A quick look at TV and you see a world out of control. Especially scenes from American television at the moment. Fancy any community screaming obscenities at their police force, physically attacking them and wanting them defunded and disbanded. Fancy others belittling their duly elected President and some even threatening to bring chaos across the USA if he wins the next election. Those who have never accepted the results of the 2016 election can never forgive him for standing for office and have tried in many ways to bring his presidency to an end. One sees in various reports that assassination attempts on him are being considered in some quarters if he were to win the next election. Such an attempt would be seen by many disgruntled folk as a virtuous act. Such is the degradation that comes from harbouring hate and resentment and an unwillingness to forgive those whom we think have harmed us in any way.

But before we begin our “Tutt! tutts!” can we honestly say that we ourselves are prepared to forgive everyone of every sin they may have committed against us.  If we cannot say “Yes” we ourselves are part of the problem. The writer of Psalm 73 expressed what happened to him as he became bitter and lost a true perspective on life, Psa 73:21 “When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, 22  I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.” Bitterness twists the mind so that one almost ceases to be human and acts without any due regard for a fellow or fellow humans. 

I have written previously that the NT Greek word for bitterness [pikria] is the origin of our English word [‘picric’] as in picric acid. This is one of the most bitter substances you can find and is highly unstable and explosive. In fact it was used in explosives in the First World War. Have we not all seen folk so filled with bitterness and unforgiveness that they were a walking emotional time-bomb. But good news! Some of us have had the privilege of seeing some of these burdened folk become convicted of their sin by the Holy Spirit and turn to God for forgiveness, often with great physical and emotional healing taking place at the same time. Not only that but they became willing to forgive those who had harmed them in any way. Going even further into the unbelievable, they became willing to pray a blessing upon those they had previously been bitter against. Adding another dimension to their forgiving, they expressed an openness to be reconciled [where possible] to their former enemies! Some were! Some weren’t, but the latter remained open to the possibility by keeping the door open to any possible future reconciliation.

This is the sort of thing we need to see happening in the USA and in Australia and throughout the world. For example, can anyone in their right mind ever become aggressive towards those who prefer to say, “All lives matter” and mean it, rather than being coerced into saying only that ”Black lives matter!?” It just illustrates that Satan has blinded the minds of those who refuse to believe so that they cannot recognise the dangers of the pernicious anti-God Marxist philosophy that they think will bring about a new Utopia. It never has! It never can! It never will!

So writing this article is part of my tiny miniscule attempt to save the world from possible chaos, violence and destruction in the coming days. I am hoping that people, all of us, may learn how to be forgiven by God and then learn by His grace and love, how to forgive everyone of everything. It is utterly necessary! It is entirely possible! But only by the gracious help of God and a willingness on the part of humans to humble themselves to receive His help!

What is being offered in this blog article number 366. 

I thought the number 366 was an easy number to remember, being the days in a Leap Year. It is a blog people can keep coming back to, to learn about forgiveness. There are over 30 articles I have written in previous blogs and I made a summary of the links to them in blog number 219. A more recent blog is number 258 which is a You Tube recording of a Skype teaching given from Australia to The Healing Ministry at All Saints Episcopal church at Winter Park in Florida some years ago.

For convenience I am summarizing all these links them in this article by providing the following links. Just click on the numbers 219 and 258 below to be taken to those articles.

Article 219 which has 30 plus articles to click on

https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/jimholbeck.blog/4942

Article 258 2https://jimholbeck.blog/2018/02/02/258-what-is-involved-in-forgiveness-a-you-tube-skype-teaching-by-jim-holbeck-recorded-by-the-healing-ministry-at-all-saints-episcopal-church-winter-park-florida/58 has the link to the You Tube video recording on forgiveness

NOTE:] Just in case the above procedure has difficulties you can simply go to www.jimholbeck.blog and type “forgiveness” in the Search box  and the list of articles will be displayed for you. 

Or type 216 or 258 in the search box and you will be taken to those articles

If you find the articles helpful, please share them with others because I think the world is in a very difficult and very dangerous place at the moment, and forgiveness rather than hate needs to flow between humans of all races and skin colours. The truths in these articles can help if read and acted on! The truths have helped many folk in the past and I am sure that read humbly, could help many folk around the world in the present and in the future. That is my hope and my prayer.

Blog No.366 posted on www.jimholbeck.blog on Wednesday 16^th September 2020.