Could You Forgive Someone If They Murdered Your Family?

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Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Question of the day. Could you forgive someone who murdered your family? Could you forgive someone who killed a close family member?

How about a spouse? How about everything that's in the news this week? How about Erica Kirk? And we can go on all kinds of rabbit chasing here on Truth Talk Live. I'm Stu Epperson, honored to be sitting in the chair today with you, the amazing listeners from all over the country, all over the world listening.

I just put polls up with that question at my Instagram, on my Facebook. Could you forgive someone who killed a family member? This is exactly what happened. This is something that a very close friend of mine, a Christian brother who I just had coffee with, said to me, I about fell out of my chair when I heard Erica Kirk say about the man who killed her husband in cold blood in Utah on a campus in front of the watching world. And she said, I forgive that man.

And she quoted Luke chapter 23. Verse 34, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Jesus' words from the cross, the first of seven statements, profound statements Christ made from that cross-shaped pulpit on Golgotha. Erica Kirk quoted the Savior.

Erica Kirk could have not even shown up to her husband's memorial. She would have shown up. she could have been sitting in the audience. She could have not stepped up to the mic. My wife was like, I don't know how she did it.

I don't know how she spoke, how she had that kind of composure to speak and to speak as long as she did. And then to say those words, which puts a little bit of a caveat on our question of the day, which I would love to hear your thoughts. everywhere anyone listening that can call in our toll-free number nationwide when we're live is 866-34-TRUTH would love to hear your answer to this question could you forgive someone who murdered someone in your family 866-34-TRUTH 866-348-7884 St. Nick is manning the phone lines want to have a conversation what are your thoughts about we've talked about this all week you know Doc Carson was in Peter Rosenberger amazing Robbie Dilmore a lot of folks have dealt with this I just want to ask this question kind of head on and I want to get your thoughts on what she said specifically when she said those words and that caveat not just did she get up, not just did she say those powerful words of forgiveness, but to say those words in front of millions of people watching. The numbers are ridiculous.

I was texting late last night a friend of mine who's like a digital media consultant. I said, look, how many people have seen all or part of that service on Sunday, which was like four hours. How many people watch the gospel being proclaimed to millions? I mean, some estimate on the low end, 100 million people, like that day. That number could hit a billion in the next week because I'm telling you, I'm seeing Charlie Kirk clips.

I'm seeing clips I've never seen before. I see one clip where everyone's saying, this guy's a racist. Then I see another clip right behind it where he is kicking a racist out of the building for being racist and he's talking about the glory of god and committing people of different races but how could she say that 86634 truth let's bring heather on i think we lost her okay let's get her back she may have had a bad connection if you want to call in we do have lines open at 866-348-7884.

Something we're wrestling with. On Facebook, Stu Epperson. I'm going to repost this everywhere. I simply put the poll question, could you forgive someone that murdered your family? And then on Instagram, just at Stu Epperson, follow me there if you're on Instagram.

That's where all the young people are. Hello to my Graham fam. absolutely love those folks i put the question a little bit differently on on instagram i put three choices on the survey the question being could you forgive someone that murdered your family question a yes you know option a yes option b no but the third option struggling and i'm getting a lot of that and this is a no shame zone i'm not putting heat or shame on you for your candidacy, your honesty, that, hey, I'm struggling. Hey, I've actually had someone that's killed or hurt a family member that I've had a hard time forgiving.

So I want to hear from you on that. I want to talk about the power of forgiveness. How have you seen the power of forgiveness at work? How have you seen the power of forgiveness since Erica Kirk got on stage and spoke so publicly, so directly, forgiving her husband's killer on stage, knowing that her two young children would grow up for the rest of their life without their dad, knowing that she would be in bed alone that night, yet she said, I forgive. forgive my my i forgive this man and she quoted the words of jesus and she even said my husband would want me to what a powerful statement 866-348-7884 i want to hear from you i've got some other things to share i've got some truth on the streets i talked to some people today who are actually giving me some feedback and i got some interesting things some i didn't i was shocked to get.

But let's go to Greg. Let's talk to Greg real quick. Hey, Greg, thanks for calling in, my friend. God bless you. What about this tough question?

Could you forgive someone who murdered your family? Well, I tell you, any Christian can say by faith, Stu, they can say yes, because we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. And this is a matter of the grace of God. It's not a human ability. It's not a human ability.

And so I thought, really, what I saw was the stark contrast between what Trump said and what she said. Yeah, he even openly said, I struggled with this, didn't he? Like, he openly said it. He said, I can't do that. Absolutely.

We need to hear that. It just showed, you know, Trump is what he is. And, you know, what he is.

Well, he was honest about that. You know, he didn't. He could have given the Sunday school answer. He could have thrown a couple forgiveness verses out there, right? But he was very forthright.

Wow. Yes. And he doesn't have any religious hypocrisy about him, to his credit. But what I saw there was the human nature, raw human nature saying, no, I can't. I hate them.

Wow. And then the grace of God in that woman, which is the very strength of Christ, the very nature of Christ, in her by the new birth and by the presence of the Holy Spirit doing what we could not begin to do otherwise. Wow. Yeah. To me, it's an outstanding example of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Every Christian needs the full empowerment of the Spirit, and then of the nature of Christ that lives in every believer that's listening to your program right now. If you're born again, the nature, not a second-rate nature, not an imitation nature, the very nature of Christ lives in you. That's what a thought could say. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Wow.

And that's what we see time and again from Acts 13 to Acts 28. I love it. And I love what you said about grace, Greg. God bless you, man. That's a very gracious response.

I mean, folks, we're not in the science school classroom here. She's in front of millions of people, arguably hundreds of millions of people. And George is in Jacksonville, Florida. Listen to us on The Truth. We'll be right back to hear his comment, 91.7 FM, and your calls at 866-34-TRUTH.

And what an interesting contrast between the president's words and Erica Kirk's words. Could you forgive someone who murdered your family? We'll take more calls and talk about it and struggle with it when we come back. Hang on. You're listening to The Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com.

So could you forgive someone who murdered your husband or a close family member? I think I know that's what Jesus would want me to do, and I know that's the right thing to do. I would find that so, so hard. That would be incredibly difficult, and that's not something I want to ever have to go through. But I hope that I could.

I would like to, but realistically, I don't know if I'm there. What if the cameras were rolling and you were in front of 100 million people watching? In front of millions of people, could you do it then? I don't know. I don't know.

I'm not good at making up things. I don't know. It would be hard.

So you heard the honesty in that young lady and I got a couple more clips I play them Thanks Nick for getting that raised up on the levels I Stu Eberson This is Truth Talk Live This may also be Truth Talk because I host a weekend show where we grab content from the daily live show and play back But this issue of forgiveness goes way beyond and way bigger than the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk. But just put yourself in this widow's shoes and think about that.

Someone who professes Christ, and her husband did, and he told a lot of people about Jesus. And to get up in front of that microphone and say, I forgive the man that killed my husband. Suddenly, you're beyond the WWJD bracelet. Suddenly, you're beyond just quoting a memory verse on forgiveness, and you're beyond Sunday school. Suddenly, you're in real life, and there's 100 million people watching.

And subsequent to that, since that moment, you have all kinds of people recording and replaying and inspired. I'm going to share one with you here in a bit. But I want to go to George. He's been hanging on faithfully, listening to us on 91.7 FM, The Truth in Jacksonville, Florida, great affiliate of Truth Talk Live. George, you're on the air.

Thanks for calling in. You got it. Yeah, that's a difficult situation, no doubt about it. And that poor girl, you know, she didn't just, you know, make it look – you could tell she was struggling. but she saved by grace and she knows the truth and the truth is we have to forgive as difficult as it's going to be I'm sure she was praying can you imagine the prayers she had to pray to give her the strength to say that but she did it and I think all of us that are saved by grace will have that ability by the grace of God not by our own strength that's for sure Yeah.

That's such a good word, George. Thank you for sharing that. And God bless you. Hey, tell everyone about 91.7 now and to stay tuned in, a great station in Northern Florida carrying the word of God 24 hours and carrying this program. God bless you, man.

You know, George, I love his point, friends. And you think about the grace a lot of people, all of us were giving Erica Kirk at that funeral service. Like if she just got up and spoke for 30 seconds saying, And y'all, this is hard. Charlie would want me to tell you how much he loved you. He's with the Lord.

I was just blessed, and our children were blessed to have him while we did. Please, thank you for your prayers. Thanks for coming. If she had just said that, we're good. You know, like, come on, it's a funeral.

You're the widow. You have been through. What are you even doing speaking? I mean, where did that? That's a power that Greg quoted earlier in Philippians 4.13.

That came from Jesus for her to even be able to get up, but then to engage directly with her husband's killer and not say, we're coming after you and all of your ilk. We're throwing the book at you. You're going to get firing squad, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is, hey, we're going to send a message. We're sending a shot across the bow.

She said, I forgive you. And she quoted the words of Jesus from the cross. that and that's driven me today and it's been kind of batted around all week and touched on but i want to just go directly with you today could you forgive someone that murdered your family how does it hit how does it settle how's that struggle i'm going to read my surveys that i put on facebook and on instagram and see what other people are interacting and many are listening on the truth app downloaded it's free at the app store let's go to ed lynchburg virginia 93.7 FM, A Little Bit of Heaven on 93.7. Ed, God bless you. Thanks for calling in.

Thank you for allowing me to speak, sir. Yes, sir. I want to say this. The Holy Spirit told me to tell you people and anybody else listening, Jesus said, if I suffer, you're going to suffer. We know what they did to Jesus Christ.

And though he took all the punishment and took all of our sins away, he said that in this world you're going to have a lot of tribulation and therefore if it's to be that i'm to forgive i've already made that clear i forgive the man for what he did but he still has to be punished oh yeah that's right there's there's a there's a consequence even if someone on death row converts to christ it doesn't mean they're not going to face the chair you know the consequences but but there is a but there yeah sir yes sir sir the problem in america we have gotten away from the Word of God. There's only two things, and I'll get off. I'll say this. Jesus taught me, I'm 82 years old, he taught me that every day I'm to read his Word faithfully. He said, I didn't come to bring you harm and injury.

And Isaiah, let me see here, Jeremiah. Jeremiah, he said, I didn't come, I know the thoughts that I have toward you. And therefore, he said, I came to bring peace and not evil. That's evil what happened to him. Yes, sir.

Yep.

Okay, so we know that when we're right with God and he was doing what he's supposed to, but sometimes God allows martyrs. You think of Jim Elliott and the five missionaries. That's right. And the Alka Indians, they came to Liberty University and they became saved. Elizabeth Elliott, her husband was spared to death in 56, the Alka Indian, and the one that killed her husband, she not only forgave him, but she led him to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he came to Liberty University.

That's right. What a powerful picture. He made a movie called The Tip of the Spear. Yes. And Two Gates of Splendor.

So, therefore, Jim Elliott and the other four missionaries, they gave their lives in 1956. They died. They were martyred. Steve Saint, Nate Saint, that whole what a powerful thing. Yes, sir.

I'm probably going to come back to that later, Ed. I'm glad you dropped that in there. But that's the – you know, it's interesting. We talk about how amazing, and it was amazing, and how inspiring, and it was inspiring. But, Ed, I get the kind of idea from you that that's normal Christianity.

That's what Jesus taught. That's how believers live.

Now, that doesn't mean it's easy. There's nothing easy in the Christian life. It's impossible, right? When Tim Elliott was killed, 26 or 28 billion, I think it's 28 billion around the world, were martyred. They were murdered.

They were killed, but they didn't inspire people back in 56 like Jim Elliott and the other four missionaries. Yes, sir. Well, and that led to one of the greatest waves early on of a modern mission movement. All kinds of young people, instead of saying, hey, we're going to back out of that, they changed their major to missions, and they went to the field because of the amazing testimony. God bless you, Ed.

Thanks for calling in. 82 years old, brother. I think you got it, man. I think you should be sitting here, and I need to be driving around listening to 93.7, man. You're a blessing.

That's your ministry. That's what God gave you. Appreciate it, man.

Well, hey, spread the word. Tell everyone about 93.7, and you can hear Pastor Jonathan tomorrow morning at 730 driving in.

Okay. Yes, sir. It's all about the word called L-O-V-E. That's the problem. I love it.

That's a four-letter word. We don't love Jesus Christ like we're supposed to. Amen. Thank you, brother. God bless you.

We appreciate you calling in. If you want to call in, agree with Ed. Maybe you disagree. Maybe you think, hey, she shouldn't have done that. She was too vulnerable.

She was overstepping her bonds. How could she do that? How come she didn't cry for blood? I want to hear from you. 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884.

I want to hear your reaction. I want to hear your raw reaction. I've got a couple more truth on the streets to play. I've got a bunch of great testimonies. I'm going to look at the surveys here that I put on Instagram, just at Stu Epperson, S-T-U-E-P-P-E-R-S-O-N.

why did I say that so fast? I don't even think I could remember that. S-T-U-E-P-P-E-R-S-O-N. Would love to hear your feedback on there, on Instagram, Facebook, and Stu.Epperson is my Facebook page. Please join us there, and we're going to play these clips coming up.

But I'm going to ask you, I'll give the number 866-34-TRUTH, shorthand, that's 866-348-7884. Question of the day, could you forgive someone who murdered your family? How have you, how have the words of Erica Kirk forgiving her husband's killer resonated in your soul? And how should it, and has there been a tsunami wave of forgiveness in our country since Sunday? I'm going to tell you about that when we come back after this.

Hang on. You're listening to The Truth Network and truthnetwork.com.

so sir could you forgive someone who killed your spouse when i uh when i heard erica Kirk on Sunday, I, it was, it was incredible to see her forgive this man. But one thing is true. And that is only God can give you that power. And there's no way you can, any ordinary person would be able to do that.

So there must've been something far greater than you to give you that strengths to do so. Wow. So I, you know, I'm getting, that's truth on the streets. I'm Stu Epperson. This is Truth Talk Live.

So glad to be with you today.

So glad you're with us. Thanks for listening. We're just trying to encourage you. And we're talking about forgiveness. We're talking about what one young lady whose husband was murdered in cold blood, sharing the gospel on a college campus, not even two weeks ago, two and a half weeks, she gets up at his memorial service in front of millions of people, including the leader of the free world and practically his whole cabinet, and she just doesn't give a few niceties.

Erica Kirk doesn't just, you know, indulge the typical benevolence language. She's battling tears. She's speaking about her love for her husband and his love for Jesus, and she just came right out with it and said, I forgive him. I forgive the man that killed my husband. Wow.

So I've been asking people that all day, and I'm just, I'm blown away by it. And I, as believers, how do you handle that? How does that hit your heart, how did you respond? How should we respond? And what kind of message does this send out?

And what kind of tsunami wave of forgiveness has come about in our culture, which is given to so much vitriol and anger and arguing people disagreeing and gaslighting And you got your CNN people and your Fox people and all your media and all these people and people that are race baiting and doing this stuff. And here, this woman jumps above the fray into the heavenlies and says, forgiveness, I forgive. Wow. So the number is 86634-TRUTH. We got one line open.

We're going to go to Springfield, Ohio, 106.5 FM and talk to Kelly. You're on Truth Talk Live. kelly hello hey thanks for calling in jump on in here uh yes sir i just wanted to say that uh i have a testimony too because i died when i was in the hospital oh wow i was only dead i was only dead for about three minutes right Mm-hmm. like drugs or whatnot, be sure to be ready to fight the devil because it's going to be all kinds of family members. He'll try to trick you and get you to try to save them, but you can't never save any one of them.

Every single one of them that you try to save dies in front of you, and it took about 10 million years for me to fight myself out of there. Time doesn't exist in that place, and another emotion will come over your body while you're in that place. Oh, wow.

Okay. It's a different sense, and it's like every single atom and cell of your entire being is like mixed with misery, pain, hurt, sadness, grief, loss. Wow. Well, God's brought you back, and God brought you back to go invite people into the great forgiveness of Christ. Think about that.

Because some people may not come back. Medically, they may be done. And the Bible says, Hebrews 9, 27, it's appointed unto man once to die. and after that the judgment so he's the god of second chances kelly sounds like you're a testimony that man thank you for calling in what a blessing thanks i appreciate you sharing that man on on on a public radio show national show podcast download the podcast be sure you subscribe to our podcast network truth network i believe it's truthnetwork.com you can find all the different shows there you heard a show last week you really liked who was that speaker go there truthnetwork.com and You can scroll. It'll hit your inbox.

I just started a new podcast for Wednesday in the Word on the book of Daniel.

So messages as we're teaching through the book of Daniel, just a rich time. And we're dealing with this tough stuff of animosity against the faith, against ancient Israel when these regimes would come in to destroy the temple, destroy God's people, take them away in slavery, the people in exile and in captivity. And so as believers today, we face a lot of pressure. And in the midst of all that, Erica Kirk got up at her husband's funeral in front of millions of people and said to her husband's killer, I forgive you. I wonder what kind of witness that is to that young man, who basically, if he ever saw that, was privy to that, surely someone got that message to him.

That could have changed his life, praying that he'll get saved. What if there is an embrace one day between Erica and the man who killed her husband? Can God do that? Is he big enough, God, to bring that kind of healing and forgiveness? What about your story?

What about your testimony? I've had a lot of people that have called and texted me that can't or don't want to call in the show or aren't able to, and I'm going to share some of these other stories. But first we've got to go to Mike, Dayton, Ohio, 106.5 FM. If you want to call in, I do have a line open at 866-34-TRUTH. Question of the day, could you forgive someone who murdered your family?

866-348-7884. Your thoughts? Are you struggling with that? Do you have testimonies about that? How has God forgiven you?

That's a big question right there. Mike, you're on the air. Jump on in here. Thanks for calling in. You're welcome.

I don't know. I pray to God that my heart is in the right place. You know, the Bible tells you to renew your mind and take out the old man and put in the new man. And I'm hoping that, you know, that I can turn the other cheek and I can be a forgiving person. It's not always easy because people cut in front of you in the car and they get in front of you and you get mad at them right away.

Well, maybe that's my old man coming out of that. And I'm hoping that if I'm ever put in that situation with millions of people, that I can forgive the person that trespassed against me if my wife ever died. Yeah, and this gets really practical, doesn't it? You're talking about cutting people off a trap, and there's people listening right now, and please be careful. Don't call in if it's going to cause you a wreck.

But you're listening. There's a battle. I play a lot of basketball. I've seen some hard fouls. I've seen some guys get their legs taken out from under them.

I've seen some guys reach a hand out to shake it, and the guy says, no way, Jose. I'm not touching your hand. I'm not balling with you anymore.

So this is real, and this is in the grind, and I can't think of a more intense moment and really inflection point in our culture when on a Sunday at a memorial service for a very famous young man, one of the top podcasters ever, a national talk show host. He's on these campuses.

Some credit him with moving the needle on entire elections. He's killed in cold blood in Utah on a college campus. He's actually sharing the gospel with people and having conversations, even on politics, but disagreeing without being disagreeable. It's lively. Kids love it.

The microphone line goes a mile long and someone kills them. And this, here you have this opportunity. His wife gets up to speak. And my wife, I said this earlier, I mean, she couldn't believe that Erica Kirk, you know, how does she hold it together to even get up and speak? then she opened her mouth and poured out words not of bitterness vengeance anger you're going to get yours we're coming back words of forgiveness words of grace words of the gospel and so mike this is this is the narrow way this is the this is the narrow way this is this is the the way of the cross that we're seeing here you know and mike i gotta tell you this and i and i love your spirit i love it when you call on this show and if you want to call in you know conversations you can join us grab a line at 866-34-TRUTH 866-348-7884 and the show the live show's on monday through friday four o'clock eastern time two o'clock Mountain Time.

We've got all wonderful friends listening on 95.3 FM in Salt Lake City, AM 820 across Utah. But Mike, I'm going to tell you, I watched a reel. It was either Facebook or Instagram. And this rough looking dude came on. And I thought, oh my, this guy is going to either attack the left.

He's going to attack the right. I knew it was related to the Charlie Kirk assassination. this guy came on and said this he said i'm i've got a word for my brother's killer i saw erica kirk get up and forgive her husband's killer god used that to touch my heart and right now sir i know where you are i know where you live i know what you're up to i want you to know I forgive you and I'm asking God to work in your heart. And I thought, wow. You know, think about that one case.

Think about that one, the ripple effect, right? You toss a pebble into the water and it makes that immediate splash. But think about that one ripple effect that like did Charlie Kirk know when he set foot on that campus in Utah that just a couple weeks later a man in another state who he probably had never met is forgiving another man in another state who murdered this man's brother because of the testimony of Kirk's wife at Kirk's funeral service and that's the kind of stuff mike i have had people i've been praying for for years to come to christ openly profess christ one of my guys a buddy of mine i've been witnessing to he publicly said i went to this funeral i i surrendered my life to jesus at the at the at the charlie kirk celebration of life for memorial service i mean i've had this i've seen all kinds of stories i I would love to hear your stories at 866-34-TRUTH. But, Mike, this is on the grand level of this awful atrocity, that kind of thing, where Corrie Ten Boom was speaking at a church about forgiveness. Her family was brutally mistreated, killed by the Germans.

Mike, a tall, older man walked up to her. You know this story, don't you? Yes, I do. And he said, he said, he said, will you forgive me? I was one of the ones at the torture camp that was part of the murderous regime of Hitler.

And the reality hit at that moment. And we'll finish that story. We'll come back. God bless you, Mike. 866-34-TRUTH.

Could you forgive someone who murdered your family? We'll talk about it more after this. Hang on. You're listening to The Truth Network and truthnetwork.com.

man what about you could you forgive someone that murdered your spouse i would give that person a big prize if they murdered my ex-spouse okay hold on okay i don't know what i'm gonna get okay that's truth on the streets okay so you know here we have i've got some other ones that were very a little more pensive and deep but that and you know she Sweet lady who smiled and chuckled But this is like when it gets real This is when like we say the rubber meets the road where you have actual you have an actual situation in your life where you have, I love how Ed from Lynchburg mentioned the Jim Elliott, the massacre of those five amazing men of God, missionaries that went into the Aka Indians. They went in. They were armed. They had firearms. They did not draw and shoot the Indians who speared them to death.

Yet their wives, Elizabeth Elliott leading the charge, these wives came back to the States. They didn't drown in their tears. They didn't hire a bunch of lawyers. They didn't go on this revenge tour and get a bunch of special forces guys to go over and take the Auk Indians out. You know what they did?

They went back and they reached those Auk Indians for Christ. And it's crazy. I interviewed on this show the son of Steve Saint, Nate Saint. I interviewed him on this show. It's been a couple years.

and he said that his adopted granddad is one of the men on that beachhead that killed his dad, who later came to Christ and has been a godfather to his children and a leader in the church there. This is, and by the way, the survey question at my Facebook, the survey question at my Instagram, could you forgive someone who murdered your family? There's a yes, no, and then there's a struggling column. It said you can add one, so I added that. If you say no, you're right.

Because you can't. Because only the grace of God can. If you say yes, you're right, if you are saying it's because of God's grace, that can only bring about forgiveness. And I guarantee you that's – and that's who – by the way, that's who Charlie Kirk's wife, Erica Kirk, at his funeral – That's what we're talking about all hour with that question, that leading question. That's the only way.

And others have said it and weighed in and echoed this. That's the only way she could have even gotten up there is by the power of Jesus, who said those same words from the cross, Father, forgive them. Luke 23, 34. If you want to answer the question or talk about forgiveness, we do have a caller. We'll take a couple more before we run the backstretch.

Toll-free 866-34-TRUTH is our phone number nationwide. 866-348-7884. What are your thoughts on the powerful words of forgiveness that Erica Kirk shared from the podium? And it's not just could you forgive someone. As God brought you to a point where you could say those words, it's in front of a stage of, I mean, it's estimated over 100 million viewed parts or all of that's funeral service, and I was texting a digital buddy of mine last night who told me that the number by today could be at 200 million, and the number could reach a billion of all of the reels, and all of the social, and all of the YouTubes, and all of the discussion, and all the clips that people are playing.

And think about that gospel message. In his death, Charlie Kirk might be reaching more people than he ever reached in his life. And all of the – did the devil, you know, laughing at this murdered saint, did he realize that his plan would backfire like this? 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884, asking all hour long, could you forgive someone who murdered your family, a family member, a spouse? and what about Erica Kirk what about contrasting that with Trump's statements which were very he was transparent about his struggle with that and maybe you want to share some of that too and we're so no shame zone would love to hear your perspective your thoughts and as we work through this together the the power of forgiveness Jamal thanks for hanging on glad to have you on the show today 866-348-7884 if you want to take a line a truth line I'm Stu Epperson Jamal what say you my friend.

Hey, Stu. Thank you for taking my call, and thank you for having such a good topic on the show today. I will try to be quick with this. When Erica Kirk got on stage, and like I said, said that in front of millions, it really showed the difference between Christianity and the worldly approach to that or any other approach besides Christianity to that, to what happened to her and to what happened to Charlie.

So for instance, yeah, as we all know, people, some people celebrating Charlie Kirk's death. I even spoke to somebody who I knew that was talking about forgiveness and that person said, forgive my enemies. I don't want to forgive my enemies. I want to crush my enemies. And I was stunned.

I didn't have a response to that. And I'm thinking, well, we were all enemies according to Christ at one point. You know, we were enemies as nations with some people from some other nations at one point, definitely against Japan. And now we're allies. And this shows the beauty of Christ that once we were enemies, now we become friends.

And even Abraham Lincoln said, don't I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend?

So again, this is the beauty of Christianity to where you want to solve the world's problems, you want to solve the world's hate, we turn enemies into friends. And I just want to say that. Thank you, students. Yeah, I know. I'm so glad you called in.

I talked to a mutual friend of ours earlier that is a chaplain, and he said he had a very difficult task of accompanying a young lady to a prison where she stood face to face with someone that killed one of her family members, and she forgave that person. And they both broke down in tears. The inmate shocked that this woman would forgive them of their awful crime against her family member, and the woman just in grief, but God put a grace in her heart. And my friend made this comment, there's something powerful about forgiveness that sets me free as the one who offers the forgiveness. and so this is not dismissing consequences this is not excusing sin but this is this is having a heart that that doesn't strike out at revenge that doesn't doesn't fight and doesn't attack and doesn't take an eye for an eye but a heart that says that says in the power of christ per the words of Christ, which Erica Kirk quoted as she started on this road that kind of took everyone by storm and has set the conversation at a whole other level across the country, across the world, where she quoted Luke 23, Father, forgive them.

And she said with tear-filled eyes, I forgive the young man who killed my husband. And so you see the impact of that. I mean, And, Jamal, there's something powerful about that forgiveness that just the model of Christ, there's something infectious about it that if believers can get there. Jamal, there's people listening to this show right now who won't even speak to their mom or dad. They won't even have a car.

They've got cousins. I don't talk to them. We don't deal with them, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm not talking about, you know, we're acquaintances, but I don't run into you that much. I'm talking about there's a bitter, absolute brokenness and division and just anger and vitriol in that relationship, and they are not taking the Erica Kirk, Jesus Christ high ground of extending forgiveness.

And they will not, the holiday is coming, they will not make that phone call on that person's birthday. They will not go on, well, look at what they've done me wrong. wrong you know it doesn't mean the person is going to accept this man may rot in jail or make who knows what will happen maybe he'll write a hate book against Charlie even after killing him we don't know she can't control what this guy has done but she under the control of the Holy Spirit obviously a power greater than hers that came from the grace of Christ the cross of Christ the resurrected lord she from her heart offered that forgiveness and in not just jamal not just to the to the gentleman and not just at a little closed family service we're talking a hundred million people we're talking a veritable who's who of america and the world people that went to i mean i saw people there i got of course everyone texts me hey are you at the funeral i wasn't there Or, man, I tell you, after all that, I kind of wish I had. But people were telling me that revival was breaking out. And not every message was drenched in the gospel.

Man, a lot of it was. A lot of it was just Christocentric and gospel-centered and calling people to trust Jesus as their Savior. Frank Turek says, Charlie is not in heaven because he surrendered, because he sacrificed for everyone. He's in heaven because Jesus Christ sacrificed for him. That's the gospel, not what I do for him, what he has done for me.

Amen. And I'll say this, and I'll get off of you. I know we're up against time. When you are holding something against that person, like you said, well, they did this to me, and I can't forgive. I mean this respectfully.

You're relating your own pride and your ego. Keep forgiveness from coming in and stepping in and calming the flames and calming the situation down. And it does take something outside of yourself to calm that down, because if we don't forgive, then we keep that hatred going.

So, yes, if that person did something to you that hurt so bad, draw on strength. Lean not on your own understanding and all your ways to knowledge God. And then ask for forgiveness, and then we can heal hearts, we can heal lands, and we can put God up front of his music. Good word. Yeah, thank you, Jamal.

God bless you. C.S. Lewis said, to be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. God's forgiven you.

Now offer that to the world and thank God for the gospel of Jesus Christ and forgiveness.