FORGIVENESS OF GOD

By Odon Bulamba (summary only -20.09.2002.)

Before everything exists, there is a beginning and if there is no beginning, it means the thing is eternal. If there is a beginning, then there is an end. We were born, and one day we will die. Everyone has to think, if there is a beginning, then there has to be an end. Our Christian life also has a beginning on this earth and an end on this earth. We have to realise that one day, our life will finish.

John 3:16, God loves this world so much that He gave His only Son. Why? For our salvation, for our redemption. Jesus Christ came on earth, because since the beginning, God wanted man to be forgiven for his mistakes. Adam sinned and God came down and visited Adam (Adam didn’t go to God) and God made him clothes from animal skin to cover his nakedness because God didn’t want to see his nakedness. Forgiveness covers the nakedness of a Christian.

God asked Adam, where are you? First you have to know where you are. Adam said, ‘I’m in the garden, but hiding’. And God asked, ‘why?’, ‘Because I have sinned’. God didn’t ask him what happened, it wasn’t the time to judge Adam but first He had to cover Adam’s nakedness.

God asked Adam, “How do you know you have sinned?” Instead of answering the question, he said, “It’s the wife you gave me, because You gave me a wife, I sinned”. Adam forgot that God sees everything, His presence is everywhere. God’s forgiveness is also here all the time.

After this, God visited the people of Israel and saw they sinned a lot. To forgive these sins, there is a need for blood to flow. God thought, ‘I don’t have to come down all the time to kill sheep’, so God chose some servants. “Aaron, you’ll do that, to represent me for the people. Take the blood of an animal and do this and do that and the person will be forgiven”. God gave Aaron power from God to lead his people to forgiveness.

But many people died in their sins because the sacrificing only happened once a year. God thought forgiveness is necessary at every moment. God knows we are really weak. God came (Jesus Christ), He left heaven where He lived and whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. God loved the world so much, He gave Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for our sins. We cannot receive forgiveness without receiving Jesus Christ.

Jesus died for our sins. He did nothing but accept to be crucified, tortured and arrested for our sins. He sacrificed Himself for others, for our life. We too must sacrifice our life for the life of non-believers. Accept to waste our time, our lives for them.

Love walks together with forgiveness. If you don’t have love, you don’t have forgiveness. Just flattery. First we all must have love and then we have pity on that person and forgiveness comes easily. Because God loved us, He gave His only Son to die for us. To forgive people, we have to ask ourselves, do I love this person or not and if not, am I worthy to be called a Christian or not because we must love and pray for our enemies and before we pray we must know if we love or not and we don’t, find a way. Because when you love, you practise justice, truth and you have no prejudice. When you have love, you see your brother or sister did something wrong and you forgive them and God is happy.

God taught us, divine forgiveness has to forget. Someone who doesn’t want to forget is the person who wants a swollen heart. When a man’s heart is swelling, the pressure will one day make the heart explode and hatred comes, distance comes and there will be no contact with this person. But God said to forgive and forget. Because who ever doesn’t forgive, will not be forgiven, Mark 11:25.

God asks us to get close to the person who has done wrong against us. If you don’t warn the one who has done wrong, their blood will be on your head. If you say, I’ll wait until he comes, maybe they will die in sin. Maybe their conscience will die. We must go to people and ask them to confess their sins and find forgiveness. Nobody invited Jesus to earth. But for us, we just wait for them to come to us and ask for forgiveness. Some Christians are what I call a ‘Christian boss’, in their arm chairs waiting for reports coming from here and there. Jesus had the humility to leave heaven and come to work.

If you show Colleen more joy to see her than Andrew, how will Andrew feel? Is there love? There is prejudice in my actions.

Forgiveness is not only for others. I have to have pity on myself and forgive myself first. You have to weigh up your actions, is what you have done been forgiven? God have pity. Because you like your soul, you have to ask God to help you to keep your soul. That’s why Jesus didn’t sin because each time He would think of His soul. As long as a person can’t forgive themselves, they won’t make progress. You must evaluate yourself.

The first treasure is our soul and we have to protect our soul because we love them. If you love yourself, you tell yourself you want to one day enter the kingdom of heaven and you ask yourself lots of questions why you do that and condemn yourself. You will ask God, ‘Why do I do that?’ Do I have pity on my soul? I forgive myself for what I have done.

People, who were sick, were taken to Jesus and the first thing He says was, ‘your sins are forgiven’, even if they didn’t ask for it. Because it’s a free gift God gave us, give forgiveness without distinction of race and sex and with that you’ll see miracles.

When someone comes to ask you for forgiveness, it’s not up to you to judge. Jesus would say, ‘your sins are forgiven’. We have to learn to forgive without discussion. Don’t ask lots of questions, because the more we ask, the more they will feel uncomfortable. To forgive is not to get information but to forgive is to sort out problems and finish with it.

The Bible says, if someone makes a mistake, you will go and speak about God’s love. If he doesn’t know God’s love, teach him that God doesn’t like what has done but don’t ask him to explain what he has done. If you go deep with a child who has for example stolen $5, “why did you steal?” maybe he doesn’t know about the devil, maybe he will lie. Sometimes we go in depth but don’t achieve our objective, but create more problems.

If I ask forgiveness from you, but you still judge and want to know more about the details, you will make me feel uncomfortable and I will not ask again for forgiveness. I won’t come to you again and this will put a barrier between you and me.

To receive the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com