Welcome to Pastor Jack Buckley's weekly blog and podcast.
You have three ways to hear his weekly message:
- Read Pastor Jack's GODblog.
- Listen now to an audio of the scripture reading and Pastor Jack's sermon.
- Listen anytime. You choose the time and place. Download Pastor Jack's GODcast to your MP3 player.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
A Dangerous Prayer?
Psalm 51:1-12; Matthew 6:7-15
This week's recorded message even has a surprise ending -- at no extra cost!
Listen to the GODcast!
_______________
The traveling salesman stopped at a farm all ready to make his pitch.
On the side wall of the old red barn he noticed a number of bullseye targets, all laid out in random sites and sizes. Upon closer examination he saw that each target was drilled dead center by a bullet hole.
He couldn't resist, after introducing himself, asking the the farmer who the ace shot was. "That'd be me," the old guy said.
"Well, how'd you get so good you could make a perfect bullseye every time?"
"Easy. After I took my shot, I just painted a target around the bullet hole."
I think many, if not most, of us go through life doing the same thing.
I mean, we find ways to make ourselves look better than we know we really are, hoping to impress others with our metaphorical marksmanship. Not necessarily to deceive them for unfair advantage. More to save ourselves from criticism, shunning, or outright abandonment.
Life is much more comfortable when we make every shot look like a bullseye.
I thought about this while preparing this week's message on forgiveness, which focused on Jesus' instruction to pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." (See Matthew 6:7-15)
It's an interesting thing to think of sin as a matter of owing God (and people) something we haven't come through with. And it's a scary thing to think of asking God to forgive me what I owe God in the same way I forgive people who've spiritually short-changed me. What a dangerous prayer!
But the most basic Bible word for sin means "to miss the target."
Thus the silly bullseye story.
More often than not, more of us than not would rather redraw the target than admit we've just plain missed the mark. The inevitable result is that we also miss the joy of being forgiven, and being reconciled in the process.
How much better to say out loud, "I'm sorry," taking the chance that the one you've offended will want as much as you do to clear the deck for renewed fellowship.
When that actually happens, you'll find yourself so thankful that when it's your turn to forgive another the job won't be so hard.
Maybe that's what Jesus had in mind all along.
Knowing you're forgiven by God sets you free to be God's own kind of forgiver. With practice, you discover that you and God are closer to forgiving the same way.
posted by Jack Buckley at
4:03 PM
<< Home
|
|
 |
|
|
