Years after her concentration camp experiences in Nazi
Germany, Corrie ten Boom met face to face one of the most cruel and heartless
German guards that she had ever contacted. He had humiliated and degraded her
and her sister. He had jeered and visually raped them as they stood in the
delousing shower. Now he stood before her with hand outstretched and said,
"Will you forgive me?"
She writes: "I stood there with coldness clutching at my heart, but I know that the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. I prayed, Jesus, help me!
Woodenly, mechanically I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me and I experienced an incredible thing. The current started in my shoulder, raced down into my arms and sprang into our clutched hands. Then this warm reconciliation seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. 'I forgive you, brother,' I cried with my whole heart.
For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard, the former prisoner. I have never known the love of God so intensely as I did in that moment!" To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you. —James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1988), 218.
The initial reason for coming to the altar is for
repentance. Worship may eventually become your primary motive for approaching
the altar. You may find yourself frequently coming to petition the Lord for
your needs. However, until we have come to the altar of repentance, the other
reasons for approaching the Lord fall short of their intended mark.
Forgiveness must be internalized in order to be realized. Jesus makes this concept very clear—if more than a bit painful. Corrie Ten Boom thoroughly illustrates forgiveness in the above story. Few of us will be called upon to forgive more than she was required to do. And, did you notice that Corrie discovered she simply could not forgive until the Lord gave her a supernatural ability to love and forgive her former enemy. Coming to this realization makes forgiving our enemies no longer an impossibility.
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. (Psalm 32:1 NIV)
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