Resentment - drinking poison while waiting for the enemy to die

I was struck by Jesus' very strong commands to forgive very early in my Christian life: "If you do not forgive, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you" (Matthew 6:15, 18:35 etc.). And I took them all very seriously. I spend much time contemplating what forgiveness really is. Despite my hard effort it took years and the ministry of John Regier before I understood how devastating unforgiveness really is: it is bitterness, it is pain that we carry around, it is debt that we will not discharge.
Hebrews 12:15 says "See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled". There are a number of things we can see in this verse; first of all bitterness (unforgiven pain, resentment) means to come short of the grace of God. It means failing to get a hold of something great that God has for us, something that makes us free, that makes us cast off the bonds and soar with Him.
Secondly, bitterness is not inert - it is alive, it is like a root that grows and takes over more and more territory in the heart.
Finally, if you are a bitter, resentful, unforgiving person who carries past hurst around instead of letting them go, you are a "defiling" agent of those that you come in contact with.
If this is not convincing enough, Robert Leslie Holmes writes in an articles in the Preaching Magazine (Volume 24 No.4) that resentment is like "taking poison and waiting for your enemy to die". He illustrates this point with a fact about rattlesnakes: "a rattlesnake, if it is cornered, will sometimes become so angry that it will bite itself and die of its own poison. This is exactly what harbouring resentment against others is - biting oneself".
I am sure you know of devastated lives, destroyed relationships and destroyed churches because someone could not let go of the hurt, of the pain, of the unfair treatment they experienced.
The choice is yours - let it go and be free or let it live in your heart and let it be a poison to your soul and all those you come in contact with.

Submitting to God's Therapy

So I started physio-therapy on my knee, which I blew out almost two weeks ago (New Year's eve to be exact), skiing. I have some pulled tendons and damaged cartilage ... or something like that. Anyway, it hurts and when I walk I look like Quasimodo - hunched over, hobbling and shuffling grotesquely. My back hurts, I am not sleeping well, more easily irritated than usual (ask my kids) and feeling sorry for myself because I cannot go skiing on my amazing new pair of Heads.
The physio session was not pleasant...basically someone was causing me pain for an hour straight after which I said thank you and paid them. BUT, to my absolute amazement, I am able to step on my whole foot - my whole foot! Not just my toe! I cannot believe this progress - really! I tore my ACL eight years ago. I did not go to the doctor or for any therapy back then. Eventually it healed, but it took months and I re-injured it often during the healing process.
So today, I see that physio-therapy is akin to our spiritual maturing process. If we go along with God's "therapy" and submit to His molding, prodding, pressing and the exercises He assigns, we get better a lot faster. If we pray, read the Word, obey, listen, serve, confess and forgive, the pain, the sleeplessness, the irritability and the twistedness of our soul heal a lot faster than if we "refuse treatment", self-diagnose, do what we think is best and hope that eventually things will get better.
I encourage you to place yourself into God's expert hands. He is the soul-therapy master - hands down. He has seen every case under the sun (literally) and He knows exactly what you need. He will not push you to the point of breaking, although He may push you to a point of great pain. All of it is for the purpose of your healing. Don't be a fool, go along with His program or keep suffering...maybe things will get better eventually...but I doubt it.

How to Listen to a Sermon

This will be the topic of my sermon this Sunday. As a preacher, it first seemed a bit self-serving to tell my people how they should listen to me. However, the congregation experiences the preaching event as a listening event. And for all the books written on how to compose a sermon, I am not aware of a single one that teaches Christians how to listen to a sermon. Sermons are likely the primary way for many North American church goers to grow in their relationship in Christ. It may be the only spiritual discipline in which they regularly participate. We teach people how to pray, fast, read the bible and journal. Why don't we teach our people how to get the most out of preaching? Should this be a natural skill for all believers?
My sermons are all on my church web site www.theDwellingPlace.ca, so you can listen to it there. If you would like the full transcript let me know and I will be happy to send it to you. Also , I found a few good articles on the topic on the web-here are links to some of them:
-George Whitfield's take on the topic
-Theocentric Preaching
-Philip Ryken's take on the topic

Atheist holds that Christianity is necessary to transform lives (in Africa)

A friend of mine brought this article to my attention - thanks Gerald! Many evangelicals (not all) have revised Christian mission into purely humanitarian aid...this is a challenging article, affirming the Great Commission of our Lord and it is especially interesting since it is written from an atheist view point.
Link to the Times on Line article here.

Resolutions '09

I used to be really big on resolutions.  My husband and I would also make resolutions together and we were pretty good at keeping them.  Some even became part of our "normal" life.  For example, many years ago, when our careers were taking off and we were really busy, we resolved to have friends of family over for a full dinner at least once per month.  We stuck to that and once/month is really a minimum for us, it is often more like once per week.

However, I stopped making resolutions a few years after I became a believer.  I felt that as a Christ follower I have to make resolutions to change each time I encounter God - in the word, through prayer, through the words of another believer etc.  So, making resolutions at the beginning of a year seemed artificial and self-driven rather than Spirit driven.

I think that I am again ready to start making New Year resolutions.  It is January 3 so I am bit behind, but I am setting aside tomorrow afternoon to read the bible, to pray and to ask God to show me what I need to focus on in the New Year.

I am planning to do some retrospection and to divide my life into categories so that things don't become too overwhelming.  For example, what do I need to do as  wife, mother, pastor, neighbour to love God and love others more.  What do I need to strengthen in my spiritual, emotional, physical, relational, intellectual aspects of life?

I hope that I don't end up  with a very long to-do list.  Somehow I don't think so, our great God does not work that way.  He gives us what we can handle and I want 2009 to count for him.

I will keep you posted :)