Forgive.....and forget

How often, when speaking of Christianity as Christians, do we emphasise the nice bits of the faith - John 3:16 for example? How often do we teach the Gospel as Good News without a challenge? Do we teach the harsher sides to Jesus' teaching and the implications of it? These are all questions I have been thinking about whilst slaving away at work.

The title of this post came about through my thoughts whilst working, is it better to forget what has happened when we forgive someone; or is it the case that we forget what they have done as we are no longer affected by what has taken place.
From my own experience I can attest that forgiving someone does bring peace of mind. It doesn't change what had happened, but that doesn't matter any more. What I find interesting in Jesus' words to the "woman caught in adultery" is the last sentence - Go and sin no more, what does this mean and is it a challenge to us?

It is without doubt(at least in my mind) that the sin the woman was accused of had taken place.
Iit is also clear that Jesus does not condone the sin but does not condemn the woman either - this is good news and John 3:17 comes into action in a major way. The bad news, for those of us who suffer temptation, is that Jesus also lays down the challenge of "Go and sin no more" to us. 
In the Sermon on the mount Jesus expands the disciples understanding of the law. The believe that adultery is just a physical thing, but boy Jesus has a rocket for them. How many men think "Phwoar!" when they see a pretty woman? I would guess the majority.
This, in Jesus' words, is a form of Adultery.

We too often are seen to think of Christianity as an easy life - go to church on Sunday, go to Heaven when dead. This may of course just be my perception of how many people see churchgoers. Do we portray Jesus as someone who just wants a personal relationship with you, but miss out the part about needing to change your life to suit his desires? Always remember Jesus' cleansing the temple when asked "what would Jesus do?" The next thought that came to mind is the Lord's Prayer. How often do we consider what it says when by recite it Sunday by Sunday in church? Do we consider the challenges it poses? Do we even know where in the bible it comes from?  

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 

your kingdom come, 

your will be done, 

on earth as in heaven.

 Give us today our daily bread.

 Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

 Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. 

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and for ever. 

It is important to note that this is a guide to praying. For our prays to have any effect we have to use this as a checklist.

• The first two lines are simple - we proclaim that God is in heaven, is holy and is our father/creator. In our prayers we ought to thank god for his amazing forbearance in allowing us to pray to him, through the grace of Christ.

• The next three lines are clear as well, though slightly more challenging - Have your way in us. Bring your glory to earth. This is more challenging as we are called to be the body of christ, that is Christ to the world. For God's will to be done we have to work to God's plan - See the book of James! Give us our daily bread is a line that seems so easy and is yet so hard. We are praying that God provides us with all that we need and yet we desire to fend for our self. This is taught in Matthew 6:25-34.

• Now for the lines that really challenge me - Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Taken at face value this indicates that to be forgiven you need to forgive. In other words your salvation is dependant on your ability to forgive. I have found through my own experience that when you do not forgive bitterness creeps in. A lack of forgiveness lead to breakdowns in interpersonal relationships and has a detrimental effect on oneself and those around you. We are not to seek revenge which is the opposite of forgiveness. When we seek forgiveness we need to be honest with God. He knows what we have done, what we ought to have done and what haven't done. At some point we will have to make a full account of what we have done in our lives. It is better to seek forgiveness now, rather than when the Lord sits in judgement!

•  Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil - in may ways this is the easiest line of the checklist. We pray that God will not allow us to have those "phwoar!" moments, or moments where we lust after something that is wrong. Jesus commands us to "sin no more" and yet without God's help that is impossible. It is through prayer and God providing our needs that we cut sin from our lives. As we pray we seek to come closer to the personality of Jesus, so that we can honestly pray in His name

• And finally we praise and magnify God as we do at the start. My favourite part of Anglican liturgy comes from 1 Chronicles 29:14b which states " For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you." All that we do we do in God's power and we give him all the glory.

I believe that if we pray the checklist through we will get to the heart of being a Christian. That is to be a follower of Christ making a difference in our locality. We have to change our lives, to forgive others and make hard decisions that go against human wisdom if we are to see the glory of God on the move. Forgiveness is not an easy process, it is much easier to seek revenge; yet it comes with so many benefits.

I would like to point out that my knowledge of where pieces of scripture are in the bible is a bit scanty! Biblegateway is a really useful tool for finding the passages I have been mulling over in my head through the day. I have been glad to find that I had got the context right for most of the scriptures throughout the day. I was obviously taught well in Sunday School!