Most of us do a good job of thanking God for our material and relational blessings, but sometimes we forget to thank God for His greatest gift to us: forgiveness. A. W. Tozer draws our attention to the eternal life that God has given us:

We ought to spend more time remembering the blessings and the benefits God is continually giving us while we are alive-before we leave this vale of tears! He gives us forgivenes – so we are to live for Him as forgiven sinners. He gives us eternal life. This is not just a future reality – our life in Him is a present bestowment. He gives us sonship: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God!” In this relationship there are many other gifts we receive from God, and if we do not possess them it is because we are not God’s children in faith! We ask God to help us, to meet some need, to do something for you, and the Lord mercifully does it. I consider these the little and the trifling things, yet we make a great deal of them. But they are really the passing things compared to the great present benefactions of forgiveness, reinstatement in favor with God, sonship and eternal life!

Read the rest of the devotional at cmalliance.org.

Take some time today to thank God for your salvation, every other blessing we’ve been given pales in comparison.

When God looks at us, however, He sees right through our facade… straight into our sinful hearts. Before God, we are wretched condemned criminals. Thankfully, as Joe Stowell reminds us in this devotional, God has extended an amazing grace to us:

If we were to look at ourselves the way God sees us even when we have it all together, we would see something totally different. He sees through all of our efforts to be lookin good. His vision probes far deeper than the all-too-cool clothes we wear, our makeup, our rippling abs and our great tan. He strips away the layers of self-delusion and penetrates deep into our hearts where each of us is a desperately lost sinner. And, no matter how good you think you are, its not until we know that we are like condemned criminals before Him that we can begin to understand how amazing His grace really is. When you can honestly say that His grace saved a wretch like you, you can begin to stand in amazement at the greatness of His grace. In fact, His grace is only a sweet sound when you know how deep it had to go to clean you up!

What is Gods amazing grace? Its the outstretched love of Jesus whose agonizing death and victorious resurrection saves us from who we really arenot from who we think we are. Romans 5:8 says: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He died the worst kind of death imaginable, because it needed to cover the wretchedness of our desperately lost souls. We werent lookin good when He died for us. If we were as cool as we think we are, He could have stayed in heaven. But like hopeless beggars trapped in the sludge of sin, we needed Him. And so He came and died in our place. Now thats what I call amazing!

Do you feel like a wretch before God? How does knowing that God doesn’t care about your outward appearance change how you live?

But here’s a new wrinkle to consider: what if it’s too late to extend forgiveness, because the person who hurt us is dead or gone? What if we hurt somebody who is no longer around to hear our apology or our plea for forgiveness?

Charles Swindoll addresses this question today in Day by Day:

I suggest you share your burden of guilt with someone whom you can trustyour spouse, a counselor, your pastor. Be specific and completely candid. Pray with that person and confess openly the wrong and the guilt of your soul. In such cases prayer and the presence of an understanding, affirming individual will provide the relief you need so desperately.

After David had indirectly murdered Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, his guilt was enormous. Adultery and hypocrisy on top of murder just about did him in. Finally, when he was caving in, he broke his silence and sought God’s forgiveness but Uriah was not there to hear his confession. He had been dead almost a year. The broken king called on the prophet Nathan and poured out his soul, “I have sinned….” Nathan followed quickly with these words: “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die.”

Death or geographical distance can disrupt the critical act of reconciliation between two people. But God’s grace is greater yet. If your conscience burns over an apology never offered or forgiveness never extended, it’s not too late to bring it to God and find peace.

We’re all familiar with the old saying “the Devil made me do it!”, but I don’t think most of us would take that excuse very seriously if we heard it from somebody who’s done wrong. But it does raise interesting questions: what exactly is Satan’s relationship to sin? Are there situations in which the Devil actually could make us sin against our will?

Our Daily Bread tackles the question and lays out the Christian understanding of Satan and his role in tempting us to sin:

The devil tempts believers, but he doesn’t make us sin. James tells us that God isn’t to blame either: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” (James 1:13). He is good and holy.

So who is to blame for our sin? James says, “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” (v.14). Just as a fisherman uses bait to lure his prey, so our own evil, unchecked desires lead to giving in to temptation and sin.

When we disobey God by sinning, let’s not shift the blame or justify our actions with the faulty “the devil made me do it” theology.

Our sin is our own; the devil may tempt us toward sin, but we’re the ones who make the final decision to obey or disobey God. I’ve always found this Christian understanding to be simultaneously sobering and comforting: on the one hand, we can’t wiggle out of the responsibility for our sins by blaming the devil; but on the other, we can rest assured that the devil has no power to make us disobey God.

What do you think? Has anyone ever tried the “Satan made me do it!” line on you, and how did you react?

It’s a story that plays out every few years: a leader falls from grace, goes into a period of rehabilitation, and then attempts to rebuild their ministry. Google can help you find countless additional examples of leaders who have gone through this process. To me, there’s always an element of concern that surrounds these reappearances: Will anyone ever trust these leaders again? Should they?

I believe in mankind’s limitless capacity for sin, and in the limitless power of God’s forgiveness and grace. However, just as it takes time for one to become ensconced in sin, it takes time to break free from it. And the people who are hurt by someone else’s sin often need time to forgive as well. When I’m wronged, I always attempt to forgive people quickly with words, but it often takes my heart a bit longer to catch up to that commitment. I don’t think I’m alone in that sentiment. I can only imagine the difficult issues one would have to work through after a trusted pastor’s fall from grace.

Haggard’s fall and return will not be the last story like it, so rather than debate the merits of his particular circumstance I’d rather use it as a way to give context to a discussion on the restoration process. It’s unfortunate, but many of us have trusted (or will trust) a leader who has gone through a moral failing of some kind. The Bible doesn’t give us an outline of how to restore a leader, although 1 Timothy 3 outlines the qualifications overseers and deacons should have before they start their ministry, which seems to give us a good overview of where a leader should be before they return to ministry.

How do you think the restoration process should happen? Should there be an imposed timeframe in which the leader is considered “barred” from ministry? What steps should they have to go through in order to be considered fit for ministry? And how should the hurting people left in their wake handle the situation?

There are many good questions raised by the story (see GetReligion’s discussion, for starters). Did the church behave responsibly in this situation, both toward Deichman and toward the rest of the congregation? What is the place of forgiveness when mental illness is involved?

Despite the inspiring grace and forgiveness shown by the church in the aftermath, the story doesn’t have a satisfactorily happy ending. Mental illness upsets our ordinary understanding of guilt, responsibility, sin, and forgiveness. Whether Deichman serves jail time for arson or (as the church hopes) receives treatment instead, it’s unlikely that anyone (even Deichman) will ever be able to answer “Why?”

Yet this remains an inspiring story—the patient love shown to Deichman by his brother, and the enthusiastic welcome extended to him by the church, are the very definition of Christ-like grace. And I think it’s a miracle—in the genuine act-of-God sense—that nobody was hurt or killed in the fire.

What’s your reaction to this story? Can you relate to the church’s actions—their embrace of Deichman and their forgiveness of his crime? How has your church interacted with mentally ill people in your community and congregation, and what have you learned as a result?

Below: striking video footage of the church fire.

That’s the theme of this devotional from Words of Hope, which looks at the corrupt, arrogant ancient church at Laodicea. This was a church that was busy ignoring every one of God’s commands, but incredibly, Christ still persisted with his offer of forgiveness and restoration:

The church in Laodicea had a high opinion of itself. They felt that they were rich, had prospered, and needed nothing. But to the searching eye of the risen Lord they were “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” Quite a different evaluation!

The Laodiceans were so self-satisfied and complacent, so lukewarm, that the Lord was ready to “spit them out” of his mouth. No other church in Asia had received that kind of withering rebuke. They were in desperate need of repentance.

Yet the Lord wanted to give them true riches, white robes to clothe them and new vision…. Then came the astonishing offer. “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me.” To even the most proud, nauseating, and messed-up people, Jesus offers his abiding presence and fellowship when they turn afresh to him.

Read the full devotional at Words of Hope.

If you’ve ever worried that sin in your life—or in the life of a loved one—is too much for God to forgive, this is the most reassuring passage in the entire Bible. If God’s offer of forgiveness and love stood for the broken hypocrites of Laodicea, it stands for all of us!

Can we disappoint God to the degree that He will finally say, “That’s it!” and just give up on us? I don’t think so. The children of Israel did a lot of things that disappointed God and He disciplined them for their folly but He never disowned them. David, although we sing his praises and consider him to be one of the Bible “greats,” really got into an awful mess with Bathsheba and God still called David, “A man after God’s own heart.” Peter denied the Lord but the Lord gave him another chance—which Peter took. I love the picture of Peter throwing his tunic on to cover himself then jumping into the water and running to see Jesus (John 21:6-7). It’s pretty difficult to find a well-known Biblical character that has a perfect record.

And we analyze ourselves and remember all the wrong steps we have taken’and ask, “Does His patience never, ever give out?” Yes, but losing His patience with us will never ever result in our being separated from Him. That just won’t happen. Most of us have had children who disappointed us, but we never ceased to be their parent. His patience doesn’t wane because of our errant ways, our sinful lifestyle, or our poor performance.

Read the full devotional at Lifetime Guarantee Ministries.

Our sins can frustrate, anger, and disappoint God. But the one thing they cannot do is negate His desire to see us redeemed and restored through Jesus Christ.

Do you ever worry that your sin or rebellion has caused God to completely abandon you? Have you experienced God’s forgiveness even after you were sure He had given up on you?

According to Tammy De Ruyter in this Words of Hope devotional, Biblical forgiveness goes far beyond saying “I’m sorry”:

Our culture has reduced the “apology” into a justification for wrongdoing. Politicians regularly appear on television to apologize for “errors in judgment.” Sins are airbrushed as “mistakes.” A quick “I’m sorry” and everyone is expected to overlook the offense and carry on with life. And often that is what happens.

….Forgiveness, according to Scripture, demands that we look squarely at our
sins and assume full responsibility for our actions. Only then can we ask God to forgive us. We, in turn, have the responsibility to do likewise when we are sinned against. C. S. Lewis writes, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” Faith is living with the understanding of how much Christ has forgiven us, then turning around and forgiving someone else. It’s not easy, not by a long shot, but it is life-giving, God-honoring, work. Is there someone you need to
forgive today?

Read the full devotional at Words of Hope.

RBC Ministries has an answer to the question in their article “Should forgiveness be unconditional?”

People often have the impression that the Bible requires forgiveness to be unconditional. But the Bible doesn’t say that. It tells us that we should “Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13). While God’s forgiveness is undeserved, it certainly isn’t unconditional. The Lord’s forgiveness is offered only to those who confess their sin and repent (2 Chronicles 7:14; Leviticus 26; Luke 13:3; 1 John 1:8-10).

On the surface, it might seem noble to forgive unconditionally. But unconditional forgiveness is usually motivated more by fear than by love. And because of this it’s usually destructive. If a wife continues to forgive a habitually unfaithful and abusive husband unconditionally, her toleration of his behavior will probably result in even more abuse and disrespect. This kind of “unconditional” forgiveness expresses a determination to cling to the status quo. No matter how bad things are, this woman fears that things will probably get worse if she holds her husband accountable. Her passive acceptance of his behavior will probably encourage him to continue in his sin. Instead of her forgiveness being a helpful act of love, it is actually a violation of love that will hinder his growth toward Christlikeness.

Read the rest of RBC Ministries’ answer.

What do you think?