This is right about the time I expect to throw off my most loyal readers.  Perhaps someone will come to HFO today and expect my latest verbal abuse of the most recent Jack Ass of the Week, only to find out we kindly retired our weekly feature this year.  Call it “Growing up”, but please don’t call it maturity because I don’t consider myself mature, nor do I take myself very seriously, as you’ll find out with the return of “Kevin’s Diary” in a few weeks.  However, I can tell you that I couldn’t have gotten through the past three years of my life without the help of a few great friends, and most importantly accepting Jesus Christ as my personal Savior.  I’ve found that there is only one “person” in the world that I can trust with everything, one person that won’t change on me, and one person I can say will always take care of my needs, even when I don’t know what I need.  In the coming months I will blog about the significance of the bible passage on the right side of HFO (Psalm 118:6), but right now I just wanted to talk about today’s devotional that I received through email. 

I started receiving these about 5 months ago, and I get them every morning.  They usually center around a central theme, reference a bible verse around that theme, and talk about how to incorporate that into every day life.  I’ll admit that sometimes they don’t resonate with anything currently happening in my life, but a couple times a week they will strike a chord with me and make me think about where I’ve been and what I want to do with my life.  I get them from In Touch Ministries, you can sign up for the same email at http://www.intouch.org/

Today’s central theme was forgiveness.  True forgiveness, which could probably be called forgiveness of the heart, or as I like to call it, no strings attached forgiveness. This has come in handy in my life the past few years as I’ve had to forgive and attempt to forget.  I can’t say it has always been easy, but the closer I get to this forgiveness the better I feel.  When you get to a point where you truly forgive someone, I would venture to guess that there is more weight lifted off your own shoulders than the “forgivee”.  There is a certain amount of anger, hatred, and emotional distress to not forgiving someone that always takesaway from your every day life.  In most occasions, the part of you taken away should be given to someone else; a spouse, parent, friend, or child.  When you carry around that hatred, you’re missing out on the happiness that you could share with others.  I don’t say that in a sense that I’ve got it all figured out, this is MUCH easier said that done, but I’ve experienced the relief of knowing that you’ve forgiven someone, and I know that I can truly move on.  I found that forgiveness in Jesus Christ, and only in Jesus Christ.  Anyway, I thought this passage today might help someone.  If it helps even one person, I’ll consider this blog successful. 

The Verse: Ephesians 4:31-32  “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

The Message:  Ephesians 4:22-24 describes two different “bents” that are found within every believer: the patterns of the corrupted old self–also known as “the flesh”–and the righteousness of a new nature in Christ. The characteristics of these opposing inclinations are vividly portrayed by today’s verses. The quality of forgiveness, or the lack of it, will largely determine which tendency predominates in our lives.

The inevitable result of an unforgiving spirit is anger, bitterness, and malice. By refusing to forgive, we allow the old sinful nature to dominate and produce its poisonous fruit. Every area of our life is affected when we refuse to extend to others the pardon which Christ so generously extended to us–in essence, we are treating those around us as we would never want the Lord to treat us. His mercy toward us has no limit.

Although the pain and injustice of an offense can break our heart or damage our sense of self-worth, a refusal to forgive denies God the opportunity to redeem the hurt. We want Him to change the offender and make him sorry for what he has done, but the Lord wants to transform us. A forgiving spirit frees us to live in our new Christ-like nature and enables us to see others though eyes of grace and mercy.

Look again at verses 31 and 32. Which one’s characteristics describe you? As believers, we all long to exhibit the qualities of our new nature, but the Lord can produce them only if we are willing to exchange offenses and grudges for tender hearts that forgive. Something has to change–let it be you.