God helps us SO much when He convicts us of what it is we are doing wrong! Those who are in Christ are not under condemnation (see Romans 8:1) but conviction is another thing. How the Lord convicts of sin is always about what we DID. What we have a clear choice about. A choice to confess (humble ourselves and agree with God, hopefully realizing just what it was we did wrong) and repent (go the other way, make restitution as possible).

You can tell if you’ve really forgiven someone, I believe, if your heart is completely unburdened from anger. If instead of having hurtful desires for another, in place, God gives you the utter and pure desire to hope to somehow become a blessing and an instrument of grace and peace to the one who used to be your foe. This truly takes an act of God, for forgiveness to be authentic from the heart, not just deceptive lip service from your mouth. Another perspective that helped me was to realize when I refuse to forgive, I am taking the place as their judge. As well as remembering what THE TRUE JUDGE of all has already done for you, assuming you’ve received the gift of forgiveness from the Lord for all your own sins. And assuming you actually believe that too! For me, it took a long time of being bitter to get sick enough of my burden, pity and complaining, to finally realize my error, and call on the Lord in pure earnst for help. Because what is impossible with man is possible with God. And I don’t think that we can give, what we do not have!! Have ALL of YOUR sins been washed in the blood? And forgiven forever and ever??

Some of you might be encouraged by how forgiveness of God was extended to murders. One outstanding testimony on this topic is available on You Tube’s “Personal testimony (Story of Stephen Morin), Margy Palm (Mayfield). He was a serial killer. Forevermore, the story of Karla Faye Tucker, is another true story as well as you might be interested in the interview with Ted Bundy by Dr. James Dobson, on You Tube as well.

Some of you might be encouraged by the salvation of Satanists: One is “Werewolves are real! First Hand Witness!” on You Tube. It’s very long, very deep and full of awesome and often surprising information, but Bill Schnoebellen’s testimony is about 10 minutes long starting at the 2 hour and 8 minute mark.

And some of you might be encouraged even by the salvation of the religious! Check out You Tube’s “Unveiling Grace: The Film (Full Presentation). Or You Tube’s “Escape from Darkness – Daniel Shayesteh”

The apostle Paul, once pharisee turned convert, wrote in Romans 7: 18-24, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

The good news is there is someone who can! Who can deliver us? Jesus!!!

Have you ever been bullied to the point no one would even speak a peaceable and kind word to you? Some of you may have even experienced that in your own family! That was the situation for a man named Joseph. You may have heard of him in the Bible. His family was really ‘dysfunctional’ too!

It helped me to read and really think about his life from his point of view, understanding he couldn’t see his life from our perspective. It starts in Genesis 37, about Joseph. If anyone had a right to be bitter, he did, according to this world’s standards, but not God’s. This is what I love about Scripture. It gives me hope when I read about these people who had issues just like me!

It’s better to read it for yourself but the way I would summarize it is that Joseph grew up with all his brothers hating him, not even able to speak a peaceable word, just because of his father’s favoritism. His brothers hated him so much, they were going to kill him, but decided instead to make a little money, and sold him into slavery for silver into a foreign land, telling their father, he’d died. But here was poor Joseph, who suffered another great injustice as after many years of faithful service as a slave, refused seduction by his master’s wife (for the purpose of not sinning against God, by the way. Not for the purpose of avoiding getting in trouble…) only to be thrown into and Egyptian, dirty, dusty prison for 13 years for doing what was right, although falsely accused.

This is one of the greatest lessons of how God can use evil for good, as later this was the same Joseph God raised up to power, to be used to save the entire known world at that time from starvation. It’s a fascinating read, and you just couldn’t make this stuff up, but God raised Joseph from slave to 2nd in command just on time for the famine, which caused Joseph’s brothers to come to Egypt to ask for food, having NO idea just who it was they were asking help! After all those years, Joseph looked like an Egyptian. He walked like an Egyptian, ha. He even talked and smelled like an Egyptian! Many Christians believe this is part of the reason the Jewish people as a whole do not recognize their Jewish Messiah. That’s a whole different story, how things like Christmas and Easter really came to be, as you’ll never find those practices in Scripture, in either the old or new testament! The church has sure made her mistakes as well!!!

If you want to know about what happened when they found out that was their brother, whom they had sold, you can read that for yourself, but one fine point about Joseph’s story I find very encouraging that happened much earlier in the account is the value of the smallest act. You see, when Joseph’s father sent him to go find his brothers to report how they were doing, Joseph was having a hard time finding them. “It just so happened”^[1] that there was a stranger he ran across in his search, who “just so happened” to know where these hateful brothers were, and who “just so happened” to point Joseph their way! . This is a fantastic example of how you and I pointing someone the right direction just might change the world! Or at least theirs! As well as having the assurance God is the master orchestrater of events that “just so happen” in our very lives as well!!

If you want to really get into an amazing study of how every single detail of the Old Testament points to Christ, you might start with RevealingJourney.org with Corrine Stanley on the tabernacle or Nancy Missler’s study, Be Ye Transformed cover the topics of the temple in-depth. It used to be that the Holy Spirit dwelt in those places but when Jesus arose, the temple curtain was torn… from top to bottom. When the Holy Spirit came 50 days later on Pentacost, mankind gained the opportunity to house God’s Spirit in our own bodies. 1 Corinthians 6: 17 tells us, “Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own.”

I love the lessons in Nancy’s Be Ye Transformed which help us understand what our heart, mind, spirit and soul are according to the God who has made us! One outstanding definition for our mind can be pictured like this: A horse has a bridle and 2 reins, each used to turn and guide and direct it. As a human being think of our mind with 2 reins, one being the Holy Spirit and the other being the Word of God. How sensitive are we to His leading???