has forgiven us. The work is done. So, then, what is our role. Are we to do anything? We just get to sit back? Everyone, everything is perfect? No, not really. Listen to what it says in 1 John 1: 8-9:
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We have a response to make to God’s offer of forgiveness. We don’t “make” God forgive us. We don’t earn it. We don’t do anything to cause it to happen.
We just have to accept it.
And that’s our response. We confess it, not for God’s benefit, but for our’s. Confession is for our good, not for God’s. Confession lets us receive it.
This is why we confess. It makes us take ownership. It makes us look in the mirror and say this – I was wrong. I make a mistake. I failed. It blew it.
If we don’t truly, truly know that we are wrong, we can’t truly, truly feel forgiven. We have to confess. We have to receive it. We have to do our part, for us to truly know and feel that forgiveness.
God has forgiven you. But to truly know it, you have to confess. You have to accept. Without that, you won’t know the true power of His forgiveness.
Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones, and you thought our app, you can now watch our worship services from Asbury too!
A Week on Forgiveness
I’m going to be walking through the concept of forgiveness
this next week with a friend during a daily Bible Study. I thought I’d share the passages with you, in case you may want to walk with us.
Saturday – Psalm 103
Sunday – Matthew 18:21-35
Monday – Isaiah 53
Tuesday – 1 John 1: 5-9
Wednesday – Romans 12: 9-21
Thursday – Luke 17:1-4
Friday – Ephesians 4: 26-27
How to Be Forgiven
Today in our passage, we are going to look at two people praying. Let’s look at their prayers, and see what we can learn about our own walk with God.
Luke 18: 10-14:
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayer thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
We see two men pray. One was a Pharisee, one was a tax collector. Just a little back ground, Pharisees would best be understood as sort of like preachers. They were educated, they knew the law and the customs of the people and part of what they did was they taught the law to the people and made sure that it was kept.
A Pharisee felt like his calling was to make sure that people correctly followed God and His law.
A tax collector was someone that was Jewish and worked for the Roman government. They quite often would use the power of the government to extort money from their own people. They were seen as traitors by other Jews, they were literally hated.
So, here we see a religious man that should be looked up and respected by his peers, and someone that was literally hated.
And yet, in this parable, who walks away forgiven? The tax collector.
Why? Why was he forgiven?
He asked for it. He admitted his need, and asked forgiveness for it. And he received forgiveness for it.
Why was the Pharisee not forgiven? He didn’t ask.
So, how are we forgiven? First, we have to realize that we need forgiveness. Don’t think we are perfect. Don’t think we’ve got it all figured out. Understand our need.
And then, ask for forgiveness. And we will be forgiven.
Today, no matter who you are, where you are, what has happened, you can be forgiven. Really. Just ask. It will happen.
Today, live in the forgiveness. Live in new life. You are forgiven.
Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.
Something New
The Bible always tell us that God is doing something new. Something big. Something that we probably won’t be able to even understand.
That’s what God does. He always does something huge.
And so, as we stand, one foot in this new year, what new and big thing does He want to do in your life? What resolution have you started, that day two into it, you are already a little wishy-wash on? What life changing thing do God want to start right now, this instant, this moment? God is wanting to do something big. Listen to the words that were said by John the Baptist when he saw Jesus for the first time in John 1:29-30:
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’
The Lamb of God that takes away the sins the world. Takes away the sins of the world. Takes away the sins the world.
That is what God longs to do, not just for me and for you, but for the entire world. Take away our sins. Start over. Start fresh. Begin again. Begin a new.
God wants to take away your sins. Do you really grasp that? In a world that remembers and holds onto and lets go, never forgives, God wants to take away your sins. And the sins of the world.
What is that something new that you can start in this new year? How about this? Let go. Let go.
Let Him do what He wants to do. Let Him take away your sins. Let Him let you start over.
Let’s try that
Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phone
What We are Here For
One of the questions that we are prone to ask a lot in life is this – why are we here? What is our purpose? What are we to do? Why does God have us where He has us?
What is our reason and our purpose in life?
Today, in Psalm 106: 6-8, David writes a little about what we are here for. Listen to what it says:
Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness. Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power.
This Psalm is the story of Israel and God. It tells of their unfaithfulness and God’s faithfulness. And so, the question is raised, why is God so faithful to His people when they are so unfaithful?
Why does He save them when they wander away so far?
What does He restore and give grace when they fall so often?
Why does He save?
This is why. He saved them for His name’s sake. He saved them, that through them, His power and His might and His glory would be made known.
He saved them, in spite of their sin, because through them, He would be glorified, He would be lifted up, He would be worshiped.
Why are you here? What are we here for? Why are we saved? For God. For His purpose. For His glory. For His plan.
You purpose in life is not to have a job or get a house or a car or fame or status or anything like that. Your purpose is to know God. To worship and glorify Him. And to, through you, let His light shine out into the world.
That’s what you were created for. That’s what I was created for. That’s what all of us were created for. That’s what we are here for.
To glorify God. To live in His grace.
You have been saved, you have been forgiven, you have been loved so that you can give glory to God. So that you can worship Him. So that you can point others to Him.
Live in that, and find life. Live in Him and find life. Live in Him and find your purpose.
We were made for Him. May we live in His life today and always.
Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.
Fresh Starts
God is a God of fresh starts. He wants us to start fresh and new, every single day. He wants to forgive us, restore us, and all us to restart.
That’s who He is. That’s the kind of God that He is. That’s what He longs to do with us, for us, and through us. He’s a god of fresh starts.
Listen to what He tells Jeremiah in chapter 3:12-14:
Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, “Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord. Return, O faithless children, declares the Lord; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
Jeremiah is speaking to the northern kingdom of Israel. He is telling them, confess what you’ve done, confess your sins, your wrong doings, your mistakes. Give them to God and He will forgive.
That’s what He does. He’s a God of fresh starts. Confess. Move on. Start new.
But why, why do we have to confess? Why do we have to do that? Why does God make us confess?
I’ve got a theory. I don’t think God makes us confess our sins for His sake. He doesn’t “need” us to do that for His sake. My theory is this. Perhaps it’s for our sake. Perhaps, in admitting these sins to God, we get to be honest. We admit that we aren’t perfect. We can’t lie. We can’t pretend. We’ve made mistakes.
And in those mistakes, instead of the judgement of the world, we find the grace, mercy, and forgiveness. We find that God love us more than He hates our mistakes.
God is a God of fresh starts. When we confess our sins, we being that fresh start. We find grace. Mercy. Love. Compassion.
Today, may we confess our sins and weakness to God. May we give them over to Him. And in that, may we find His mercy, there waiting on us.
Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.
RevAndy.org 