Radical Revolutionary Teaching Regarding Food And Forgiveness

Kenya's turmoil has been featured on our news reports as I have prepared this article. Southern and eastern Africa are at this very moment being threatened with further floods. There are so many areas of the world where there is famine or a serious shortage of food and water and medicine.

When we use these words which Jesus Christ gave to His disciples to use when they pray - "Give us this day our daily bread" - what did He mean?

The phrase probably does not mean all that very much in our country, but across Africa and Asia, and in various other neglected and forgotten corners, it has immense significance.

"Give us this day our daily bread."

Supermarket shelves are heaving with food in most of the western world. The increasing choice is almost embarrassing, but that is not the case in the horn of Africa, or the refuse tips of Kenya and Brazil.

When I was speaking and teaching Nairobi, I had to pass a refuse tip each morning. Many were scavenging all over that pile of rubbish looking for something to eat or something to sell. What humiliation some people have to endure. They hurt and they are pained in exactly the way as we hurt and experience humiliation.

When Jesus Christ taught His disciples to use these words as they prayed, He meant, "Father, give us the food we need for the next 24 hours". This has relevance for half the population of the world.

Immediately following, Jesus teaches His disciples to pray for forgiveness.

We do not need more food, but we certainly need more forgiveness. Where we live we do not require more prosperity, but as a nation we do need more pardon. Amidst all the materialism, we so need the mercy of God.

Many do not understand that we are only forgiven as we forgive.

Jesus taught, that if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.

Now, that is massive and radical, in as much as it goes right to the very roots of our normal and natural way of thinking.

Have we not all heard people say and bargain, "If you forgive me then I'll forgive you." According to Jesus Christ that is not the way it works.

First, you forgive, and then when you come to almighty God, repenting and confessing your sins, He offers you through His generous mercy, that overwhelming comprehensive forgiveness, and you can only receive God's forgiveness through Jesus Christ. That too is uniquely radical.

We do not need more food, but we do need more forgiveness.

Sandy Shaw

Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children's Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.

He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org entitled "Word from Scotland" on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.

His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness.

Sandy Shaw
sandyshaw63@yahoo.com

Award for Leadership Excellence 23/04/2008 18:35:00 Business Wire Former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie will receive the 2008 Biotechnology Industry Organization s first-ever International Award for Leadership Excellence, for his strong commitment to the development and growth of the biotechnology industry in Queensland, Australia.