Crossing the Bridge to Forgiveness

CROSSING THE BRIDGE
TO FORGIVENESS
Kathy Bernard - Publisher
"Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses
and renounces them finds mercy. Proverbs 28:13

"..Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept
on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you
who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” - John 8: 6-7

Hanging on to your sins and waiting for tomorrow? Afraid to cross that bridge to reach God's forgiveness? Think about this: When we sin, know that our sins show the temporary, sinful darkness of our souls. And when we hold those sins close to our heart, it is like a wound that does not heal and no earthly salve can restore the peace of knowing that you are in God's grace and are forgiven. Consider King David who was known as a man after God's own heart. But David succumbed to sin just as we do. He stole Bathsheba, the wife of one of his most loyal soldiers, conceived a child by her and covering his deceit, killed the husband. But David turned back to God and begged for forgiveness. His prayer is written in the Bible in Psalm 51:1-12. Here is a part of that prayer:

"O loving and kind God, have mercy. Have pity upon me and take away the awful stain of my transgressions. Oh, wash me, cleanse me from this guilt. Let me be pure again. For I admit my shameful deed...it haunts me day and night. It is against You and You alone I sinned and did this terrible thing. You saw it all, and Your sentence against me is just. Create in me a new, clean heart, O God, filled with clean thoughts and right desires. Don't toss me aside, banished forever from Your presence. Don't take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me again the joy of Your salvation, and make me willing to obey You."

There is a story that tells of two friends who were walking through a desert. During some point of their journey, they had an argument and, in anger, one friend slapped the other in the face. The friend who received the slap, without saying a word, bent down and wrote in the sand, "Today my best friend slapped me." However, the two continued to walk in silence through the desert where they encountered a spring. They both decided to take a bath in the running water. The one who had written in the sand, got stuck in the creek and started drowning when the water suddenly rushed with force around him and his pal pulled him to safety. After recovering a bit, the comrade found a stone and wrote on it, "Today my best friend saved my life." The one who had saved his friend's life asked, “After I hit you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why the difference?”

The companion smiled and said “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where the winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something out of love for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever change or erase it.

John 8: 2-8 tells us when Jesus appeared in the temple courts, people gathered around Him, some eager to see what He could do but were distrustful of Him at the same time. They also watched the teachers of the law and the Pharisees who had brought an adulterous woman to the courts. "Seeing the onlookers' interest in Christ's teaching, the scribes and Pharisees plotted to discredit Him in front of those gathered in the Temple." John does not give the details of how the adulterous woman had been found out, but on learning it these religious leaders saw it as a opportunity entrap Jesus. The woman was made to stand before Him, and the elders said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What have you to say about this?" Some of the men were waiting impatiently and carried heavy stones in readiness to kill the woman.

Of course the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing Jesus. But Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to ease away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” And the woman's sins were forgiven by Jesus Christ.

Know He still stands waiting for you and I, and if we are burdened with sins, to come to Him and ask for forgiveness. We cannot work for our forgiveness or be "good" enough to earn it because it is a gift of grace. We are receiving something that we do not deserve. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9) and when we ask for forgiveness of God, our Father, Jesus tells us in John 14:6 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

The two friends in the above story are an example showing forgiveness by the writing in the sand, allowing his friend's sinful action to be blown away If I do wrong through words or deeds to others, I must complete the act of asking for forgiveness and restitution, thus making peace with our Lord through confession. C.S. Lewis has this to say, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. - Ecclesiastes 7:20 proclaims, "There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins." 1John 1:8 tells, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." If our sins are not forgiven, we will spend an eternity suffering the consequences.

If I do not get my sins cleansed, they will encompass my life and corrode my faith unless I make things right with our Savior. And if others wrong us, we can only be liberated by giving clemency and forgiveness to those who have hurt us. Bestowing forgiveness to others is an act which mimics God's gracious and eternal gift of forgiveness. Consider those who beat Jesus, stripped Him of His clothes, then cast lots among themselves for them, and the soldiers who nailed this innocent man called Jesus Christ to the cross. But yet He forgave them saying, "Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they do". - Luke 23:34

How do we get forgiveness? 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God is loving and merciful – eager to forgive us of our sins! "…He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." God wants to forgive, and He wants us to contritely come to Him. He has already provided for our forgiveness through His Son, Jesus Christ Who has paid for all sins over 2,000 years ago.

Cross the bridge to forgiveness by repenting of sin. Our Lord waits for you with loving arms.

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"For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into
the kingdom of His dear Son, Who purchased our freedom
and forgave our sins/" - Colossians:1:14

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