December 31, 2009
The life of Jesus. Read Today: Peter's question about forgiveness; Matthew 18:21-35
Matthew 18: 34 - 35 (ESV)
34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.
35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
We all know the story. A man who owes a lot gets forgiveness by the Lord, but then will not forgive a small debt of another person. Many have looked on it as a story of how we are to learn to forgive, and it is by nature that.
But look at the last two verses and you see a little but of gold that may not be evident on first glance. You see, in verse 34 he is delivered to the jailers (some translations read punisher) till the debt can be paid. My question is how much debt can be repaid from prison? And even if you can, how large was this debt.
We have made a huge debt in the way we live out life. It includes how we treat others, how we maintain integrity, and many other things. Jesus has accepted us for this. He has washed the slate clean. We could never repay the debt but He has done it willingly. If we turn around and not forgive others when the grieve us, then we are like the servant. And the question would be, if you have been forgiven and refuse to forgive others, where does your heart truly live.
Read for next time: Feast of Booths at hand; John 7:2 Visit http://dailydevotionbob.blogspot.com/ for more tools and sign up for mailing list
I appoligize for my absence the last few months. Along with taking on multiple jobs, I have a new supervisor position at my full time job and it has taken much time and energy. I hope now to get these back on the road again.
Like I did last year I will talk about the scope of the Devotional.
The mailing list has 41 members, up from 27 members last year. As before all new members are moderated till their first post. This is done to prevent spammers from joining to dump spam. I do encourage feedback if you are so inclined. We have stopped a lot of spam by doing this and those people are not allowed to post at all.
The Blog has 3,510 while last year it was at 2,980. The quick math tells you 530 hits this year. I am sure it would have been more if I kept the content current.
Along with the current ways to get the devotional (email, blog site, Facebook and You Version Web site) I have added Google's Orkut to the list.
Pray for me as I try to get this kick started again. If anyone ever has anything to add, send it along.
