New Year!!!!

It's already January 15th, 2011.   We have just finished a retreat at church, and had great evenings.   The last one was on forgiveness and was very to the point.   The speaker used "The Lord's Prayer" as part of it.   It leaves no room for unforgiveness for sure.   I did a study in the bible on the times that forgive, forgiveness, unforgiveness, etc. are mentioned.   There are a lot of references.   Forgiveness leads to peace.   Unforgiveness leads to bitterness, anger, emotional problems and physical problems.   Life's too short for that type of stress.  

The speaker forgave the man who killed his daughter.   He has the most gentle spirit.    The book he wrote is called "The Testimony of Forgiveness" and his name is Richard LaFever.    When we don't use the bible as a guideline for forgiveness, we tend to run to anyone who agrees that we've been wronged and that we have every right to not forgive.   Sure isn't scriptural.    Learned a lot.  

Anyway, seemed like a good way to start a new year.   I'm encouraged, and feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.   God forgives as we forgive.   That's a pretty good yardstick.