One of my small groups is reading a book by Tim Keller , called Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I? About halfway through the book, he says this…

I thought it was a good picture of forgiveness through the lens of theology.

You can read the article here. You’ll need to scroll down a bit.

At times, a pastor is called to baptize someone at Mahaffey Camp. Other times, he is called to baptize someone who is in a care facility.

This week, I was called to baptize a friend who is moving away from the area.

Phin wanted to be baptized before he left – and he wanted to be baptized in the presence of the men he has studied God’s word with and prayed with every Thursday for the past few years.

As you might imagine, it was a great time.

I’ve been reading a book on forgiveness with some men in my church. I find it to be beyond enlightening. Can I say revolutionary? It seems so, for me.

Suggesting that forgiveness has roots in the divine, the book has helped me understand the cruelty of the world in which we live – a world with little room for the divine.

One of the quotes that struck me:

But what we have seen is that … there are frameworks of thought within which forgiveness can find no home. Forgiveness entered the world along with the recognition of divine and human worth … of rights, of duty, of guilt. It cannot occure where those are not recognized.

Nicholas Wolterstorff as quoted by Timothy Keller in “Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I?” chapter 3

Did you read that carefully?

I wonder if, as we make less and less time for God, is our world making less and less time for the essentials of living, starting perhaps with forgiveness?

The solution, of course, isn’t a matter of making up your mind to forgive. No. It’s a matter of giving God your attention, finding forgiveness in him, and living it like you’ve received it.

If you missed Sunday, here’s a Video Short from the service.

Released 9/5/23.