How to Forgive By FaithWritten by Jeff Doles
Jesus said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by roots and be planted in sea,' and it would obey you" (Luke 17:6).Wait a minute--did I get right verse for this topic? What do mustard seeds and mulberry trees have to do with learning how to forgive? Quite a lot, actually. Earlier, Jesus had been talking about offenses and how to deal with them: "Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him: and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him" (Luke 17:3-4). Now, people don’t generally mind rebuking a brother. In fact, it comes quite naturally (at least in our fallen human nature). But when Jesus said to rebuke, it wasn’t a license to act mean and nasty, or to be self-satisfied, which often seems to be what we mean by "rebuke"--when someone offends us, we want to "tell them off." That’s not what Jesus was talking about. Yes, there are times when we must deal seriously with a matter, and we should never back down from that. But we must always be careful to do it in love, seeking good of other person involved. We don’t mind repentance, either, as long as it is somebody else who is doing it. If someone offends us, and then comes back and apologizes—well, we can often just go ahead and let it go, and it makes us feel, you know, sort of magnanimous. (We have a nasty habit of making everything about us, don’t we? It’s fallen nature again.) But seven times in one day? That’s pushing it. I mean, how much of this treatment are we supposed to take? Plus, its one thing when they offend us, and then they repent. What about when they don’t repent? Are we still supposed to forgive? Yes. In another place, Jesus said, "Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses" (Mark 11:25). No repentance mentioned here, not even a hint. Just forgive. Okay, that really tests our limits now, doesn’t it? But we’re not in bad company, because it tested disciples as well. When Jesus told them to forgive brother seven times, disciples suddenly became aware of a great inadequacy in themselves, particularly in their faith.
| | Right From The Horse's Mouth! The Project for a New American CenturyWritten by Frank Reilly
In recent months we have engaged in many conversations with Christians and non Christians alike, on matters concerning American Government, and its activities in world today. On a universal level, those of faith AND those who do not share our faith agree on one thing, and that is that none of what we have been saying here at 11th Hour for last 14 months is actual fact, and that it is all "OUR opinion and OUR misinterpretation of George W's policies and intentions", purely speculation and our conjecture: no supportable facts". The following article will summarily place that statement in wastebasket... where it belongs. The document outlined in this article was inspired by foreign policy outline drawn up by Dick Cheney and his colleagues in 1992, when he was secretary of defense for Senior Bush's administration. It is a documented fact that these men had sent letters to Bill Clinton and raved about these mandates that they felt were essential to America's future. The Project for a New American Century, (so called), is an initiative of "The New Citizenship Project", which is made up of a startling group of names, which will be mentioned here. It is absolutely sobering and even chilling when you read process of world domination laid out in this document, when you consider fact that Men who wrote and endorse this document, are very men who are in control of White House, Pentagon, and Defense Dept! Let's take a look at their motives and their intentions, how they have played out recently, and what we can expect from our government going forward...The PNAC's Statement of Principles is written by, and bears names of following people: Elliott Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush, Eliot A. Cohen, Dick Cheney, Midge Decter, Paula Dobriansky, Steve Forbes, Aaron Friedberg, Francis Fukuyama, Frank Gaffney, Fred C. Ikle, Donald Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad, I. Lewis Libby, Norman Podhoretz, Dan Quayle, Peter W. Rodman, Stephen P. Rosen, Henry S. Rowen, Donald Rumsfeld, Vin Weber, George Weigel, Paul Wolfowitz. You can also add to this list Richard Perle and Condoleezza Rice, who met with core group about how to promote principles of War
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