What
Makes a “Forgiveness Ministries” Workshop Different?
Our
workshops focus on God’s definition of and basis for forgiveness.
Forgiveness
is God-designed and God-engineered. While there is a pale, secular
counterpart, the kind of forgiveness that releases the fullness
of God’s life and power is entirely based upon the simple
fact that Jesus was executed to pay the just penalty for all sins.
His death makes forgiveness possible. As the writer of Hebrews declares,
“… and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”[1]
Our workshops present all three paths of forgiveness within this
biblical framework. Most other presentations of forgiveness do not.
Our
workshops are clear and insightful.
We enter into
and experience the benefits of forgiveness through truth, not power
or ability. Developing a lifestyle of forgiveness is a matter of
being exposed to and assimilating truth. For this reason our seminars
and workshops are filled with pictures, illustrations, stories and
diagrams. Every participant receives a workbook and every family
group gets a manual on forgiveness. Most people who participate
in one of our seminars or workshops express deep appreciation for
the new insights they gained.
Our
workshops are emotionally sensitive.
Sins can be
extremely painful and induce powerful sensations of guilt and anger.
Our workshop leader recognizes this and carefully balances truth
with emotional sensitivity and security. The important role of emotions
in forgiveness is explained while God’s love, comfort and
validation are emphasized. Participants are given opportunities
to engage their personal and private emotions without being required
to reveal them to others in the workshop. In many other presentations
on forgiveness, emotions are either disregarded altogether or made
to become the very focal point of forgiveness. Our workshops do
neither.
Our
workshops are practical.
Ultimately forgiveness
is not so much something we do as much as it is something we discover
and believe. However, the benefits of forgiveness are gained as
the truths about it are applied to our everyday, real-life experiences.
Our workshops are filled with real-life illustrations. Participants
are also given opportunities to immediately apply what they are
hearing to their particular circumstances.
Our
workshops present practicing forgiveness as a lifestyle.
Practicing forgiveness
is something that needs to be practiced by everyone all of the time.
Our workshops do not present forgiveness as a technique or a method
to be occasionally used by desperate people. Rather, forgiveness
is presented as a way of thinking—a way of living every day.
Our
workshops are comprehensive.
The truths that
enable people to practice forgiveness touch many areas of life.
Most people fail to practice forgiveness well because the infrastructure
of their belief system has been built upon several misconceptions.
Our workshops take time to carefully untie the knots of these misconceptions
and replace them with God’s truth about such things as: the
differences between personal forgiveness and relational forgiveness,
the three paths of forgiveness (receiving God’s forgiveness,
forgiving others, asking people for forgiveness), the six principles
of reconciliation, the destructive nature of sin, the difference
between the penalty of sin and the consequences of sins, the empathy
and emotions of God, how to accurately identify sin and the guilty
person, the two fundamental needs of every human soul, how to “read”
emotions and use them as guides to discover root problems and more.
Our
workshops are effective.
Most
other presentations suggest or insist that forgiveness is a process
that takes a long period of time. Those models of forgiveness are
different from the Bible’s model of forgiveness. The Bible’s
model of forgiveness emphasizes the fact that forgiveness can happen
quickly, before the sun goes down[2]. Our workshops
focus on biblical forgiveness. Our experience is that authentic,
biblical forgiveness is the only effective way to experience the
fullness of God’s healing, freedom and life. That is why Jesus
put so much emphasis on it.
[1]
Hebrews 9:22
[2] Ephesians 4:26
|
