Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
With a new look
Bridges
I like building bridges. There’s a character on some TV program that always says, “I like bridges.” Well, ya see, bridges connect places and people. Bridges have spiritual meaning; forgiveness is a bridge and love is a bridge. But, ya know, there is, was and always shall be one man who stands as a bridge between man and God, and also man and man, that one man is Jesus the first Christ.
A bridge from man to man: a bridge of forgiveness; a bridge of love; a bridge of brotherhood; a bridge of fellowship
When I was going to Bible school my pastor was teaching; he assigned to each person in the class (one of our assignments) to write a 3 minute outline for a sermon, or simply write the whole message out. Well, since I’ve been writing articles for years, I chose to write it out. The topic that God gave me to write on was about lying and forgiveness; so, I wrote a 3 minute message about that and building a bridge of forgiveness. In it I said:
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Look at the San Andreas Fault; equate that with a lie. What does it do? It divides, it also corrupts. Each time the Fault expands a bridge is made to rejoin the sides.
“Then Peter came to him and asked, ‘Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?’
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“‘No, not seven times,’ Jesus replied, ‘but seventy times seven!’” (Matthew 18:21-22 New Living Translation). Translation: As many times as it takes to win him over.
Each time you are wronged by someone a rift is created between the two of you. You don’t need to wait for an apology before you forgive; you may never get an apology because the other person might not have even known that he or she hurt you—that is, until you forgive. Either that or they might not have done anything wrong but you perceived that it was wrong and it hurt you; forgiving that person is the only way you can rebuild a good relation with them.
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Many years ago I had to have a surgery and the surgeon took out something that I thought should have stayed. The fault wasn’t his but it still hurt me. I had to forgive him even though he never did anything wrong. I had to forgive just to rebuild relations and move on with my life.