{"id":4293,"date":"2013-06-13T08:10:25","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T08:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/?p=4293"},"modified":"2015-02-16T10:55:02","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T10:55:02","slug":"why-forgive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/why-forgive\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Forgive?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Forgiveness and grace are linked very closely. When I led a junior school assembly last month I explained &#8216;grace&#8217; by saying &#8216;no matter how good or bad we are, God loves us just the same.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>In a conflict situation, how do we halt the cycle of blame and pain? In Greek, forgiveness means to release and free yourself.<\/p>\n<p>The Lord&#8217;s prayer\u2026&#8217;forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.&#8217; This challenges us to make a decision to act.<\/p>\n<p>Forgiveness is the opposite of resentment, that clings to the past and keeps picking and repicking the scab and the wound deepens. Hence the victim suffers twice.<\/p>\n<p>On the cross Jesus said &#8216;Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.&#8217;<br \/>\nWhat would have happened if Jesus hadn&#8217;t forgiven them?<\/p>\n<p>The most important difference between Christianity and all the other religions is that we receive God&#8217;s grace as a free gift.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-4296\" style=\"margin: 5px; border: 0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/forgive.png?resize=442%2C126\" alt=\"forgive\" width=\"442\" height=\"126\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/why-forgive\/\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png?w=750\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forgiveness and grace are linked very closely. When I led a junior school assembly last month I explained &#8216;grace&#8217; by saying &#8216;no matter how good or bad we are, God loves us just the same.&#8217; In a conflict situation, how do we halt the cycle of blame and pain? In Greek, forgiveness means to release [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":5895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[319],"tags":[681,678,90,680,169,679,677,676],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/CVM-50plus-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PoLK-17f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4583,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/demolition-squad\/forgiveness-and-bulgarians\/","url_meta":{"origin":4293,"position":0},"title":"Forgiveness and Bulgarians","date":"30 August 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\"To err is human; to forgive, divine.\" -\u00a0Alexander Pope The week before I got married, my Dad and I had a stand-up fight. A proper all-guns-blazing fight that saw him throw me across a table, cutting my back open. It started because I told him to shut up. I told\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Demolition Squad&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/dem_squad_default_image.png?fit=256%2C256&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8132,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/thats-just-offensive\/","url_meta":{"origin":4293,"position":1},"title":"That\u2019s just offensive!","date":"21 August 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I remember seeing a Facebook post a mate of mine had posted recently and it said this: \u201cJesus leaving the 99 to find 1 seems irrational and senseless \u2013 until that 1 is you.\u201d Over this year I have been trying to reflect a little bit about the grace of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/offensive.jpg?fit=600%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4512,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/demolition-squad\/why-did-god-have-to-die\/","url_meta":{"origin":4293,"position":2},"title":"Why Did God Have To Die?","date":"2 August 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\"So, why did God have to die?\" This question, asked by many, runs to the heart of the Christian faith. Had To? Chose To. One of the most well known Bible verses starts this way, \u201cFor God so loved the world \u2026\u201d (John 3:16). Love is a choice. It has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Demolition Squad&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/why_did_god_have_to_die.jpg?fit=800%2C423&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7473,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/its-just-a-little-word\/","url_meta":{"origin":4293,"position":3},"title":"Its just a little word .. but \u2026","date":"28 March 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"So \u2026 what are you like at saying \u2018sorry\u2019? Most blokes are not very good really, we just tend to get all introspective and mull it over and over and over and then maybe give a garbled \u2018Sorry\u2019 and then add \u2018But \u2026 \u2018 and go into some pathetically feeble\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/SORRY.png?fit=565%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7976,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/top-ten-memory-verses-pt-10-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":4293,"position":4},"title":"Top Ten Memory Verses (Pt 10\/10)","date":"1 May 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"01. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32 We made it, finally at the end of my (unofficial) top ten bible memory verses. Thank you for journeying with me on this, I hope it hasn\u2019t been too bad,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/memory-verses.png?fit=565%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8084,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/master-of-the-universe-part-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":4293,"position":5},"title":"Master of the Universe: Part 4","date":"24 July 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"FOUR: Master of the spiritual universe OK, so I said last week that I wanted to separate the supernatural universe from the spiritual one, and this is why. Jesus deals with something called sin, and this is so important that it needed a blog on its own. In this series\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/master-of-universe-4.jpg?fit=600%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4293"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5566,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4293\/revisions\/5566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}