(Genesis 50:19-20) …you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.

The essence of grace is to show mercy to those who deserve punishment

JESUS (Luke 23:46) Jesus

called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.

(Luke 23:34) Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

STEPHEN (Acts 7:59) While they

were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

(Acts 7:60) Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.

(Luke 6:27) Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you… {35} Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. {36} Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

(Ephesians 4:32) Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Forgiveness is choosing to accept the blood of Jesus as full payment for what my offender did.

“Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back--in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”

Frederick Buechner

From SALT (Seven Areas of Life Training) #3 p. 29-38)

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Forgiveness is choosing to accept the blood of Jesus as full payment for what my offender did.

(Acts 22:4) I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death…

(Acts 26:10-11) I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. {11} …In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.

(Galatians 1:13) … intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.

(Philippians 3:6) …as for zeal, persecuting the church… (1 Timothy 1:12-13) … I was once a blasphemer and a

persecutor and a violent man… (1 Corinthians 15:9) For I am the least of the apostles

and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God…

(1 Corinthians 15:10) But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.