Don’t Burn Your Bridges, Someday You May Need To Recross Them

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Other people and your personal relationships with them are extremely valuable assets to you and your future.  Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the initial contact between you and another person in your life, such a meeting was not an accident.  The facts are that such a particular person did not just happen along your pathway.  God had to make lots of things, people, and events come together in His perfect timing in order for that individual to show up and enter into your personal sphere of influence.  You meeting with them and your subsequent acquaintance and interaction that developed with them was orchestrated by a God who desired the two of you to meet and become friends.  My point is simply that people just don’t waltz into your life by accident.  Our Creator God has a purpose and reason for all of your established relationships.

Remember, God tells us all that we need to know and how we need to conduct ourselves in order to live happy and content lives while we are here on this earth.  It is all recorded in His Book, called The Holy Bible (Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth).  I would further tell you that it is a very good and beneficial  idea if you choose to read out of it every day.  One of the major themes of God’s Word is love.  Love of others and love of self.  Another theme is forgiveness.  God tells us to love and care for other people exactly as we would desire them to love and care for us.  He calls this action The Golden Rule.  God also tells us to forgive other people just as He has forgiven us.  Sound advice wouldn’t you agree?

He who cannot forgive, destroys the bridge over which he himself one day must pass.

Because The Lord Jesus forgave us for all of our sins and paid the full price of that forgiveness on Calvary’s Cross with his own life through the spilling of HIS BLOOD,…then by example, we who believe in Him have no choice but to do the same for any person who trespasses against us!

I once read a great short story about the blessings and benefits that flow back into a believer’s life when they obediently follow the instruction of The Lord.  Permit me to share the story with you:

One Sunday afternoon, Doris Louise Seger opened the door of her church office so that she could practice a violin solo she was to play at that evening’s service.  She was shocked and broken-hearted to discover her precious violin smashed into hundreds of little pieces and scattered all over the office floor!  Doris was crushed.  She had received the violin fifty years earlier as a high school graduation present from her parents.  With tear-filled eyes she thought,….Who? Why? How can I ever forgive the person who did this?

An investigation was launched to find the culprit.  A week later the local police found and identified the confessed vandal.  Doris wanted to speak with the reckless person who had destroyed her valuable heirloom instrument.  When she saw the skinny, little, blond headed 11 year-old boy sitting next to his father on the sofa, she immediately understood that the real tragedy was not her shattered violin, but rather it was a young life that seemed headed for a more shattered future.  Doris explained to the family what the violin had meant to her life and then she suddenly found herself saying,… “I forgive you, son, and God will forgive you too,…if you will just ask Him.”

A few days later, the little boy came to the pastor’s office, and asked him rather hesitantly,… “Is there any work that I can do at the church so that I can pay for a new violin for Mrs. Seger?”  At the sign of his repentant heart, the pastor immediately shared the Gospel of Christ with him and the boy received Jesus Christ as his personal Savior that very day.

Doris purchased a new violin, but she later wrote, “It would never compare with this ‘New Creature’ in Christ Jesus that had just become a member of The Family of God….I learned anew that God’s Grace is sufficient to give me a forgiving heart…..regardless of what happens to me or any of my possessions.”

God specifically tells us exactly how He wants us to live out our lives on this earth.  It is all recorded in the Bible in The Book of Matthew, Chapter 6. verses 14-15.  NKJV:

 (14)  “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly
             Father will also forgive you.

 (15)  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will 
            your Father forgive your trespasses.”

God’s Word doesn’t get any clearer than that.  You are to forgive others when they ask for your forgiveness…because ….that is exactly what Christ did for you over two thousand years ago in Jerusalem.  When you forgive and forget the transgressions of other people against you and your life….everyone wins, and you experience the joy and love that passes all understanding.

Peace and Love to All of You………………..Poppa Bear

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