Unforgiveness is Sin!

There—I said it! I feel better now. Unforgiveness is a sin. It really is. I know I know it doesn’t feel like a sin. It would be easy to say, “Come on. They hurt me. It wasn’t my fault. So it’s my choice whether I forgive or not. I have a right to be upset because they owe me.” All of that may be true, but unforgiveness is still a sin. And it’s a sin that keeps us in torment. Read more

Unforgiveness in the Church

As a pastor, I am deeply concerned for the church. Research tell us that pastors are being forced from their positions in increasing numbers each year, which means an increasing number of churches are going through conflict. I believe the majority of the time the conflict that leads to a pastor’s departure is a consequence of unforgiveness. Read more

Finding Forgiveness Through Giving It

Recently, I was teaching on forgiveness to a church in San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador. At the end of my talk, I turned the service back to Pastor Juan, the pastor of this little church that met in his house. As Pastor Juan wrapped up our time together, he told his congregation that he believed the Holy Spirit was telling him that there were five people who had significant issues that they needed to forgive. There were exactly six people that came to the front in response to Pastor Juan’s challenge. Now I was really curious. Whether in English or Spanish, five and six are not the same.

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You Can Go Home Again

My friend Phil is a former pastor who had been forced to leave his church ten years ago because of mistakes he had made in the aftermath of his daughter’s death. Many people, if they knew of the details of his story, would say that reconciliation would be out of the question in his case. Conventional wisdom says there are certain things that are unforgivable and unrecoverable. But conventional wisdom often undervalues the power of the cross.

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The Blessing of Forgiveness

A question I’m regularly asked is, “How do you know when you truly forgive?” That’s a great question. Is there a way to validate whether or not you’ve truly forgiven someone?  The answer is “Yes.” There is a clear and foolproof indicator that forgiveness has taken place. We call it “Sealing it with a Blessing.” You will know if you have forgiven someone when you’re willing to pray and/or give a blessing to the one who has wounded you.

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