Dr. Brown's Quotes From 'Surprised By Grace'

The infinite Life, the universal and impersonal Life we call God, accepts you as you are, and where you are, for you are always one with It. Ernest Holmes referred to this as the Law of God: impersonal principles by which Life operates. Others see this universal receptivity as evidence of God’s forgiveness; however, I must respectfully disagree, if forgiveness is viewed as a pardon, a parole, or any other release from judgment. Those who judge may forgive, and thereby free themselves from the consequences of being judgmental; however, I do not believe that the infinite One can judge anyone. I believe that our relationship with God is one of Love: our recognition of the Truth that the infinite One is within everyone. That recognition of inherent

Forgiveness is what holds and brings relationships together. If you stay angry for long, your heart stubbornly hardens. But if you choose to forgive, you will be filled with the grace of God. We are all sinners and should never carry a

How would you feel if your innocent little child was killed in the acts of a

Imagine if a random guy killed your daughter along with a couple of other girls: you would be furious. What would you want to happen to him? Would you want him to suffer greatly, or even die for what he did? Would you have sympathy for him because he is young? Would you forgive him if he apologized? This guy murdered your beloved daughter that you love with all your life, and you would do anything to stop him and put him to justice. If you turn this situation around, and it was your son who killed the girls, what would you want to happen to your son? Would you want him to suffer the consequences, or would you defend him to the highest point? These situations are

This week in conversing with my father, we had a very insightful conversation about forgiveness, and sin that is greater than others. Mark (dad), cannot get to a point where he believes that prisoners can be forgiven fully for some of the crimes they have been convicted for. My “soap box” if you will, was taking a stance that all sin is equal in the eyes of our God. His stance was sin is not equal so we should treat the prisoners differently in terms of “they have had their chance and blew it” attitude. The way I explained this to him this very difficult point was to go to the final word of authority; scripture. There is only one unforgivable sin which is blaspheming the Holy Spirit. “And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.”(New

While numerous teachings Jesus conveyed were challenging, many people believe his call for forgiveness to be extremely difficult to practice. It is not easy to pardon, or even love someone who has betrayed us. These sins people commit against can leave behind scars, and it can take a long time in order for our pain to be healed (Saint Mary’s Bible,1456). Moreover, when we have been wronged, it might be tempting to seek revenge against on the person who has done us wrong, to make him or her hurt as we have been. Additionally, if we do not seek vengeance, we might hold onto feelings directed against that person and well into the future. After we have been wounded in a specific way it is difficult to let our guard down and be vulnerable again

The bible teaches Christians to forgive in order to receive forgiveness. People often retaliate for wrongs suffered by not forgiving. However, researchers are discovering that not forgiveness can lead to health problems.

Our God forgives our daily sins for he knows that we are imperfect. Yearningly, I hope my children to imitate this Godly quality and “forgive one another freely”, thus building strength in their faith in their relationships, whether it is with God, their spouse, or their friends. All of my relationships are present today due to forgiveness. Optimistically, I wait to teach my children to resemble forgiveness so they will cultivate strength and be unmovable with their faith. When people witness my future offspring and I demonstrate these acts of forgiveness, kindness will continue and flourish in the family, community, and hopefully the world.

Hesburgh explains, “My whole instinct is to forgive. Perhaps that is because I am a Catholic priest. In a sense, I am in the forgiving business… I think of God as the great forgiver of sinful humanity” (169). Prager further explains these religious divides, “It is only meant to explain why to Jews it is so patently obvious that it is morally wrong to forgive a man who has burned families alive, and to Christians it is equally obvious that one ought to” (230). Buddhism also argues for forgiveness as well. Ricard states, “For a Buddhist, forgiveness is always possible and one should always forgive” (235). Lastly, there is an argument that without forgiveness it is difficult to move on to the future. Tutu succinctly states, “Without forgiveness, there is no future.”

How could GOD put all of this goodness and grace into one human being? How could it be so hard to be perfect, but look across and see perfection standing before you? It’s quite ironic that the one who loves us unconditionally can do no wrong, but loves the ones who can do no right. The only way to explain it is simply this, Give without expecting anything in return, not even a thank you. He died for us never expecting a single thing in return, that kind of love is unthinkable by any normal human

As I was reading the chapter on forgiveness in Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling by McMinn (2011), the personal life experience that jumped out to me was when I had to make the decision to truly forgive my ex-boyfriend and his parents for the emotional pain they caused me. After living in New Jersey for a month and spending time with my boyfriend and his family, working, and taking care of an elderly lady with dementia my world came crashing down on me. My ex-boyfriend’s parents discovered sin in his life and told me I could no longer pursue a relationship with him because of the sins he had committed. After finding out the sinful things my ex-boyfriend had done, I chose to forgive him. I also chose to give him a second chance at a relationship with me, but my effort to salvage our relationship was futile.

The sunset came forward as Young Goodman Brown arrived at Salem Village. There he saw his wife, Faith, whom he had only being married to for three months. Faith and Goodman Brown watched as the villagers tied up a so called “witch” to the stick. The villagers had accused the Indian woman of being a witch when she was seen dancing around. They had planned to get rid of the evil by burning her next morning. Tragically, in the old times this was a common practice. The people of the village considered themselves pure Christians. At least that is what Young Goodman Brown believed, till one night it he thought otherwise.

Forgiveness has a different context depending on where the person is from or what he believes. Religion places a great emphasis on the view of forgiveness.

In general, self-forgiveness is identified by a common ability to exhibit self-respect in spite of the acceptance of wrong-doing (Hall, J., Fincham, D., 2005). I never considered the distinction between interpersonal forgiveness and intrapersonal forgiveness. While they share many similarities, there is even greater evidence of the differences between the two. One significant difference involves the consequences of withholding forgiveness from self. It is likely that intrapersonal unforgiveness can be much more detrimental than interpersonal. Hall & Fincham state “ Self-forgiveness often entails a resolution to change” (2005). It is this process of acceptance of one’s own imperfections and sinful nature that catapults a desire for self-improvement and growth. This is a critical component of healing the soul and beginning the journey to spiritual and mental health. Also enlightening was the declaration that one can experience pseudo self forgiveness by failing to acknowledge any wrong doing and convincing him/herself that they are without fault. Finally, I was struck by the notion that self-forgiveness will typically

It is also vital to look at Wilson’s view on the practice of forgiveness and how if an individual decides to ignore it, it can place a road block in their process of change. She believes that God speaks about forgiveness for the following reasons:” (1) we are all sinners with whom to relate so we’ll need to become skillful forgivers (2) God makes forgiveness a centerpiece of our healing process because living in un-forgiveness is so much worse (Wilson, 2001).