PRISON FELLOWSHIP: forgiveness

In the midst of tragedy, Tom found hope in his relationship with God.

In the aftermath of any senseless act of violence, we cry out, “Why?” We feel more vulnerable in the communities we live in. We reach out for solutions that would prevent something similar from happening in the future. But most often, we are left without any real answers.

"I was in prison and you came to visit me ... I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:36, 40

Last Easter, Prison Fellowship Ministries® President and CEO, Jim Liske, visited the Central Florida Reception, a large prison camp with different wings for prisoners who need hospice care or are too young to be housed with the general population.

In the chapel, Jim preached about Timothy, who grew up without a father, and told the young men, “No one is disqualified from God’s grace.”

“How do people forgive a crime like murder?”  The headline from a BBC News Magazine story asks a question that most of us hope we never have to answer, but it is a question that we would all be wise to ponder.

As we enter a new fiscal year, we look back on one of the biggest moments of 2013 – God’s miraculous work behind bars at Easter!

Over Easter weekend, Prison Fellowship CEO Jim Liske and Prison Fellowship President Garland Hunt shared the Gospel with prisoners in Florida and Texas.

When we don’t forgive, we drink the poison ourselves and then wait for the other person to die. And we take the knife that has hurt us and we stab ourselves with it again. …

But when we forgive, we pour out the poison of the enemy and of the devil and we don’t let the poison stay in us and we don’t let the poison make us into poisonous snakes!

You can’t get forgiveness from God… without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.1

“Can he ever be forgiven?  Can he find redemption?” – asked the interviewer.

“Those are the questions,” replied a psychologist, and then mused aloud, “but who really deserves forgiveness?”