Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
"5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test? 6 But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test. 7 Now we pray to God that you do no wrong; not that we ourselves may appear approved, but that you may do what is right, even though we may appear unapproved." 2nd Corinthians 13:5-7
Something that was brought out last Saturday morning at the men's breakfast at the church I attend is the matter of forgiveness and unforgiveness.
I considered Mark 11:25-26;
25 Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. 26 [But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”]
Whether a member of this forum or just lurking, this applies to each one of us.
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Forgiveness is important, it's too easy to overlook it. We need to forgive, and I try to forgive those in the LC who have wronged me. I have a question that might be worthy of discussion. How do you forgive without opening the door to being taken advantage of, or being walked over?
The need for forgiveness arises from being wronged in some way. I can definitely say without a doubt that I feel there are ways in which I was wronged by the LC, and I've seen so many others who have been wronged.
In my LC experience, in those situations where I was wronged, I had no problem forgiving (it might have taken a bit of time), but eventually I moved on - "Forgive and forget" as they would say. That was all good until I once again was wronged in the same way or under similar circumstances. When I consider that kind of situation, the following verses come to mind:
Mathew 18:21-22
21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
So it would seem that you just keep forgiving, and that is what the Bible teaches, but that can also open the door to being taken advantage of, or even worse, abusive behavior. So where do you draw the line? I've seen LC saints who would get "offended", leave the LC for a little while, then after a bit of time, they're back in the system, ready to be wronged again. It's a cycle that can repeat itself unless one stands up to it. I almost feel like the LC depends on saints to "forgive and forget" (without making a stand) whenever these types of situations come up.