I listened this past month in my church on May 21st to a guest speaker, a Pastor, whose testimony just riveted me. This young man had been stabbed 37 times by an attacker who broke into his home. I cannot even fathom that kind of pain, and what he endured then, and later recuperating. Thank you Pastor Kevin Ramsby for such a powerful testimony.
We see nowadays, violence all around us, in ISIS attacks. I don’t understand that kind of hate. I never will. I’ve seen hates in families, including my own and what I came out of in 1969 from an abusive marriage. Hate kills, hate destroys, hate robs you of peace, hate will eat you up in illnesses, in stress, and all the while the devil keeps lying to you over and over. You can reference C. S. Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters” on Amazon. Scewtape being the devil, telling his friend Wormword, how to lie to us Christians.
“Hate,” Kevin said, “is learned behavior.” When I see what is going on even today, once again in Paris, all the London attacks, Christians too being persecuted and beheaded all over the world and another attack in the Philippians, the attacks in Cairo on Coptic Christians, and those beautiful churches being destroyed, I know that God isn’t happy. I know we are near the end time prophesies. For as I heard on Perry Stone the other night on TBN, his guest a doctor and a man who with a severe heart surgery, was transported to Heaven lying on the operating table. He saw his sister he never knew existed, died as a child, he saw the Throne of God in bright sapphire blue stone…and most of all he saw the horses…all the horses being trained. You say trained? Yes, trained for the next and last war, Armageddon. The riders though were not there yet…for they are you and I who will be caught up in the Rapture. Glory. Thank you Jesus for I know the time is near. For all the evil in this world, there is so much to look forward to. For all the Muslims that hate, there are thousands upon thousands getting saved. And there are also many Jews too finally accepting Jesus as their Messiah, and getting saved in Israel, according to Rabbi Schneider on Daystar. So much is happening it is mindboggling.
I see friends, acquaintances, with grown children, who won’t bother with them. Have Facebook friends, that are aging as I am now at 78, very despondent that they cannot get through to their children. One, friend, has her husband in a nursing home, and she is at times just so despondent and besides herself. I’m not alone.
The Bible is full of stories. Joseph in Genesis whose brothers tried to kill him, then settled on selling him in Egypt. He was his father’s favorite…Joseph and his coats. Then follows the story while he was in Egypt. Working for Pharaoh, Pharaoh’s wife came on to Joseph, and lied, putting him in prison. He had everything against him. But when the famine hit, his brothers came to Egypt to ask for help, and they didn’t even recognize him as by then, Pharaoh found out the truth, and raised Joseph up. Then he requested that his brothers bring his father down to Egypt, before he made a decision. Everyone knows how it ended, forgiving them and reuniting with his father.
We can remember David…Ah…King David, the apple of God’s eye. But David was a sinner, and committed adultery with Bathsheba, having her husband Uriah killed in war. The result was God took that first child she bore. 2 Samuel 16:23. Then look at Cain and Able. Could Cain run from God when he killed his brother Able? He hid in all the fields…the brush…but God followed him…”Cain..where are you?” What we see is generational curses at times, which include power and control, and dictate, our behavior. Which is why Jesus said in Luke:27-28,
“But I say unto you which hear” (refers to the fact that many refuse to hear), “Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you” (begins the most revolutionary lifestyle in the history of man; no religion in the world can remotely compare with this; for instance, compare this with the religion of Islam).
28 “Bless them who curse you” (speak well of), “and pray for them which despitefully use you 29. And unto him who smites you on the one cheek offer also the other “(meant to serve as a principle and not to be taken literally; for example; the Lord, Himself, did not offer Himself to be stricken again John 18:22-23, rebuked the one who struck Him; the principle is that one should not seek retaliation) “and him who takes away your cloak forbid not to take your coat also” )if one demands his rights too loudly, the loss could even be greater.)
- “Give to every man who asks of you; and of him who takes away your goods ask them
- not again.” (Portrays unselfishness, which ought to characterize every Believer.) Parenthesis, Expositors Study Bible.
To follow God, as Kevin said in his book, is “Forgetting what is behind.” Instead you choose a position that puts our opponent ….the past….behind us. Instead of being led by THEM, he says, it is choosing to LEAD memories instead of being led BY them. Didn’t Apostle Paul keep telling us to press towards the mark? That mark, is Jesus, the kingdom, perfection in HIM. The writings of Paul Bunyan, uneducated, with so much insight to the Kingdom, when he wrote Pilgrims Progress. Moses, too, forgave and served, never wanting any glory….always telling the Lord he was not worthy.. Hosea too, forgave his spouse when she betrayed him.
Mark 11:25-26 “And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses. (Implying that the above promises will not be honored, if we harbor unforgiveness, as forgiveness is from the Lord. On our part is predicated on us forgiving others. Unforgiveness breaks down relationships, which destroys the whole program of God; which means your sins will NOT be forgiven by God.) Parenthesis, Expositors Study Bible.
Consensus? if you do not forgive those who offended you, God the Father will not forgive you. We will all stand on that judgment seat one day!
Colossians says in 1:14-15 “In Whom we have redemption through HIS BLOOD Even the forgiveness of sins.”
Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”
I tell younger women now to be careful who you fall in love with. Make sure that man you fell head over heels with is ordained by God to be your life’s partner. Men, the same… I saw my ex before I married him, and his violence when it erupted. I should have known better, but I didn’t.
As for forgiving those who persecute us, as ISIS? Now that’s a hard one I’m working on. It is very hard. I can’t imagine these young men being brought up with all this hate since a young child. No education, learning how to shoot, use a knife to kill. What an awful existence. But we here in America who have schools, laws, churches, diversity, and freedoms, should not have homegrown terrorists, either. However, I don’t really think God expects us to not hold Muslims accountable. Enoch in the Bible was an Arab too, descended from Ishmael, mean, warring, hateful, called the “hairy one”, and the only one in the Bible God said, “Him do I hate.” I’m not going to fear the Lord chastising me for rebuking and chastising all these terrorists, who are killing Christians, maiming young little 3 and 5 year old girls, brutally right here in the US, cutting them with genital abuse. Nor the honor killings either. It is brutal..and these people have infiltrated our public schools proselytizing Christians. So I know God does not approve. In other words forgiving terrorists who kill is up to God to judge. (I feel). They are the extreme, but when we have hates and odds against our family members, neighbors, friends, we are to forgive…period.
Matthew 6:14-15 “For if you forgive men” (it must be the God kind of forgiveness) “their trespasses “(large sins), “your Heavenly Father will also forgive you“(forgiveness rests totally on the Atoning Work of Christ; it is an act of sheer Grace): “But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (We must forgive others if we expect it in return.) WHEREBY Pastor John Hagee said, To forgive without expecting a change in conduct is expecting Jesus to CONDONE your behavior! When your pray after abusing your wife/mother, when you pray it hits the net (like a tennis court) and falls to the ground…UNANSWERED! Oh, Lord if only people got this! Amen…
Churches, need to preach the Bible, gold, not brass. The Holy Spirit, not artificial smoke on a stage with Praise and worship of the world, flesh. Go back to Tozer, Spurgeon, C. S. Lewis. I pray now too for all those who have unforgiveness in their hearts, and ask you Lord Jesus to set your captives free. Thank you Lord, for all you do in In our lives. Blessings.
A FIGHT TO FORGIVE, by Pastor Kevin Ramsby
Love Thy Enemy?:
My Beloved Enemy:
https://jeworthen.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/my-beloved-enemy/
Forgiveness-The Lords Prayer:
MY HOPE FOR AMERICA UNDER GOD - "Hope is patience with the lamp lit." Tertulian "For we are saved by hope."Romans 8:24 I Shall not keep silent! 
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