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    Forgiven, Forgiving, & Free
    Forgiven, Forgiving, & Free
    Forgiven, Forgiving, & Free
    Ebook66 pages57 minutes

    Forgiven, Forgiving, & Free

    By Dan Winkler

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    About this ebook

    No sin. No guilt. No fear of hell. No bitterness. No rage. No regrets.

    Nothing compares to having your past expunged or turning loose of someone else’s.

    That’s forgiveness. It’s a love that rises above pain and disappointment. It’s a gracious spirit willing to turn loose of the past and treat others as if they never hurt you.

    Forgiveness is the greatest blessing God has ever offered and the greatest gift we could give ourselves or others.

    ​

    LanguageEnglish
    Publisherd&d publishing
    Release dateAug 15, 2017
    ISBN9781386532651
    Forgiven, Forgiving, & Free

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      Book preview

      Forgiven, Forgiving, & Free - Dan Winkler

      Preface

      Forgiveness seems thoroughly unnatural or inhuman.

      Americans believe in justice for all and value law and order. Whenever I have taught and counseled on forgiveness, many people have confessed to the seeming injustice of it all. When we forgive those who have wronged us, it feels like we are letting them off the hook, that justice isn’t being done. Is forgiveness fair?

      Forgiveness can also feel cowardly. Isn’t it something only weak people do? It takes courage, we tell ourselves, to stand our ground and bear the standard of justice. Letting others off the hook for their sins is giving in; it’s surrender. Is forgiveness for snowflakes?

      I’ve discovered that these twin ideas—the injustice and cowardice of forgiveness—are more deep-seated than we imagine. Why else would we choose to live without forgiveness? Why would we decide to live without forgiving others, without forgiving ourselves, and without God’s forgiveness so graciously offered to us in Christ? In Ephesians 4:31, Paul counseled us to unburden ourselves of bitterness, anger, malice, and the like, and to opt for forgiveness. Forgiveness makes life better; it is the antidote for all those things that make our lives toxic.

      What you hold in your hands is an important book on a critical topic. It is, unequivocally, the best book on forgiveness I’ve ever read. Dan Winkler is known as a faithful, honest, and insightful student of God’s Word. His ability to discern the truths of Scripture is rivaled only by his talent in communicating them. I first sat at his feet when I was sixteen; I listened to him expound the glorious truths of the New Testament Book of Hebrews for several hours and marked up my Bible as I listened. That was my first introduction to Dan Winkler—Student and Teacher of God’s Word.

      In the sixteen years since, however, I have come to know Dan as a person, a brother, a mentor, and a friend. We have observed and encouraged one another as we both walked the valley of the shadow of death. When my baby boy died, I called on him to preach the funeral, knowing that Dan knew all too well the pain of burying a precious son.

      In fact, you should be aware that the words of this book flow from a heart and mind that has embraced forgiveness for many years, and to a degree beyond what you or I will ever approach. Dan Winkler is a person who has not merely considered forgiveness in the abstract; he has been forced to wrestle with, then embody it as the only way to live as God’s child.

      As you walk with Dan through this book and contemplate forgiveness, you will discover that forgiveness is not for weak people. Rather, forgiving yourself and others is among the most difficult things to do in life. And it also takes a tough, determined person to accept God’s forgiveness. Forgiveness isn’t for snowflakes.

      But you’ll also discover that, yes, forgiveness is unjust. It is an erasure of our past, a banishment of our sins. Forgiveness is fundamentally unfair because it insists we not receive what we deserve. But when we fully recognize all the things we’ve done wrong, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

      It may be unnatural, but for the Christian, forgiveness is the only way to live.

      — Michael Whitworth

      Fort Worth, Texas

      1

      Forgiven by God

      The Peace of Living without Our Past

      Lionel was a bona fide serial killer. One of the best—I should probably say one of the worst. Three weeks after he graduated from high school, he murdered his first victim. Lionel was eighteen years old. He flayed the body, dissolved the soft tissue in acid, pulverized the bones, and spread them in the woods behind his parents’ house.

      It gets worse.

      Over the next thirteen years, sixteen young men fell prey to Lionel’s evil. He committed heinous acts of rape, murder, and necrophilia. The details of his crimes are so barbaric that I believe it would be too shameful to relate them. Suffice it to say he was nicknamed the Milwaukee Cannibal. Lionel was finally arrested in the Summer of 1991 and sentenced to sixteen life terms in prison.

      But that’s only part of his story. Here’s the rest.

      Curt Booth was an uncle of my friend, Phil Sanders. In Spring 1994, Curt saw Lionel interviewed on television. He had spent some time in prison himself and knew the difference Jesus can make in someone’s life. He decided to send Lionel some reading material about the grace of salvation. Lionel was touched by the gesture, became interested in this magnificent message, and began to study the Bible with Roy Ratcliff, a minister in the churches of Christ. As a result of their weekly studies, in May

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