they are not forgiven

Monday April 16th, John 20: 21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." OK, now that you don’t have to do anything what are you going to do? Jesus message of “Peace be with you” is quickly followed by “now get out there and forgive.” Along with this comes the warning of what happens if you do not offer forgiveness. Do you want to live in a world where there is not forgiveness? Do you want your children to live in such a world? It doesn’t take long out in the world, listening to people, to find that your brothers and sisters need that forgiveness as much as you need them to be forgiven. If we look deep enough, we all need that forgiveness. All too often we skip along the surface of life not looking too deep, spending our time on sports, fashion and fun. If pressed we all know that if we look down, just under the ice in our veins, there is all that garbage we might have to acknowledge and look at. Forgiveness and acceptance thaws that ice in our veins and allows the garbage to be taken care of, allows lives to be cleaned, allows hearts to be whole. It is a process that is not without pain. Now that we don’t have to do anything, go in peace, forgive, and be the body of Christ in the world.