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Honey From The Rock Psalm 81:16 |
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FORBEARANCE & FORGIVENESS This entry was posted on 09-04-2008 and is filed under uncategorized. It has now been more three years since my friend and mentor Donald G. Hunt went to be with the Lord. On the way to Colorado, where he died of a heart attack, he was working on the sermon he would never deliver. He had been assigned the subject of "forgiveness." His wife was driving the car and Brother Hunt said to her in passing, "You know Margaret, it's impossible to forgive until you learn to forbear." He was right.
Our text today says, "Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another..." (Col. 3:13a NKJV). Forbearance is one of the least practiced virtues in the Christian life. The lack of forbearance is the major reasons why churches divide. Forbearance is putting up with people you'd like to put down. I saw my mentor practice forbearance many times in his life. He was often the target of malicious gossip and slander, but he never returned in kind. To forbear is to practice self-restraint and show Christlike tolerance. It is biting your tongue when you feel like biting someone's head off. God is the source of forbearance (Rom. 2:4; 3:25). Can you bear with others like God has put up with you? "Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men" (Phil. 4:5 NASB). The late Carl Ketcherside observed, "If fellowship in Christ was conditioned upon perfect agreement, there would be no place for forbearance, and the instruction to 'forbear one another in love' would be useless." Prayer: Forbearing Father, grant to us Your forbearing and forgiving spirit, that we might reflect You more in our daily lives. |
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