Cincinnati Marriage Enrichment Weekend

The Cincinnati congregations held a Marriage Enrichment Weekend entitled "Let's Grow Together" this past weekend, March 29-31. The event began on Friday evening with a social and fellowship. Sabbath and Sunday were filled with five seminars and two split sermons.

The seminars were adapted from "The Marriage You've Always Wanted" by Dr. Gary Chapman. Seminars included Communication 101; Understanding & Expressing Love; Initiating Positive Change; Making Sex a Mutual Joy; and How to Share Things that Bug You. The split sermons were on Forgiveness and Becoming One Flesh. The seminars were presented by husband and wife teams and featured small group discussion, video clips and interactive dialog with the audience.

Fifty-two couples attended and we were all encouraged by their enthusiasm. Several couples had feared they would feel beat up or like inadequate spouses, but they were pleasantly surprised and felt encouraged and inspired to enrich their marriages. It was a delightful weekend packed with Biblical, practical ways to make a good marriage even better. If "better" is possible, is "good" good enough?

We enjoyed all the interaction and becoming better acquainted with other couples in the Church.

Death of Camilo Reyes in Bakersfield, California

We were notified and saddened about the death of longtime pastor Camilo Reyes this past Sunday morning, March 31. He had been in poor health for some time. I was able to talk with his wife, Aggie, later in the day. She commented about how she was able to talk to Camilo on Saturday night and that he smilingly spoke about going to sleep and not being in pain anymore. They parted with expressions of thanksgiving and love one to another. Aggie added that Camilo was a good husband who loved God and was close to Him in prayer.

The Passover and Forgiveness—an Important Consideration for You

As we advance as a church and individually toward the Passover, we all should be focused on positively reviewing our lives (1 Corinthians 11:27-28). This helps ensure that we renew our commitment to fully surrender every part of our lives to God the Father and Jesus Christ. As we examine ourselves, we renew an attitude that can accept personal change and to again "put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy" (Ephesians 4:24, New Living Translation, emphasis added throughout).

As part of this, we must be forgiving one another. Neglecting this will create a barrier between ourselves and God.

I personally experienced an example of truly extraordinary forgiveness that I want to share with you. Through the Rotary Club that I attended in Indiana, I met a remarkable and successful man of the Jewish faith named Hart Hasten. He had written a book titled I Shall Not Die!, which was taken from Psalm 118:17. This man exhibited an astonishing degree of forgiveness, despite losing most of his extended family in the Holocaust.

As a young child, Hart Hasten was forced to escape from Nazi-occupied Poland to Kazakhstan, where his family barely survived starvation, persecution and deprivation. Despite these severe challenges, he was determined to fulfill Psalm 118:17: "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord."

Once the war was over, Hasten returned home and was shocked to learn that virtually the entire Jewish population of his hometown—including all members of his extended family—had been brutally murdered by the Nazis in the horrific concentration camps.

Hart Hasten invited me to have lunch with him, since I had mentioned that my family came from the same part of Poland that he was from, which is now Ukraine. Through the afternoon we shared our family stories. My father's family went through a very similar immigrant experience. We both lived in a Displaced Persons camp following the end of World War II. He, like my family, arrived penniless in America and coincidentally we both settled in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Despite the fact that he and his family were wronged, and wronged terribly, he was able to forgive and move on! He told me that he felt the great need to forgive; he needed to rid himself of the overbearing mental burden of unforgiveness. He told me story after story of atrocities committed to his friend's families, including lethal medical experiments conducted by German doctors. This challenged him to make a conscious decision to let go of unthinkable thoughts of revenge.

The late Elie Wiesel, himself a well-known Holocaust survivor and author of 57 books, wrote of Hasten: "His memories of uprootedness and suffering have led him to choose a life not of anger and bitterness but of compassion and generosity."

After arriving in the United States, Hasten and his family went on to achieve a high degree of wealth and influence. Hasten started a major foundation. He and his family made large contributions to further education and helping others. This includes establishing the highly regarded Hasten Hebrew Academy in Indianapolis, a place coincidentally where many Church of God teenagers have taken Sunday administrations of the SAT or ACT tests. The Hasten family today is well known in Israel and has held direct positive relationships with a number of Israeli prime ministers and other high-ranking officials.

According to Hasten, none of this could have been possible, except that through the help of God, he was able to forgive those who had done great harm to him and his family. This was a moving testimony!

With this as a backdrop, I know that forgiveness remains a formidable challenge for some within the Church of God. We know that God is love (1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16) and that as part of putting on that new man, that new nature, we are instructed by Paul to "be imitators of God... and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us" (Ephesians 5:1-2, New International Version).

An important part of loving the Lord your God with all of your might and loving your neighbor as yourself—the two great commandments as defined by Jesus Christ Himself (Matthew 22:37)—is practicing forgiveness. For somebody who desires to be a part of the Body of Christ, forgiving others is mandatory. Yes, sometimes it's difficult to forgive—yet we must at least start the process, humbly asking God for the power to complete the task!

We must not hold resentment, grudges and anger, nor be vengeful towards our brothers and sisters. Whatever the slight or offense was, we must be ready to surrender our bitter thoughts to God.

The Bible is very clear about managing offenses against us. As Jesus Himself firmly stated, "If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6:14, NLT). Read this verse in any translation you like—they all say the same thing.

Thankfully, even when we have been hurt or wronged, God gives us power to forgive. But we must first make the effort, however tiny. We must first admit to God and confess (James 5:16) this resentment or lingering anger—however seemingly justified—and ask for help and healing, for His grace, coming with humble confidence to the throne of grace "that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).

As Paul directs us today, "Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good" (Romans 12:21, NLT).

As the Passover approaches, please review the story of Stephen in Acts 7. Ask God to reveal to you how Stephen, his body being pummeled by heavy, lethal stones, was able to forgive and ask for the forgiveness of those putting him to death (Acts 7:60).

And I would especially urge you to prayerfully and humbly review the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:2-35 and what happened to that servant. Meditate on why Jesus would state "So My heavenly Father also will do to each of you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses" (Matthew 18:35). Great benefits, great blessings await those who truly forgive—from the heart!

Most offenses we experience are nowhere near the magnitude of what some have had to forgive. I marvel when I hear the stories of people who have had to forgive those who murdered their families, such as the story of Hart Hasten. Their dead will never come back to them in this life.

This Passover and beyond, make the effort to humbly surrender and turn any resentment over to God. Let us remember the necessity of fully forgiving and take to heart these words of Paul: "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Colossians 3:12-14, English Standard Version).

Grace and peace be with you all during this important season.