Blind to Sin....

The following quote sums up what the
Lord has been teaching me the past few weeks:

“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating.
By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil
and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer~

Man...I couldn't have said it any better myself, Mr. Bonhoeffer!

I'm in a Bible study at church called

Freedom in Christ...

I took this class back in the spring

and I'm co-leading one of the

groups this fall....

I learned sooo much last time

and God is faithful, as usual, to

continue pruning me and making me

in His image...as I sit in The Fire.

Two weeks ago the lesson was on Forgiveness...

this is by FAR my favorite lesson in the entire course.

It's such a powerful night for all involved...

it's a night where we go and sit on our own

and work through repenting of our sin

then on paper writing out everything we would ever

want to say to the people that have hurt us...

then giving it back to the Lord and saying...

I forgive you to that person that hurt you.
Once we're finished we put it through the shredder
never to think about it again.

God had been working on me for a couple of weeks
prior to this lesson.

As I sat there listening to the two women give their
testimonies of how they've forgiven...I sat there
with tears streaming down my face and I couldn't
wait to get to the exercise...I was ready to spill
my guts and forgive the person
God had put on my heart...
which led to two others I needed to forgive as well.

I sat down with my pen and paper and began writing...
as the words appeared on the paper
God gently revealed to me how I had been blind
to my own sin....
how I've spent YEARS judging each one of these
precious people in my life...
harboring ill feelings and anger toward them...
it had gotten so bad I could hardly look
them in the face...
the worst thing about all this is that I was so
deep in my sin that I couldn't even see how I
was wrong or how I was hurting them.

God graciously softened my heart for this very moment...
to reveal my sin and change my heart toward
each one of these people.

He's also given me the heart to sit down
with each one of them
and confess my sin.
If you think about it...say a prayer...
I'll be doing that this weekend.

I can't WAIT to see them, love them and extend
the same grace & forgiveness that
Christ so graciously extended to me.
I pray through this, they will see
Christ's work in me and receive His love
through me...
To God be the Glory...
Great things He has done!!!