Forgiveness in Action

Years ago a young Korean exchange student left his flat and went to the corner to post a letter to his parents. Eleven leather-jacketed teenage boys attacked him. When the police found him in the gutter, he was dead. The district attorney of the city secured legal authority to try the boys as adults so that they could be given the death penalty. Then a letter arrived from Korea from the murdered boy's parents that made everyone stop and think.


It read in part:

"Our family has met together and we have decided to petition that the most generous treatment possible be given to those who have committed this criminal action. We have decided to start a fund to be used for the religious, educational, vocational, and social guidance of the boys when they are released. We have dared to express our hope with a spirit received from the gospel of God’s Son who died for our sins.”

Forgiveness is always the basis of horizontal forgiveness.

The Heart of Forgiveness

A small boy was consistently late coming home from school. His parents warned him that he must be home on time that afternoon, but nevertheless he arrived later than ever.

At dinner that night the boy looked at his plate. There was a slice of bread and a glass of water.

He looked at his father full plate of bounty, and then at his father, but his father remained silent. The boy was crushed.

The father waited for the full impact to sink in, then quietly took the boy's plate and placed it in front of himself. He took his own plate of meat and plenty, put it in front of the boy, and smiled at this son.

When that boy grew to be a man, he said, "All my life, I've know what God is like by what my father did that night.”

Now, you must access God's forgiveness. Indeed, if you receive his forgiveness, you will have the resources to forgive others.

God's Forgiveness

The truth is you need to be forgiven more by God, than your neighbor needs to be forgiven by you. You have committed more sins against God, than you neighbor has committed against you.

You see, your nature and my nature is sinful. We have done wrongs to prove our sinfulness. Even if we are good to a large extent, just a little sin in our souls, makes us fully unsafe. Like an ounce of poison in a bottle of potable water pollutes the whole drink, an ounce of sinfulness pollutes all my good deeds.


I need the forgiveness of God. You do as well.

Have you attempted to receive God's forgiveness and failed to do so? At least you are not sure that God has forgiven you. I have good news for you. It is possible to receive God's forgiveness and know it. How?

Forgiveness

Are you caught in the prison or illness of bitterness? Let's look at how you can gain release and freedom from this dastardly situation.

One, understand the value of forgiving others. I read a powerful statement. Listen carefully, "When I forgive another, I set a prisoner free; and then I discovered that the prisoner was me."

If your relationship has soured, the way to be released from the prison of bitterness is by forgiving, setting the other person free from your wrath, vengeance, and hatred.

When you forgive another, you will find that all along the prisoner was you. Not he. So, understand the value of forgiving others. For your own spiritual and mental health, you must forgive. There is value in forgiving another. There is value for your own life.

Two, you can't forgive horizontally, unless you have been forgiven vertically. Another way of saying it: unless you have received forgiveness from God, you wouldn't possess the resources or comprehend the dimensions of forgiving.