News Society Data

One of the greatest aspects of God’s forgiveness for sins in Christ is the fact that he also forgets them. We have the assurance that he remembers our sins no more. He purposely and permanently puts them out of his memory and never revisits them.

We can conclude from God’s example, that sometimes it is better to forget than to remember. It is apparent that Joseph understood this as Moses records in Genesis 41:51 “And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget….”

Joseph had suffered many terrible injustices in his young life. His own brothers hated him for no reason and sold him into slavery. He was accused of a crime he did not commit. He was thrown into prison for an undetermined amount of time. Surely Joseph could have been justifiably bitter. He could have lamented over all that had befallen him. He could have resented that God allowed great adversity and suffering in his life.

Instead, Joseph reached down inside of himself, where his faith was housed, and found the strength to persevere. In faith, with a grateful heart, he named his son Manasseh, which means “forgetting”. He reasoned “for God…hath made me forget”. The things that had befallen him could have weighed heavily on his heart, but God had given him grace to not only forgive the wrongs that were done to him, but to forget them.

A Pastor I knew sold an automobile to a man. He received half the payment upfront, with the remainder to follow a month later. When he went to the man’s house to receive the second and final installment, the man said “I am not paying you another dime. I have the car and I am keeping it”. He then slammed the door in the Pastor’s face.

Several parishioners advised the Pastor to take legal action. A lawyer friend offered to take the case to Small Claims Court without charging the Pastor for his services. The Pastor politely declined and explained that the few thousand dollars owed did not outweigh the worth of the man’s soul and that it was better to forgive and forget the debt than to injure his Christian testimony to the man.

Several months later, this Pastor was called upon to help a needy family in the community. It turned out to be the family of the man who had misappropriated his automobile. When the door opened to the Pastor’s knock, the man immediately recognized him and expected that the Pastor might recognize him and turn around and leave.

Instead, the humble man of God greeted him with a warm smile and brief embrace. As the Pastor reached into his pocket for the church check, he looked into the man’s face and hesitated for a moment. The man thought that surely the Pastor had just recognized him and had changed his mind about helping. He knew this was a bad idea, asking the man he had cheated to help. He might as well just tell him to leave.

Before the man could speak however, the Pastor said in a soothing voice, “You know, I just don’t think my church is doing enough to help. Please allow me to add my personal check to this amount. I am sure you and your family can use it.”

As the Pastor wrote out another check, the man fell under heavy conviction and wondered what to say. Surely this Pastor was trying to make him feel guilty. Surely this act of kindness was nothing more than a ploy to work on his conscience.

While the man was pondering these things, the Pastor finished writing the check out and handed both checks to him. The Pastor then asked if he could pray for the family. The man knew that the prayer was going to be a sermon in disguise about fairness and doing right, but he did not know how to say “no” after the kindness he was shown; and so he reluctantly acknowledged “sure, that would be okay.”

The Pastor bowed his head and asked the Lord’s blessing upon the man, his family and their home. He asked the Lord to bless them financially and to lead the church to know if there was anything else they could do for them. He closed by asking the Lord to draw this family near to him. There was no mention of the automobile, no sermon, no ulterior motive. It was as if the Pastor had completely forgotten the wrong this man had done to him.

A few weeks later, the man and his family came to visit the church that had paid their debts. They heard the gospel message. They heard how the Lord Jesus Christ had paid another debt that they had not even known about. The whole family walked the aisle and received the Lord.

Like Joseph, this Pastor had emulated his Lord and added forgetfulness to his forgiveness. Had he held on to the terrible injustice this man had done, he would never have been able to be a witness to the love and mercy of the Lord. By forgetting, God was able to use him in a tremendous way

Forgetting should be a word used often in the Christian vocabulary. It is far better to forget and forgive than it is to remember and resent.

The author is a retired Coast Guard Officer with over 32 years of service. He is also a Baptist Preacher and Bible Teacher. He helps those grieving the loss of a pet to understand the Biblical evidence that proves they live on. His most popular book, “Cold Noses at the Pearly Gates” delivers hope and comfort to the reader in a very gentle, yet convincing way. Visit at coldnosesbook.com coldnosesbook.com for more information and tips or write to Gary at mailto:petgate@aol.com petgate@aol.com.

The greatest force impacting media and democracy is the explosion of information now circulated via more sources than ever before. Super stations are buying up small competitors. Media powerhouses owning several media formats the American public hears only what the media giants want us to.

The media is one of the most powerful and dangerous forces behind the growth of Big Government. For far too long the media has been biased on issues, certain political candidates and the two-party system. It varies from state to state or from one locale to the other, but overall the media has failed to give equal coverage to all candidates because it takes sides and advocates its own agenda. Raising ad prices during a campaign easily eliminates any candidate or group that has less available funding. This exclusionary bias infringes upon the people’s right to make a fair assessment of all the candidates and cast an educated vote in an election.

There is an ever-increasing segment of the population that considers itself neither Democrat nor Republican and many people are tired of having to vote in the two-party system. When I polled people about why they do not vote, the common reply I hear is that people do not feel like either of the candidates is a good choice. So, the second question I asked in my poll is, “Why not vote for an independent candidate?” The common response is, “I didn’t know there was another person running.” Some independent candidates have excellent ideas and abilities to implement them, but media costs are so exorbitant that not every candidate can afford to advertise in the mainstream media. We are responsible as voters to do our own research but many people don’t have the time to turn over every rock to find the alternate candidate. This discourages worthy candidates from even attempting to run for office. I was recently told that I was wasting my vote should I cast it for someone who couldn’t win. Whatever happened to the beloved underdog? America loves a winner, but the winner isn’t always the most capable candidate, and vice versa.

While working with a local political campaign this past year it became apparent that our city newspaper had predetermined which candidate it would support. The editor refused to send a reporter to take to the press the story of a local independent councilperson. However, some of the large party candidates received free coverage on the evening news and through interviews initiated and published by local the newspaper. People tend to vote for the candidate that has the most public exposure and we all know that means media dollars. Without publicity and financial backing from political parties a candidate doesn’t stand a chance even though he or she may be the best contender. It is true that the candidate who spends the most money usually wins the election. This was particularly true in the local council election mentioned above where a young woman ran against a good ol’ boy calling himself a Republican, and a Democrat candidate who supported higher taxes. Even realizing that she probably wouldn’t win the election, I chose to help my friend with her campaign because she is making a point and bucking the system. I admire her tenacity and belief that she could have an affect on democracy. When the votes were tallied and the expenditures were accounted for, the number of votes was in almost exact proportion to the amount of money spent on each campaign.

In the 2008 Presidential Election, the media can better serve democracy by returning to true journalism, and by being more open-minded and less influenced by issue advocacy and dollar signs. When biases are put away, true freedom of speech and freedom of press will return and a true democracy will exist.

ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=Yvonne_Perry Yvonne Perry is a freelance writer and the owner of Write On! Creative Writing Services based in Nashville, Tennessee. She and her team of ghostwriters service clients all over the globe by offering quality writing on a variety of topics at an affordable price. If you need a brochure, web text, business document, resume, bio, article or book, visit yvonneperry.net yvonneperry.net While there sure to subscribe to the RSS podcast feed and the free monthly newsletter about writing, networking, publishing and marketing. Read more on Yvonne’s blog at yvonneperry.blogspot.com yvonneperry.blogspot.com