FORGIVENESS IS TREMENDOUS!

experience the secret that will change your life

by

Charlie Tremendous Jones

and

Daniel R. Ledwith

You’ll discover how forgiving others can open the doors to reaching your most desired goals–and how your most important relationships can be strengthened by extending forgiveness in every situation.

The authors tackle important aspects of this universal subject, including

• what the Bible says about forgiveness

• why we need forgiveness

• what forgiveness is not

• how to forgive yourself

• when anger hinders forgiveness

Smashwords Edition

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Published on Smashwords by:

Tremendous Life Books

118 West Allen Street

Mechanicsburg, PA 17055

717-766-9499

800-233-2665

Fax: 717-766-6565

www.TremendousLifeBooks.com

Forgiveness is Tremendous

Copyright 2007 by Charlie Jones and Daniel Ledwith

ISBN: 978-1-936354-242-1

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved.

Verses marked niv are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Verses marked kjv are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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Contents

Introduction by Charlie Tremendous Jones

The Best Kept Secret: Forgiveness

Part 1: What The Bible Says About Forgiveness

1. The Words Behind Forgiveness

2. Passages Where The Word Is Used

3. Passages Where The Concept Is Used

Part 2: How Forgiveness Fits In With Our Faith

4. The Importance Of Seeing The Big Picture

5. Why We Need Forgiveness

6. How God Made Forgiveness Possible

7. Why God Made Forgiveness Possible

8. What God’s Forgiveness Means

9. The Fruit Of God’s Forgiveness

10. How God’s Forgiveness Is Applied

11. What Our Forgiveness Of Others Means

Part 3: Making Forgiveness Real and Effective

12. What Forgiveness Is Not

13. Forgiveness Is Not Optional

14. Forgiving Yourself

15. When Anger Keeps Us From Forgiving

16. When Conscience Keeps Us From Forgiving

Ten Habits That Promote Forgiveness

Summary and Conclusion

Recommended Reading

Study Guide

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Introduction

This book is not about you. It is not about doing versus being. It is about being In Christ and Forgiven. The way of the abundant life in Christ begins with the realization of forgiveness in Christ Jesus. The faith of the Christian is centered on the simplest and most beautiful of all words: forgiven. The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that the greatest virtue is love, and forgiveness is love in action.

All of us really have only one need: to fully understand that only God in Christ Jesus can and does forgive sin. When that tremendous, momentous realization happens in our hearts, we can never be the same; we really are born again, new creatures, both within and without.

We can study theology forever but if we don’t begin with Christ and forgiveness, it is all in vain.

Over forty years ago, I was introduced to a devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers. I’ve read it, reread it, and shared it so many times with so many people that I now have most of it memorized. A few years ago I was rereading the entry for January 10th when the word forgiveness took on a new dimension. The scripture Chambers used was Acts 26:18, to open their eyes — that they may receive forgiveness of sins. Chambers goes on to say that when a man fails in his personal Christian experience, it is nearly always because he has never received anything — mainly the forgiveness of sins.

Fifty-four years ago, a friend asked me to read him some verses from his New Testament. I was uncomfortable with that. I didn’t believe in the Bible and had no friends who did. Despite these facts, my wife got me to join a church and to be baptized with our first son, but that was enough religion for me. But the name Jesus struck a chord in my heart and the word forgiveness pricked my conscience. Those verses I read caused me to begin to think seriously for the first time in twenty-two years about why I am here and where I am going when I die. When I left my friend, I was more confused than ever. I had no idea the labor pains of my new birth had been set in motion by the two most tremendous words in any vocabulary: forgiveness and Jesus. Only years later did I realize they were really one. You cannot separate them, Jesus and forgiveness.

With my head spinning trying to put together all these new tremendous thoughts, it seemed I was becoming more confused. Finally I arrived at that wonderful moment when I looked to Jesus. I tried to believe, but wasn’t sure what I was to believe. I tried to have faith, but wasn’t sure what faith meant. Yet there was something about that name, Jesus. Before I met my friend I knew that I didn’t know God and I had a sinful nature. But in spite of being unable to believe the verses, and unable to have faith in something I couldn’t feel, I bowed my head and with no understanding, no promises, no deals, I simply cried out from my heart to God in Jesus’ name for forgiveness. I said a few more awkward words which I don’t remember but I will never forget asking God’s forgiveness in Jesus’ name because the moment I prayed in Jesus’ name God helped me believe Him and gave me faith to believe. He heard me and forgave me according to the few verses I had read. Now, 54 years have gone by, and the two greatest words in my vocabulary remain Jesus and forgiveness.

Charles Spurgeon is considered by many to be one of the greatest preachers, teachers and authors since the Apostle Paul. Dan and I decided to begin each chapter with one of his thoughts on forgiveness. Spurgeon’s experience with Jesus and forgiveness as a young boy will help you appreciate his thoughts.

Young Charles Spurgeon decided he would visit a different church every week until he could find the meaning of all the great Christian sermons he had heard. Finally, that wonderful day came when a snowstorm forced him to enter a small church where the snow prevented even the pastor from arriving. God’s messenger arrived—a frail, unlearned layman, who delivered a very short sermon: Looking unto Jesus. He quoted scriptures containing the phrase Looking unto Jesus (Isaiah 45:22; Acts 16:31) in every possible way for ten minutes and, through his invitation (which was virtually a command to look unto Jesus), Spurgeon realized it was looking unto Jesus plus nothing that would save him. Like Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness, all that was required to be healed was to look (Numbers 21:8). Spurgeon states that the moment he looked to Jesus, Jesus only, the Light of the World became the Light of his life. His blind eyes could now see and he said, I could have almost looked my eyes away. He floated home and shared the greatest discovery of anyone’s life: I looked to Jesus and I am forgiven.

Dan and I have had the same experience as Spurgeon, and our prayer is that this book will be used of God to make it so in every life. I say again, life is not about doing, giving, deciding, or explaining. It is about Jesus, forgiveness, and receiving Him and His forgiveness as a gift.

Charlie T Jones

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The Best Kept Secret:

Forgiveness

Some imagine that a sense of pardon is an attainment only obtainable after many years of Christian experience. But forgiveness of sin is a present reality—a privilege for this day, a joy for this very hour.

—Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, July 23

Jesus had a secret. He had a secret for living and working with people. This secret drew people to Him as to no one else. It changed people from being thieves to being the most generous benefactors. Using this secret, he replaced hopelessness with hope and released people from consuming anger, guilt, hate and fear and introduced them to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. This secret enabled Him to touch lives as no other person could.

Jesus passed this secret on to His disciples, who then passed it on to their students after them. They freely passed it on to whoever would accept it. Many wondered what it was that made so many people trust Jesus. What made Him so sought out by the rich and the poor, the wise and the simple and everyone in between? What made people who came into contact with Him change so much?

FORGIVENESS: both through Jesus and in Jesus.

That’s the big secret, forgiveness? Yes, forgiveness is the secret. It was never meant to be a secret. It was meant to be a unique thing that identified His followers from all others—that they were forgiven and forgiving. Forgiveness is not a secret because it was only meant for an elite few. It is a secret because we have let forgiveness become redefined so that its meaning and power have become hidden and forgotten behind psychology, medicine, and philosophy. What Jesus knew about forgiveness is not common knowledge. It has become a secret, a secret that was never meant to be secret.

There are more experts teaching and writing about forgiveness today than at any other time in history, but in spite of all that is written about it, many are still unable to forgive or to accept forgiveness for themselves. We fake it by tricking ourselves into believing we understand everything we need to know about people and relationships. After all, there is so much we have learned about people from medicine, psychology, psychiatry and the like. But sometimes in our attempt to understand how things work we end up focusing on what we understand the best while neglecting the parts we can’t fully understand scientifically.

For instance, we have met many people who feel they need forgiveness for something they have thought or done. Many people are hounded by remorse, guilt or shame. They are afraid. If they could just be forgiven they would be able to sleep at night. Their stomachs would no longer be tied up in knots.

We know people as well who know that they need to forgive someone. They know they should, but they cannot bring themselves to do it. Something always seems to get in the way, keeping them from carrying out what they know to be right in their heart. They are too angry, too hurt. They feel that the people who hurt them should pay. Perhaps one day forgiveness will be possible—after the anger dies down, after the pain of betrayal subsides—but not today.

Then there is a third group of people who have trouble with forgiveness because of their moral conscience. They believe that people need to deal with the consequences of their actions. These people are concerned more with justice than anger. To forgive seems to mean sweeping justice under the rug—lowering one’s standards, if you will. Forgiveness doesn’t seem fair to these people.

Finally, there is a fourth group of people who want to forgive but