In this "Timeless Truths" segment from our archives, Kathy Gallagher talks about the beauty of forgiveness and mercy, and shows hurting wives how to be in that spirit toward their husbands.

Host: Kathy, I know that you were thrilled to get this letter from Yolanda. She wants some information and help on how she can live the mercy life. Her problem is, how do you live the mercy life in a marriage where you've been hurt by your husband?

Kathy: Yeah. First of all, Mike, I'd like to try and describe what the mercy life is as we know it here at Pure Life Ministries. The Mercy Life is a life where we put the needs of others above our own. It's a Biblical life. The Mercy life is a life where you are meeting the needs of other people. It’s a life where you see a need and you fill it and that can be applied in any situation in life. You could do some small thing to meet a need for someone that's struggling in your workplace. You can do an act of kindness for a neighbor.
        There's an endless list of ways that you can just simply meet a need. And because you love Jesus and because He lives in you, naturally you do kindnesses to other people. So, now let me paint how this mercy life can be lived out in a marriage where the husband is living in sexual sin. A lot of women are afraid to be too kind because understandably, they have their guard up. But I just want to encourage wives that living the mercy life toward your husband is the only way to live your life in a way that's pleasing to God.

Host: Well, basically what you're saying Kathy is the mercy life is what Christianity is really supposed to be about. But you're not talking about just people doing good things for other people. There's nothing wrong with that, but it has to be motivated by something. What is it in us that produces the mercy life as we mature as Christians?  

Kathy: As time goes on, the love of Jesus takes over in us and we begin to see the needs around us and we want to meet those needs. I'll never forget a lady I met up in Vermont. She was an elderly woman and she was just such a tremendous blessing to me. And I don't even know why she said this to me, but she walked up to me and she wrapped her arms around me and she said, “The most God-like characteristic there is, is forgiveness.” That was many years ago and it really affected me.
        When she said it, I was trying to process through why she was saying that to me. And over the years it has become so real to me what she was saying. It was Jesus Himself speaking to me through her that forgiveness, mercy and love are the characteristics that are manifested in the life of a believer that shows we really belong to Jesus. You know you've been born from above when you love the brethren and mercy is flowing out of your life. As we mature as Christians, that's what comes out of us more and more.

Host: I know as you're saying that women are going to be thinking to themselves, “Okay. So, I have to go be merciful and I have to generate forgiveness in my heart.” But we can't do that on our own. We have to have a revelation of something for that to take place.

Kathy: Right. And I think that revelation comes when we come to terms with the mercy that's been given to us. When we understand and we really grasp the goodness of God toward us then it becomes much easier to forgive those who have offended us. But if it's not real to you in your spirit, how much debt has been forgiven you then it becomes very difficult to forgive the debt of another, even if it is your husband. Now, I understand it as well as any woman listening how much it hurts to be devastated by your husband's unfaithfulness and yet I know, and I knew at the time, what a sinner I was and how much God had forgiven me.
        So, with that knowledge, how could I not forgive Steve? And that revelation and resolve came to me from God. That didn’t come from Kathy Gallagher. It's not in me to be that way. And I think that it is a very big part of the process for a lot of women to really examine themselves when they get in a self-righteous spirit, and they don't want to forgive and they want to hold their husband's sin against them. What they need to do is just remember the debt that has been forgiven for themselves. Their husband's sin is not worse than their own. It's not that God forgave her a little bit and God needs to forgive him a whole bunch. We are all on equal footing.

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Host: And whether it's a spouse or someone else who sins against us, we have to recognize our own sinfulness. That is the beginning of living the mercy life. Are there some practical ways that a wife can help her husband in a situation like this. What are the needs of her husband who may be struggling with sexual sin?

Kathy: Well, there's a lot of things a woman can do. Number one is that without becoming overbearing and demanding, she needs to come up with ways to come alongside her husband. For instance, she should offer for them to pray together. This should be the husband's role, but we have to deal with reality and a lot of guys that are struggling with sexual sin aren't even trying to facilitate times of prayer. So, she can offer to pray with him or they can study the word together, but he needs his wife to support him as he struggles through.
        That doesn't mean that you're putting your seal of approval on his sin, but you're there for him and you're believing with him and you're going to just throw yourself into this marriage as best you can while he works his way through it. And this is only possible if he's in a repentant spirit and has a repentant heart. A lot of men that women are married to are not in a repentant state of heart. So, everybody's got their own set of circumstances that they have to navigate through. And if he's not repentant, she can't be his cheerleader. So, I'm speaking to women whose husbands are really trying to work through the repentance process. She can really offer herself and be supportive. She can be not afraid to give of herself to her husband. He needs that.

Host: Well, I'm glad you made that point because mercy does not always take the same form. Sometimes mercy requires that we rebuke someone.

Kathy: Yea, mercy can be very severe at times. And there were many times when I had to pull the plug on Steve so to speak. I'll just mention here one of those times. I did not know that it was the Lord directing me at the time, but I kept sensing that I needed to separate myself from Steve. And that seemed like the weirdest thing to me because he was doing so well in my mind. Well, eventually I did and sure enough, I found out that the whole time I thought he was doing great, he was doing terrible. So, when I did the hard thing, which was to separate myself from him, it ended up really being the merciful thing. And that was the thing that turned it around for Steve.
        Then there are times when a woman will just have to put her foot down. But again, I always feel like I have to balance everything I say with, “you've got to be in the right spirit,” because we can operate in the flesh. It's too easy to be in the flesh and think what we're doing is mercy when it's really just your flesh causing you to be controlling. Mercy is love in action. It meets the need of another person no matter what the need is and it always costs you something. Whether emotionally, spiritually or physically. When you love someone else, you're giving of yourself. You don't do mercy to get something. Mercy is freely given.

Host: And of course, the greatest example we have of mercy was Jesus. And what he did for us.

Kathy: Amen.

"O God in Zion, we wait before you in silent praise, and thus fulfill our vow. How greatly to be envied are those you have chosen to come and live with you within the holy tabernacle courts! What joys await us among all the good things there." (Psalm 65:1, 4 LB)

It’s Sunday morning and the home of Jim and Janet Smith is a picture of bustling activity. Having gotten ready for church, they turn their attention to the needs of their three children—getting them showered, dressed and fed. Eventually, the family is making their harried drive to church. The scene at their house of worship is amazingly similar to home. Kids are running around the foyer, playing and frolicking. Women huddle together gabbing about their kids, while their husbands discuss the plight of their favorite sports team. The music emerging from the sanctuary brings the conversations to a forced conclusion and, having retrieved their children, they make their way to their seats.

Allow me to present for your consideration a typical Sunday morning service at Pure Life Ministries (PLM). The seventy or so men in the residential program are required to be in the sanctuary 30-60 minutes before the service begins. There they sit in absolute silence until the worship service begins. This routine is a wonderful discipline to men who have allowed their lives to spiral out of control to the point of engaging in illicit sexual behavior. To be required to resist the natural tendency to talk, joke and laugh before service is an entirely new discipline for these men.

While this restraint provides its own benefits, there are other reasons for this practice. First, there is a great gulf between singing hymns and choruses by rote and truly worshiping God from the heart. “God is spirit,” said Jesus, “and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24) If we are going to go through the motions of worshiping God, we must do it in the Spirit (as opposed to the flesh) and in truth (as opposed to contrived and insincere devotion). Realistically, the only way such worship can take place is for a person to quiet himself; to subdue his flesh so that he can be properly prepared to offer sincere, Spirit-led worship to God.

<pull-quote>If we are going to worship God, we must do it in the Spirit (as opposed to the flesh) and in truth (as opposed to contrived and insincere devotion). The only way such worship can take place is for a person to quiet himself so that he can offer sincere worship to God.<pull-quote><tweet-link>TweetThis<tweet-link>

Secondly, it is proper to approach the Most High God with a reverential attitude. I believe that one of the reasons sin is running rampant in the Church is that people have increasingly become familiar with holy things. It’s not uncommon anymore to hear the Lord spoken of disrespectfully, e.g., “Jesus is my bud!” How much better it is to approach God with the holy fear that befits the situation.

Having been in at least a thousand such meetings at PLM, I can testify that when we begin to worship the Lord, it is real, it is meaningful and it is sincere. Visitors are amazed at how God’s presence is so tangible in the Pure Life chapel. Is it because we are better than others? No, I believe it simply because we approach the Lord with the respect He is due.

And how about you?

• Can you see how it would help your walk with God to quiet yourself before going to church?
• Are you willing to commit yourself to approaching future worship times with a quiet spirit, a loving heart and a reverential attitude?

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"The Lord has corrected me sternly, but He has not abandoned me to destruction." (Psalm 118:18 Har)

It should go without saying that the Lord handles newborn Christians with “kid gloves.” They cannot handle much so the Lord tends to shield them from overwhelming difficulties. A boxing manager would not throw his new fighter into the ring with a seasoned veteran; a mother would not send her toddler across a busy thoroughfare by himself; and the Lord doesn’t put His baby believers into situations they are not yet prepared to handle.

<pull-quote>A boxing manager would not throw his new fighter into the ring with a seasoned veteran; a mother would not send her toddler across a busy thoroughfare by himself; and the Lord doesn’t put His baby believers into situations they are not yet prepared to handle.<pull-quote><tweet-link>TweetThis<tweet-link>

However, correction is as much a part of the Christian maturing process as it is for the young child. Solomon could have been talking about the Lord’s dealings with His people when he wrote, “If you refuse to discipline your son, it proves you don’t love him; for if you love him, you will be prompt to punish him… A youngster’s heart is filled with rebellion, but punishment will drive it out of him.” (Proverbs 13:24; 22:15 LB) And, as the writer of Hebrews later pointed out: “If God doesn’t punish you when you need it, as other fathers punish their sons, then it means that you aren’t really God’s son at all—that you don’t really belong in his family.” (Hebrews 12:8 LB)

As members of a race of rebels, there is much within us that must be corrected. If we are left to ourselves, we will nearly always tend to think, speak and act in a way that characterizes the fallen nature. The very fact that it comes so “naturally” points out the need to have our mindset continually adjusted. The Lord uses different tools to accomplish this, but, by and large, the most effective means He has to help us to acquire the mind of Christ is through various forms of discipline.

There are those times that we are disciplined because we have committed some outright sin. But just as often, we must “go out to the woodshed” simply as part of the maturing process. Sometimes those bouts of discipline can be very severe. While we fragile humans can’t handle too much adversity, the Lord knows far better than we how powerfully effective such times are in changing our natures. There are some times when the Vinekeeper must prune the branch all the way back to the Vine. And yet, it is this very kind of severe pruning that always produces the most bountiful crop.

While there are those occasions when the discipline seems to be so overwhelming that the person despairs of life itself, there is an inherent promise found in the psalmist’s testimony: “Yes, the Lord has disciplined me severely, but He will never allow me to be destroyed by it.” In fact, it could easily be argued that His desire to save us from destruction is one of His primary reasons for allowing the discipline in the first place.

As difficult as the Christian life can be at times, what is the alternative? I would rather the Lord thrash me to an inch of my life; nay, I would rather He allowed me to die a violent death, than for Him to allow me to destroy myself through sin and rebellion.

And how about you?

• How do you respond when the Lord brings correction into your life?

• Have you learned to see the value of it, or are you still at an early developmental stage of resisting the process?

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"My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises! Awake, my glory! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn." (Psalm 57:7-8)

In yesterday’s devotional, we took a brief glimpse at the word “steadfast” in Psalm 57:7 (Heb. kun). This Hebraic term is also used in the sense of preparation. For instance, of the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness with Moses for forty years, the psalmist said that they were “A stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God.” (Psalm 78:8) In contradistinction to this wayward generation, King Hezekiah would later pronounce a special blessing on a certain group of Israelites: “May the good Lord pardon everyone who prepares his heart to seek God…” (2 Chronicles 30:18-19)

Elsewhere I wrote the following:

“The important position the heart occupies within a person can be seen in Scripture… People are told to ‘rend’ their hearts (Joel 2:12), seek God with all their hearts (Psalm 119:2, 10), and pour out their hearts before Him. (Psalm 62:8) We are told of those who deceive their own hearts (James 1:26), backslide in heart (Proverbs 14:14), spurn reproof in their hearts (Proverbs 5:12), and regard wickedness in their hearts. (Psalm 66:18) It’s no wonder then that we are admonished to, ‘Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.’ (Proverbs 4:23 KJV) Surely it is true: ‘the inward thought and the heart of a man are deep.’” (Psalm 64:6)

Preparing one’s heart to meet with the Lord is an important aspect of maintaining a quality devotional life. The truth is that the heart of man has a natural propensity toward sin, selfishness and pride. Spiritual pursuits do not come naturally to us. We must prepare our hearts to seek the Lord.

<pull-quote>The truth is that the heart of man has a natural propensity toward sin, selfishness and pride. Spiritual pursuits do not come naturally to us. We must prepare our hearts to seek the Lord.<pull-quote><tweet-link>TweetThis<tweet-link>

The other interesting word found in today’s passage of Scripture is “glory.” Why would David be speaking of his own glory? The Hebrew word literally means “weighty.” From there it is used to describe someone of substantial character. Of course, this term is rightly used repeatedly of the Lord. I believe Spurgeon captured the right idea when he said the following about this phrase: “Let the noblest powers of my nature bestir themselves: the intellect which conceives thought, the tongue which expresses it, and the inspired imagination which beautifies it - let all be on the alert now that the hour for praise has come.”3

And how about you?

• Do you consider your relationship with God valuable enough to prepare your heart to meet with Him?

• Does He mean enough to you that you will gather together all of your most noble aspirations to praise His name?

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‍"My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises!  Awake, my glory!  Awake, harp and lyre!  I will awaken the dawn."  (Psalm 57:7-8)

David was running for his life when he penned these words. It’s possible he felt that he needed to rouse himself up to maintain his devotional life, but his story clearly shows that for years before this he had already maintained a solid time with God every morning.

Generally speaking, American Christians have been able to get by without much of a connection with God. Life has been good in the United States. But I believe those days are coming to an end. When calamity is striking from every side is not the time to attempt to establish a solid devotional life. When times of distress come, a person who is not accustomed to a solid connection with God is going to come unraveled. It is so much wiser to get one’s devotional life in order during times of peace than to attempt to do it when “all hell is breaking loose” against believers!

<pull-quote>When times of distress come, a person who is not accustomed to a solid connection with God is going to come unraveled. It is so much wiser to get one’s devotional life in order during times of peace than to attempt to do it when “all hell is breaking loose!”<pull-quote><tweet-link>TweetThis<tweet-link>

The word “steadfast” in Psalm 57:7 (Heb. kun) is rendered “fixed” in some translations. This is a man who had determined—above all else—to have a time of worship, praise and prayer with God every morning. This kind of commitment is the key to establishing an important habit like prayer. In a certain sense, it is very comparable to quitting smoking. Making the resolute decision to stop the habit is half the battle. What makes the experience so unnecessarily miserable is when the person constantly waffles back and forth with his commitment.

So it is with establishing a prayer life. Once a person has made a firm consecration to doing this—no matter what distractions the enemy might throw at him—he is halfway there! Notice David’s commitment: “I will sing… I will sing praises!... I will awaken the dawn.” I will! I will! I will! He expressed this same sentiment on another occasion when he said, “In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; in the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.” (Psalm 5:3)

It will take this kind of resolute determination to get one’s prayer life established. Someone once said, “Satan laughs at our toiling, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”1 It is for this very reason that he and his minions do their utmost to discourage believers from praying. Watchman Nee wrote: “When we pray with such prayer, our prayer will shake up hell and affect Satan. For this reason, Satan will rise up to hinder such prayer. All prayers which come from God touch the powers of darkness. Here involves spiritual warfare. Perhaps our physical bodies, our families, or whatever pertains to us will be attacked by Satan. For whenever there is such prayer, it calls for Satanic assault. The enemy so attacks in order that our prayer might be discontinued.”2

We must be determined to overcome all the distractions and attacks the enemy will hurl our way. Once they see that you consider your devotional time to be inviolable, they will grow discouraged and give up.

Yes, there is a reason they are called “devotions.” You must be truly devoted to Christ to stay faithful to your daily devotions.

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And how about you?

• Have you made this kind of commitment to spending quality time with the Lord? Do you faithfully seek His face every morning?

• Can He count on you to intercede for the lost?

• Does your daily life reveal a true devotion to Christ?

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Like any wife, Kathy Gallagher felt utterly shattered by her husband's affairs and pornography addiction. But God also helped her to see that her husband Steve was in the fight of his life. He was fighting tooth and nail against his own flesh, the world and the devil. In today’s episode, Kathy Gallagher offers a new perspective about a husband’s struggle with sexual sin.

Resources

• When His Secret Sin Breaks Your Heart (Book) By Kathy Gallagher
• There is Hope in Knowing the Truth About Sexual Sin (Blog)

Like any wife, Kathy Gallagher felt utterly shattered by her husband's affairs and pornography addiction. But God also helped her to see that her husband Steve was in the fight of his life. He was fighting tooth and nail against his own flesh, the world and the devil. In today’s episode, Kathy Gallagher offers a new perspective about a husband’s struggle with sexual sin.

Resources

• When His Secret Sin Breaks Your Heart (Book) By Kathy Gallagher

When life gets really hard, we often cry out “God, why did you allow this to happen to me?” But the real question we should be asking is, "Am I still trusting that God is good and merciful, despite what I'm going through?" In this interview, Kathy Gallagher exhorts wives to make sure that their trials are not destroying their faith.

Resources

• When His Secret Sin Breaks Your Heart (Book) By Kathy Gallagher
• Rescued, Redeemed, Restored (Part 1) | Greg and Paloma's Story of Hope (Podcast)
• One Woman's Submission to the Lordship of Christ (Podcast)

When life gets really hard, we often cry out “God, why did you allow this to happen to me?” But the real question we should be asking is, "Am I still trusting that God is good and merciful, despite what I'm going through?" In the fourth episode of our series, Hope for Hurting Wives, Kathy Gallagher exhorts wives to make sure that their trials are not destroying their faith.

Resources

• When His Secret Sin Breaks Your Heart (Book) By Kathy Gallagher

There is nothing wrong with wanting a good marriage, or even a "perfect" one. But what is a perfect marriage from God's perspective, and what does it require to have one? Kathy Gallagher is back for the third episode of our series, Hope for Hurting Wives.

Resources

• When His Secret Sin Breaks Your Heart (Book) By Kathy Gallagher

There is nothing wrong with wanting a good marriage, or even a "perfect" one. But what is a perfect marriage from God's perspective, and what does it require to have one? Kathy shares about this in episode 3 of our series.

Resources

• When His Secret Sin Breaks Your Heart (Book) By Kathy Gallagher
• Hold Fast to a Living Hope (Blog) by Kathy Gallagher

One of the things the Cross is for man is a perfect sacrifice for his sin. We are hopelessly unable to atone for our sin, yet Jesus offered himself as a perfect sacrifice on our behalf. What should our response be when we see the wonder and beauty of such love? Ed Buch uses Colossians 1 to show us in this brief talk given to the men in our Residential Program.

Tonight I’ve been thinking about the Cross and there was a line in one of the songs we were singing during worship earlier that says, “Spotless Lamb of God was He.” That just had me thinking about how the Cross represents different things Scripturally, and one of those things is the perfect sacrifice for sin. When we think about the Cross, it was our sin that required the Cross as a sacrifice. According to Hebrews 9:22 without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness and no remission of sin. We see in the Old Testament that life of an animal was is in the blood. And what is the wages of sin? Death. Sin brought death and the life is in the blood. So in order to bring life, it required the shedding of blood. And if you look at the Old Testament system, God accepted animal sacrifices for a season, but even in that, it tells us over 100 times in Scripture that the sacrifice had to be blameless or perfect or unblemished.
       The emphasis was on this perfect sacrifice because we couldn't do it. We had to choose perfect animals. They were closer than anything we could have come up with ourselves as a sacrifice. But then God of course, sent the perfect one, right? The spotless Lamb of God who could become that sacrifice for us. And if we go to Colossians 1, there's a passage there that is just worth spending a moment on. Colossians 1, verse 19:
       “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20, NKJV)
       That peace is real. It's deliberate and it's more than just an emotion. It's the peace of God. Like Jesus said, it's a peace that the world can't take away. The passage continues on to say:
       “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.” (Colossians 1:21-22, NKJV)
       He was the perfect sacrifice. And what's it saying there? He's saying he’s going to make you perfect. He’s going to make you the blameless one, the perfect one. And that's what we can become in Him. Because of Him and because of His sacrifice. None of us are going to live sinless lives, but we are going to stand before God one day and we’re going to be in a wholly blameless situation if we have really committed our lives to loving and worshiping and surrendering to the Lord. But notice the very next word after all that. A lot of times we want to stop reading at a place like that. But what's the very next word?
       "If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.” (Colossians 1:23, NKJV)
       So, there is something we must do. We must respond to all of this message, and responding to it is not just the act of mentally accepting it. A true response to the Lord is grounded in being steadfast in the faith and continuing to endure in the faith. That's what's required. Jesus did make the perfect sacrifice in our place because of our inability to do so. But there is a right and a wrong response to the sacrifice He offered up for us. And I hear in some of the worship that is going on in our services here at Pure Life that the right response is in many of you, but I want it to be there in all of you. I want you all to have a true sight of the Cross. I'm may not be able to convey the excitement of it very well, but the Cross should excite you. The Cross should be a symbol of gratitude to us. A symbol of hope to us. A symbol of perfect sacrifice to us. It should also be a symbol of Jesus's perfect obedience.
       Philippians 2 says that He obeyed even to the death of the Cross. You and I struggle with rules. I struggle with following rules as simple as driving the speed limit. But Jesus laid down all of His self-will and obeyed perfectly. When we don't have a will of our own, we don't struggle when it comes to obeying. And the less of our will that we have the better. But that's what the Cross is. It is perfect sacrifice and it is perfect obedience, and we need to come into an understanding and a responding to that. Here at Pure Life Ministries, we talk about having encounters with the Cross or getting a sight of the Cross or even a revelation of the Cross. Yes, you should be seeking to have all of that happen for you, but I also want you to embrace the Cross. I want you to make it yours. The Bible tells us that we need to pick up our cross and carry it daily, so that's what I want us to be able to do as well.

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       Let me just mention one other thing. The Cross was an instrument of death. But just contemplate for a moment what Jesus went through for you. He had spikes driven through His hands and His feet. He was nailed to the Cross with His limbs stretched out and He was suspended so that his body weight was pulling on all of His wounds. He had to actually push himself up to be able to take a breath because His insides were being pressed in tight and it's hard to even breathe in that position for very long.
       Imagine you're hanging out there in the middle of the day in a place where there's no shade and no rain and no cloud cover to speak of. If you've been to Israel, you know it's hot most of the time. So, you'd be just hanging out there with that sun scorching you as you're trying to push yourself up. But every time you push, you're like pushing against gaping wounds in your flesh where you've been nailed. It was the cruelest form of punishment known to man. And maybe it still is even, but certainly in that day it was the cruelest form of execution known and it was so bad that Roman citizens were automatically exempt from it. It was considered cruel even to them.
       They would only put their enemies through that punishment. That should tell us something about how much suffering Jesus went through. It was meant to inflict the most pain possible for the longest period of time possible. That's why they used it as a deterrent against criminal behavior because you were going to hang on a cross in incredible pain for an incredibly long time. And then even as Jesus was hanging there everybody was reviling Him. If you remember from Scripture, it says that even the thieves on either side of Him were reviling Him. The people walking by or standing there at the foot of the Cross were mocking Him.
       He didn't get any sympathy or respect even while He was on the Cross and even all of his friends had fled and deserted Him. This was a horrible thing. I don't think you or I could write a script that would be more horrible than that. And what was Jesus’ attitude like? His attitude was, “not my will but yours be done Father. I want to do this. If this is the way it has to be, this is what I want to do. I want to lay down my life. I want to give my life up for the sake of others. I want people to have hope. I want people to have a way out of their sin. I want people to have a cleansing for their sin that they can't have otherwise. I want to give them this.”
So, there should be a lot of gratitude in our hearts as a result of that kind of love. Don't cheapen the Cross.