You’ve got to love Peter. He’s so like you and me. He asks Jesus, with chest all puffed out, “How many times do I need to forgive someone who’s hurt me? Seven times?” He thought he was being very magnanimous.
Jesus deflated Peter’s chest when He said, “Peter, my friend, you’ve got it all wrong. Not seven times, but seventy times seven times.” Peter had already forgotten what Jesus had taught him on this subject. “Forgive men when they sin against you, and your heavenly Father will also forgive you. If you don’t, watch out. He won’t forgive yours.”
Forgiveness is not an option for healthy believers. It’s an ongoing freedom tool. Forgiveness brings cleansing (1 John 1:9). Cleansing brings healing. Healing brings wholeness. So if you want to be whole again because someone’s hurt you, pick up your forgiveness tool. If doesn’t matter whether they ask you for it or not! If you want your pain to fester and become infected, which only hurts you, don’t forgive them. If you want wholeness, forgive.
Biblical forgiveness (see Chapter 11 of More Than a Sunday Faith) brings back what you’re after – peace. Don’t let others’ hurts continue to hurt you. Stay clean. Be whole. Constantly keep on giving and getting forgiveness.
Set Free N“O”www

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light,” wrote Plato. Believers say the say the exact same thing a little differently, “I don’t want to deal with my ‘stuff’ because I’m afraid of what I’ll discover.” Or, “I have to deal with this myself because I’m afraid of what others might think.” Both attitudes leave us in the kind of darkness that destroys our peace and joy.
I recently came across the following story. A believer in Jesus was walking around life with a dark cloud hovering around them that only seemed to be getting darker. Their depression was going deeper by the day and their nightmares by night were ever increasing. Yet they finally realized that their way of handling the clouds and nightmares wasn’t working and in their weakness, Jesus could be their strength. They decided to take a walk with the Spirit by letting Him shine His light into the dark corners of their heart, which exposed the cause of their pain induced depression.
With a fellow believer’s help, this person then received the forgiveness Christ offered them, which broke centuries of bondage in their family and lifted the dark cloud from the mind and the weight from their shoulders.
As a result, this person began to experience the love, security and significance Christ came to give them because they had the faith to walk into the light of a loving God. Jesus, who is the light, is your friend (Jn. 15:15). It’s time to pick up your biblical tools by faith and let Him shed some light on your life that will disperse the darkness and make your step much, much lighter.
Today is the day to experience freedom. Get your BIG partner and shed some light into your life…now!
Set Free N“OWWW”

Dennis the Menace is a cartoon of very young blonde-haired boy who constantly gets into trouble. In the only frame of today’s strip he’s saying to his best buddy, Joey, “The best thing about the ‘New Year’ is we can just start over.”
The beauty of our offer and get forgiveness constantly tool is that we don’t have to wait until the new year to start over. We can start over every minute of every day. The second we blow it, we can get forgiveness. The moment someone hurts, we can forgive them. The instant the Spirit brings to our mind a hurt from our past – either done by or to us – we can get or give forgiveness to walk in freedom.
You don’t have to wait for freedom! It’s yours now in Christ. Guilt and pain are major causes for our drug taking – the choice to live our way rather than get closer to Jesus. Why continue to hurt or feel guilty when you have the tool to erase both? Freedom walking is our choice. I pray that you walk in it every single moment of 2014.
Set Free N“O”www

It’s been said, “One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is not living up to one’s own possibilities.” We were created in God’s image and are His awesome workmanship in Christ Jesus. As secure children of God, we’ve been given tremendous potential through Jesus’ life, death and resurrected life.
What we do with this God given potential in the coming year is up to our continual willingness to listen to and follow Jesus everyday everywhere. Remember another famous saying, “By not going forward you could be going backward.” Unless you pick up your biblical tools today, you will live like you did in the past; and thus waste some of the life Jesus came to give in the present.
Will 2014 be a repeat of 2013? Hopefully, you will follow the advice a good friend gave me, “Continue to enjoy watching Jesus reveal Himself to you.” Happy New Year and may your Jesus keep revealing Himself to you as you keep moving forward in and with Him.
“S”et Free Nowww

I love to read spy novels during my vacation. They allow me to be entertained while using my brain in a relaxing manner. In one particular novel, the author used one of his characters to point out that politicians of all stripes spin issues to purposefully manipulate public opinion. They will craft when info is given, where it’s given and how much of it is given to the public.
I thought of our enemy, who does exactly the same to influence our thinking, as I read those lines. He gives us only so much truth (usually that our sin will make us feel good) and then leaks just enough of it at the right moments for us to believe his message. If we don’t filter his message, our lives will only be negatively affected.
We must be listening to the Source of Truth, Jesus, in His Word each day and to the Spirit of Truth throughout our day in order to know where to put our shield of faith filled with God’s truths if we are to see through our enemy’s deceptions.
How’s your listening to and following Jesus skills coming along? 2014 starts tomorrow. Make the commitment to sharpen those skills by using your biblical tools more than you did in 2013.
S“E”t Free Now“W”w