The plan is to re-launch the blog in September—new and improved. I believe that God has some great things in store for the future.

Follow me on Twitter @jamesmacdonald to keep up with what’s happening at Harvest Bible Chapel and Walk in the Word.

Have a great summer,

James

The time to forgive is now, and it starts with a decision. You can’t succeed in the process of forgiveness until you come to the crisis. Who is the person whose face has been in your mind’s eye as you’ve been reading this today? Is it a parent? A brother or sister? Maybe your child has hurt you and hardly knows it. Make a choice to forgive. Maybe you need to write a letter this week. Maybe you need to make a phone call.

Make a choice to forgive. Tell the person, “I choose to release you from the pain that resulted when you injured me. You don’t owe me anything. I forgive you.”

One of the things that I’ve learned in more than twenty years of ministering to people (and I have seen it in my own life as well) is that my capacity for forgiveness is directly related to my comprehension of how much God loves me. When my concept of God’s love is very small, my capacity to love others is very small as well. Paul said, “Christ’s love compels us” (2 Corinthians 5:14 NIV). So often I see that the Lord’s people need to have a breakthrough in their understanding. God doesn’t love like our parents. God doesn’t love according to our human experiences. God loves fully and unconditionally. That’s what we’re after.

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:31-32

Movie about Keith Green?

Something Fairly Cool.

Is there anything more compelling than excellent poetry?

Something I Wish Existed.

Coolest idea for meetings ever.

have a great week.

Forgiveness comes in two parts. It begins with a decision, an act of my will. We call this the crisis of forgiveness. When I make the choice to release a person from the obligation that resulted when he or she injured me, I am completing the crisis of forgiveness. I am not looking for vengeance; I am not trying to get even; I am not wishing for bad things to happen to them; and I am not focused on their failure. In fact, I am not thinking about them at all. I’ve release them from all obligation that resulted when they hurt me.

Maybe you remember completing a crisis of forgiveness in the past, only to retract that act of grace and begin again to nurse and nurture the injury of someone else’s sin. Maybe you have responded publicly in a church service and committed yourself to forgiveness, or knelt alone and promised God that you would forgive but fell into your old patterns of hate or resentment when you crossed paths with the one you had chosen to forgive. If that is your experience, you need to understand the difference between the crisis and the process of forgiveness. Beyond the crisis is the process of forgiveness, without which you will never experience the healing that forgiveness can bring. In the crisis of forgiveness we say, “I choose to forgive,” but in the process we say, “I will treat you as though it never happened.” Here is how that process works:

1. I won’t bring the offense up to the person, except for his benefit;
2. I won’t bring the offense up to others; and (hardest of all)
3. I won’t bring the offense up to myself. I will not go over it and think about it and dwell upon it.

When you are doing that effectively, you are succeeding in the process of forgiveness. This is a lesson that I am learning little by little in my own life. I could share several acts of forgiveness that I have been working on for ten or fifteen years. I am still in the process. Praise God, I am doing a lot better than I was ten years ago. But here is the key: When I fail in the process, I have to go back to the crisis. If you do that faithfully, you will get free.

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:31-32

To listen to the whole message, please follow this link.

If I do, it is Jeremiah 15:16, “Your words were found and I ate them, and your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart.” It’s kind of my testimony. I was going nowhere in a hurry and I found this book God wrote and began to feast on it like a soldier devouring his last meal. When the Word of God is absent from my life my heart is hungry. When I feast on the Bread of Life, my heart overflows with joy.

I love the vivid pictures with which the Bible describes itself.

FIRE
“Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Hosts, ‘Because you have spoken this word, behold, I am making my words in your mouth fire and this people wood, and it will consume them’” (Jeremiah 5:14).

I experience the reality of that Scripture on a weekly basis. I have the privilege of standing before thousands of people with God’s Word in my mouth and seeing the incredible impact that it makes. I see the truth penetrate their hearts, grip their minds, move their emotions, and, best of all, engage their wills toward transformation. God’s Word is like fire; it consumes people’s hearts.

SWORD
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than and double edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

Not a knife or dagger, but God’s Word is a sword, the weapon of hand-to-hand combat. The sword of God’s Word cuts to the heart of the matter. Ephesians 6:17 says, “And take . . . the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God.” When Satan is trying to tempt us or discourage us, it’s the Word of God we use to defeat him. Amazingly, Jesus Christ Himself used the Word of God as a sword to deflect the temptations of the enemy (Matthew 4:1-11). Can we afford to do less?

HAMMER
“Is not my word like . . . a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29).

If God can’t get to you with the fire or the sword, guess what? The hammer’s going to fall. Many of those whose lives have been changed by the Word of God reference a time when their hearts were very hard and God had to break them. And it was painful. Nobody wants to meet the hammer of conviction and change. That is why the Scripture exhorts us, “Today, if you would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Psalm 95:7-8).

SEED
“Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23 NKJV). In one of His parables Jesus said, “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11 NKJV)

A seed starts so small and takes time to grow. Similarly the Word of God starts to work in our hearts, but it takes time. Sometimes we have to hear the same thing several times before it really starts to connect. In the same way, God’s Word planted in the human heart will bear much fruit over time, but it requires a willingness to plant the seed by faith and wait.

MILK
“Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow” (1 Peter 2:2).

We were born with our mouths open. What mother’s milk is to little babies, so the Word of God is in the life of a sincere person of faith. I don’t see adults crying because they haven’t been physically fed, but how many are filled by anxiety, fear, and discouragement because they have neglected God’s only provision for their spiritual nourishment?

MEAT
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word or righteousness” (Hebrews 5:12-14).

If you’ve known Christ for any amount of time at all, you find yourself saying, “Isn’t there more?” The answer is yes! There is more–the meat of God’s Word. Milk is like the elementary or basic things of the Bible. “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (v. 15).

LIGHT
“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).

Here’s the great thing about light. If you’re walking around in the dark, you will stumble over stuff and hurt yourself. The Word of God works in our lives so that we don’t walk down dark alleys anymore. We don’t make dumb mistakes. If you know what it is to be perplexed about an important decision hanging over your head, then you understand the value of having God’s Word light your path.

MIRROR
“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror, for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effective doer, this man will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:23-25).

God’s Word shows us ourselves! It confronts us with truth and convicts us about our true need. If I have a blob of mustard on my face and, after looking in the mirror, forget to rub it off, how silly would that make me? So the real power then is not in the words exclusively but in my doing what the Word of God says.

I can personally testify to the power of God’s Word when I’ve invited it to drill down into my heart, driving indifference and complacency from my soul. Long before I proclaim God’s Word in our church service, I sit alone in my study with His Word and invite God to change me, to hammer the reality of what God is saying into my soul. I ask Him to fill my heart with faith as I focus on His words and to accomplish His purpose in me as Isaiah 55:10 promises.

God is faithful to His Word and we who place ourselves in the flow of that unceasing work are the continual benefactors.

Something happened to you. A wrong was done to you. A selfish person broke your heart or took what wasn’t theirs, and you cannot reconcile the pain they brought with the message that God loves you.

I’m so sorry for your hurt—I really am.

Please hear me now, the way out of that corner of confusion is not to deny or run from God’s heart for you. Instead you must turn and look squarely into the reality of who He really is. Too often we self-define God’s love: “This is my concept of love, and God must conform to this view or I can’t believe He is loving.” Many have made this mistake without realizing it or calculating the fallout from such a belief-banishing choice.

God has never represented His love for you as that pampering, “here Billy, have another cupcake. Take the one with the extra icing,” permissive-mother kind of love. But I do understand why people sometimes struggle to see God as loving.

For example, most people would agree that when you love someone, you protect them, right? God’s love is a protecting love, but it’s not always a preventing love. God doesn’t always keep hard things from happening. Here’s why: He has a higher purpose for our pain. He allows it to humble us so we see how much we need Him.

Sometimes God allows pain to restore us
Some of you were so far from God, off on your own, going who-knows-where. God allowed some hard thing in your life so that the pain of it brought you back to Him. If you would have never turned to Him without that heartache, isn’t it also true that in some sense that it was a loving thing for God to allow? Wasn’t it the hurt that brought you to the wonderful place of asking for His help? Is a father unloving for insisting that his child goes to college? Will the child ever feel love before the graduation and career satisfaction to follow are in place?

A hundred years from today, as awful as that pain was, you’ll thank God for it if you choose to let its purpose be fulfilled in you. God’s love is revealed in the ultimate purpose for which He allows our momentary pain. God does not have to prove He loves us at the end of every hour or every day. He does invite us to trust what He is doing and choose to embrace the truth that time will reveal the reality of His love. Oh, choose to believe He loves you!

Sometimes God allows pain to refine us.
Sometimes He allows pain to refine us so we can be more like Him. I’ve said to Kathy many times, “I hate to think of the person that I would be apart from God in my life.” I shudder to imagine where I would be without God’s refining influence. Without God allowing painful things into my life, what kind of husband and father would I be today? What kind of pastor or friend would I be? What kind of man would I be without the excruciating hurts that have driven me to my knees before the God who loves to refine me?

Looking back, it’s His love and mercy I see even when His protection does not always prevent pain in my life.

Yes, God loves you with a perfecting love. You are under construction, my friend. God is working on you. There will be difficult times, but you can trust Him. No pain is allowed into your life but that He chooses to use it for your good. Your loving, protecting Father measures out the trial and carefully watches over you every moment. His eyes are upon you. You are never far from His thoughts. He counts the hairs on your head. He saves your tears in a bottle. He loves you with an everlasting love. But let His love be what it really is—a perfecting love.

I choose God’s love.

When interpreting a passage of Scripture, it is essential that your interpretation be in harmony with the context in which it is found. Failure to consider the context of your primary passage may result in an interpretation that runs counter to the intent of the author. Remember, most books of the Bible were written to be read as a whole, not in a disjointed fashion as though each verse was an independent thought. Though it is often helpful (and necessary) to quote a single verse without referencing its context, we must be careful when we use Scripture in this way. Likewise, we must be discerning when we hear a verse quoted apart from its context. If we are not familiar with the verse and how it fits into its literary context, we cannot know with certainty that it is being used properly. Only in a few of the biblical books (such as Proverbs and portions of Ecclesiastes) were individual verses intended to be read independent of the context.

For instance Mormon missionaries might try to convince you from the Bible that there are many “gods”—that the God of the Bible is not unique. To prove their point they will quote from 1 Corinthians 8:5 which states, “as indeed there are many gods and many lords.” How does looking at the context of this passage show their interpretation to be incorrect?

The context of this passage makes it clear that Paul is discussing the issue of eating meat that has been sacrificed to pagan gods (and then resold in the meat market). Thus the “gods and lords” that Paul is talking about in verse 8 are actually false gods—the gods and lords that comprise the Roman religious system. That he does not intend to be teaching that there are multiple gods is clearly seen in verse 4 where he states “there is no God but one.” So his point in verse 5 is that even if the world recognizes other gods and lords (and indeed for the world there are many gods and lords) the Church only rightly recognizes one God and one Lord—the Lord Jesus Christ. This is but one example of why it is important to interpret a verse in relation to its context.

Previous posts in this series…

• Principle 1: Seek to Understand the Authorial Intent
• Principle 2: Understand What a Term or Event Meant to the Original Audience
• Principle 3: Expect to See Unity Throughout the Scriptures
• Principle 4: Use Scripture to Interpret Scripture
• Principle 5: Move from the Clear to the Unclear
• Principle 6: Attempt to resolve contradictory or difficult statements, but be willing to accept that human limitations may render a solution presently impossible.

(This is an interview by Brian Larson editor of Preaching Today a ministry of Christianity Today.  He recently published it on their site.

Editorial note from Brian Larson: On my commute home from work, I used to drive by a big-box, home-improvement store called Handy Andy, but eventually that store went out of business, and it was with delight that I one day realized a church steeple was being added to the structure. The new owner was Harvest Bible Chapel, pastored by James MacDonald. Their church in the Chicago suburb of Rolling Meadows was growing quickly, and they needed lots and lots of space. One reason for that growth has unquestionably been MacDonald’s preaching. How would I describe his preaching? Let’s put it this way: he’s not shy, and the only time he sticks a wet finger up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing is when he’s on the golf course. When the editors of PreachingToday.com began a series of articles on the theme of preaching with authority, we knew that James was one person we needed to talk to. James MacDonald is author of When Life Is Hard (Moody, 2010), and radio speaker for Walk in the Word, which is broadcast regularly on Moody Radio.

PreachingToday.com: Many would say our culture is anti-authority and that people today don’t respond to an authoritative style of preaching. To me, you are the epitome of someone who preaches with authority, and yet you’re having great results. How do you explain that?

James MacDonald: One of the pillars of Harvest Bible Chapel from the very beginning was preaching the authority of God’s Word without apology. That’s very different from the phrase “preaching with authority.” I would never refer to myself as preaching with an authoritative style. But I know why you’re saying that, and that’s coming from the unapologetic proclamation of the Word. The prophets used to say, “Thus saith the Lord.” God says this.

I try not to spend any time in my message preparation thinking about what people want to hear or what questions the culture is asking. I just don’t spend any time on that at all. I have believed now for 21-plus years that if you try with all of your heart to say some things that God wants said—God has some things he wants said; that’s why he wrote a Book—God would get some people over here to hear it. Twenty-one years later, with a little over 13,000 people in weekly attendance, that’s happening. It’s been a steady journey. It hasn’t been explosive growth. It hasn’t been a ton of transfer growth from other churches. Like all churches, we’ve seen some of that, but mainly it’s just been a ton of people coming to know Christ.

The most common thing people would say about the teaching of Christ, after they had listened to him, was that he teaches as one who has authority. Of course, his teachings are filled with Old Testament quotes, and he is the Word of God, so every Word that proceeds from his mouth is the Word of God. That’s certainly not true about any of us, least of all me. The disciples on the road to Emmaus said, “Did not our hearts burn within us as he walked on the road with us and expounded to us from the Scriptures all the things concerning himself?” So Jesus was a Bible preacher. He had great authority because he didn’t apologize for God’s Word. He didn’t back down from anything that God’s Word said.

I just preached two weeks ago on Revelation 6. The message had one point: Repent; the wrath is coming. That’s not very seeker-friendly, but I believe that people are hungry for truth—truth that is openly expressed without reservation or prevarication. Paul said, “By the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God,” and that’s what I believe. Paul said, “My preaching was not with persuasive words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” A lot of preaching today leaves people with faith in the wisdom of men. “Wasn’t that a clever talk? Wasn’t he an eloquent speaker?” It glorifies the messenger. Instead, when we just try to say what God wants said and get out of the way, that glorifies the message and the source of the message, which is, of course, God himself.

To read the whole article, follow this link.