Tag Archives: forgiveness

Rend Your Heart

“So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.” (Joel 2:13)

Have you ever cried with a broken heart? What does it mean to “rend your heart and not your garments”? In Old Testament times, when tragedy occurred, smearing one’s head with ashes, tearing garments, and putting on sackcloth was the expression of mourning. This was a customary way for Jews to show their grief. However, God instructed the people that He was not interested in outward expressions but in a broken and contrite heart. The tearing of outer garments is useless unless the heart is broken in repentance and contrition. Continue reading →

Dealing with Conflicts

Leave a reply

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Rom 12:21)

Conflicts among people are common. After David killed Goliath, Saul’s attitude toward David had changed from one of love (1 Sam 16:21) to one of hate (1 Sam 18:11) because of his extreme jealousy of David’s increasing popularity. Selfish desires such as jealousy, ambition, covetousness, and competition are often causes of conflicts. Conflict and disagreement will arise when we try to step over others to get ahead or preserve our self-interests as Saul.

What distinguishes those who are driven to stir up conflicts like Saul? Take a good look at the “Saul” within us. Continue reading →

A Wise and Gentle Response

Leave a reply

There are a number of incidents in the Bible where we are privileged with an omniscient point of view. One of them is recorded in John 12:4-8, where Judas denounces Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet with costly spikenard. Not only do we see Judas’ apparent ‘righteousness’ in questioning why the oil was not sold to be given to the poor, we see his evil intentions from Jesus’ all-knowing perspective. Although the gospel of John writes that Judas was a thief, it is likely that no one at the time knew this except for Jesus. What can we learn from the dialogue that ensued?

Judas was being a hypocrite when he criticized Mary’s offering because he did not actually care about the poor at all (Jn 12:6). For this reason, Jesus had a number of ways He could have responded to Judas. Continue reading →

The Same Night

Leave a reply

… that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; (1 Cor 11:23b)

This is the start of a passage we always refer to during the Holy Communion sacrament. For me, this is also the part I never really paid attention to before, since we often focus on the latter part about remembering the Lord’s death and examining ourselves.

In a prayer before the Holy Communion, I had reflected on myself and admit I lamented to God that I felt “tired of forgiving” the trespasses of others. However, this thought came to my mind: “Has the Lord Jesus ever gotten tired of forgiving me? How about the sins of everyone else?” Indeed He has forgiven us more than we could ever forgive another. Continue reading →