IT BEGINS WITH FORGIVENESS
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, December 30, 2024 – It begins with forgiveness – not with the getting of it but the giving of it. That’s why it’s called ‘forgive’, not ‘forget’. You get forgiveness by giving forgiveness and only by giving it. This is a great and simple mystery that even a child can understand.
We, as born-again believers, start with forgiveness, but we don’t stop there. We dare not stop there. We don’t forgive and then later forget to forgive and let the grudges build. The worst thing we can do is let the grudges build. You’ll know they’re building because the siren song of temptation will grow louder and louder even as the Word grows fainter and fainter. That’s how you’ll know there’s unforgiveness in your heart that needs to be gone right away.
Never delay forgiving. Never say “Well, he had that coming, and maybe I’ll think about forgiving him, and maybe I’ll do it tomorrow.” I know you’d never say that, but I’m just reminding you how silly it would be even to think it, let alone say it (let alone do it [let alone teach it!]). When I say “silly”, I mean foolish, and in fact I actually mean fatal, and that in the spiritual sense: Fatal in the spiritual sense. You should never harbour any unforgiveness toward anyone for any reason, because if you do, you’re in danger of losing God’s Spirit and therefore God’s protection, in which case you’ll end up like Judas Iscariot just as fast as he ended up like that.
The world claims that “big” crimes such as murder and treason are the only ones worthy of death, but we know that these pale in comparison to the harbouring of unforgiveness. Murder and treason are birthed in unforgiveness. God can only forgive us if we forgive others first. Did you know that “forgive” is another word for “love”? Forgiveness is love in action. When you choose to forgive, you’re acting like God, you’re loving like God, and you’re being perfect like God. Jesus told us we need to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect, just as he told us that we need to forgive before God can forgive us.
But if, against our better judgement, we let unforgiveness build in our heart, we’ll eventually get to the point where we can no longer be forgiven. We’ll have crossed the spiritual Rubicon of the unforgiveable sin, and there’s no going back. It’s a one-way trip. We’ll be stuck on the other side with Judas Iscariot and the fallen angels and everyone who’s ever had and lost God’s Spirit, ultimately to be joined by all those who never had God’s Spirit at all. This is a dreadful place to be and there’s no escaping it because there’s no forgiveness there. No matter how much you beg or plead or cry or wail, there’s no escape: There’s only damnation.
We begin with forgiveness and end with forgiveness and continue with forgiveness all the way from our beginning to our end. There is no time and no occasion when we don’t forgive. You’re reading this because you need to be reminded. We all need to be reminded every now and then, sometimes every day, sometimes all day. We begin with forgiveness, continue with forgiveness, and end with forgiveness. Everything flows from forgiveness.
And then we get to go home.
NOT OF THIS WORLD
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, December 17, 2024 – What confused them most was his ordinariness. They didn’t expect him to be so down-to-earth, to live the way he did and to be from the place they said he was from. They didn’t know his full backstory; only a few did for the longest time (his mother hiding the details for good reason). You can’t really blame them for not knowing those details, but you can kind of blame them for seeing and not believing. I mean, what he did – all those miracles – was pretty out-there, especially for someone who otherwise appeared so ordinary. How could they see all those miracles and still not believe?
Would we also have seen and not believed?
I think I would have, initially. I think I would have seen and not believed. Like them, I would have looked for the magician’s sleight-of-hand, the crowd’s mass delusion, the scroll that unrolled to exclaim “I Want To Believe”, with a UFO hovering in the background. I would have doubted and I might even have mocked, because I did doubt and I did mock before I believed. I likely would have hung back and heckled, at least at the beginning. Hopefully only at the beginning.
And I don’t think for me it would have been a eureka moment, like it was for many of the first believers. It would not have been like a lightbulb going on or a penny dropping. I think it would have been more a case of demons throwing me to the ground, followed by a brief but violent exorcism, like it was for me in the here and now. Pride doesn’t have eureka moments. The penny never drops in a proud soul. We have to be broken, not mollified. The filth needs to be expunged by brute force, and then we can see.
The ordinariness of his followers also confuses them, even to this day. How can such an afflicted and poor people be God’s? And if they are, why is God not blessing them with the wealth of Solomon, the beauty of Esther, and the fecundity of Jacob? Why are so many of them poor, plain, and childless? Surely their low station in life is proof that they are cursed? And why are they so happy to be “cursed”?
We’re happy because we’re blessed not in the eyes of the world but in the eyes of God. Our wealth is the priceless redemption we got from our Savior. Our beauty is the vision of our perfected body in Heaven. And our fecundity is the fruit we bear by our spiritual labours. There are no greater blessings than these, but this confession confuses them even more.
How do you explain the joys of poverty to those who crave untold wealth? How do you explain the bliss of submission to those who want to be fawned over and served? How do you explain the freedom of letting go to those who demand perpetual apologies and a land that is not just a promise but a guarantee?
His ordinariness amidst all those miracles is what gives him away, God’s suffering servant. His Kingdom is never of this world.
WHEN ONE MAN’S MESSIAH IS ANOTHER MAN’S ANTI-CHRIST
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, December 17, 2024 – They want us to believe that God is with them and that everything they do has his seal of approval, that their slaughtering comes from God and is his will. But if it did come from God, it would be like the whole Egyptian army drowned in the Red Sea or the destruction of Sodom. It would come in an instant, like spiritual rebirth. It would not drag on for years and take casualties on both sides.
When the devil does things, they’re grossly, almost comically, imperfect. He will say it’s God doing it, but you’ll know it’s the devil by its imperfection, by its awkwardness, by its drawn-out-ed-ness. When God does it, it’s done in an instant, whereas when the devil does it, it lingers. It waxes. It wanes. It never seems fully done even when he tells you it is. Even when he insists it is done and that he has achieved the unachievable. Surely God must be with this people to have achieved such an achievement!
But God does not leave you with lingering doubts, if you’re a believer. When God does something, you know it’s God who’s done it, if you’re a believer. You also know when the devil is doing something pretending to be God. This is the privilege of a believer, to know the difference. This is also the responsibility of a believer, to know the difference.
What we see unfolding before us is prophecy indeed, but not the prophecy they perceive. It’s a shame when one man’s messiah is another man’s anti-Christ, but so it goes in the realm of the Cains. If God has his hand in anything that is unfolding awkwardly and drawn-out-ed-ly before us, it is only to make an end of those who insist on calling themselves by his name but are not his. There are many now who insist on calling themselves by his name but are not his. From all sides, they call themselves by his name, but there is only one name that is above all names, and that name they either mock or spit on or reduce to a sidekick.
We stand and watch prophecy unfold. It’s a shame when one man’s messiah is another man’s anti-Christ, but so it goes. You can’t stop prophecy. They will rob, cheat, and steal and claim they have God’s authority to do so. They will slaughter and claim the same, but we know where their authority really comes from. We know who guides them.
We know what’s in their books.
When the real Messiah comes, he will come in an instant and be covered in glory, not in the blood of billions.
THE BEST GIFT YOU’LL EVER GET
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, December 15, 2024 – The “free gift” of redemption is not a ticket to Heaven. I wasn’t handed a one-way ticket to Paradise with an open departure date when I was reborn. I was given redemption through spiritual rebirth, which means I was cleansed from original sin and from my own sins via an exorcism that rid me of the spirits of the world and prepared a place within me for God’s Spirit.
God’s Holy Spirit will not live in the same soul as spirits of the world unless those spirits are first given the boot. I enabled God to give them the boot when I chose mercy instead of revenge. I did not exorcise me; God exorcised me, through his Spirit. All I did was say “yes” to his way, which then allowed him to rid me of the worldly spirits. But he first needed my agreement before he could do that. Spiritual laws are very precise.
The free gift of redemption was paid for by Jesus. I didn’t have to pay anything for it. What I got as my free gift was a squeaky-clean soul and a one-on-one relationship with God and Jesus, through God’s Holy Spirit. I instantaneously became part of God’s holy family. With God, I become his adopted daughter, and with Jesus, I became his follower and sister. These relationships grew and deepened as my faith grew and deepened, the same way a newborn’s relationships exist at birth but only gain form and depth in the mind of the child as he or she grows and matures.
What we do with our free gift – that is, how clean we maintain our souls and how well we get to know God and Jesus – determines whether or not we’ll ultimately make it home. We not only have to say “yes” to God’s way to get our free gift; we also have to keep saying “yes” and “yes” and again “yes” to God’s way all the way to the end of our time on Earth. Jesus told us that “those who endure to the end will be saved”, meaning not that we have to endure to the end of the end times, but to the end of our own personal allotted time. By enduring, Jesus meant that we need to continue to say “yes” to God’s way, regardless of the circumstances, as he clearly demonstrated through his own arrest, imprisonment, torture, and execution. If we don’t endure in God’s way to the end, as taught to us by Jesus, we won’t make it home.
There are many false prophets who claim that spiritual rebirth is a ticket to Heaven. Whether they make this claim in error or out of malice, I don’t know. I guess it depends on the individual: some make the false claim out of ignorance, while others make it out of a calculated desire to mislead. Regardless of the motivation, claiming that salvation is guaranteed by spiritual rebirth is dead wrong, as is the claim that you simply have to “believe” to be saved or be a Christian to be saved.
The free gift is indeed free, but it’s just a starting point. Though not a ticket to Heaven, redemption does put us on the path to Heaven and gives us all the help we need to get there. Think of it like this: if you’re genuinely born-again, you were fished out of stormy seas, gently lowered onto a life raft, presented with a pair of oars, and pointed toward a shining beacon that indicates land. You were also given all the supplies you’ll need to survive until you make it to land. Whether or not you choose to continue rowing toward the beacon is up to you. It’s entirely up to you.
You’re not forced to row in the direction you were pointed to and you’re not even forced to keep rowing. You can do whatever you want with your free gift. But if you are genuinely born-again, you’ll want to row toward the beacon and you’ll want to keep on rowing. You’ll want to do exactly as you were directed because you can’t imagine doing otherwise (because you’ve done the “otherwise” before you landed in the lifeboat, and you know where it leads).
The gift of redemption is free to those who choose God’s way, but admission to Heaven requires persevering in God’s way to the end. We must never presume that we’ll make it to Heaven; hope for it, yes, long for it, always, strive for it, you betcha, but presume it, never, as only “those who endure to the [very very] end will be saved,” and we’re not there yet.
Redemption and everything that goes with it is the best gift you’ll ever receive during your time on Earth. What you choose to do with your free gift will determine your eternity.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 