{"id":28559,"date":"2021-08-18T09:58:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T13:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=28559"},"modified":"2021-08-18T10:05:26","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T14:05:26","slug":"worship-wednesday-forgiveness-and-unity-refusing-to-offend-or-be-offended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=28559","title":{"rendered":"Worship Wednesday – Forgiveness and Unity – Refusing to Offend or Be Offended"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cForgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Jesus – Matthew 6:12<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.<\/span> <\/span> Then<\/span> many false prophets will rise up and<\/span> deceive many.<\/span> <\/span> And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow<\/span> cold.<\/span> <\/span> <\/em>But he who endures to the end shall be saved.\u201d \u2013 <\/em>Jesus \u2013 Matthew 24:10-13<\/a><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout Scripture, we are taught to forgive. How can we withhold forgiveness when Christ forgives us? How can we justify our own sin because we are offended by the sin of another? In Matthew 24 above, Jesus is teaching about the end times<\/a>. We must be vigilant in how we live our lives because of 1) the temptation to pull away from the teachings of Christ and 2) the hold of entitlement and the sin of offense.<\/p>\n

The three books above all speak to these matters. With a common theme.<\/p>\n

The Bait of Satan: Living Free From the Deadly Trap of Offense<\/em><\/a> – John Bevere<\/a><\/p>\n

Until Unity<\/em><\/a> – Francis Chan<\/a><\/p>\n

Forgiving What You Can’t Forget<\/a> – Lysa Terkeurst<\/a><\/p>\n

All speak of the deadening outcome of unforgiveness and its eroding impact on our hearts and relationships…with God and each other.<\/p>\n

I wrote about offense another time. Please revisit it here<\/a>. You may be surprised at the destructive nature of offense – offending and allowing ourselves to be offended.<\/p>\n

Monday Morning Moment – Offense, Being Offended, and taking Up Offense<\/em> – Deb Mills<\/a><\/p>\n

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Worship<\/a> with me to Matthew West’s Forgiveness <\/em>[Lyrics in the link<\/a>].<\/em><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You for this pattern of prayer that Jesus taught. Give me a gentle spirit and help\u00a0me to be quick to forgive all those who have hurt or\u00a0abused me\u2026 knowing that for Christ\u2019s sake I have been forgiven of so much. I pray that I may maintain close fellowship with You, and be\u00a0swift to forgive those who sin against me \u2013 in Jesus name, AMEN.\u201d \u2013 <\/em>Daily Verse<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m going to close here. This topic on a Worship Wednesday is one that should draw us to prayer…and maybe repentance. We can’t always find ourselves in “righteous” indignation…when we look to the Cross. Are forgiveness and refusing to be offended hard? Yes, but we have the power of the Spirit of God indwelling us and making it possible, with willing hearts. Our families, churches, and communities have been too long divided. Jesus deserves better.<\/p>\n

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Photo Credit: Scott Sauls, Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

Scott Sauls’ Quotes and Sayings<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Worship Wednesday – The Forgiven Forgive – David Crowder & Matthew West<\/em> – Deb Mills<\/a><\/p>\n

Worship Wednesday – Until Unity – with Francis Chan – <\/em>Deb Mills<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cForgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.\u201d \u2013 Jesus – Matthew 6:12 \u201cAnd then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures … Continue reading Worship Wednesday – Forgiveness and Unity – Refusing to Offend or Be Offended<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3346,926,2986,1447,371,34,1628,799,1705,1618,1148,1180,7027,1449,794,3208,5253,1454,903,4732,33,1732,317,263,795,2611,433,719,789,1938,610,1002,32,47,946],"tags":[501,290,9067,1835,8528,8863,448,8524,8527,213],"class_list":["post-28559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anger","category-attending-or-focus","category-attitude","category-bible","category-bookmarked-summer","category-books","category-character","category-church-2","category-conversations","category-courage","category-critical-thinking","category-crucifixion","category-decision-making","category-do-over","category-faithfulness","category-finishing-strong","category-forgiveness","category-fresh-start","category-grace","category-holy-spirit","category-inspired","category-leadership","category-lessons-learned","category-lives-full-of-god","category-love-2","category-love-your-neighbor","category-pray","category-reconciliationforgiveness","category-relationships","category-spiritual-warfare","category-thanksgiving-or-gratefulness","category-transformational","category-walk-with-god","category-wednesday-worship","category-worship","tag-david-crowder","tag-forgiveness","tag-francis-chan","tag-jesus","tag-john-bevere","tag-lysa-terkeurst","tag-matthew-west","tag-offense","tag-the-bait-of-satan","tag-unity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pauPAB-7qD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28559"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28574,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28559\/revisions\/28574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}