Proverbs 19:11, “The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.” ... Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.”
I was listening to Pastor John MacArthur today. He is wrong on repentance and salvation, so I do NOT recommend nor support his ministry! Albeit, this is a beautiful sermon, and I do love Pastor MacArthur as a person, praying that he would get saved. The sermon is called: “Forgiveness In The Age Of Rage.” Unforgiveness imprisons people to their past. As long as you refuse to forgive others, you are shacked to their offense. Only a fool would imprison himself in a past offense, by refusing to forgive so he can move on. Unforgiveness is a cancer in the heart that grows and expands, taking over more of your life until it destroys you. I define forgiveness as: “Letting an offence go into God's hands for judgment, so you can forgive that person and move on” (Romans 12:19-21).
We see Biblical evidence of this in the life of Joseph. Genesis 50:20-21, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?” Joseph's half brothers had betrayed him many years earlier, selling him into slavery! Most theologians think Joseph spent about 12 years in prison, where he suffered horribly. Psalms 105:17-19, “He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.” Please don't miss that last phrase... THE WORD OF THE LORD TRIED (TESTED) HIM!!! Our sufferings, losses, pain and burdens in life are all testing our faith in God's Word! Joseph had the power to kill his brothers! He could have tortured them, and sold them into slavery, like they did him! But Joseph, as an example of our precious God, forgave them by letting the offence go into God's hands. Joseph even said: “For am I in the place of God?”
Few people are knowledgeable today of “The Killing Fields” during the early 20th century, where tens of millions of people were brutally murdered in the fields of Russia. ...
One hundred years ago, the Russian Empire entered the bloodiest period any country on Earth had ever experienced before. Between the start of World War I and the death of Stalin 39 years later, at least 60 million men, women and children lost their lives. The monstrous arithmetic works out to 1.5 million dead per year, or more than 4,000 every day.
A majority of the losses occurred in peacetime, as the government systematically executed, starved and worked to death tens of millions of its own citizens. Even in war, while the Nazis perpetrated mass killings on occupied territories, the way Russian and Soviet generals chose to fight almost seems as though exterminating their own forces was part of the strategy. Tallying Russian losses in World War I, a German field marshal wrote: “Five million or eight? We ourselves know not. At times fighting the Russians, we had to remove the piles of enemy bodies from our trenches to get a clear field of fire against new waves of assault.”
By some estimates, a “war of choice” with Finland from 1939 to 1940 resulted in the loss of 500,000 Red Army soldiers, while the profligate waste of lives by Soviet commanders in the Great Patriotic War has been extensively documented by horrified military historians. No one knows how many died in any of those numerous killing fields. The names of the dead were not recorded and their bodies were dumped in mass graves, called “brotherly” in Russian. The total figure is a gross estimation and comes not from historians but from demographers, who compare the actual population size to what would have been expected under normal conditions.
While most peacetime killings were explained by the exigencies of class warfare against “capitalists and landowners,” ordinary people, workers and peasants were caught in the dragnet in huge numbers. Entire ethnic groups were declared traitors and deported with many people dying along the way. But inasmuch as killings were targeted, they fell heavily upon the smartest, best-educated, most hard-working and productive citizens. The wars, too, tended to kill off the brave and the honest. It was a deliberate extermination of the nation’s elite, not unlike what the Nazis did in occupied Poland — except it was done by Russia’s own government to their own citizens and over a lifetime of an entire generation.
Once again, it is hard not to conclude that sabotaging Russia’s future was part of the strategy. Agriculture was a case in point. First, the government eliminated the most productive and skilled peasants and then killed off the leading biologists, promoting charlatans and fools instead.
What is most striking about this period is its utter futility. In the end, Russia followed the same course as other European nations, but at a grotesquely higher cost. It became urbanized and industrialized, it lost its empire, and its former imperial subjects flooded in, forming a multiracial, multicultural society. It became integrated into the world economy, and its economic model — exporting natural resources and importing manufactured goods — has emerged strictly within the global economic framework.
Despite the mass murder of priests, Orthodox Christianity is once again on the rise, displaying the same vices as a century ago. Even the so-called national character has changed little. Russians love to quote 19th-century writer Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, whose biting satire is just as relevant today. Russia is yet to come to terms and understand what the wanton killing of tens of millions of its citizens was all about.
*AUTHOR: Alexei Bayer, a native Muscovite, lives in New York. His detective novel "Murder at the Dacha" was published by 'Russian Life Books' in 2013.
SOURCE: Russia's Killing FieldsJohn 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
God is a forgiving God!!! Whoever has offended you, has offended God more. if God can forgive them, then why cannot you? Do you have higher standards than God? Are you more significant than God? If the most holy being can forgive sins, then why cannot you, the most low sinner, forgive? I am taking these statements from Dr. MacArthur's sermon. it is great stuff! It is a serious thing not to forgive. The one who does not forgive will not be forgiven!
Romans 12:16-21, “Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”We are not the Judge, God is! It is easy for us to think that God is too slow, tempted to take matters into out own hands. God has the full authority, we have none. God is impartial, we are not. God have complete knowledge of the offence, we do not. God is wise and good and acts in perfect holiness; we are blinded by the sin of anger, not in a position to be a judge of anybody. LEAVE IT TO GOD!!!
The injuries and offences against us are the trials that perfect us in the faith. Criticisms, injustices, offences, persecutions, false accusations, unfairness, mistreatments, abuse, unkindness—these are all within the purpose and providence of God. These all perfect our faith. What saith the Scripture? James said to count it all joy when we fall into trials (temptations), because they perfect our faith. James 1:2-4, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” The theology of forgiveness is summed up in one person—Jesus Christ!!! We often hear people say they are being abused, and that it is not fair, and we want vengeance. If we patiently endure it, we find grace with God. Since Christ also suffered for us, who did no sin, He has given us an example to follow.
Ephesians 4:30-32, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”
