My Father in Heaven is Perfect

Lori had planned a birthday party for her brother.
She invited her parents and siblings.
Her brother was traveling from another state
and would arrive later than everyone else. 

As Lori and her sister Kelli decorated for the party,
they began to argue about something.
The issue was silly in retrospect.
As the argument got heated, they raised their voices.
their father entered the fray
and seemed to be taking the side of Lori's sister.

Through the years,
Lori's father had often controlled her
with physical punishment.
Lori had grown up afraid of her father's anger. 
Even though she was now an adult living on her own,
her mouth went dry and her chest still felt tight
whenever her father got angry and raised his voice.

This day he also raised his hand as if to strike her.
He didn't touch her, but it didn't matter. 
Thirty years of pent up resentment sprung up inside of her,
and Lori went into survival mode.
She told her father to get out of her house.
and she made her point clear with some expletives--
something she had never done before.  

Her father immediately went to his car
and told her mother to get their stuff.
Her mother just shook her head
when Lori tried to explain how she felt.
It was just like her teenage years
when it seemed like her feelings had never mattered.
Her mother would always side with her dad.
Her mother was mad,
her sister was mad,
and her father was mad.

It had all started over putting an egg in her brother's cake.
Lori suddenly thought of her beloved brother!
He would be coming to his birthday party
and their parents would be absent.

There was only one thing to do.
Despite their differences
they must all set aside their pettiness
for the sake of her brother.

Lori swallowed her pride and went out to the driveway
and knelt in the gravel beside her father's car.
Apologizing, she begged him to stay
and not ruin her brother's birthday.

There was no response.
Her father just stared straight ahead out the windshield.
He didn't even acknowledge her words.
Her mother got into the car and they drove away.
Lori was devastated!

Later, when her brother arrived
it was a sad party without their parents.
Lori did not hear from her parents for over four months.
One day she decided to call her dad. 
She said, "I just wanted you to know I love you!"

Although Lori and her father were speaking again,
this incident had still reinforced an image
in her mind of her heavenly Father.
She often imagined God just staring straight ahead
while she apologized for her sins.
This lead to her begging and bargaining with God.

Then one day Lori heard a preacher say
that our heavenly Father is just like Jesus.
If this was true, she thought,  
God's forgiveness must be identical 
to the way Jesus treated people.
She could not imagine Jesus staring straight ahead
out the windshield while she knelt in the gravel.

She searched through her Bible.
Story after story lame men, lepers, demoniacs,
Mary, Peter, the thief on the cross--
all experienced God's forgiveness! 
But the best example of God's forgiveness
happened while Jesus was dying on the cross. 
Although He hung there suffering in agony
He prayed for the forgiveness
of those who were hurting Him.
 
Jesus didn't deserve to bear that pain
He could have left immediately.
Like the song says,
He could have called ten thousand angels
and gone back to heaven,
but instead He cried out to His Father,
"Forgive them, for they know not what they do!"

Did Jesus ask this because 
His Father was angry?
No, the Bible says
"God so loved the world that He gave His only Son."
God was not dying to appease God!

The word apheimi that Jesus used here
means to remove the guilt from the psyche of the offender.
Jesus had no ill feelings toward His murderers,
He simply asked His Father
to remove the guilt from their psyche.

In His darkest hour, 
Jesus had no self-righteous indignation.
He didn't even ask for an apology.
He simply forgave us!

God Forgave Us While We Were Still Sinners

While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

For if our heart condemns us,
God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
1 John 3:20

There are several different words for forgiveness in the original Bible languages: 

1. Apheimi--the Removal of Guilt
From One's Own Psyche

If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just and will forgive (apheimi)
us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9

Jesus Asked The Father to Remove the Guilt
From Those Who Killed Him

When they came to the place  called 'the Skull',
there they crucified him, along with the criminals—
one on his right, the other on his left.
Jesus said,"Father, forgive (apheimi) them,
for they do not know what they are doing."
Luke 23:33-34

2. Salach--the Removal of the Psychological
and Emotional Aspects of our Sin
(This is Defined as a Change in Us)

You are forgiving (salach) and good,
O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you.
Psalm 86:5

God's Forgiveness Also Removes
Our Psychological Pain

They refused to listen  and failed to remember
the miracles you performed among them.
They became stiff-necked
and in their rebellion appointed a leader
in order to return to their slavery.
But you are a forgiving (salach)
God, gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love.
Therefore you did not desert them...
Nehemiah 9:17

3. Charizomai Means to Let Go of Ill Feelings 
Toward Those Who Have Harmed Us
(God Has No Bad Feelings Toward Us)

Be kind and compassionate to one another,
forgiving each other,
just as in Christ, God forgave (charizomai) you.
Ephesians 4:32

God Wants Us to Have
No Bad Feelings Toward Others

Now instead,
you ought to forgive (charizomai) and comfort him,
so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
2 Corinthians 2:7

I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.
Isaiah 43:25

We Need to Forgive Others to be Able
to Experience God's Forgiveness

If you forgive(charizomai) anyone,
I also forgive him.
And what I have forgiven—
if there was anything to forgive—
I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake.
2 Corinthians 2:10

Inspirational Thoughts:

But forgiveness has a broader meaning than many suppose. When God gives the promise
that He "will abundantly pardon,"
He adds, as if the meaning of that promise
exceeded all that we could comprehend:
"My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways,
and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:7-9.
God's forgiveness is not merely a judicial act
by which He sets us free from condemnation.
It is not only forgiveness for sin,
but reclaiming from sin.
It is the outflow of redeeming love
that transforms the heart.
David had the true conception of forgiveness when he prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10.
And again he says,
"As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." Psalm 103:12.

-Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing p. 114