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Debt Collectors of the Soul Gwen Smith

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DEBT COLLECTORS OF THE SOUL The power of forgiveness! Gwen Smith MA CSS AACC



DEBT COLLECTORS OF THE SOUL! The Power of Forgiveness!

Columbine High School - two Christian young people were among the

casualties from the shooting at Columbine High School in suburban Denver, Colorado a number of years ago.

Pastor Wallace Hickey of Orchard Road Christian Center said, “Rachel Scott,

one of the victims of the Columbine High School massacre, was a member of our Breakthrough Youth Ministry. Rachel, a high school junior, was 17

years old, and had been involved in leading a weekly prayer and Bible study group of fellow teens for the past year and a half under the direction of

Pastor Lori Johnson.”

Pastor Johnson, a graduate of Columbine High School herself, described Rachel as “a remarkable, committed Christian girl, who had a passion for

God and for people. She was fun loving, and gifted in drama and public speaking.” How will those parents forgive the one who murdered their

daughter?

Forgiveness must happen in the real world and not just in the pews of a

church on Sunday! Most of our Christian lives are lived superficially.



Things are going on beneath the surface that we do not address. There are

hidden reefs and rocks in life that can cause us to become shipwrecked – unless we know where they are!

Let me ask you – “How are you handling your problems?” We have all been

hurt by life! We all have the big question to answer, “Why? We cover up the hidden reefs fairly well – no one really knows!

But from time to time, when the tide goes out, the rocks and reefs are

exposed! There must be an answer to these things or our boats of life will be wrecked on the rocks of despair! Can we forgive? What happens if we

don’t?

You might be saying, “But, you don’t know my circumstances.” “True, I

don’t but God does!” The Bible addresses these dilemmas of life!

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

[Jewish tradition accepted that up to three times was enough] Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

[Some translations 70 times 7] "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he

began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents [about $100,000+] was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay,

the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. "The servant fell on his knees

before him.’ Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, cancelled the

debt and let him go. "But when that servant went out, he found

one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. [About $100] He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you

owe me!' he demanded. "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' "But he

refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had

happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. "Then the master called the

servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy

on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay

back all he owed. [Matthew 18:21-34]

Now to the punch line!



"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." V35

Christ used a story [a parable] to teach.

There was a good reason He did so.

We are good at resisting the power of an argument – but who can resist a

story?

A story can disarm suspicion and glide into our mind, past our defences and move unhindered to the very central citadel of our personalities.

Before we realise it we’ve taken the truth on board because it has moved

its way past all our defences and soon our conscience stings. It is because

we agree with the point of the story that is being made.

Deep insights

Jesus had a marvellous way of putting the deepest insights into stories. These parables of Jesus take truth and they present it in living colour and

surround-sound.



The truth comes over in such a way that you might never really grasp or comprehend its truth unless it is put in the form of a story.

Parables of Jesus are like diamonds.

“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend!”

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a diamond being cut. The diamond-cutter

builds facet upon facet, making sure all the time that the diamond, although it has many facets, has only one central face.

As the light falls upon the facets of the diamond he wants them to reflect

the full face as it strikes from one facet to the other. Then the full glory of the diamond is thrown out to the wondering gaze of the person looking at

it from the central face.

Now that’s the way Jesus cuts His parables

There are many, many facets – but one central face. And the central face

of this story is this:

Those who have received forgiveness, but do not pass it on to others experience a terrible toll on their personality.

Let me summarise the parable and paraphrase it for you.

This is not about owing money – it is about forgiveness!

A king calls in his outstanding accounts.

He has one servant who owes him a fantastic sum [one hundred thousand dollars]. Note that amount, because it is an important element in Jesus’

story. It is translated in the Amplified Bible as 10 million dollars!

Josephus

According to Josephus [a Jewish historian] all of the taxes in Judea and Samaria came to only to a fraction of that amount each year.

Now you see what Jesus is doing here is actually hyping up this figure. He

is using what we call a hyperbole – i.e. an exaggerated statement for the sake of emphasis.

What He is really saying is “Here is a king, whose servant owes him a

fantastic sum of money.”



Jesus

Jesus is deliberately exaggerating the figure because no one would expect a servant to have that amount of money.

Jesus is using this to show that here is a man who has a massive, fantastic

debt that is owed to the king. The king says, “I want that paid back!”

The servant comes before him and says, “But Master, I can’t pay it!” “Will you please begin to give me time?”

Verse 26 records that the servant fell down towards his master saying,

“Have patience with me.”

Now in the Greek – that word patience is a beautiful word and all Greek

scholars love this word – . It means,” have long patience with

me.”

The servant comes before the king and he says, “I can’t pay back this huge

debt, but please, have patience with me. Give me time!”



The King

The king, out of generosity of heart, decides to forgive him.

Now you would think, wouldn’t you - that the man who was in debt for such a huge sum and having been forgiven – would approach everyone in his life

with a great generosity of spirit and of heart?

That is what we would expect – but what happens is this:

This man who had been forgiven $100,000 goes down the street and meets a fellow servant who owes him a mere pittance in comparison [$100] and

says, “Pay me what you owe me or I am going to put you into a debtor’s prison.”

The Law

He called upon the resources of the law that were available at that time. If you couldn’t pay your debt, you were thrown into prison. You would stay

there until someone paid the debt!

So this servant called upon his resources and the man was put into prison.

The Story

Jesus, picking up on that story comes to this amazingly incredible verse [35], “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you

forgive your brother from your heart” – of his offences!

Now what does this mean?

Some may think He meant “if we do not forgive others who have hurt us,

or who have injured us, then in the next life we may find ourselves in hell.”

That is not what Jesus is saying at all. What He is saying is this.

The Debt-collectors will come if we do not exercise constantly and continuously in our Christian life, the freedom and joy of forgiveness to

others.



We are going to find that in this life that an inner disruption goes on in:

our body,

our personality, in our circumstances,

all that in our lives!

This disruptive experience will be like a debt-collector – an invisible torturer – affecting every part of our life!

Let me try to clarify this still further.

The Universe

When God built this universe, He built character into it.

We are not just seeing in the universe the demonstration of His power and His wisdom.

God has built His character into the world of things around us.

And God has built His character into every cell of our personality.

There are not only laws that guide the great and mighty planets, but also

there are laws that direct and affect our personality.

I’ve seen this as I’ve shared with people over the years.

I have seen the laws at work. There have been times I have been astounded

at how many people are not aware of how these laws of personality work, because God has built them into our personality.

His character has gone into the whole universe and God made us in such a

way that we would run according to certain laws.

When we violate the laws of physics we suffer the consequences – like running into a wall!

And when we violate the laws of personality, we likewise suffer the

consequences.

A Forgiving People

God has built us in such a way that He wants us and has designed us to be

a forgiving people.



When we do not forgive, we violate that “law of forgiveness” and a sense

of debt builds up within us.

Sin!

God has given us commandments and the very word sin, hamartia in the Greek – really means, “Missing the mark.”

When we miss the mark; when we fail to come up to God’s standards, then

there arises within our personality a sense of indebtedness.

Have you ever found yourself saying, “I owe it to him to tell him this?”

Or have you not said, “She owes me an explanation?”

Right through our personalities, we have a sense of indebtedness – either

to other people, or we figure they have it towards us.

There is a sense of ‘ought-ness,’ in the personality.

“He ought to do this,” “She ought to do that.”

Where does that come from?

God has built it into us – into every cell of our being – that whenever we fail, [fall beneath the standard], there arises within our personality a sense

of debt.

Why, it’s even in the Lord’s Prayer – “forgive us our debts.”

When we break God’s laws, we are in debt.

God has designed us to be forgiving people, not to hold resentments and

bitterness in our hearts.

Because we were designed to be forgiving people, when we fail to forgive, we are in violation of those laws and a debt of guilt arises within us.

God’s Universe

In God’s universe, there is a law that says, “Whenever there is a debt, it

has got to be paid!”

Listen; there are no uncollected accounts in God’s universe.



Every debt has got to be paid, because the universe reflects the character

of God.

He will not allow His universe to go without collecting debts.

Whenever we violate or break any one of God’s principles, then if that debt is not paid in the way that God appoints, we find some other way to pay it.

Invisible Debt Collectors

Invisible “debt collectors” clamber over the personality.

Doctors tell us, that when a virus enters our blood stream, the immune

system is triggered in an amazing way to bring about its defences.

Our personality is just like that.

Whenever we violate any of God’s commands or principles, then guilt arises within our personality and the law of the personality says, “that guilt has

got to be paid!”

How?

Let me tell you some of the astonishing ways that our personality will try to go about the task of actually getting rid of that guilt that may be lying

inside us.

Guilt is such a terrible negative force and this is the point, where psychiatry and Christianity meet – at the point of guilt.

That’s the crossroads between psychiatry and Christianity.

Talk to any psychiatrist and he will tell you that all the time he is dealing with people who are riddled with guilt.

The Christian Church

When we come into the Christian church, we are dealing with the same

problem.

Whenever we violate any of God’s principles – not just failure to forgive – but whatever point we fall short of in the standards He has set for us!



Whenever we say, “I’m not going to do this – and God says, ‘this is the way

to live!’ – And we say, “No, I’m going this way!” – Then immediately we are in debt.

We have fallen short of God’s principles.

Whenever that happens, a sense of debt arises.

How will we pay that debt?

One way is this – we will try to pay it ourselves!

There is something within all of us that really want to try to pay that debt

ourselves.

There is something within our personality that senses that there is guilt

within us and it goes about the task of developing a strategy that says, “I want to get rid of this guilt – I will pay it myself!”

Do you know how we pay the sense of guilt in us?

We can develop physical sickness.

Now, not all sickness is the result of this – let me say again not all sickness

is the result of this – but a lot of it is.

Some years ago, the British Medical Association sent around a leaflet to several doctors and in the research they discovered that over 70% of

sicknesses upon our bodies are really psychosomatic.

From the Greek language – psycho – soul & – soma – body –

‘psychosomatic’ – what does it mean?

Sickness in your Body!

When this is the case, the problems in your body may be real enough – but they’re not caused by any malfunction of your physiology.

They are caused by some internal emotional problem that’s thrown itself

up onto the body.

One doctor said, “most of the people I see in my practice – the sicknesses they have are the involuntary confessions of their guilt.”



It’s amazing how many of these sicknesses that come upon our body are

really an attempt to deal with the guilt that is within us.

Japan

A preacher visiting Japan was ministering to a group of around thirty missionaries there. He was asked to address the problems of missionaries.

So many of them were struggling with isolation from the benefits we enjoy

back home.

After the meeting a lady missionary wanted to talk to him. She said, “I never really feel that God loves me, until I am working myself to death –

or I’m carrying some sickness upon my body and then I really feel that God

accepts me. Can you explain that to me?”

The preacher told her, “Somewhere in the core of your personality there is a sense of guilt that has never been resolved.”

The personality sniffs out guilt and wants to get rid of it. There is a God-

ordained way of doing that – but until you find that way then you will try to go about it yourself.

Many of these feelings and sicknesses upon you are really the result of you

trying to punish yourself for the guilt that is going on inside.

A lot of our self-punishment comes through our sicknesses – but not all.”

Teenagers

That’s why teenagers will sometimes cut their bodies with knives as a form

of self-punishment.

They disrespect, hate – even despise themselves. They are trying to get rid of their guilt by punishing themselves.

Wrong Judgments

The next time you see someone sick don’t say, “I know you’re guilty

somewhere inside of you.” That would be taking what I am saying too far.



Living Right!

If we are not living as God intended, then there are ways in which our personality calls in the body as an accomplice and says, “I’ll help you do

this.”

So we bear upon our body many sicknesses that we ought not to be bearing, because they become a form of self-punishment, self-atonement

that tries to dissipate the guilt that may be within us.

We can also do it with emotional problems – we pay it through emotional problems.

In your Soul – Depression!

A lot of depression is the result of self-hate and self-punishment because we haven’t dealt with issues of anger and unforgiveness.

Again, not all depression is like this – some depression is purely chemical.

You get a virus and you become depressed. Maybe you’ve been taking

prescription drugs and then after a while you get depressed.

There are chemical reasons and causes for depression.

But there is a kind of depression where a person is feeling so guilty within, that they want to pay and atone for the guilt; and so depression is one way

of doing it. “I’m worthless!” “Life is hopeless!”

Self-Worth

In some way they are trying to find worth through self-hatred. Our

personalities are so strange aren’t they?

Car Accident

A minister was visiting a young man who was in hospital after a car accident.

The story unfolded that the young man was overtaking another car. He

could have pulled back but was bent on hurting himself and went straight on.

He had a load of guilt. This was his way of his trying to pay for his guilt

himself.



As the minister prayed for him he unloaded his heart to Jesus and that guilt was just dissolved in the presence of God.

Guilt!

Many times the problems we have in life are the result of guilt within us.

This is what psychiatry is trying to deal with – but this is what Christ wants to deal with – and indeed can!

It is one of the major problems of the personality and if it is not dealt with,

then torturers are going to collect the debt from us.

We try to pay for it ourselves.

In Your spirit – that part of you which is conscious of God and eternity!

We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God

We try to pay the price by ‘our own good works!’ We strive to please God by religious activity!

We need to know that Christ died on the cross almost 2000 years ago!

We need to back up to what God has done for us and accept His forgiveness

– “it’s not of works – lest anyone should boast – ‘it is the gift of God!’

You can do nothing to please God except to accept what He has done for you at Calvary!

Christ came to show us how He teaches us we should live!

Other people to pay?

Another thing we will do is to try and make other people pay for it. Guilt is such an awful thing. We can’t stand to hate ourselves for long, so what do

we do? We spread it around a little bit – make other people pay now.

Do you know that most of our relationships are destroyed by guilt because we can’t handle the guilt within us?

Keep in mind what I am saying now – that whenever we violate a spiritual

principle, a sense of guilt arises within our personality that demands to be paid.



There are no uncollected accounts in God’s universe.

Either we pay for them ourselves or we make other people pay for them.

Projection!

Psychologists call it projection. It is the name they give for this behaviour.

We project it on to other people.

Do you know who started it? It was a man called Adam. Adam had violated

God’s Word – God’s order in the Garden of Eden. God came down and said, “What have you done?” And what did Adam do? Feeling guilty, he blamed

his wife. “The woman that You gave to me, gave it to me!”

And what did Eve do? She blamed the serpent – and the serpent didn’t have

a leg to stand on!

Marriage in a mess!

The story is told of a minister whose marriage was in a mess.

The counsellor met with him and his wife. The main problem was that the husband constantly lost his temper and his wife was struggling to cope with

this behaviour.

Then the story emerged that some years previously, when he was in Hong Kong, he’d been to a church service.

Walking home, he was accosted by a prostitute and spent the night with her.

He had never really dealt with that – just pushed it aside. He had never

really brought it to God and inside him was a matter never really resolved.

Guilt had risen within his personality and now he was projecting it upon his wife.

Marriages Destroyed

I’ve seen marriages destroyed because of this – where one partner will

make the other partner pay for what is going on inside of him or her. This awful thing called guilt destroys many relationships.



The Cross!

We can either pay for it ourselves or we can make others pay.

Or we can do the only thing we ought to do with it and bring it to the Cross.

At the Cross – where God has paid the full penalty for our debt. One moment at the cross is worth more than a whole year on a psychiatrist’s

couch!

Lady in Therapy

A lady went to church and told the pastor she had been in therapy for a whole year with a psychiatrist because he told her she had a guilt complex.

A guilt complex is when you feel guilty about something you ought not to feel guilty about!

She continued, “My psychologist talked to me a lot about ‘transference’

[they talk a lot about ‘transference’] but she said the only transference I understood was about the complete transference from my bank account to

his bank account and I ran out of money.”

Then somebody invited her to church where she heard the simple but basic Christian Gospel message.

She gave her heart to Christ and was wonderfully converted.

The guilt complex she had struggled with was gone! She wasn’t suffering

from pseudo-guilt. She needed and received Jesus! Hallelujah!

Clearing the Debt!

He is the One who can dissolve guilt, because He died for us on the cross.

She found Christ and in a marvellous moment she came to know Him and all her guilt was dissolved.

God has found a way to clear our debts. Unless we come that way, then

what will happen is – as God says, “If you don’t come my way, [because I have built this universe to run according to laws] – if you do not forgive,

then what will happen is – there will be a terrible toll on your personality.

“And if you don’t come My way, then invisible debt collectors will go to work within your personality trying to correct the balance and collect the

accounts.”



So you can decide whether to try to pay for it yourself – to make other people pay for it;

Or the only way we can live, the only way that God has designed us to live

effectively in this universe, is to be forgiving people with no debts. God wants the church to be a debt free society!

What is the story saying?

So what is the story saying to us?

It is saying that when we fail to forgive, a sense of debt is built up inside

of us that requires some form of resolution, and invisible debt collectors go to work to collect it because there are no uncollected debts in God’s

universe.

Guilt must be dealt with – listen – guilt cannot be ignored!

If we don’t take God’s way someone else will deal with it.

His character has been built into the universe and as Tagor, the great Indian

poet said, “Everything lifts up hands unto perfection.”

What did he mean? He meant there is a thrust in the whole universe to have everything cleared up.

Your Personality

And there is a thrust in your personality to have things cleared up!

And if there are any violations in our lives – if we are holding resentment and bitterness towards anybody else and we don’t really bring it to the

Cross – then the debt will get collected some other way.

That’s why we can carry on our bodies the sicknesses that ought not to be

there.

Or we destroy our relationships because of that guilt that’s trying to be collected.



So the message is – Experience forgiveness and then Forgive!



Forgiveness

You cannot afford to live with bitterness or resentment in your personality.

It will destroy you – physically, emotionally and spiritually!

You don’t hold the grudge – the grudge holds you!

People often say to me, “My problem is that I can’t forgive!”

My reply to you is “No, that’s not your problem. Your problem is that you don’t know how much you’ve been forgiven – that’s your problem!”

And if you’re having a struggle forgiving people then don’t concentrate on

that but on the real issue which is, “You don’t understand how much you’ve

been forgiven!”

The Servant

I think this was the real problem with this servant.

He had heard his king say, “I forgive you.”

I wonder whether he was locked into that makrothumeo syndrome where he was really saying, “Oh yes, I know I have been forgiven but really I

would like to pay this back myself.”

And “If you have patience with me I’d really like to work.”

Doing it My Way

This is because there is something in us all – everyone has a stubborn

commitment to independence – which we like to do it our own way!

The original sin in the Garden of Eden was really a declaration of independence!

Frank Sinatra sang the song, “I did it my way.”

There is something within the human heart that wants to say, “I did it!”

Or as a group of Sepik River people, said in Papua New Guinea, when

responding to a question as to “who made the mountains?” “God!” they replied! “Who made the river?” “God!”

“Who made this tree?” “Mi yet.” or “Mi tasol.” “Only me!” was their reply.



Something within all of us wants to say, “I earned – I paid back this debt

and guilt myself!”

“I’ve done it my own way. If God will have patience with me, then I’ll pay it back.”

The Christian Church

We are faced in the Christian church with a strange spectacle in our

evangelical Christianity.

We have millions of people in our churches that have been forgiven – but they are still trying to pay back the debt. They don’t realise how much

they’ve been forgiven!

So when someone hurts them, or breaks the laws of relationships they say,

“Now you’re in debt to me!”

Because they do not know how much they have been forgiven they go to them with resentment and bitterness and then metaphorically at least –

throw them into the debtor’s prison.

Unrealised Forgiveness

One of the greatest problems faced in some churches is that of unrealised forgiveness.

We don’t realise how much we’ve been forgiven. And when people say, “I

find it difficult to forgive,” I say, “No, no, no – don’t look in that direction.”

Don’t come up now with five or six steps on how you can forgive. Where

you need to look is how much you have been forgiven!

Some of the old theologians wrote some great truths that we do not hear a lot about today. They focused on the “wonder” of forgiveness. Do you

realise how much you have been forgiven?

Intellectually?

You’ve heard it in your head intellectually.

Every one of you who is a born again Christian has been forgiven. Intellectually, you know you have been forgiven – but has that message

seeped through the whole of your personality?



Touching your life!

If it doesn’t touch the whole core of your being, if you are not caught up and wrapped in the wonder of forgiveness, then your conscience [which

sometimes cannot tell the difference between real guilt and false guilt] – will send a cloud of guilt into your personality.

And you’ll struggle inside, wondering how you can deal with it.

The message of Christ’s forgiveness has to reach through our whole being.

Many times when a person becomes a Christian – the message has got to

his heart, but it hasn’t reached his face yet!

And there are some of us like that.

We know we are forgiven and if we died we’d go to heaven because we’ve

been forgiven.

It’s something that God has done for us and we’ve received it by faith.

But what I’m talking about is something deeper than that. Has that sense of realised forgiveness got hold of you? “I’m forgiven!”

Calvary

When I think about Calvary – when I take part in a Communion service – I

could weep [and often do] – because He paid the price – with His own blood – that I might be forgiven!

I’m forgiven!

Doesn’t that truth also move you?

This massive debt that I owed my King – He doesn’t want me to pay it back because He has forgiven me!

$100,000 or ten million dollars is nothing compared to the debt of which

we have been forgiven. Do we realise it? Has it broken in upon our awareness? Has it evangelised the whole of our being – not just our

intellect. Has it gone into the core of our personality?

Are we gripped and strengthened and supported by it? I’m forgiven!



In many cases the church of Jesus Christ is walking around without a sense

of realised forgiveness.

And if we don’t have this – this really is the focus of the Christian life – we don’t have it – and we should!

What can I do for Him?

The central focus of the Christian life is not what I do for Him – that’s where

we’ve got it wrong.

We like to think, “What can I do for the Lord?”

That’s not the central focus of Christianity. It’s an important focus, but it

is not the central one.

What has He done for me?

The central focus of the Christian life is not what I do for Him, but for what He’s done for me!

You’ll think that you are working in order to be saved instead of working

because you are saved.

The difference is tremendous. The church at Galatia was like this. They started off with having received grace and they got caught up in the

“makrothumeo syndrome” and said, “What can we do to pay back the debt?”

Nothing we can do!

Listen. There is nothing you can do to pay back the debt you owed.

He’s forgiven you. I think if we really realised this we wouldn’t be sitting here so refined and sophisticated and dignified.

We ought to be standing on our heads, or swinging from the rafters.

Forgiven?

Do you realise that you’ve been forgiven? You could not pay the massive

debt. He’s done that for you! Blessed by His name!

Let’s stand to our feet, raise our hands and praise the Lord together!

Every debt has been dissolved at the foot of the cross!



So don’t try and pay it back in your body – your soul – or your spirit!

Think of others

Think of all those people now who have hurt you.

Parents, husbands, wives, children, friends and acquaintances.

When you realise how much you’ve been forgiven then you can go to them

and say, “I forgive you too.”

No uncollected debts!

There will be no uncollected debts in my personality.

“I offer you the forgiveness He’s forgiven me – it’s a massive debt and

you’ve only hurt me a little bit in comparison – and I forgive you!”

So let forgiveness now go out to all those who have hurt you and see how much you’ve been forgiven and forgive every person who has ever hurt

you. Offer them the forgiveness that you have received from Jesus Christ the Lord.

To those who do not know Christ, you cannot give true forgiveness to

another unless you yourself have first received it from Jesus Christ.

He died and paid the price with His own blood for you to receive forgiveness. You must receive Jesus into your life in order to receive God’s forgiveness

Then you will receive the ability to forgive as you have been forgiven.

Receive Christ

If you’ve never really received Jesus into your life and thereby, God’s forgiveness, today would be a good time to do it.

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship

with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the

truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. [1

John 1: 7-9]

Bow your head and close your eyes – ask for and receive God’s forgiveness today – do it now!



A Prayer

"Father, I come to you in this prayer. I admit that I have fallen short of your

requirements and my sins have separated me from you.

I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again.

I believe that your Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from

the dead, is alive and hears my prayer.

And I need forgiveness and the power to forgive others so that I might be free from the Debt Collectors of my Soul. I thank you for that forgiveness

now and the strength I will receive to forgive others.

Jesus, be the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day

forward. I trust You alone for not only the free gift of eternal life, but that I am forgiven.

Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will,

according to your Word, for the rest of my life.

In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen."



Copyrights & References ©Microsoft Images & Clip Art; ©Duncan Long’s Artwork; Purchased artwork – Used with

permission; http://duncanlong.com/art/christian_artwork/index; Scripture is taken from the

AUTHORISED (KING JAMES) VERSION of the Bible; THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL

VERSION ® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by

permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. The "NIV" and "New

International Version" trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark

Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of

International Bible Society."



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