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Many years ago I watched a movie called, Assassins;
Veteran hit man Robert Rath (Sylvester Stallone) is looking to get out of the business when meets young, eager competitor Miguel Bain (Antonio Banderas), who has Rath at the top of his "to do" .. Rath takes one last job, but complications ensue when he falls in love with his mark, the beguiling Electra (Julienne Moore). Bain sets out to murder Rath and Electra and the hit leads the assassins on a deadly chase from Seattle to Puerto Rico.
The point was that Antonio Banderas wanted be the number 1 killer. He was obsessed to be number 1 assassin. Finally he got killed.
At the University of Duke, one of the most renowned (prestige) universities in United States and the World, they conducted an statistic and research in which secular doctors concluded that one of the principal causes of illnesses and diseases were not heart attack, nor from smoking cigarettes , nor from aids or cancer but from the lack of forgiveness.
It is amazing to believe that a group of doctors, whom there are not aware of, nor professing Christian principles arrived to that conclusion. In a world so scientific oriented in which we lived today where everything need proof. It is unbelievable that a group of Scientists declared to the world that the number 1 killer (number 1 assassin) in the world and in the USA is the lack of forgiveness.
The Lack of forgiveness causes people sickness, depression, insane, neurotics, psychotics, psychopath, etc...There are many related mentally and emotional illnesses caused by no able to forgive or able to receive forgiveness, being trapped and unable to received the Grace of God.
The Power to Forgive
A campaign for forgiveness research has conducted scientific research and studies on Forgiveness throughout the world.
Research into the Strength of Forgiveness
Forgiveness research is a relatively new and uncharted field. Prior to 1985, only a handful of studies had been completed, and in the fourteen years since, less than sixty studies. Nevertheless, social scientists have begun to quantify the power of forgiveness in a variety of arenas:
Reducing Heart Disease
On January 2, 1998, ABC News reported "studies show that letting go of anger and resentment can reduce the severity of heart disease and, in some cases, even prolong the lives of cancer patients."
Preventing Crime at the Source
A 1995 study conducted by The University of Montgomery analyzed how much the desire for revenge (i.e., the opposite of forgiveness) factors into the committing of a crime. The study clearly indicates that forgiveness education could play a key role in reducing the vengeful responses that lead to criminal acts.
Healing Troubled Marriages
Dr.Frederick DiBlasio of the University of Maryland is one of many family therapists successfully using forgiveness as a tool to reconcile couples when other techniques have proved ineffective.
I worked for ten years in several psychiatric hospitals in Southern California; Most of the patients that did recovered were those that were able to forgive and to receive forgiveness.
Once you are able to forgive, and to received forgiveness from others then you are free and the Grace of God will flow through your life. Once you forgive, your life will not be the same.
The Book of Mark describes, when Jesus entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house.
Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men.
And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you."
Jesus saw that the paralytic?s condition was caused by sin; the lack of forgiveness.
Once Jesus addressed the real reason of his condition then Jesus later said,
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise, take up your bed and walk'?
"But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins"--He said to the paralytic,
"I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." Mark 2:1-11. The paralytic was healed physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
Why should we live in a state of ongoing forgiveness?
In Matthew 18, Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"
Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
The Prophet Micah declares, who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity and passing over The transgression of the remnant of His heritage?
He does not retain His anger forever,
Because He delights in mercy.
Our God is full of mercy and grace ready to forgive us.
When the disciples asked Jesus to teach how to pray Jesus at the end of that prayer said,
"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Forgiveness is a process! Forgiveness is a choice. It is an act of the will. When you make the steps toward forgiveness then you will free yourself from the emotional bondage and the prison doors will be opened. It is a decision and a real change in your emotion. That change in your emotion will lead to a better mental and physical health and ultimate spiritually.
Forgiveness does not have to include reconciliation; forgiveness is not the same as trusting.
The injured party can forgive an offender even though the offender may never (or for safety sake, must never) be a part of his or her life in the future.
It is OK to be angry. Paul said, Be angry, and sin not. Forgiveness can not be expressed until you are honest about your anger toward the person who hurt you.
Cultivating a Lifestyle of Forgiveness. Continue to turn away from hate and resentment. Letting go of your grudges takes a great deal of moral efforts.
Building roads to reconciliation. Making forgiveness into actions
Refuse to allow the mire water (bitter water) keep flowing through your veins; embrace a new way of life. Drop the stone that you hold in your hand. Drop it.
Allow God?s healing and forgiveness flow and releases you as the bondage have been broken. As a new chapter of your life has begun.
STEPS OF FORGIVENESS
Admit that you have been hurt.
Accept the responsibility of holding that hurt, and you have bitterness in your heart.
Ask the Lord to forgive you for holding anger, bitterness and that hurt against another person, and give up the pain of that hurt to Jesus.
Release that hurt to the Lord.
Receive forgiveness, and with that forgiveness, forgive any one who has hurt you.
Thank Jesus for forgiving you, and forgive yourself.
If the Holy Spirit leads you, go to the one you held anger and bitterness against, and ask him to forgive you.
STEPS OF RELEASING Judgment
Admit that you have held a judgment against someone.
Repent, accept your responsibility for holding a judgment, and that it is sin.
Ask the Lord Jesus to forgive you for judging someone.
Give up that judgment to the Lord. You no longer hold that person accountable.
Receive His forgiveness, and forgive yourself.
As the Holy Spirit leads you, go to the person that you have held a judgment against
And ask that person to forgive you. (If you don?t have relationship with that person, this step will be not necessary. In marriage, you need to share your judgment, and ask them to forgive you.)
Judge not, and you shall not be judged;
condemn not, and you shall be not condemned;
forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Luke 6:37
Even if you change, the other person may not. Each person has free will. you are not responsible for the other person behavior nor conduct. you are only responsible to play your part.
We have many samples in the Bible of cases where forgiveness plays a key role between relationships as Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers. The most crucial is the one of our master, teacher, our Lord Jesus when He was hang on the cross; they pierced his side, they nailed His hands and feet; they made a mockery out of Him; and at the end He stretched His arms as He look at their faces and cried aloud, ?Father Forgive them because they don not what they done.
As the same time as you identify with Jesus, picture yourself hanged at the cross and look down at the faces of all the people that have hurt you and declare with loud voice, Father forgive them because they do not know what they have done; and declared it is finished!!!!! Now received His love, Grace and His Mercy!!!
YOUR SINS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN!!!!!!
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| Oscar Oxford |
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