The Power of Forgiveness

Rebecca Duvall and her husband’s marriage was falling apart. She found it hard to forgive her husband because he cheated on her. For four months, Robert was having an affair. She found out about it when she discovered some texts on his cell phone.

When that happened Rebecca had become a Christian. She sought for a Christian counselor and decided not to walk away and fight for their marriage.

One day Robert fell ill because of a kidney failure and learnt that Rebecca was a perfect match for his kidney transplant. But she thought to herself, “he doesn’t deserve the loving care I could give as a wife” and so she decided to never do it.

But months later, God intervened and convicted Rebecca to trust Him and do the transplant as He said.

The operation was a success and because of Rebecca’s act of forgiveness and selfless love for Robert, he accepted Jesus Christ in his heart.

Since then, their marriage was restored and grew deeper and they both became counselors to couples and both living with God at the center of their lives.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:31-32).

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23-Yr-Old Adopts 13 Daughters

At a young age of 18, no one would think a homecoming queen and senior class president would trade her life with something very extraordinary. Her name is Katie Davis, the girl who chose to follow the calling of God for her life more than diving into a world filled with what the world calls “greater opportunities” for her.

God wrote these new desires in her heart during December of her senior year when she went on a mission trip to Uganda. It was the moment where God opened her eyes and she responded through prayer and seeking God, asking His guidance for her next steps after graduation.

That’s when she decided to forgo university and committed one year to teaching kindergarten in an orphanage in Uganda.

Faith led her to that decision because she wanted to obey God even though she doesn’t know what lies ahead of her.

Eventually, in 2008, Katie made Uganda her permanent home and launched Amazima Ministries, named after the native Ugandan word for “truth.” The organization seeks to transform lives, restore relationships and radically change communities through the truth of Jesus Christ.

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5 years later, at the age of 23 years old, Katie became a mother to 13 young girls whom she adopted and raised as her own children.

Katie tells TODAY that she learned what true love really means through taking care of her adopted children and that it is the most valuable lesson she had ever learned in life.

In those early days of laying sleepy heads on pillows and training tiny hearts to know Jesus, I had no comprehension of the wild, devastating, uncontainable love I would feel for them. I didn’t know that they would somehow become extensions of me, that when they hurt I would hurt more deeply than I ever had before, and that when they showed delight over a success or an excitement for God’s Word, my heart would swell within me and I would be unable to contain tears of joy. I didn’t know that sometimes I would look at them and feel so much love that my heart would physically ache within my chest.

That understanding of unconditional love would one day influence Katie not just as a mother, but also a wife.

Benji and Katie grew up in the same town of Franklin, Tennessee, but only met for the first time when Benji arrived in Uganda to serve as a missionary.

“We shared a hometown with only a few hilltops to keep our adolescent lives from ever intersecting,” Katie writes on her blog.

“My husband’s love is just another way God has chosen to pour [out] His extravagant love on me, another constant reminder that He rejoices over me, and over each one of our daughters. I watch them come alive under the loving gaze of their new father, I hear the delight and the certainty in their voices as they call ‘Dad.’”

The couple got married in 2015 and during that time she didn’t have her friends or sisters around as bridesmaids, instead, she had her 13 beautiful daughters who continue to be living proof of God’s faithfulness, redemption, and love.

Katie explained that just because she lives in Uganda and shares the love of Jesus with people she meets doesn’t mean she’s a “missionary” greater than anyone else.

“I live in Uganda with my husband and my children. The people here, they are my neighbors, my friends, my family. These are the streets on which we live, the community we pray with, the friends we eat with, the people I wave to on the street. This is my home. What I do here, you can do there, right where you are.”

Amazima Ministries is simply one of the many ways you can join the revival movement and empower a young generation with education and Jesus Christ.

But as what Katie said, “You don’t have to be in Uganda to be a missionary. You don’t have to adopt 13 children to be the hands and feet of Jesus.”

You can simply do something to share the love of God with those around you. Be a good neighbor, meet someone new, face each day with the joy of the Lord, and be filled with the spirit to bless those around you. “Right where you are.”

Consequences of Settling for Sin

You know the firm grip of temptation. It doesn’t nudge you; it pulls you in and enraptures you. Everyone–even and especially Christians–knows temptation and sin intimately. According to C.S. Lewis, “Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.”

Christians set themselves up for failure, frustration, and disappointment if they expect to be perfect and flawless after saying the prayer of salvation. We must turn away from sin and towards God in a daily, moment-to-moment surrender.

In a recent sermon, the dynamic and inspirational Christian leader Francis Chan points us to the source of light that is so bright and consuming that we forget about the vice-grip of temptation.

Sin and its Devastating Consequences

Sin is not a fun subject to discuss. If you bring it up as campfire conversation with friends, you will not be the life of the party. It makes anyone feel uncomfortable and inadequate. Perhaps because of this, our culture has mistakenly diminished the consequences of sin. “You do you … it’s all good” has become the secular motto.

But eliminating the concept of sin and its consequences has it’s own set of dire consequences. Look at the great Jewish King David. He was a man who passionately pursued God’s heart. In 2 Samuel, we find a battle-scarred and triumphant warrior-King who let sin subtly infiltrate his life.

After he decided to take another man’s wife for himself, David lost his way and became an ineffective king for several years. Even after repenting of his sins and begging for God’s forgiveness, perhaps he mistakenly concluded that he was no longer of use to God. Because of David’s weak leadership during this time, many innocent people died as ungodly leaders tried to fill the leadership vacuum.

God Jealously Pursues Our Hearts

Sin is one thing. But glorifying the source of sin over God hurts God’s heart. In his sermon, Francis Chan quotes Jeremiah 2:2-5. Keep in mind, this is God speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, “I remember the devotion of your youth … how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown … What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?”

Like King David, the Israelites before him had turned from God, even after He had lovingly cared for them in the wilderness. They even began to worship inanimate objects (a golden calf?!) over the omnipresent, all-powerful God. Like many of us, these Israelites had personally experienced the loving kindness of God’s presence, but let temptation overwhelm their lives.

It is these Israelites (as well as us) whom God addresses in Jeremiah 2:13, “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

Our “worship” of idols (whether celebrities, money, or materialistic goods) does not please God. Why? Because it wreaks havoc on our lives, driving us away from the master plan that God has specially designed for us. There is no life in these temptations; these “cisterns” hold no water. Just as a devoted father yearns for the love and devotion of his children, God jealously pursues our hearts.

Calling Out Sin

Our society is not the first to be led astray concerning sin. Ancient Corinth was a soulless society devoid of a moral compass, and early Corinthian Christians were hard-pressed to avoid sin.

But in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul boldly combat’s sin and its disastrous consequences by calling sin by name: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). While the world accepts sin as “no big deal,” God has a far different conception of sin.

Pursuing the Light: Overcoming Sin

Okay, okay so sin is a problem. But how the heck do you resist its overwhelming pull? Francis has some life-changing advice: Become so focused on your love relationship with God that you don’t notice the sin right in front of your face. As Paul encourages Christians in Hebrews 12:2, fix your eyes on Jesus, “the founder and perfecter of our faith.”

God is Better

According to Francis Chan, there is precisely one reason why you should walk away from whatever sin you face today, “God is better. He is so much better. It’s not even a comparison.” Have you ever been fulfilled by “you do you?” If not, turn your full attention to the One who gives life and purpose: God.

Richest Street Cleaner

You would not expect to find the richest, most fulfilled man cleaning the streets. But that’s exactly where world-class photographer GMB Akash, founder of First Light Photography, found him. A Bangladeshi documentary photographer, Akash is known for capturing incredible photographs that tell complex, under-reported stories of marginalized populations.

In one of his most recent photographs that has gone viral, Akash captured a subject with a story that is just too captivating to overlook. While the photo itself is striking, the story behind it will leave you reaching for a Kleenex.

The Sacrifice

Being a street cleaner is not highly respected in Bangladesh. In fact, it is one of the lowest social statuses you can have. So Idris – the subject of Akash’s recent photo – never wanted his daughters to know what he did for a living. According to Idris, “I never wanted them to feel ashamed because of me. When my youngest daughter asked me what I did, I used to tell her hesitantly that I was a laborer.”

But he went even further than that to hide his occupation from his family. “Before I went back home every day, I used to take a bath in public toilets so they did not get any hint of the work I was doing,” he humbly recounted. What could possibly motivate Idris to work hours on end under these conditions?

“I wanted to send my daughters to school to educate them. I wanted them to stand in front of people with dignity. I never wanted anyone to look down upon them like how everyone did to me,” explained Idris. Idris, himself, was born dirt poor and has remained that way throughout his life – despite his hard work day in and day out.

In Bangladesh, as in most societies, it is extremely difficult to move to a higher socioeconomic status – especially when you are born on the lowest rung of the ladder. The best he could hope for was to devote his life to lifting his daughters up out of the mess of poverty. So he did just that.

Idris matter-of-factly stated, “I invested every penny of my earnings for my daughters’ education. I never bought a new shirt, instead using the money to buy books for them.” What sacrifice!

College Admissions Day

As most parents know, childhood flies by too quickly. When it was time for his first daughter to go to college, he still hadn’t earned enough funds to pay for her college admissions. Utterly defeated, he couldn’t manage to work that day. I’ll let Idris tell the story from here:

“I was sitting beside the rubbish, trying hard to hide my tears. All my coworkers were looking at me, but no one came to speak to me. I had failed and felt heartbroken. I had not idea how to face my daughter who would ask me about the admission fees once I got back home.”

But then – an answer to his prayers: “The cleaners came to me, sat beside me and asked if I considered them as brothers. Before I could answer, they handed me their one day’s income. When I tried to refuse everyone, they confronted me saying, ‘We will starve today if needed, but our daughter has to go to college.’ I couldn’t reply to them. That day I did not take a shower. I went back to my house like a cleaner.”

He could no longer be ashamed of a profession in which the bond of brotherhood was so strong. It is because of these brothers that his daughter will finish college soon!

Poor in Possessions, Rich in Spirit

After realizing their father’s long-term sacrifice for them, Idris’s daughters refuse to let him go to work anymore. His college-aged daughter has a part time job while going to school. Even though her funds are tight, she manages to feed her father and his former co-workers – all those who made her education possible.

The fellow street cleaners laugh and ask why she feeds them so often. She replies, “All of you starved for me that day so I can become what I am today. Pray for me that I can feed you all, every day.”

Idris sums up his story in this profound way, “Nowadays I don’t feel like I am a poor man. Whoever has such children, how can he be poor?” True enough, the love that Idris has cultivated in his life overflows; it is enough to make him rich in spirit. Though you might find him on the street, deep down Idris is a rich man indeed.