Naomi Dassow. Praying The Lord's Prayer while a volunteer Chaplain with The Salvation Army

About the Lord’s Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer is the model prayer Jesus gave His disciples when they asked Him to teach them how to pray. It honors God’s holiness, seeks His kingdom and will, asks for daily provision and forgiveness, and requests protection from temptation and evil. It reminds us to depend upon God and extend His forgiveness to others.

Naomi’s Message

In this video, Naomi Dassow introduces herself as a volunteer chaplain with The Salvation Army in the greater Milwaukee area. She explains that Jesus’ disciples noticed that whenever He went away to pray, He returned renewed and filled with power from His Father to heal, deliver, and forgive. They wanted to learn how to pray so their lives and ministry could also bring God’s transforming power to others.

Naomi encourages us that whenever we feel the need to draw upon that same power of prayer, we should remember the prayer Jesus taught His disciples and gave to us. She then warmly invites everyone to join her in praying the Lord’s Prayer.

Watch “The Lord’s Prayer with Chaplain Naomi Dassow”

Scripture note: The disciples’ request, “Lord, teach us to pray,” is recorded in Luke 11:1. The Lord’s Prayer is also presented in Matthew 6:9–13.

When Two Snowflakes Became One

 

Two Snowflakes

 

Two unique snowflakes joined by golden light, symbolizing two people brought together in one providential plan.

The Unlikely Story of Richard and Naomi—and the Providence of God

High above the earth, a snowflake begins with something almost too small to see—a tiny particle suspended within a cloud. Water vapor gathers around it and freezes. As the crystal travels through changing temperatures, moisture, wind, and air currents, its distinctive pattern begins to form.

No two snowflakes travel exactly the same path. Each encounters different conditions, and each develops its own intricate design.

Human lives are formed in much the same way.

We are shaped by the families into which we are born, the places we live, the people we meet, the opportunities we receive, the suffering we endure, the decisions we make, and the grace of God working through it all.

Every person carries a pattern that has never existed before and will never be repeated.

Two Different Snowflakes

Naomi was one such snowflake.

Her path took her through nursing school, public-health work in rural Wisconsin, and then into the hills and hollers of Buckhorn, Kentucky. She traveled by Jeep to care for isolated families. She lived and worked alongside midwife Lucille LeBeau, served people who had few resources, and discovered that nursing was more than a profession—it was a way of loving her neighbor.

Naomi also carried the knowledge that she had polycystic kidney disease. That difficult reality was already part of her life before I ever knew her.

I was another distinctly formed snowflake.

My path was very different. I came from a different kind of family, received a different education, and spent approximately 30 years as a commercial lettuce farmer. I remained single for the first 38 years of my life. God was shaping me through farming, church involvement, administration, missions, generosity, and a growing desire to serve Him.

Naomi and I were different in almost every imaginable way—our backgrounds, families, ages, education, personalities, occupations, and life experiences.

By ordinary calculations, it seems highly unlikely that we ever would have met.

But we did.

Why?

As I tell this story, I am reminded of a pastor friend who always begins his sermons with a simple prayer:

“May I become less, and may Christ become more.”

Those words reflect the testimony of John the Baptist:

“He must become greater; I must become less.”
—John 3:30

That is my prayer for this story. I do not want it to make Naomi and me look remarkable. We were ordinary, imperfect people who needed God’s grace every day. If anything beautiful or lasting came from our marriage, the glory belongs to Jesus Christ.

The snowflakes are not the center of the story. The One who formed them is.

Drawn to the Same Lord

Long before Naomi and I met each other, Jesus Christ was drawing each of us to Himself.

In 1971, while living in different Wisconsin cities and traveling entirely separate paths, we both experienced a renewal of our Christian faith. We did not know each other. Neither of us knew what God was doing in the other person’s life.

Yet the same Lord was awakening our faith at approximately the same time.

Before God brought Naomi and me together, He was bringing each of us closer to Christ.

That became our deepest connection. Our different backgrounds did not naturally explain why we bonded. Our joint faith in Jesus did.

We recognized in each other a shared love for the Lord and a desire to live for Him. Our Christian faith was not merely one interest we happened to have in common. Jesus Christ became the foundation upon which our relationship, marriage, family, and ministries would be built.

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
—1 Corinthians 3:11

Looking back, I believe this was the ultimate reason Naomi and I met. God brought us together so that, through our joined lives, we could know Christ more deeply, serve Him together, and point other people toward Him.

Our marriage was never intended to be only about us. It was meant to be about Jesus.

Was Our Meeting Just a Coincidence?

Naomi’s journey had taken her from Wisconsin to Kentucky and back again. Mine had kept me rooted in the Milwaukee area. For years, our lives moved along entirely separate courses.

Then, in 1978, those courses crossed.

Was it chance? Was it merely a fortunate collision?

Looking back, it appears much more like the providence of God.

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”
—Proverbs 16:9

Providence is God’s quiet direction of people, events, circumstances, opportunities, and even disappointments to accomplish His purposes. We usually do not recognize it while it is happening. We see only the next step.

Often, it is only when we look back that we begin to recognize the hand of God.

Naomi and I began dating in October 1978. On April 21, 1979, two people who had traveled very different paths entered one covenant before God.

What seemed highly unlikely was never unknown to God.

Two snowflakes became one.

When Two Snowflakes Join

In nature, individual snow crystals sometimes collide as they fall. When the temperature and moisture are right, they cling to one another. Scientists call this aggregation.

The individual crystals do not necessarily lose their original structures. Instead, they become joined, forming a larger and more complex cluster.

That gives us a more accurate and beautiful picture of marriage than simply saying that two snowflakes “melted.”

Naomi and I did not have to melt away our individual identities. God did not erase our histories, personalities, gifts, or callings.

He joined them.

Our differences did not disappear. They became part of a larger design.

This is one meaning of the biblical description of marriage:

“The two will become one flesh.”
—Genesis 2:24

Becoming one does not mean becoming identical. It means that two distinct lives are joined in covenant. Two stories begin forming one shared story. Two sets of experiences, gifts, weaknesses, hopes, and callings become woven together.

We did not cease being Richard and Naomi. By God’s grace, we became Richard and Naomi—two distinct people joined in one shared life.

Known Before We Were Born

How could God have been preparing two people for each other before either of them understood what He was doing?

The Bible teaches that God knew both of us before we were born. He saw every part of our lives before we could see any of it.

“Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in Your book
before one of them came to be.”
—Psalm 139:16

Before Naomi became a nurse, before she traveled to Buckhorn, before she made home visits through the Kentucky hills, and before she returned to Wisconsin, God knew her.

Before I became a farmer, before my years of singleness, before my involvement in church and missions, and before I ever heard Naomi’s name, God knew me.

God did not discover our story as it unfolded. He was already present in it.

How is that possible?

We experience life one day at a time. We remember yesterday, live today, and wonder about tomorrow. God is not limited as we are. He sees the whole story while we see only one page at a time.

We cannot completely explain how God’s foreknowledge, human choices, suffering, and providence work together. Some of that remains a holy mystery. But Scripture gives us enough truth to trust Him.

“For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.”
—Romans 11:36

Our lives were from Him—created and known by God.

Our meeting and marriage were sustained through Him—by His grace and providence.

Our shared life was meant to be lived for Him—so that others might see something of Jesus Christ through us.

How Did We Become One?

A snow crystal bonds when surrounding conditions allow one crystal to adhere to another. A marriage bonds through something much deeper:

• Faith in Jesus Christ
• Trust developed through honesty
• Love expressed through daily faithfulness
• Commitment that remains when circumstances change
• Forgiveness offered repeatedly
• Service undertaken side by side
• Suffering carried together
• God’s grace holding both people when their strength is insufficient

Our union was not completed on our wedding day. It was formed gradually across 45 years.

Our marriage passed through changing weather: the joy and challenges of adopting and raising Michael, Peter, and Ami; church life; work and ministry; family joys and disappointments; ordinary routines; travel and adventures; aging; Naomi’s advancing kidney disease; home dialysis; in-center dialysis; and my service as her husband and Care Partner.

Every season added another layer to our bond.

Some experiences were beautiful. Others were painful. But even the difficult seasons became part of the design God was forming.

Marriage did not make us one because we became exactly alike. We became one by learning to walk in the same direction—toward Jesus and alongside each other.

What Did Our Life Together Produce?

When snowflakes gather, they can cover a barren field, replenish streams, nourish the earth, and prepare the soil for new growth. One snowflake seems small, but many joined together can transform an entire landscape.

Our marriage also produced something larger than either of our lives alone.

It produced a family through adoption.

It produced hospitality, Bible studies, fellowship, camping trips, travel, and treasured memories.

It produced ministry through Divine Shepherd, Eastbrook Church, Alliance Bible Church, the Red Cross, The Salvation Army, the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, Care Net, jail ministry, missions, prayer, and compassionate care for people in crisis.

It produced a shared witness: two ordinary people could place their different gifts into God’s hands and become instruments of His love.

Naomi brought the heart, training, and experience of a nurse. I brought faith, administration, generosity, vision, and a desire to turn concern into action.

Together, our gifts reached people whom neither of us might have reached in quite the same way alone.

Our marriage produced more than activities and accomplishments. It produced character. Through caring for one another, we were shaped into people who could love more deeply, serve more faithfully, and depend more completely upon God.

Scripture says:

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
—Ephesians 2:10

God had prepared work for Naomi. God had prepared work for me. Then He joined our lives so that some of that work could be done together.

We did not always understand the complete plan.

We only needed to know and trust the One who was leading us.

When One Snowflake Is No Longer Visible

Every physical snowflake eventually changes. It may melt into the earth, become part of a stream, or rise again as vapor. Its visible form disappears, but its effect does not.

Naomi left this earthly life on November 8, 2024. Her physical presence is no longer beside me, but the life we formed together did not simply vanish.

The water from melting snow does not cease to exist. It enters the soil and nourishes what continues to grow.

In a similar way, Naomi’s influence continues in me—in my memories, faith, compassion, ministry, family, writing, generosity, and desire to finish well. Our shared life continues to bear fruit through the people we served and the lives we touched.

But Christian hope goes far beyond the cycle of nature.

Naomi has not merely become a memory or dissolved into the universe. She is with Christ. Her identity remains fully known and loved by God. We are physically separated for a season, but that separation is not final.

Jesus said:

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die.”
—John 11:25

The same Jesus who brought us together is now holding Naomi in His presence—and He continues to hold me here.

The Story Is Still Being Written

Naomi’s earthly journey is complete, but God’s work through our shared life continues.

I still carry the influence of our 45 years together. It affects how I see people, how I respond to suffering, how I use the resources God has entrusted to me, and how I think about ministry and service.

Telling Naomi’s story is not an attempt to keep her in the past or to make her the center of my remaining years. It is one way of recognizing God’s faithfulness and allowing the lessons of our life together to encourage others.

I do not know everything God has planned for the years remaining to me. I see only the page I am living today. But I can trust the Author who has already shown His faithfulness through every preceding chapter.

My calling now is not simply to preserve what was. It is to carry forward whatever God wants to use from our shared story—while remaining open to the new work He may still have for me.

May Christ Become More

As I look back, I do not want to place Naomi and myself at the center of this story.

Jesus Christ belongs there.

Naomi and I were never identical. God did not erase our differences. He joined us in Christ and used those differences to create something neither of us could have produced alone.

But our marriage was never the final destination.

Jesus was—and still is.

Our greatest legacy is not simply that we loved each other. It is that, through all our successes, failures, joys, disappointments, ministries, and suffering, we sought to love and serve the Lord who first loved us.

“We love because He first loved us.”
—1 John 4:19

Two snowflakes met.

But the story is not primarily about the snowflakes.

It is about the God who created them, knew them before they were born, drew each of them to Jesus, directed their separate paths, joined their lives, and sustained them through 45 years of marriage.

In 1971, in different Wisconsin cities, Naomi and I each experienced a renewal of faith without knowing what God was doing in the other person’s life.

In 1978, our paths crossed.

In 1979, we entered the covenant of marriage.

During the next 45 years, God used our joined lives to form a family, serve people in need, endure suffering, and bear witness to the love of Jesus Christ.

What seemed highly unlikely was never unknown to God.

What began as two separate stories became one shared testimony.

And although Naomi is no longer physically present with me on this earth, the work God began through our life together continues. My prayer now is that everything I do with the remaining years God gives me will point people—not primarily toward Naomi or Richard—but toward Jesus.

May Richard become less.

May Naomi’s story become a window through which people see her Savior.

May Christ become more.

“He must become greater; I must become less.”
—John 3:30

If anything good came from our marriage, may God receive the glory.

If our story encourages anyone, may it lead that person closer to Jesus.

That is providence.

That is grace.

And that is the true meaning of two snowflakes becoming one.

Questions for Personal Reflection

1. As you look back over your life, where can you see Jesus drawing you to Himself and directing your steps—even when you did not recognize His hand at the time?
2. Are your relationships, experiences, gifts, and present circumstances pointing others toward you—or are you allowing Christ to use them so that He becomes greater?

A Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank You for knowing us before we were born and for remaining present through every chapter of our lives. Thank You for the people You bring into our stories and for the ways You use our differences, joys, disappointments, and suffering to shape us.

Forgive us when we place ourselves at the center of the story. May we become less, and may You become greater. Take our relationships, memories, gifts, resources, and remaining days, and use them for Your purposes.

Help us recognize Your providence, trust You when we cannot understand what You are doing, and follow You one faithful step at a time. May anything good in our lives point others toward You—not toward us.

You alone are our Savior, our Lord, our hope, and the true Author of our stories. May all the glory belong to You.

In Jesus’s name, amen.

You also are unique! Short video

Read the full article here

If you want to learn more about Naomi…

 

 

How to find most anything on my blog!

 

In 2016, I began a blog called Bloom Where You Are Planted.

The title reflected a conviction that had been developing within me for many years: God places each of us in particular circumstances, relationships, communities, careers, and seasons of life for a purpose.

We are called to become rooted and grounded in Christ, grow in faith, and use the passions, abilities, spiritual gifts, strengths, and experiences God has entrusted to us. As we do, our lives can bloom—encouraging others and bringing glory and honor to the Lord.

As Paul wrote:

“Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” —1 Corinthians 10:31

A Blog That Was Never Intended to Be About Me

Although I have shared many personal stories during the past ten years, this blog is not—and never was—intended primarily to be about me.

My experiences are simply illustrations of God’s faithfulness and providence. When I write about my work, marriage, ministry, decisions, disappointments, grief, or hopes for the future, my desire is that these stories point beyond me.

They should point people to their Creator—Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

Jesus is the source of our identity, purpose, gifts, calling, strength, and eternal hope. We do not bloom merely through positive thinking, determination, or personal accomplishment. Lasting spiritual fruit grows as we remain rooted in Christ.

Jesus said:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” —John 15:5

That is the foundation of Bloom Where You Are Planted.

Ten Years of Topics—and One Continuing Story

Looking back over the categories from my first ten years of writing is almost like opening a spiritual scrapbook.

The subjects include faith, Jesus, prayer, worship, church, forgiveness, providence, passion, vision, mission, work, career, volunteering, neighborhood, planning, decision-making, legacy, grief, and heaven.

There are also subjects connected to my personal history: Milwaukee, lettuce farming, family names, LinkedIn, websites, and the growing influence of our online world.

One category has become especially personal: Naomi.

Together, these words tell the story of a life journey. More importantly, they reveal some of the ways God works through ordinary people, places, experiences, relationships, and changing seasons.

An Easily Searchable Collection of Topics

One advantage of the blog is that readers do not have to search through ten years of posts chronologically.

The blog includes a visible Labels section containing all the categories and subjects I have written about. Readers can quickly see the variety of topics and click any label that interests them.

Clicking faith, for example, brings together posts related to faith. Selecting Naomi, grief, prayer, providence, vision, work, or volunteering opens the posts connected with that particular subject.

In that sense, the blog has become more than a record of when something was written. It is a growing collection of reflections organized around many of the questions and experiences that shape our lives.

Readers may arrive because they are:

• Grieving the loss of someone they love
• Reconsidering their purpose or calling
• Seeking God’s direction for an important decision
• Thinking about their work, service, or retirement
• Wondering how to use their gifts
• Reflecting on the legacy they will leave
• Looking for ways to serve within their neighborhood
• Seeking a deeper relationship with Jesus

They can choose the subject most relevant to them and explore those posts directly.

On a computer, the labels are displayed as part of the blog’s public layout. On a phone or smaller device, readers may need to scroll farther down the page to find them. Each label is a clickable doorway into the posts connected with that subject.

The First Season: Faith, Work, and Calling

Much of my earlier writing focused on helping people discover how their faith could influence their work, careers, neighborhoods, and volunteer service.

I have long believed that ministry is not confined to a church building or formal Christian organization. Our mission field may be an office, farm, school, neighborhood, business, senior community, volunteer organization, or conversation over coffee.

God can use our entire life story.

Our passions may reveal what deeply concerns us. Our abilities and strengths help us recognize what we can do well. Our spiritual gifts point toward the ways God may work through us. Even our disappointments, losses, and previous experiences can prepare us to encourage and serve someone else.

Nothing surrendered to God needs to be wasted.

A New Season: Naomi, Grief, and Legacy

My writing changed after my wife, Naomi, went to her eternal home with Christ on November 8, 2024.

After 45 years of marriage, her life and mine were deeply intertwined. We shared our family, faith, ministries, decisions, disappointments, joys, and daily routines. We also shared her long journey through polycystic kidney disease and dialysis.

Since her passing, grief, heaven, remembrance, and legacy have naturally become more prominent in my writing.

At times, I have wondered whether I have moved away from the original purpose of Bloom Where You Are Planted.

But perhaps the message has not changed. Perhaps I am simply learning to live it in a different season.

Blooming does not always mean beginning an exciting project or accomplishing something publicly visible. Sometimes blooming means remaining rooted in Christ when life has changed forever. Sometimes it means allowing grief to deepen our compassion. Sometimes it means remembering a loved one with gratitude while remaining open to the life God still places before us.

Naomi’s story is now inseparable from mine. Remembering her does not have to prevent me from moving forward, and moving forward does not mean leaving her behind.

Her faith, compassion, nursing career, ministry, and care for others remain part of the legacy God entrusted to our family. When I tell her story, I do not want the focus to remain only on Naomi or me. I want our shared story to point to the God who brought us together, sustained us through 45 years of marriage, and finally welcomed Naomi into His presence.

The Message Is Still the Same

Ten years later, I still believe we are called to bloom where God has planted us.

But I understand that message more deeply now.

Being planted does not necessarily mean remaining permanently in one place or continuing the same assignment forever. God may transplant us into unfamiliar circumstances. A career may end. Children may move away. Health may change. A spouse may enter heaven. A ministry opportunity may close while another slowly begins to appear.

The setting changes, but God remains faithful.

Our responsibility is not to force ourselves to bloom according to someone else’s timetable. It is to keep our roots in Christ, receive the nourishment He provides, and remain available for whatever growth He chooses to bring.

The words that describe my blog’s first ten years—faith, vision, service, work, neighborhood, Naomi, grief, providence, and legacy—are not merely separate subjects. They are interconnected chapters in one continuing journey.

That journey is about recognizing God’s presence and purpose in every season and pointing others toward Jesus.

Where Has God Planted You?

As I enter the next chapter, I continue to ask:

• Where has God planted me now?
• What has He already placed in my hands?
• Who is within the three feet around me whom I can encourage?
• How can my experiences—including grief and loss—become a source of compassion for someone else?
• What would it mean to bloom faithfully in this season without forcing the outcome?
• How can my life point someone toward Jesus?

Perhaps these are worthwhile questions for all of us.

Wherever you are planted today—in your family, career, church, neighborhood, retirement, grief, or an unexpected transition—remain rooted and grounded in Christ.

Keep growing.

Keep serving.

Keep trusting God with the season.

Keep pointing others toward Jesus.

And, in His time and for His glory, keep blooming.

Visit Bloom Where You Are Planted, look through the complete list of labels, and select any subject that speaks to where you are in your journey today.

The Key to Joy!

The Key to Joy: It's all about "Relationships", "Communication" and "Forgiveness"!....

As my good friend Ron says, "It's all about relationships".

 With "social media"...it's about "friends", "connections" and "followers".

If you can't wait to get to the end of this post...It's all about Forgiveness!


Over the course of time, I have added, "Yes, and it's all about Communication."
Communication, Communication, Communication.

All about Relationships: Yes, with Jesus through God our Father...and then relationship with each other.

To develop any relationship, we need to listen and to communicate.

So it's all about Communication, Communication Communication.

With God, we communicate through Prayer.

With each other, we communicate in many ways.

But in any relationship...even with the best of Relationship and Communication, we mess up. It's called sin.

With God we can repent and ask for forgiveness.

So to complete the circle...I have added yes, and it's all about Forgiveness.
Forgiveness, Forgiveness, Forgiveness.

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you." -Corrie ten Boom



Just as we can have a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ and with each other...We can communicate our love  and needs to Him and also to other...but in the process we have a tendency to mess up. But again, we can ask God for forgiveness...and as He has made His forgiveness available to us, we then also need to forgive each other.


Alot of times...when there is a lack of joy in our lives and we have forgiven others and ourselves...we might forget to forgive our parents for real or imaginary hurts. Perception is real. 



"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and clearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the LORD forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."  Romans 3:12-14

As Eugene H. Peterson says in The Message: Matthew 6: "In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part." 

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you." -Corrie ten Boom

  So how can we NOT forgive others?

As we truly experience God's forgiveness and grace, it's then pretty easy to forgive others! Or at least it should be!

So, do we have joy?



If not, might be a good time to examine our relationships with others...our spouse, family members and maybe more important to examine our relationships with our parents...if we still have living parents. 

I also remember a verse from the Bible in Exodus 20:12  "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you."


So don't forget to forgive parents, even if they are long gone! Time is short, eternity is long.  

As Don Wilkerson says, "Never be defined by your past. It's a lesson not a life sentence.”

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you." -Corrie ten Boom

 "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." Psalm 133:1
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer In Life Together says, "this is the Scriptures' praise of life together under the Word. But now we can rightly interpret the words "in unity" and say, "for brethren to dwell together through Christ."  For Jesus Christ alone is our unity. "He is our peace.
Through him alone do we have access to one another, joy in one another, and fellowship with one another."

A parent's greatest joy is found in this verse: "I have no greater joy than to hear that  my children are walking in the truth." 3 John:4

When we do that...we can truly have JOY!

Why I Get Up in the Morning

 To continue in my relationship with God, through His Son Jesus Christ, so that  I can:

1.     Be close to Him

2.     Worship Him

3.     Be a fragrant offering to Him

4.     To be a reflection of God into the world

5.     Be Holy as He is holy

6.     Show His love to the world…my family and neighbors

7.     Be an encouragement to people who He brings in my path

8.      

Pastor Matts sermon on August 25^th 2019  Prayer as Soul Shaping

     Prayer As -Soul Shaping With God.

Praying regularly for others

My limitations do NOT limit what God can do in prayer!

Colossians 1:9 

⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,^[

Praying for knowledge of God’s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding…

Praying to Live Worthy of the Lord

Colossians 1:10-14

 ¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you^[a] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

1                 Bear fruit of the Spirit

2                 Knowledge of God

3                 Patience

4                 Joy and gratitude

Bottom Line:

Living it out…not just knowledge or words, but Blooming Where I am planted …now.

A few thoughts on Forgiveness

Relections on "The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant: Matthew 18:21-35

My notes for a teaching at a local men's group.

Some questions we may want to ask ourselves about “Forgiveness” or just some
 thoughts for further Reflection! 

At HOME…Alone!.

1.    Have you  had good or bad experiences with forgiveness?

2.    Are you in the habit of forgiving people for ways in which they  have hurt you?

3.    Have others forgiven you for the ways you have hurt them?

4.    Do you recall any particular experiences of receiving God’s forgiveness?

5.    Who are the people in your life that you need to forgive?

6.    How do you see the effects of unforgiveness in your life?

7.    What are you fears about forgiving certain people?

8.    Do we have a list in our minds of people who have wronged us, mistreated us, hurt us or mistreated us? 

9.    Sometimes there is no “list”, but a undercurrent or “bitterness” in our lives…like a low grade fever, 100 degrees, not 103. Just an uneasy feeling that can poison our relationships….that eventually can erupt into some terrible actions….”As we think in our heart…so are we.”

10. Sometimes we are like a frog in the water…increasing the temp…and we don’t know what’s happening…we know what happened to the frog!

11.On our way to church…spouse, kids in car…

12.Matt: 18 is all about relationships…among brothers…and how to deal with sin. 

13.Then Peter asks How many times to forgive? 

14.Especially about his “brother”  Present relationship.

15.All about relationships.

16.All about communication

17.All about forgiveness.

18.Then JOY, Circles.

19.Eisenhower and his method. Crumpled paper in wastebasket.

20.He then forgot, but did he.

21.We can do the same.

22.How big is our wastebasket?

23.Are we really forgiving, or just forgetting for the moment…and the wastebasket get fuller and fuller. …Then we can get a paper shredder…smaller pieces…over a lifetime….what is happening?

24.Our families, churches.

25.Forgiveness. Seven times or seventy x seven….It’s really unlimited forgiveness.

26.We are to overflow with forgiveness.

27.The reason I forgive is because of the Lord’s forgiving me, not because of the person who hurt me!

28.It is impossible to receive forgiveness from God and NOT give it to another. 

29.An unforgiving spirit. Do we have one and maybe don’t even know it?

30.S.I McMillen in his book None of These Diseases, says,
"The moment I start hating a man I become his slave. He even controls my thoughts, I can’t escape his tyrannical grasp on my minds. When the waiter serves me steak it might as well be stale bread and water. The man I hate will not permit me to enjoy it.” Obviously as Christian men, we don’t or won’t admit that we hate someone.  What is hate?

31.Dislike or….?

32.Some bottom line thoughts.

33.The source of forgiveness is Gods forgiveness.

34.Until we see ourselves as truly and deeply sinful, we will see nothing else clearly.   Wow!

35.The refusal to forgive is costly. 

36.What did your sin do to God?

37.Think about it!

38.Not a once and for all event. 

39.Need to forgive daily. 

40.The secret of forgiveness is grace.

41.Grace received means grace given.

42.“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Eph 4:32

43.Forgiveness is the great evidence that we have become new creatures in Christ and that the Spirit of Christ lives within us. 

44.The cross is where we receive forgiveness and where we learn to forgive. 

45.Who do we need to bring to the cross,? Spouse, parent, child, friend, neighbor, pastor, one of the men here?

 

More on Forgiveness

   Spiritual Laws & Forgiveness 

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