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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hello, thank you for listening to your Daily

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Speaker 1: Bible Verse, the podcast that examines one verse each day

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Speaker 1: to learn more about God and his will for us.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, joy A Williams, and after this short

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Speaker 1: word from our sponsor, we'll dive into today's Bible verse,

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Speaker 1: Colossians chapter three, verse thirteen. Today's Bible verse, it's Colossians

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Speaker 1: chapter three, verse thirteen, and it says, bear with each

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Speaker 1: other and forgive one another. If any of you has

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Speaker 1: a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you. Well,

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Speaker 1: dear listener, I placed my faith in Christ many years ago,

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Speaker 1: but as a young adult, I went through a season

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Speaker 1: where my faith was not my focus. Thankfully, this unfocused

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Speaker 1: season of mine was interrupted by God's grace, and while

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Speaker 1: reading the scriptures, I was reminded that the forgiveness Christ

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Speaker 1: gives us is free, but we must receive the gift. Well.

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Speaker 1: With this needful reminder, I took out a sheet of

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Speaker 1: paper and I went into a confession frenzy. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I wrote every sin I committed or that I could recall.

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Speaker 1: And after the list was complete and my prayer of

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Speaker 1: repentance was done, I wondered what to do with the list.

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Speaker 1: It had served its purpose and guilt had lost its power.

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Speaker 1: I tore the list into tiny pieces and threw it away,

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Speaker 1: But I knew each tattered piece was covered by the

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Speaker 1: blood of Jesus, which washes away our sin. Although that

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Speaker 1: experience was decades ago, I recall it from time to time.

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Speaker 1: But my recall has become the most useful when it's

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Speaker 1: time for me to forgive someone else. And In today's

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Speaker 1: Bible verse, the apostle Paul is writing to the Colossian

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Speaker 1: church about living as those made alive in Christ and

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Speaker 1: forgiving as one who's been forgiven by Christ. Colossians three

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Speaker 1: and thirteen says, bear with each other and forgive one another.

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Speaker 1: If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive

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Speaker 1: as the Lord forgave you. Oh but dear friend, when

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Speaker 1: it comes to unforgiveness, then our focus shifts from being

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Speaker 1: forgiven by Christ to focusing on being hurt or angered

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Speaker 1: by someone else. Now, it's not that we should deny

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Speaker 1: the harmful impact of someone else's actions, but forgiving someone

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Speaker 1: who's us may feel like they're getting away with not

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Speaker 1: acknowledging what they did or said wrong. Forgiving an offense

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Speaker 1: can feel like offering the offender of freedom they don't deserve. Well,

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Speaker 1: not put it that way, offering a freedom they don't deserve.

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Speaker 1: Isn't that exactly the way Christ forgives you and me?

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Speaker 1: And yet in our pain, our anger, and frustration, we

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Speaker 1: can be freely forgiven, but not free to forgive. We

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Speaker 1: can become bound by someone else's failure or their malice

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Speaker 1: instead of being liberated by the power of the cross,

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Speaker 1: where Jesus died for all of humanity sin. And we

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Speaker 1: read about that in Colossians chapter two, Verses thirteen through fifteen.

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Speaker 1: But back to Colossians chapter three, where our focus scripture

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Speaker 1: is particularly in verses five through ten. The apostle Paul

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Speaker 1: also shares a list of sins Christians should avoid. It's

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Speaker 1: not an exhaustive list, but yet it reminds me that

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Speaker 1: as pride and pain that we may have overheurt, that

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Speaker 1: pride and pain can make it easy for us to

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Speaker 1: give ourselves a pass for our sin while insisting that

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Speaker 1: someone else gets punished for theirs. Now I realized that,

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Speaker 1: depending on our life experiences, forgiving someone can be very difficult,

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Speaker 1: and it might be a process over time, we may

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Speaker 1: need to learn or relearn biblical truths. We may need

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Speaker 1: help from a counseling professional while we heal from a

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Speaker 1: wrong or a trauma we've suffered. And I find the

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Speaker 1: New Living Translation of Colossians three and thirteen helpful. It

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Speaker 1: reads a little differently from the first version I read,

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Speaker 1: which is the NIV, and it says, make allowance for

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Speaker 1: each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember

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Speaker 1: the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Remember

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Speaker 1: the Lord forgave you. That phrase just sticks out to me,

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Speaker 1: and maybe our struggle with forgiving others is a case

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Speaker 1: of spiritual amnesia, because, to be honest, over the years,

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Speaker 1: I've certainly added to that list for my young adult

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Speaker 1: year's concerning sin. But if we forget our own sinful

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Speaker 1: habits and our courage struggles, we can feel a lot

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Speaker 1: less empathy for someone else's sinful ways, because in Christ,

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Speaker 1: being forgiven is a gift, but being unforgiving is like

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Speaker 1: hoarding the gift, meaning it's meant for us and no

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Speaker 1: one else. And I've certainly been there too, and I'm

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Speaker 1: grateful for the humbling way God corrects my hurting and

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Speaker 1: spiritually forgetful heart. Of course, it's important to note that

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Speaker 1: making allowances for someone else does not mean making excuses

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Speaker 1: for someone's bad behavior. It doesn't mean making light of

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Speaker 1: an egregious offense. I believe making allowances also means we

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Speaker 1: must make peace with the fact that we live in

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Speaker 1: the fallen world, and sadly we often hurt one another.

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Speaker 1: But we can also make room for how Christ's redemption

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Speaker 1: makes a difference to you and to me. Let's pray

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Speaker 1: about it. Dear God, thank you for the power of

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Speaker 1: Christ's redemption. Because of Jesus, I am free and forgiven

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Speaker 1: of my sin. Help me to see why I am

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Speaker 1: bound by the sins of others. Lord, I receive your

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Speaker 1: power to release them from the prison of my pain

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Speaker 1: and pride. May I begin to heal from the hurt

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Speaker 1: and walk in the liberty. And how Christ has set

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Speaker 1: me free. And this is our prayer in Jesus' name,

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Speaker 1: Amen a