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Dave Henning

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Lifelong struggle – forgiveness

By Dave Henning / March 19, 2023

“By not forgiving, I chain myself to a desire to get even, thereby losing my freedom.  A forgiven person forgives.  This is what we proclaim when we pray ‘and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.’  This lifelong struggle lies at the heart of the Christian life.”- Henri Nouwen, […]

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The mask of supposed justice

By Dave Henning / March 18, 2023

“The heart dresses up vengeance as if it were justice: ‘It will be perfectly fair and just — I will simply hurt them just as they did me.’  But that is seldom what happens. . . .  Soon the mask of supposed justice falls away and the face of revenge is revealed.”- Timothy Keller “You […]

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Fear cannot awaken love

By Dave Henning / March 17, 2023

“If you have a God who is nothing but wrath, and if you have little understanding of what happened on the cross, you’ll be a driven person.  You’ll try very hard to be moral . . . but you will always feel unworthy.  It will be hard to grow into a loving person, because fear […]

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God substituting himself for man

By Dave Henning / March 16, 2023

“The concept of substitution may be said, then, to be at the heart of both sin and salvation.  For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. . . .  Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which […]

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Real love stands against sin

By Dave Henning / March 15, 2023

“Real love stands against the deception, the lie, the sin that destroys.  Anger and love are inseparably bound in human experience.  And if I, a flawed, [narcissistic], and sinful woman can feel this much pain and anger over someone’s condition, how much more a morally perfect God who made them.  Anger isn’t the opposite of […]

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Condemnation in proximity to love

By Dave Henning / March 14, 2023

“Modern people struggle with the idea of a wrathful God who condemns, yet [in John 3:16-18] the Bible puts condemnation in proximity to the most famous verse on love. . . .  Indeed, the Bible tells us that in God, not only are [his love and anger] not in tension, but they are meaningless apart […]

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Forgiving and excusing

By Dave Henning / March 13, 2023

“But there is all the difference in the world between forgiving and excusing.  Forgiveness says, ‘Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology; I will never hold it against you and everything between us two will be exactly what it was before.’  But excusing says, ‘I see that you couldn’t help or […]

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The message of the prophets

By Dave Henning / March 12, 2023

“There is nothing more astonishing than to realize that even the prophets called by God to tell Israel about their sin and the coming judgment could not avoid speaking in the most moving way about God’s grace and mercy.  The message of the prophets, then, is that no amount of human evil and recalcitrance can […]

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Grace and justice join – mercy

By Dave Henning / March 11, 2023

“Let us wonder! / Grace and justice / Join and point to mercy’s store.  / When in grace through Christ our trust is, / Justice smiles and asks no more.”- John Newton “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!  O Lord, hear my voice!  Let your ears be attentive to the voice […]

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Really sorry for the sin itself?

By Dave Henning / March 10, 2023

“If you say, ‘I must stop doing this thing, because it will get me into trouble,’ then you are not really sorry for the sin itself but for the consequences or results of the sin.  You are not sorry because it grieved God but because it grieved you or others.  This means that as soon […]

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Not merely holy nor merely loving

By Dave Henning / March 9, 2023

“God is not merely sad nor merely angry — because he is not merely holy nor merely loving.  He is angry over the offense and violation of sin but mourning over its effects over what it is doing to the creation and the human race he loves.  It is important for our purposes to see […]

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Frameworks of thought – forgiveness

By Dave Henning / March 8, 2023

“There are frameworks of thought within which forgiveness can find no home.  Forgiveness entered the world along with the recognition of divine and human worth . . . of rights. of duty, of guilt.  It cannot occur when those are not recognized.”- Nicholas Wolterstorff, Justice in Love “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time.  […]

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