Forgiveness and love

Ok it's Beng Yu here.

So this is my very first post here on this shared blog. It's been donkey years since my name was placed under the 'Contributors' list, so today let me just live up to that status, for awhile at least. It's gonna be pretty long, so I do hope you have the patience to read till the end, and hopefully you get what I'm sharing =)

Forgiveness and love are subjects very close to my heart. I like this verse from the Bible.

Acts 13:38
"Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

Our Heavenly Father proclaims in His Word that He forgives us all our sins. And this was done through our Lord Jesus dying on the Cross for us, cleansing us with His blood. Today He is risen, sitting on the right hand of our Heavenly Father and still interceding for us every moment for the wrong things which we do on a daily basis.

We know that the forgiveness of sins is never because of the good things we do. It is never through our own efforts of doing 'good' things like donating money to charity, volunteer work, or being 'nice' to people around us. It is only through believing in Jesus, His finished work for us on the Cross and the wonderful grace of our Heavenly Father.

Right now at this very moment, there are many living in the shackles of the world, living in the guilt of their past mistakes, living in low self esteem, everyday grudge and resentment of the future.

It's not difficult to observe this around us. But at times, I find it so difficult to get people out of these shackles, because they don't believe in the goodness of Christ. I once had much difficulty understanding what Christianity was about, because I didn't believe in the goodness of Christ. I didn't believe that there was such a wonderful man/God called Jesus Christ, who walked the earth 2000+ years ago, who was sinless, but yet for MY SAKE, suffered great humiliation, torture and went to the Cross to shed His blood for the forgiveness of MY sins. I didn't believe it could work this way.

I couldn't believe that I was forgiven by the Almighty Creator so easily, through the death of this one Being called Jesus. I couldn't believe that I was forgiven for all the mistakes in my life. And so I was trapped by these shackles, my guilt, my past. And I didn't have a true purpose in life. Life just consisted of working hard so that I can one day achieve fame, glory, power, have a nice family that everyone envies and that's it.

Until one day when I was enlightened by the Lord. And then I believed. And then I was freed from all those. Hallelujah! And then I knew what love is.

To me now, believing in Him is really a prerequisite to knowing how to love someone else. That includes our families, our friends, and even people whom we don't really know.

I stole the following conversational story from a friend's blog. I've got no idea where it originated from, but I felt this urge to share it with people when I read it, because it puts across very clearly what love and forgiveness involves.

Tech Support: Yes, Ma'am.... how can I help you?

Customer: Well, after much consideration, I've decided to install Love. Can you guide me though the process?

Tech Support: Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?

Customer: Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I'm ready. What do I do first?

Tech Support: The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located your Heart, ma'am?

Customer: Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are running?

Tech Support: What programs are running, ma'am?

Customer: Let's see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge and Resentment running right now.

Tech Support: No problem, Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory, but it will no longer disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of its own called High Self-Esteem. However, you have to completely turn off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Can you turn those off, ma'am?

Customer: I don't know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?

Tech Support : With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been completely erased.

Customer: Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is that normal?

Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades.

Customer: Oops! I have an error message already. It says, "Error - Program not run on external components ." What should I do?

Tech Support: Don't worry, ma'am. It means that the Love program is set up to run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart. In non- technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before you can Love others.

Customer: So, what should I do?

Tech Support: Pull down Self-Acceptance; then click on the following files: Forgive-Self; Realize Your Worth; and Acknowledge your Limitations.

Customer: Okay, done.

Tech Support: Now, copy them to the "My Heart" directory. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming. Also, you need to delete Verbose Self-Criticism from all directories and empty your Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.

Customer: Got it. Hey! My heart is filling up with new files. Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves all over My Heart. Is this normal?

Tech Support: Sometimes. For others it takes awhile, but eventually everything gets it at the proper time. So Love is installed and running. One more thing before we hang up. Love is Freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some cool modules back to you.

Customer: Thank you, God.

Hope that on top of enjoying the story, you have gained a new perspective too.

Good night! =) God bless!