Pastor Eugene Smith

Once we repent and confess our sins to the Lord, what does he do with them? How does God regard them? Once we realize the depth to which God has put them away, how can we not praise him? We are exhorted to enjoy the fullness of the joy of being forgiven!

Why does God forgive us? How does this benefit the believer? It is powerful to know that through forgiveness, guilt is removed, we are delivered from being ruled by our past, we are made blameless, and God is glorified. Being forgiven is a powerful reality to experience! There is nothing in the world like it!

Who is it that sends us out on mission? Is it a distant and remote God or our heavenly Father? As we know God as a benevolent, merciful, kind and compassionate father, we are free to go out to those who are lost. Jesus knew that it was his Father that sent him, and it is the Father that also sends his disciples.

What does redemption look like? The scriptures give several illustrations that allow us to see the marvels of what Christ has done. Let's allow ourselves to be amazed at God's goodness!

Paul the apostle continued to keep pressing to know Christ further. What fuelled his intense desire, and caused him to turn his back on everything with which he was familiar? Let us hear the heart of this apostle so that our hearts may yearn to fully pursue the knowledge of Christ as well.

The short Book of Ruth is rich in many truths. God brings great good out of seeming darkness. God is the God of reversal. When God doesn't seem to be present, he is working in the background.

But most of all, God is gracious beyond our comprehension. See how all these themes come together in the beautiful narrative found in the short Book of Ruth.

God is a forgiving God. Is there a part for man to play in order to receive God's gracious forgiveness? What is repentance and why is it important? Even when man can't bring himself around to repent of his own choice, God still gives repentance as a gift. How does God motivate us to do this?

Redemption is free for us, but it cost God more than we can ever imagine. What did it cost God to be true to his nature of forgiveness? It is beyond human comprehension, and we can only grow on awe and wonder at such a gracious God.

What is the greatest need of the human heart? Is it to be loved? To be accepted? Or to be forgiven? God's nature is to forgive. That is good news for humans whose hearts are perverse and twisted. But there is an answer that God has provided. Let's look at the heart that needs to experience divine forgiveness.

What an incredible joy it is to be forgiven! After all that David had done, how he had betrayed the goodness of God, committed adultery and murder, for which he should have been executed, David discovers that to be true before God is to experience the mercy and forgiveness of God! Unbelievable! This is the first in a series on the subject of forgiveness. Let us begin by learning of the incredible and unbelievable joy of being forgiven!