Forgiveness

Posted on September 8, 2007
Filed Under Christianity, God, faith | 4 Comments

forgiveness
noun
1. compassionate feelings that support a willingness to forgive
2. the act of excusing a mistake or offense


Jonathan and I were talking about forgiveness today as he is at a healing conference this weekend. He asked me if there were any things that I needed to forgive him for. I didn’t think there were, but as I’ve thought about it I realized that underneath there are a few things which I do need to forgive him for. The more I thought about these things the more I realized that these things were out of his control. I shouldn’t “blame” him for them. In the whole sphere of live these things are small, and I didn’t even realize until I thought about it that there was even a resentment there. Now they’ve come to the surface I will forgive.

On the larger scale of things I have read through a lot of blog posts recently where people are displaying pain and hurts. I think writing about these hurts is part of the healing process, as well as bringing the various pains and hurts to God. The healing process isn’t something which happens overnight, it takes time, for some people a few years.

A lot of the time the root of healing is forgiveness. When we don’t forgive then we can’t let go and move on. When we don’t forgive we become bitter, angered and resentful. It’s important that those who have been hurt through church forgive, heal and move on. The worst thing that can happen is for the emerging-missional-whatever you call it movement to be seen as a bitter and angry people. We have to move on. We have to celebrate the good things about church and encompass them in our journey and expression of faith.

I, like most of us, have my forgiving and healing to do - it’s a process, sometimes I think I’m getting there and, well, other times …….. The prayer synchroblog has actually got me thinking more about the foundation of Christianity, the roots of our faith, and how that can echo through my life today.

Now I’ve never studied Greek before, but from my research on the internet I have found a few words which feature in the New Testament when talking about forgiveness. Apoluein means “to release.” Charizomai means “to grace you.” (It hails from the Greek word Charis which means Grace). Aphiemi means “to send away.” Paresis means “to disregard” my understanding is that paresis is used when referring to God not seeing our sins, he will disregard them.

Therefore in a round about way we can say that in forgiving God wants us to send away the offense (pain, hurt etc), to release the people/thing we are hurting over and to extend to them grace. When I talk with Jonathan about church he often says to me “people within the church system really believe that they are doing what is right, their heart is to do what is right, and we have to extend grace to them because of that, not judge them and become bitter towards them. A lot of them don’t think like us, but they’re good people. We have to embrace the good things about church.” He is a very wise man.

I don’t know where you are at today, whether you are hurting or not, if you are then I pray that you will soon find peace. I think we should all try and extend a little Charizomai to others today.

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Synchroblog thoughts

Posted on September 6, 2007
Filed Under synchroblog | 4 Comments

Erin, Cindy and I are compiling our thoughts from the prayer synchroblog, which we’ll be posting soon.  We don’t want the post just to be about our experience though.  We’d really like to include some of your thoughts from the synchroblogs.  What did you learn from reading them?  Did anything stand out to you in particular?  Did anything excite you? Did you notice a particular connection or theme flowing through the posts?  It’ll be great to read your thoughts, please post them here or email me via my contacts page.

Brian McLaren - I am an Athiest

Posted on September 5, 2007
Filed Under youtube | 5 Comments

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Holy Spirit

Posted on September 4, 2007
Filed Under Christianity, God, thoughts | 18 Comments

I am writing something here today which might potentially lose me readers, credibility, whatever. Last weekend I went to a conference which dah, dah, dah, John and Carol Arnot were at. I have to confess I really dug my heals in at the last minute and didn’t want to go at all. I did though, and was blessed in some ways, and left frustrated in others. I’ve been really interested in Robby’s posts recently about prayer ministry and ministry time questions and answers. In his posts Robby refers to the Vineyards five fold prayer model. Robby talks about how a more pastoral and Spirit led model of prayer has been replaced with the repetition of “more Lord” as if it were a charismatic incantational mantra.  Robby is all for the work of the Holy Spirit, and has experienced “on the floor” encounters with him many times.  In some ways I agree with Robby, as I have experienced many people using the “more Lord” mantra, as if they really didn’t know what else to pray. If I’m honest, quite often the “more Lord” mantra for me has been accompanied by someone pushing firmly on my head or shoulders, or sticking their foot behind mine, I guess trying to help me fall over?? I’m a stubborn soul though, and I don’t perform for anybody! On the other hand I have experienced wonderful people praying for me over the years, who did truly seem interested in why I wanted someone to pray with me.

The whole pessimist in me came out whilst at the conference. I couldn’t get my head around why as soon as John Arnot would raise his hand up loads of people would shrill, what was it they were getting in all of the rows in front of me, that I wasn’t receiving in my row? I found it difficult on the only evening that John Arnot spoke (there were various Christian speakers there) that he majored in on healing. Some people were genuinely healed, one man who I know had a heart problem healed that night. That’s wonderful. I found a pushiness to the evening as well though, as people were prayed for they were asked “does it feel any better?” some replied “I’m not really sure” the response to that was “Well you either know if it’s better or not, now tell me, does it feel any better?” One lady with a bad back problem had tears as she said “no it feels no better at all.” they prayed for her again to receive the same response, at that point they asked a ministry team member to pray with her, and then moved on to another person. I really felt for this lady. I wondered how many times she’d received prayer for her back. I wondered how many times she’d been disappointed in the past, and how much she hoped that tonight would be her night. I really hope that she receives healing.

The whole conference was focused on the Holy Spirit. That again is great, as you can never have too much Holy Spirit in your life. There was lots of talk about the river, but I wondered where other parts of Christianity fell into this, you can’t just focus on one aspect of God. The time I dreaded came - a call for all of the pastors and their wives (oh, yes, that’s me then) to go to the front and receive prayer. The Arnots, and a few others, started the “more Lord” mantra and the people went flying. John Arnot came up to me and squeezed my hands really tight - nothing- he squeezed them again - nothing. Like I wrote, I don’t perform for anyone if I’m going to end up on my back, then it’s God who is going to do it! John then stuck an imaginary hat - or something like that on me - and said “wear it”, he then moved on to my non obliging husband! Inside I was thinking “ha”, then Carol Arnot came up to me and squeezed my hand ……. and the next thing I knew was that I was on my back! I’m not really sure what I make of the whole Toronto thing and the Arnots. There are things they say and do which I simply do not agree with or believe. However, God is obviously using them - is it because they are more open to his Spirit? I don’t know. I cannot deny though, that when Carol touched me something went shooting through my body and literally knocked me off my feet. I know it was God because he ministered to me whilst I was on the floor. I guess as they say, his ways are not our ways.

I’ve been pondering over the past week though how the work Holy Spirit is viewed in emerging/missional Christianity. Is there a big enough place for him, or are we trying to run away too much from things such as the Toronto blessing, that we have squeezed the HS out a little? I’m processing this right now. What are your thoughts?

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Deb Smith

Posted on September 2, 2007
Filed Under Prayer, blog | 2 Comments

Patti contacted me and asked if I would mention a Christian couple in need of prayer at the moment, Tom and Deb Smith.  Deb was diagnosed with terminal cancer only a few months ago, and is seriously ill with the cancer having spread from her lungs to her bones, lymphatic system and retina.  You can find out more about Tom and Deb here.  Please remember them in your prayers, and all of those around the world who are currently suffering with terminal illnesses.

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