What Do You Call Love?

God gave us His Son, then sacrificed Him on the cross, Love is what you do, not something you say. God's forgiveness is the greatest act of Love...

John 3:16

If you haven't read "If this doesn't fix it, then nothing will", please read that post first. This is a continuation of the previous message.

Forgiving is what we do by the grace of God. Without forgiveness we cannot maintain relationships. It's God's forgiveness that restores our relationship with Him. The secular world in the movie "Love Story", promoted a concept that Love is "...never having to say I'm Sorry". But real people who really Love will make mistakes, and the best thing to do when you mess up, is to admit your guilty condition in humility, repent, and say "I'm Sorry". What would happen if we simply, never told God, "I'm Sorry!" Sorry and Thanks are two words that we should never forget to use repeatedly in our conversations with God.

To forgive and forget is the reason God sacrificed His own Son on the Cross. This great act of Love was made in order that God could forgive and forget the great enormous number of transgressions that we have made against Him. As Christians, we have to learn how to forgive and forget. We say that we forgive, but most will argue that forget principle to death. The truth is that God has established this act of love with the Highest standards. However, let me make a distinction between forgetting and not remembering.

Memory is like your computer, once written it will always leave an impression. It is impossible to completely erase information from a computer. Many criminals have found out the hard way that erase does not always mean what you think it means. Spiritual forgiveness is about not recalling the memories that you've decided to forgive. It's a choice we must make, to maintain relationships. If my brother steals from me, and I forgive him, I can't remind him every time he enters my house. There is no point in forgiving the past, if it doesn't effect the future. Yes, it does open us up to perpetual disappointment, when the one forgiven, continues to trample on our grace. But is that any different than, how we trample on God's grace, since He forgave us completely?

What do you call love? How do you show someone else that you love them. How do you put your Love into action. What is it that you can give? How or what do you sacrifice to show your love. Do we give our time, our money or our abilities. Did you ever consider that all of these things that we try to give were first given to us. We give time, which doesn't belong to us, We give money that doesn't belong to us. Forgiveness is a unique gift that when given truly from the heart gives more to the giver than to the recipient.

Forgiveness is a gift of relationship restoration, and reconciliation. The one forgiven, must still accept this valuable gift, in the manner given. Just like we must accept God's gift of salvation, before it becomes a reality in our lives, so must the forgiven in our relationships. So why do we bother to forgive those, who seemingly don't want it or deserve it?

Our obedience to our Father, who commands that we must forgive as He has forgiven us. Our failure to forgive nullifies our own forgiveness with the Father. Forgiveness is God's greatest act of Love. God sacrificed His only Son, that we might be forgiven. What greater act of Love can we show each other?

I'm sorry... and I forgive you....

For what? For everything!

Forever, For Always, For Jesus!

Jesus is coming again! J.W.O.S. Spread the Word. Rev. Brian K. Shobe