MONDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER
Genesis 50.15-21
Joseph forgives his brothers
The story of Joseph is one of the most favourite stories of the Bible. It has a very special appeal, especially for those who are persecuted or have a rough time from others because of their belief in Jesus.
When Joseph had all those dreams about his brothers bowing down to him, they became very envious of him and despised him very much. In the end they hated him so much that they wanted to get rid of him. They wanted to murder him, but decided to sell him as a slave. After many years of struggling and imprisonment, Joseph actually became Prime Minister of Egypt and his brothers and his father came to live in Egypt, saved by their brother from starving in the prolonged drought. When their father Jacob died, the brothers were really frightened. They thought Joseph might take revenge on them and treat them cruelly or even kill them. They pleaded with their brother to forgive them.
When Joseph heard their cries, he wept. He was very close to God. He had been blessed mightily by God and his heart was filled with God’s love. The last thing on his mind was retribution. He had grown to really love his brothers. Yes, he still remembered how cruel they were to him, but he was very keen to forgive them. His answer to them was so humble and beautiful. “Don’t be afraid, am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done – the saving of many lives” (verses 19 & 20).
Good comes out of everything. When you are wronged by others, always be ready to forgive. Look for the good that God has been able to accomplish in your life, even in situations when things have not gone well.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, when others harm us, help us to be as forgiving as Joseph. Help us to see how you turn all bad things to work for good in our lives, through Jesus our Saviour. Amen.
TUESDAY 6TH SEPTEMBER
Psalm 103.1-13
The Lord forgives all your sins
Today, with the psalmist, we burst into song; we can’t help it. Our inmost beings are bursting with God’s love. We are like the bud which, after the warmth of sunshine, bursts open to reveal all its glory. Why does this love burst into worship and praise to our God? Why do we want to get close to Him and hug Him? Why do we reach our hands out to God and why do we dance with joy before the Lord?
The answer is so easy, so spontaneous: because He is so fantastically good to us. The benefits from having a relationship with Him are so many! We can never forget them. He forgives all our sins and in so doing He heals us. Let’s all believe this. This is what God’s word says! The Bible says that if we know God (that is, we are His friend), then we have eternal life. Already He has rescued us from hell. Oh, what a wonderful God – oh, how we love Him. He not only rescues us from the fear of hell, but makes this life on earth so much better for us. His love and compassion shower down upon us in great abundance. Life for us becomes so much more satisfying than it ever was before we knew Him. It’s as if we never seem to grow old. The Lord keeps on renewing our youth – there’s no age limit in God’s youth group. He continues to be so good to us, even when we sin and fall short of what He wants us to be. He is slow to get angry with us. He very, very quickly forgets all our sins and shortcomings. He’s a God who forgives, not a God who accuses. He never pays us back what our sins deserve. His love for us is measured by infinity; too big to measure. He sends our sins so far away that He forgets we ever committed them.
PRAYER: Praise the Lord, oh my soul, all my inmost being, praise His holy Name. Praise the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all our sins and heals us when we are sick. through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 7TH SEPTEMBER
Romans 14.1-6
Accept those who are weak in faith
The devil is very cunning. The closer we get to God, the more we love Him and the more faith we have in Him, the greater the enemy will try to lead us into giving way to the temptations he puts in our paths.
The temptation of those who get close to the Lord is the temptation to think that because of all their religious activity, they are better than anyone else. Some feel called to have more time in prayer and worship. Some feel that they should fast; and others to abstain from various types of food or drink. Some become very strict about the way they keep the Sabbath day (our Sunday) holy. If we are called by God into any of these ways of showing Him how much we love Him, we must never look down on those whose religious zeal and activity is any less than ours! We must remember at all times that not one of these religious practices saves us. God’s standards are so far above ours that we could never make ourselves good enough for Him or do enough for Him. We are only saved because of God’s love and mercy for us and by the mighty power of His grace that saves us all; from the greatest apostle and preacher to the humblest little child.
God saves each of us for only one reason; because we are who we are. God has made us in His image. He loves us because He made us to be His for ever!
PRAYER: Lord, you love me so much, just as I am, just because I am me. Help me to spend more time with you, to give up more for you and do more for you, but never let me look down on those who do less than me, through Jesus your Son. Amen.
THURSDAY 8TH SEPTEMBER
Romans 14.7-14
None of us lives to himself – we live to the Lord
If you humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, He will lift you up. But if you live to yourself, you will fall and fall really badly. Although, as we saw yesterday, each of us is very, very important to God, we are to never think of our own importance or to think of living to satisfy ourselves. No, we are to live to satisfy the Lord. We do this by not only satisfying Him, but satisfying other people. We were not made for ourselves. We were made for God! Jesus loves us so much that He let us go. When we had gone far from Him, He died and rose again to bring us back, and so we know that we are not our own; we have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6.19-20). The price is His precious blood spilt for us on Calvary’s tree. Because we all belong to the Lord and are saved because He paid for us, this means that we must be very careful to obey Him fully and refrain from judging and condemning other people. There is no person within any church we should ever look down upon.
Remember this! This is very important. Within a school community you often find what is called a ‘cool group’ who looks down on ‘nerds’ or ‘gumbies’.
THIS MUST NEVER BE IN A CHURCH COMMUNITY.
Jesus avoided the cool group of Pharisees and identified Himself with the outcast sinners and Samaritans. God is the only judge. We will all find this out one day. In the meantime, we must do all the loving and forgiving and accepting and leave the judgement to the only One qualified to judge. We will all have to give an account of ourselves to God. Let’s all stop judging others and putting stumbling blocks of condemnation in their pathways to God.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, help me to realize that I am not my own because you paid for me. Help me to be truly humble and live for you and for others, to love and forgive them and accept them and leave all the judging to you. Amen.
FRIDAY 9TH SEPTEMBER
Matthew 18.21-22
Seventy times seven
Because every single person God has made is very important to Him, so forgiveness is very, very important because every one of us is guilty of sin. God gave us the choice to accept Him or reject Him. We, as a human race, made the decision to reject Him. We all fell and became imperfect. This is the truth proclaimed in the Garden of Eden story. In Adam we all sinned and fell short of what God planned for us to be. God could not stand us being cut off from Him. He loves us so much. This is why He sent a second Adam in Jesus. Jesus was like us in every way except for one thing. He never sinned (Hebrews 4.18). He was perfect. He came to earth to make us perfect! How did He do this? He did the greatest act of forgiveness the world has ever known. He died on the cross. The imperfect crucified the perfect, but the perfect one responded with perfect love. He completely and utterly forgave the imperfect one who crucified Him. He forgave us and got rid of all our imperfections once and for all.
Every time we sin, we put a nail into Jesus’ hands and feet or a crown of thorns into His brow. But the power of forgiveness was so released on the cross that every time we sin, that sin is forgiven for every one who draws on that power by putting all their faith and trust in Jesus. Jesus forgives us every time. He doesn’t count up each time we sin and say, “I’ll put up with your sin until it gets too much for me”. No, He goes on and on forgiving, seventy times seven, a number which means ‘too many to count’. If we sin millions and trillions of times, His love is so enormous that He will forgive every time. Each time He forgives, He treats us as if we had never sinned! Peter thought seven times was enough to put up with other’s sins. Jesus told him that there is no limit to forgiveness. Each of us must never count how many times people hurt us. No, we must just go on and on forgiving them each time.
PRAYER: Jesus, you love me so much that you forgive me each time I sin. Empower me to love everyone as much as you love me and go on and on forgiving them. Amen.
SATURDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER
Matthew 18.23-35
The one unforgivable sin
Apart from the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of God (Mark 3.29), there is only one unforgivable sin. It is the sin of unforgiveness. God’s forgiveness for us is limitless. He will always forgive and go on forgiving. But, a very big but, if we refuse to forgive one other person who has hurt us, this cuts us off from God’s forgiving power! This is terrible – absolutely terrible!
Read through the story before us today. It speaks for itself as did all the stories Jesus told to illustrate His teaching. The forgiven, unforgiving servant lost all his forgiveness in the end, poor fellow.
The people I feel most sorry for in all the world are victims of hatred, violence and abuse to their close relatives and friends. I feel sorry for them, not because of the hurt and pain inflicted on them by the perpetrations of abuse, but because of their inability to forgive. When we are hurt, emotions of hatred and bitterness well up inside us. They fill our minds and make it almost impossible for us to forgive. If we harbour these feelings of hatred and bitterness, they will do us more harm than the abuse and violence that caused them. They will eat away at our spirits, like cancer eats a body, until they rot in hell. We have no choice; we have to forgive all who have hurt us in any way. When we do, God forgives us and comes into our hearts with all His compassion and love and helps us to bear the pain inflicted on us. He soothes and heals our wounds like no one else can. Soon He heals us completely.
A lady once told me how she could never forgive her mother. She had been hurt so badly. No matter how hard I tried to convince her, she was so full of bitterness and hatred that she could not forgive. I said to her, “Can I pray and ask Jesus to enable you to forgive your Mum?” “Yes”, she said. I prayed and Jesus answered it immediately and they had a wonderful Christmas together, hallelujah!
PRAYER: Father, please go on forgiving us our sins as we draw on your power to enable us to go on forgiving all those who sin against us, through Jesus. Amen.
SUNDAY 11TH. SEPTEMBER
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
Charles Colson, Director of Prison Fellowship who had spent a year in Prison after his part tin the Watergate scandal is quoted as saying these words:
“There is nothing more Christian than forgiveness- demonstrating trust in the one who has fallen”
The incredible power to forgive is the MOST wonderful gift the world has ever been given. It was given to us by the Lord Jesus as He hung on the cross! No greater love has anyone had in the history of mankind than the love of Christ Jesus. When we were sinners, when we were His enemies He shed His blood for us! Because of our sins we deserved to die, but instead, He died in our place, paying the penalty our sins deserved.
As He forgave us He cleansed our hearts so that He could come and dwell in them. As He dwells in us He overflows us with His love. He enables us to love others in the same way that He loved us.
The power to love in us is tested when people abuse us and treat us in a dreadful way. When they reject us and hurt us very badly. When we learn to trust Jesus and rely on the power to love and forgive He enables us to forgive however badly we have been hurt.
Here is a very good definition of forgiveness: “Forgiveness is surrendering my right to hurt you for hurting me” (Archibald Hart).
We forgive by making a decision with our minds, when we decide to surrender our right to hurt those who have hurt us.
When we decide to forgive it is important that we stop ourselves from listening to our emotions. Our emotions cause us to have strong feelings of resentment against those who have hurt us.
When we decide to forgive and ask Jesus enable us to forgive He pours lots of love into our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit He has given us (Romans 5:5).“We are like beasts when we kill. We are like men when we judge. We are like GOD when we forgive”.
PRAYER: Father God we thank you so much for giving us the incredible power to forgive when Jesus died on the Cross. Please help us to use this power by forgiving everyone who hurts or abuses us. Through Jesus, our wonderful Saviour. Amen.
He will soon drive out all the feelings of resentment out of our hearts.
I conclude with another quote:
MONDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER
Genesis 50.15-21
Joseph forgives his brothers
The story of Joseph is one of the most favourite stories of the Bible. It has a very special appeal, especially for those who are persecuted or have a rough time from others because of their belief in Jesus.
When Joseph had all those dreams about his brothers bowing down to him, they became very envious of him and despised him very much. In the end they hated him so much that they wanted to get rid of him. They wanted to murder him, but decided to sell him as a slave. After many years of struggling and imprisonment, Joseph actually became Prime Minister of Egypt and his brothers and his father came to live in Egypt, saved by their brother from starving in the prolonged drought. When their father Jacob died, the brothers were really frightened. They thought Joseph might take revenge on them and treat them cruelly or even kill them. They pleaded with their brother to forgive them.
When Joseph heard their cries, he wept. He was very close to God. He had been blessed mightily by God and his heart was filled with God’s love. The last thing on his mind was retribution. He had grown to really love his brothers. Yes, he still remembered how cruel they were to him, but he was very keen to forgive them. His answer to them was so humble and beautiful. “Don’t be afraid, am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done – the saving of many lives” (verses 19 & 20).
Good comes out of everything. When you are wronged by others, always be ready to forgive. Look for the good that God has been able to accomplish in your life, even in situations when things have not gone well.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, when others harm us, help us to be as forgiving as Joseph. Help us to see how you turn all bad things to work for good in our lives, through Jesus our Saviour. Amen.
TUESDAY 6TH SEPTEMBER
Psalm 103.1-13
The Lord forgives all your sins
Today, with the psalmist, we burst into song; we can’t help it. Our inmost beings are bursting with God’s love. We are like the bud which, after the warmth of sunshine, bursts open to reveal all its glory. Why does this love burst into worship and praise to our God? Why do we want to get close to Him and hug Him? Why do we reach our hands out to God and why do we dance with joy before the Lord?
The answer is so easy, so spontaneous: because He is so fantastically good to us. The benefits from having a relationship with Him are so many! We can never forget them. He forgives all our sins and in so doing He heals us. Let’s all believe this. This is what God’s word says! The Bible says that if we know God (that is, we are His friend), then we have eternal life. Already He has rescued us from hell. Oh, what a wonderful God – oh, how we love Him. He not only rescues us from the fear of hell, but makes this life on earth so much better for us. His love and compassion shower down upon us in great abundance. Life for us becomes so much more satisfying than it ever was before we knew Him. It’s as if we never seem to grow old. The Lord keeps on renewing our youth – there’s no age limit in God’s youth group. He continues to be so good to us, even when we sin and fall short of what He wants us to be. He is slow to get angry with us. He very, very quickly forgets all our sins and shortcomings. He’s a God who forgives, not a God who accuses. He never pays us back what our sins deserve. His love for us is measured by infinity; too big to measure. He sends our sins so far away that He forgets we ever committed them.
PRAYER: Praise the Lord, oh my soul, all my inmost being, praise His holy Name. Praise the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all our sins and heals us when we are sick. through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 7TH SEPTEMBER
Romans 14.1-6
Accept those who are weak in faith
The devil is very cunning. The closer we get to God, the more we love Him and the more faith we have in Him, the greater the enemy will try to lead us into giving way to the temptations he puts in our paths.
The temptation of those who get close to the Lord is the temptation to think that because of all their religious activity, they are better than anyone else. Some feel called to have more time in prayer and worship. Some feel that they should fast; and others to abstain from various types of food or drink. Some become very strict about the way they keep the Sabbath day (our Sunday) holy. If we are called by God into any of these ways of showing Him how much we love Him, we must never look down on those whose religious zeal and activity is any less than ours! We must remember at all times that not one of these religious practices saves us. God’s standards are so far above ours that we could never make ourselves good enough for Him or do enough for Him. We are only saved because of God’s love and mercy for us and by the mighty power of His grace that saves us all; from the greatest apostle and preacher to the humblest little child.
God saves each of us for only one reason; because we are who we are. God has made us in His image. He loves us because He made us to be His for ever!
PRAYER: Lord, you love me so much, just as I am, just because I am me. Help me to spend more time with you, to give up more for you and do more for you, but never let me look down on those who do less than me, through Jesus your Son. Amen.
THURSDAY 8TH SEPTEMBER
Romans 14.7-14
None of us lives to himself – we live to the Lord
If you humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, He will lift you up. But if you live to yourself, you will fall and fall really badly. Although, as we saw yesterday, each of us is very, very important to God, we are to never think of our own importance or to think of living to satisfy ourselves. No, we are to live to satisfy the Lord. We do this by not only satisfying Him, but satisfying other people. We were not made for ourselves. We were made for God! Jesus loves us so much that He let us go. When we had gone far from Him, He died and rose again to bring us back, and so we know that we are not our own; we have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6.19-20). The price is His precious blood spilt for us on Calvary’s tree. Because we all belong to the Lord and are saved because He paid for us, this means that we must be very careful to obey Him fully and refrain from judging and condemning other people. There is no person within any church we should ever look down upon.
Remember this! This is very important. Within a school community you often find what is called a ‘cool group’ who looks down on ‘nerds’ or ‘gumbies’.
THIS MUST NEVER BE IN A CHURCH COMMUNITY.
Jesus avoided the cool group of Pharisees and identified Himself with the outcast sinners and Samaritans. God is the only judge. We will all find this out one day. In the meantime, we must do all the loving and forgiving and accepting and leave the judgement to the only One qualified to judge. We will all have to give an account of ourselves to God. Let’s all stop judging others and putting stumbling blocks of condemnation in their pathways to God.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, help me to realize that I am not my own because you paid for me. Help me to be truly humble and live for you and for others, to love and forgive them and accept them and leave all the judging to you. Amen.
FRIDAY 9TH SEPTEMBER
Matthew 18.21-22
Seventy times seven
Because every single person God has made is very important to Him, so forgiveness is very, very important because every one of us is guilty of sin. God gave us the choice to accept Him or reject Him. We, as a human race, made the decision to reject Him. We all fell and became imperfect. This is the truth proclaimed in the Garden of Eden story. In Adam we all sinned and fell short of what God planned for us to be. God could not stand us being cut off from Him. He loves us so much. This is why He sent a second Adam in Jesus. Jesus was like us in every way except for one thing. He never sinned (Hebrews 4.18). He was perfect. He came to earth to make us perfect! How did He do this? He did the greatest act of forgiveness the world has ever known. He died on the cross. The imperfect crucified the perfect, but the perfect one responded with perfect love. He completely and utterly forgave the imperfect one who crucified Him. He forgave us and got rid of all our imperfections once and for all.
Every time we sin, we put a nail into Jesus’ hands and feet or a crown of thorns into His brow. But the power of forgiveness was so released on the cross that every time we sin, that sin is forgiven for every one who draws on that power by putting all their faith and trust in Jesus. Jesus forgives us every time. He doesn’t count up each time we sin and say, “I’ll put up with your sin until it gets too much for me”. No, He goes on and on forgiving, seventy times seven, a number which means ‘too many to count’. If we sin millions and trillions of times, His love is so enormous that He will forgive every time. Each time He forgives, He treats us as if we had never sinned! Peter thought seven times was enough to put up with other’s sins. Jesus told him that there is no limit to forgiveness. Each of us must never count how many times people hurt us. No, we must just go on and on forgiving them each time.
PRAYER: Jesus, you love me so much that you forgive me each time I sin. Empower me to love everyone as much as you love me and go on and on forgiving them. Amen.
SATURDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER
Matthew 18.23-35
The one unforgivable sin
Apart from the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of God (Mark 3.29), there is only one unforgivable sin. It is the sin of unforgiveness. God’s forgiveness for us is limitless. He will always forgive and go on forgiving. But, a very big but, if we refuse to forgive one other person who has hurt us, this cuts us off from God’s forgiving power! This is terrible – absolutely terrible!
Read through the story before us today. It speaks for itself as did all the stories Jesus told to illustrate His teaching. The forgiven, unforgiving servant lost all his forgiveness in the end, poor fellow.
The people I feel most sorry for in all the world are victims of hatred, violence and abuse to their close relatives and friends. I feel sorry for them, not because of the hurt and pain inflicted on them by the perpetrations of abuse, but because of their inability to forgive. When we are hurt, emotions of hatred and bitterness well up inside us. They fill our minds and make it almost impossible for us to forgive. If we harbour these feelings of hatred and bitterness, they will do us more harm than the abuse and violence that caused them. They will eat away at our spirits, like cancer eats a body, until they rot in hell. We have no choice; we have to forgive all who have hurt us in any way. When we do, God forgives us and comes into our hearts with all His compassion and love and helps us to bear the pain inflicted on us. He soothes and heals our wounds like no one else can. Soon He heals us completely.
A lady once told me how she could never forgive her mother. She had been hurt so badly. No matter how hard I tried to convince her, she was so full of bitterness and hatred that she could not forgive. I said to her, “Can I pray and ask Jesus to enable you to forgive your Mum?” “Yes”, she said. I prayed and Jesus answered it immediately and they had a wonderful Christmas together, hallelujah!
PRAYER: Father, please go on forgiving us our sins as we draw on your power to enable us to go on forgiving all those who sin against us, through Jesus. Amen.
SUNDAY 11TH. SEPTEMBER
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
Charles Colson, Director of Prison Fellowship who had spent a year in Prison after his part tin the Watergate scandal is quoted as saying these words:
“There is nothing more Christian than forgiveness- demonstrating trust in the one who has fallen”
The incredible power to forgive is the MOST wonderful gift the world has ever been given. It was given to us by the Lord Jesus as He hung on the cross! No greater love has anyone had in the history of mankind than the love of Christ Jesus. When we were sinners, when we were His enemies He shed His blood for us! Because of our sins we deserved to die, but instead, He died in our place, paying the penalty our sins deserved.
As He forgave us He cleansed our hearts so that He could come and dwell in them. As He dwells in us He overflows us with His love. He enables us to love others in the same way that He loved us.
The power to love in us is tested when people abuse us and treat us in a dreadful way. When they reject us and hurt us very badly. When we learn to trust Jesus and rely on the power to love and forgive He enables us to forgive however badly we have been hurt.
Here is a very good definition of forgiveness: “Forgiveness is surrendering my right to hurt you for hurting me” (Archibald Hart).
We forgive by making a decision with our minds, when we decide to surrender our right to hurt those who have hurt us.
When we decide to forgive it is important that we stop ourselves from listening to our emotions. Our emotions cause us to have strong feelings of resentment against those who have hurt us.
When we decide to forgive and ask Jesus enable us to forgive He pours lots of love into our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit He has given us (Romans 5:5).“We are like beasts when we kill. We are like men when we judge. We are like GOD when we forgive”.
PRAYER: Father God we thank you so much for giving us the incredible power to forgive when Jesus died on the Cross. Please help us to use this power by forgiving everyone who hurts or abuses us. Through Jesus, our wonderful Saviour. Amen.
He will soon drive out all the feelings of resentment out of our hearts.
I conclude with another quote: