Hey Clawson Family!

Song:

Scripture:

Romans 6:23

New Living Translation

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew 18:23-27

23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.[a] 26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.

Devotional:

When we see this term, the Kingdom of Heaven, in the Bible, it refers to the culture of God. How his kingdom acts, works, and is.

Beautiful. If we are going to be a part of his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, we should strive for this.

In this Parable, the King represented God. The King (God) is going to settle accounts with his servants. Who do the servants represent? Us. God is going to settle our accounts.

A man who owed him millions of Dollars, in another version of the bible it says 10,000 talents. 

To put this in perspective, 1 talent was the average annual salary for a worker in that time period. If the average annual income in our time is $50,000, that times 10,000 would be $500,000,000.

The reason he uses a number like 500 million dollars is he wants us to understand that we owe a debt that was impossible for us to pay. Our king did not loan us $500 Million dollars; he loaned us something worth so much more, and that is our life. And because of the sin in our life, we accumulated a debt so big that we could not pay it, so the penalty was supposed to be death.

In the parable, because the man cannot pay the debt, the king orders this man into slavery, but not just him, his wife, and his kids too. It’s amazing how all our debt of sin affects around us, isn’t it? Everything you do is affecting other people. 

But the servant fell on his knees before him. Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything. The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt, and let him go. 

This servant had to have felt such relief!! He was able to breathe for the first time! The weight of $500,000,000 dollars was off his shoulders! He was probably crying tears of joy and dancing, so grateful to the King! 

What it would look like in our lives if we took our focus off of the people that hurt us, that owe us forgiveness, and turn our focus onto the help that the Savior has given!

Do we understand what Jesus has done in our life? He didn’t just forgive us! He washed our sins away, he cleansed us, in him we are righteous! Because of him we are co-heirs of the Kingdom of God. We can have a personal relationship with my Creator. 

Journal:

In your today being to thank God for the forgiveness that he has shown you.

Training:

Father, thank You for never holding grudges against us. Helpm us to follow Your example by letting go of offenses. Help us tosee that our lives are too short and our callings too great to hold on to unforgivenss

 In Jesus’ name, amen

Be patient with others this week and give them the benefit of the doubt.