James & Tess Arendt
(From a discussion about a conversation with the newlyweds at our hotel, David and Jean:)
WHEN SHE SAID SHE COULD NOT FORGIVE HER HUSBAND FOR INFIDELITY, she was saying that she loved HERSELF more than HIM! She worshipped FIDELITY more religiously than GOD! She valued, in other words, his total FAITHFULNESS to her more than his LOVE, more than LOVE ITSELF! For to FORGIVE is LOVE--DIVINE Love!
TO SAY YOU CANNOT FORGIVE IS TO SAY YOU CANNOT HAVE THE LOVE OF GOD! You cannot love as GOD loves, because that's all God does all the time--FORGIVE! God has forgiven His wife the Church for infidelity thousands and thousands and ten times ten-thousand times! He forgave Israel for UNNUMBERED infidelities and the CHURCH for INNUMERABLE infidelities--SPIRITUAL whoredoms!
THE DIVINE SUPERNATURAL MIRACULOUS INFINITE MARVELOUS LOVE OF GOD IS LOVE ENOUGH TO FORGIVE! If you don't have love enough to FORGIVE, you don't have LOVE--because forgiveness IS love! Jesus Himself said following the Lord's Prayer: "If you cannot forgive men THEIR trespasses, neither will your Father in Heaven forgive you YOUR trespasses!" (Matthew 6:15)
THEY WORSHIP MARRIAGE--THEY MAKE IT A GOD! It is a worship of the LAW. It is a form of LEGALISM:--It's got to be THIS way or ELSE--ALL or NOTHING at all! It's a worship of the LAW more than LOVE, forgiveness or mercy. It's LEGALISM: "Thou shalt NOT!"
THE WORSHIP OF MARRIAGE LAWS IS A LEGALISM--THAT THE LAW IS INVIOLABLE! The legalists say that NOTHING can supersede it--not even the LOVE, mercy or the grace of GOD! And if they violate the LAW, they CANNOT be forgiven!
THIS IS THE JUSTICE OF THE DEVIL, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF SATAN! This is what HE advocates all the time! "They have broken the LAW!--JUDGE them!"--Just like the Scribes and Pharisees!
"FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US!" If WE'RE only going to be forgiven the way we forgive OTHERS, and be shown the mercy that we show OTHERS, some people are going to be in a pretty bad fix, especially the churches and churchy Christians, who are almost the most UNFORGIVING people I know of!
EVEN THE PUBLICANS AND THE SINNERS AND DRUNKS AND THE HARLOTS ARE MORE UNDERSTANDING AND MORE FORGIVING, because they KNOW they're that way and they can't HELP it and they're more MERCIFUL, more FORGIVING because they'd like to be forgiven THEMSELVES! But SOME people are SO self-righteous they think they NEVER make a mistake! They're ALWAYS right, so why should they ever have to be FORGIVEN, why should they have to forgive OTHERS?
IF YOU CAN'T FORGIVE, YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY HAVE REAL LOVE OR REAL HUMILITY! You haven't got MERCY, because love IS forgiveness and mercy! Which kind of person are YOU?--The just, unforgiving, unloving, unbending, unmerciful proud SELF-RIGHTEOUS?--Or the merciful, loving, yielding, forgiving, humble, unrighteous SINNER saved only by the grace of GOD!--The LATTER are going to HEAVEN, the former to HELL!--JESUS SAID SO!--Which are YOU?
My name is James Arendt. I was raised in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, served in the USAF from 1970 to 1974, and became a full-time missionary for Christ living 40 years in Japan, 3.5 years in Russia, and a few months in other countries such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China where I also served the King of Kings, Jesus, as an Ambassador for His Kingdom. My full bio.
If you like this website, you can show your appreciation by sending me a gift toward my support. My wife Tess and I moved from the island of Guam USA in June 2023 to the city of Allen in the province of Northern Samar, one of the poorer provinces in the Philippines. My only work is maintaining my websites, Deep Truths, and James Japan which costs me $300 per year now. And Tess is ministering to the local people giving them regular Bible Studies in three groups, children, teenagers and adults.
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