God never freezes people in time...do you?

badlandbucks

Ten Pointer
A moving person may "freeze in his tracks." A government may put a "freeze on discretionary spending." To freeze in these instances means to render what was once moving motionless, to stop, make immoveable or frozen in time. Could we in our mind and heart do that to people? Do we decline to allow for growth? Do we refuse to believe that the person may be different now? For example we may meet someone and we judge them to be 35 years old. Five years go by and we are talking about this person and someone asks, "Well, how old is he?' and you say, "35 years old." Have we frozen him in time? We are inclined to remember the mistakes of people in this way, to freeze them at that moment. Some could do that when evaluating someone for privileges or promotions. One may say, 'I can understand why you think he may qualify, but did you know that he…" When did this happen? It may have been years ago but we have frozen him in time. Is that how God views people?

Rom 2:4 "Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and long-suffering, because you do not know that the kindly quality of God is trying to lead you to repentance?" The point is to see the beauty of God's personality. We want to be more like God in how we view others. God's view can be described this way, "We may be inclined to focus on others' weaknesses. In doing so, we are, in effect, using a camera with a lens that focuses on only a small area. God's view, however, is through a wide-angle lens, which can take in a subject as well as its surroundings. We may tend to zoom in on something we do not like, whereas God sees the whole person, including all of an individual's good qualities. The more we strive to become like God, the more we can contribute to the spirit of love and unity."

God can look at all of us and see the potential. God knows how far we have come and how well we are doing. Many were not raised to know God. Some backgrounds weren't the best but God doesn't have to focus on our fleshly weaknesses and "freeze us in time." We can be thankful for that!

As to our errors, Ps 103:12 says, "As far off as the sunrise is from the sunset, so far off from us he has put our transgressions." The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and east and west can never meet. One scholar notes that this expression means "as far as possible; as far as we can imagine." David's inspired words tell us that when God forgives, he puts our sins as far away from us as we can imagine. That is how he views us and our fellow Christians. We are going to fail each day, but we should try to do our best to imitate God in this.

Jesus had the same view his Father does. In his prehuman existence he could observe men. At Matt 7:1, he said "Stop judging that YOU may not be judged." The way he says this shows he knew his listeners were already in the habit of doing it. We all have a tendency to judge, but some 'nurse' this too much. Jesus did not say 'do not judge' but he says to 'Stop it,' implying they were already doing it. We have to be careful of having a critical spirit or constantly being critical of others. Critical people act like it takes a great mind to find fault. This is not how God wants us to behave.

If we don't forgive, we won't be forgiven. This is made clear in Matt 6:14, 15, "if YOU do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will YOUR Father forgive YOUR trespasses." Could it be that we have developed the habit of focusing on other's weaknesses, as with a camera and a zoom lens? If so, we need to stop it and imitate God. We are all working on being better at this, but we need to be realistic when dealing with imperfect humans.

2 Sam 11 tells us of the account of David's sin with Bathsheba. David feels, I know how to fix this. But he underestimates the integrity of Uriah. In verse 11 David brings Uriah back from the battle lines thinking he can get him to sleep with his wife and cover up the pregnancy. But Uriah doesn’t and this is not what David is expecting. What a slap in David's face. Then David gets him drunk; but it still doesn't work. Finally in verse 14 David writes a letter to Joab telling him to put Uriah in the front lines so that he will be killed. He then gives the letter to Uriah to deliver. Can you believe it; he had this loyal man carry his own death sentence. How despicable.

At 2 Sam 24 even Joab, who was not a godly man, was against taking the census. In verse 4 he gives in; in verse 10 David's conscience kicks in too late; and in verse 12 Gad the prophet came and gave God's decision. He is offered a choice of three options: a 7 year famine, 3 months of fleeing before their adversaries or 3 days of pestilence. David chooses the third one, to fall into the hands of God. Verse 15 shows 70,000 people died in three days. The census had counted 1,300,000 men, so with women and children, the nation could have numbered up to 15 million people. So this was a huge, devastating loss. To put this into perspective, Japan with a population of 127 million lost 25,000 in the earthquake and tsunami that followed. This devastated the nation of Japan. Imagine the shocking effect that losing 70,000 had on a nation of 15 million because of their king. David's reputation had a stench to it.

Yet, God does what he asks us to do. Notice the evidence that God does not freeze people in time. Later in 1 Ki 14:8, how does God view David? "This is what the God of Israel says: 'You have not become like my servant David, who kept my commandments and who walked after me with all his heart by doing only what was right in my eyes.' We have just read what David did, but this is how God remembered him. What about you, if you had lived back then? Would you have frozen David in time, especially if you had lost a loved one in the pestilence? God knew at heart David was a good man, who loved Him even though he made mistakes. He could see David perfect in the future. God didn't freeze him in time but will resurrect him.

Another man who was not frozen in time was Peter. Peter disappointed Jesus many times. But be careful of criticizing Peter because he is the only other man besides Jesus who ever walked on water! None of us have walked on water, and Peter is now a king ruling in heaven. Peter had many beautiful qualities that we also want to remember. This example is being used with the utmost respect and no doubt Peter would want us to learn from it. Remember at Mat 16:15,16 when Jesus asked 'who are men saying I am?' it was Peter that spoke up: "You are the Christ, the Son of God.” It was clear to him, no doubt in his mind. Later in this chapter Jesus tells of the suffering he will endure and then will be put to death. Peter took the Christ, the Son of the living God aside and rebuked him, saying "Be kind to yourself." He had just said Jesus was the 'son of God' and now took it upon himself to 'rebuke’ him. 'Rebuke’ is a strong word though Peter was sincere in doing it. Jesus turns his back to Peter. We may be sincere and say ‘I didn't mean to hurt anyone.' But you did hurt them. We need to own up to it. The matter needed to be straightened out and Jesus did it. lt shows when we need straightening out he will do it. In verse 23 Jesus says, "Get behind me Satan!" Note that in Mark's account he says this was in front of the other disciples. Jesus must have been devastated that Peter would act like that.

In Matt 26:31-33, Jesus tells the disciples that all of them will be stumbled this night in connection with him and quotes a Bible prophecy. Peter takes exception to this. Peter means it when he says "Although all the others are stumbled in connection with you, never will I be stumbled!" Jesus replies that Peter will disown him before the :donk:donk:donk:donk crows three times. This is quite an egotistical statement for Peter to make. Who does he think he is? We would like to think that at that point we would have gotten on our knees and said, "Forgive me. How do I avoid this? I don't want to do this." Yet in verse 35, we see that he was so influential that all of the others did the same. Then Peter denies Jesus, and Luke's account adds that Jesus looked at Peter at that moment. Peter was crushed by the weight of his own guilt and he "broke down and wept bitterly." It was so painful to Peter emotionally that Jesus met with him privately to confirm his love for him. When God and Jesus evaluated Peter for the privileges at Pentecost, they did not freeze him in time. How about us? Would we have frozen him in time?

We need to analyze the genuineness of God's love and the way he forgives us and imitate it. A major reason for difference between humans and God is that we tend not to forgive and get past things. God is described in Neh 9:17, "But you are a God of acts of forgiveness." None of us are so righteous that we aren't in need of forgiveness. Daily, even multiple times in a day, we need to request forgiveness. If we see a tendency to be critical in ourselves, we need to reevaluate ourselves, our attitude and how sinful we really are. We can be so grateful that God does not focus on our sins. Ps 130:3, 4 states, "if errors were what you watch...who could stand? For there is the true forgiveness with you, in order that you may be feared." The NWT puts 'true' before the word for 'forgiveness.' The original Hebrew used the definite article here for forgiveness, "THE forgiveness." It is only used in connection with God; it never refers to people forgiving each other. The previous scripture in Nehemiah is in the plural form, "a God of acts of forgiveness." A comment on this in the Rotherham translation refers to this as an 'exquisite quality of the Almighty...the Hebrew emphasis on 'the forgiveness' is though God had a cherished delight in forgiving, as though it were just like him." That is why God wouldn't freeze David or Peter in time. God never freezes people in time; The question is, do you?
 

Helium

Old Mossy Horns
I agree overall with your post and also with Conman at the same time. How? Well, as you said there are differences between God and man. Forgiving is entirely different than forgetting or giving someone the power to hurt me again time after time.

For example, would you allow someone who has harmed your kids sexually, physically, emotionally another chance? How about the 3rd time? There is line somewhere
 

badlandbucks

Ten Pointer
I agree overall with your post and also with Conman at the same time. How? Well, as you said there are differences between God and man. Forgiving is entirely different than forgetting or giving someone the power to hurt me again time after time.

For example, would you allow someone who has harmed your kids sexually, physically, emotionally another chance? How about the 3rd time? There is line somewhere

The difference there is in the offenders heart condition. God overlooked David and Peter's sins because they had a good heart, were repentant, and were trying their best to do good. If someone repeatedly tries to harm your kids...well they do not have a good heart and surely aren't repentant. God doesn't condone that type of person.
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
We can strive to be more like Jesus, as we should, but we will never get there. Our shortcomings are the reason we need forgiveness in the first place, and the grace and mercy of God to save us and cleanse us from all our unrighteousness.
Only God can forgive and erase the event as if had never happened, man is incapable of that level of forgiveness.
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
I'm not God,,,,don't pretend to be,,,,I can forgive, I can't forget and don't ask that of others,,,,,I pay for my transgressions and errors,,
 

Justin

Old Mossy Horns
Forgive. Don't forget. Don't let the offender forget that you haven't forgotten too, if they seem to be repeat offenders.
 
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Moose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
The purpose of God's forgiveness is for the person receiving it ..... my act of forgiveness is more for me letting go of a wrong someone has done to me not really for the individual who committed the offense. I mean they may get some satisfaction out of it or they may not..... that's not my issue. I don't need to carry the baggage around with me. Man is limited by time where God is not so of course God doesn't freeze people in time. If you're a Christian then you believe Christ died for your sins that happened in the past but my losing my temper this morning at getting cut off was nailed to that tree along with what ever knuckle headed wrong things I do in the future. I wish I could forgive in the same manner I've been forgiven but the time thing is always going to prevent that as well as not being all knowing.
 
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