Forgiving OthersYou Cannot Shake Hands . . . "You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist." --Golda Meir
Kent Crockett's Sermon Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com
Sitting on a Bumble Bee Unforgiveness means we desire to hurt the people who have wounded us. It's like the little boy who was sitting on a park bench in obvious agony. A man walking by asked him what was wrong. The boy answered, "I'm sitting on a bumble bee." "Then why don't you get up?" the man asked. The boy replied, "Because I figure that I am hurting him more than he is hurting me!" Being Held Hostage? "Those whom you don't forgive are holding you as a hostage." --Kent Crockett
Love Mercy More Than Justice Forgiveness means you love mercy more than justice. (Micah 6:8) (Kent Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, The Basis for Forgiveness We base our forgiveness on what God has done for us, not on what another person has done to us. (Kent Crockett, The 911 Handbook, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003, 43)Is It Worth It? In response to the question, "How do I feel when I fail to forgive?" Chiradeep Patra, from India wrote:
In my case when I fail to forgive: 1. I lose my inner PEACE
2. I feel GUILTY myself
3. I feel IRRITATED
4. I feel ANGRY
5. Physically, my heart pounds
6. I get a headache.
It's always better to forgive than feel sick physically, mentally & spiritually.
--Weekend Encounter #5206 www.actsweb.org
Letting Go of Offenses Natives in Are you the devil’s monkey? Have you grabbed Satan’s bait, which is called offenses? Satan sets his trap, using offenses as bait. If you grab the offense, you will be his prisoner as long as you hold on. Many people are incarcerated in the devil’s dungeon because they refuse to let go. You must choose to let go of all past offenses and keep your hands off all future ones. (Kent Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, Haunted by Unforgiveness Several years ago after an elderly woman passed away, family members were cleaning out her house when they found a scrapbook filled with obituaries from the local newspaper. Many of the death notices pertained to people she had detested. As bizarre as it may sound, she kept a scrapbook of her dead enemies. This woman had five different clippings of her most despised foe in her morbid memory book. Apparently she had gained some kind of strange satisfaction by thinking they could no longer torment her. Or could they? If we don’t forgive our deceased enemies, they’ll continue to haunt us through our hateful memories of them. (Kent Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, Cross Reference:
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