Topic > Christian Beliefs > Salvation > Forgiveness >
Find out why withholding forgiveness actually hurts us!
We would never pray, “God . . . hold a grudge against me, like I hold a grudge against her.” But we may live like it! Be a part of this conversation.
Discover why forgiveness is so critical
When someone hurts us, it’s natural to let bitterness fester and boil inside us. Let's study this important portion of the Lord’s Prayer and find out why it's not only for our personal relationships, but also for our connection with the Lord.
What did Jesus mean when He said, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”?
Jesus stressed the importance of forgiving those who hurt us. But if we choose not forgive others, does that put our eternal life in peril? Join us for a lively conversation between the team members.
Another in-depth study of the Lord’s Prayer
Which action is the most difficult to accomplish, giving or forgiving?
Let’s discuss the one debt we can escape from right now
In this difficult economy, many people are struggling under the burden of debt. It’s uncomfortable knowing that we owe our creditors money every month. Jesus wipes away our spiritual debt! It’s a study of the phrase, “Forgive us our debts.”
Look at what the Lord’s Prayer has to say about the issue of sin and its remedy
Since the first bite of that forbidden fruit, sin has been a universal problem in need of an immediate solution. Don’t miss this thoughtful and honest conversation.
How Jesus lived out the Lord’s Prayer and how we can follow in His footsteps
As our ultimate example, we strive to follow Jesus’ model for working, eating, playing, and praying.
Off-Limits
As a 12-year-old, I was curious about the Bible my dad was given when he retired from the paper mill. It came in a special cedar box marked The Holy Bible, and I assumed that “holy” meant it was off-limits to me. But still I peered inside. In the center of the Bible was a picture of Jesus hanging on the cross, along with the words of John 3:16. There was also a see-through red film covering the page, which I assumed meant He bled and died.
Totally Clean
A friend was updating me on his past year—a year in which he had been receiving ongoing medical treatment for cancer. The smile on his face was a powerful testimony to the good news he had just received. He said that at his one-year checkup the doctor announced that the test results all pointed to one thing: “You are totally clean!” What a difference two words can make! To my friend, totally clean meant every trace of the disease that had threatened his life only months before had been wiped from his body. We rejoiced to hear that he was totally clean!
Blunders To Wonders
Artist James Hubbell says, “Mistakes are gifts.” Whenever he’s working on a project and something goes wrong, he doesn’t start over. He looks for a way to use the mistake to make something better. None of us can avoid making blunders, and all of us have favorite ways of dealing with them. We may try to hide them or to correct them or to apologize for them.
What’s The Trouble?
There was something wrong with my lawn. I couldn’t see what the trouble was, but I knew something was causing damage.
Coverups Stink
The smell at an overflowing garbage landfill site became a growing public concern. So workers installed high-pressured deodorant guns to counteract the smell. The cannons could spray several gallons of fragrance a minute over a distance of up to 50 yards across the mounds of putrefying garbage. However, no matter how many gallons of deodorant are sprayed to mask the odorous rubbish, the fragrance will serve only as a coverup until the source of the stench is removed.
My Way?
Think about the worst intellectual matchups possible. For instance, what if we put Albert Einstein in a room with a first-grader to debate the theory of relativity? Or how about George Washington Carver versus a middle-schooler discussing biochemical engineering?
Everything Is Beautiful
The beauty of the black lacy design against the pastel purple and orange background grabbed my attention. The intricacy of the fragile pattern led me to assume that it had been created by a skilled artist. As I looked more closely at the photo, however, I saw the artist admiring his work from a corner of the photo. The “artist” was a worm, and its work of art was a partially eaten leaf.
Beautiful Scars
A number of years ago I was hiking along the Salmon River and came across a grove of pine trees that had been partially stripped of their bark. I knew from a friend who is a forester that the Native Americans who hunted this area long ago had peeled the outer bark and harvested the underlying layer for chewing gum. Some of the scars were disfiguring, but others, filled with crystallized sap and burnished by wind and weather, had been transformed into patterns of rare beauty.
