There was a man who claimed to have had a heart attack -- he was a preacher by the way -- and instead of going to heaven, he was met by Jesus and sent to hell. Aside from the guy being bummed out because he forgot his sunblock for the hottest place in existence, he was very shocked to say the least that he was in hell. After all he was a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he had prophesied in His name, and cast out demons, and served his whole life in ministry, yet there he was, standing in disbelief at the gates of.
He turned to Jesus and asked why he was there and His answer was simple: "You have had a lot of resentment toward your wife."
The guy agreed with Jesus silently. He had a lot of unforgiveness in his heart toward his wife and now he stood dumbfounded at the truth that it was blocking God's forgiveness for his own sin.
Now up until this point I was VERY skeptical about this whole story but when he said that he was cast out from eternal life for unforgiveness, I started to think about the truth to that. Even if that story was a big lie, that little detail is very true.
Look at Matthew 18:21-35 which is the story of a king who brings a man before him and calls him out on the enormous debt that he owes him. And when I say enormous, I mean more money than the servant would be able to pay back in his lifetime. So the king tells his keepers to sell the servant's wife and children to help pay some of the debt and the man begins to grovel at his feet pleading for another chance.
The king had pity on this man and forgave his sizable debt without requesting anything from him! Can you imagine?
Every time I read this I always imagine my school telling me the same thing regarding my school loans. But seriously the depth of this king's forgiveness was incredible.
Now after the servant leaves the kings quarters, he sees a man on the street who owes him somewhere around twenty dollars and he grabs him and begins to scream at him and threaten him. Can you imagine? This man's million dollar debt was just fulfilled with the gift of forgiveness and now he is ringing this guy's neck over 20 bucks!
Well word got back to the king and he had the servant brought back to him. He was going to deal with him and deal with him goooooooood.
So many times I have been that servant; pointing my finger at everyone when God forgave me of killing His Son. I can never be good enough to earn a ''VIP'' spot to get me past the line to heaven. God's word also says that many people will stand before Him on judgment day condemned saying ''Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and did we not cast out demons and perform many miracles in your name?''(Matthew 7:22)
And God will say to them ''Depart from me you workers of iniquity. I never knew you.'' Wow! (Matthew 7:23)
GOD said: How can you say that you love me but you hate your brother? 1st John 4:20 He also said that if you can not forgive, then to that measure you will be unforgiven. It is encouraged these days to place yourself above the people that hurt you. Society says if you forgive, then you are weak and if you are humble, then you are worth taking advantage of; but I'll confess to you, that is a fatal trap to fall into. We have to learn to forgive and I find that when I do, I lose my crazy expectations that keep the people in my life that I love the most crippled and unable to live up to my crazy expectations.
Forgive us, God, and help us; teach us; discipline us so that we can forgive those all around us who hurt us.
Love,
Jeff
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