Freedom: Charleston Victims' Relatives Forgive Shooter

Last week, I wrote challenging myself and the rest of us with opportunities to live the New Covenant in the area of racial reconciliation.   This week, I want to let two of the relatives of the victims who were slain, challenge all of us to forgive those who hurt us.  These two of the nine, allowed Jesus to live through them to forgive the shooter face-to-face, though he did not ask for it, nor deserve it. 

Nadine Collier, daughter of victim Ethel Lance

"I forgive you. You took something very precious away from me. I will never get to talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you, and have mercy on your soul. ... You hurt me. You hurt a lot of people. If God forgives you, I forgive you."

Relative of Myra Thompson

"I would just like him to know that, to say the same thing that was just said: I forgive him and my family forgives him. But we would like him to take this opportunity to repent. Repent. Confess. Give your life to the One who matters most: Christ. So that He can change you and change your ways, so no matter what happens to you, you'll be okay."

These are taken from an online article written by Elahe Izadi in the June 19th edition of the Washington Post online.

In a similar article in USA Today, Susan Miller writes "No words are as compelling as those from the people of Charleston, who refuse to let their city be defined by this massacre.  Forgiveness, faith, and mercy: Virtues of those who live and breathe what they learn at a weekly Wednesday night Bible study at the AME church.

This is what it takes for good to overcome evil."

From People of Charleston, Lessons for All,  Susan Miller, USA Today, Tuesday, June 30, 2015, News 2A

You've just read about Jesus living through our sisters in Christ.  Yet, they don't try to hide their immense feelings of grief, loss and pain nor their desire for the legal justice needed.

Do you think they felt like forgiving?  Absolutely not! But they chose to anyway, accessing the grace they already had in Christ to make this choice. In Christ, we are forgivers and we are told to live like who we are in Ephesians 4:31-32.

It is the beginning of our own healing when we do.

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you."

As we approach our celebration of the 239th year of the USA's freedom, why not go deeper in your own personal freedom by asking God if there are people He wants you to forgive.  Then sit down before Him, alone preferably, and tell Him out loud:

1. Exactly what they did to you.
2. How you feel about it.
3. Then say, "I forgive _________." (call their name) 

●  We've discovered at GLI that the more specific you are in all three, the deeper your healing will be.

Do they deserve your forgiveness?  No more than we deserved God's forgiveness. 

Forgiving someone is not saying you are OK with what they did.  It's saying the opposite. "It was wrong but I choose to forgive you anyway." 

Should you go tell them?  Forgive them before God first, and then ask Him if He wants you to talk with them about it.  He will make it clear to you.  And if you do, it's most likely for the purpose of reconciliation which is different than forgiveness.

After you forgive, give God time to heal your damaged emotions.  It may not be instantaneous.  Also, if it comes back up in your mind, remind Satan you already forgave that person.

Forgiving them will free you more than you know from the weight of pain you have been carrying.

Happy Freedom Day!

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,


Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

A Call to Respond to the Charleston Church Shooting

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I cannot sit in silence without writing about the atrocity at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last week, when a shooter killed nine of our other brothers and sisters.  My feelings about this are so strong, that I am compelled by the love of Christ to respond.

I believe the killings were demonically motivated in the mind of the shooter.  (I don’t care to give the shooter more fame by using his name.)   Satan’s mission statement, according to Jesus in John 10:10, is to “kill, steal and destroy.” He succeeded in killing these precious nine members.  That is how this story begins, but hopefully, not how it ends.  And, a lot of that depends on whether we choose to live like who we are in Christ.

Here are some piercing questions that challenged me that I had to ask myself in how God can use this tragedy for good. Each of these questions is really about a bigger question?  “Is Christ living through me in regard to racism?”

•       Do I feel our Father’s grief over this or have I resigned myself to the inevitability of these kinds of killings?
•       Have I recognized my own sin of racism as evidenced by telling racial jokes or passing on my racist views to my children and others?
•       Have I prayed for the family members of the nine slain brothers and sisters in Christ?
•       Have I prayed for the remaining members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church?
•       Have I asked God if there is a lonely person in my life He wants me to befriend and share Christ with, who just might be the next shooter unless someone reaches out to him?
•       Have I prayed that the church as a whole would stop being the most segregated institution in America?
•       If I preach each Sunday, have I considered preaching on this?
•       If I blog, have I considered writing on this?

My prayer more than ever is that we let Jesus live through us to be a part of the answer, instead of perpetuating the problem.  Something to look forward to is that God’s kingdom in heaven is full of every race, tribe, tongue and nation according to Revelation 5:9 and 7:9.  Heaven will not have different sections based on skin color.  Every neighborhood will be multi-ethnic.

Jesus taught us to pray for the kingdom of God to come to the earth.  That includes racial diversity in the body of Christ, as well as economic and ability/disability diversity.  As His children, we can all be united in prayer that His Kingdom will come to the part of the earth we journey on.

The Jesus who lives in us grieves over what happened last week.  But He also knows it is an opportunity for the church to rise up and act as His agent, through whom He brings His kingdom to this earth.  No one person can do it all but, the One Person living in us can do more when we rely on Him to do it through each of us.

This is the Gospel in action because just as the Gospel of grace frees us from our own junk, He also desires to express Himself through us into a dark world that desperately needs His light to shine brightly.

Would you stop for a moment and ask your Heavenly Father what He might be saying to you in this devo/blog?

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!