Hello and welcome to the John Mark Commerce Teachings podcast.

My name is Yinka Doss and I'm your host.

Each week we feature teachings by John Mark or other voices in the formation space,

and it's great to have you with us.

We're starting a new series this week on forgiveness.

So start us off, Bethany Allen, Associate Pastor Bridgetown Church,

unpacks what forgiveness is and what it isn't

and why unforgiveness can be an even heavier burden.

She shares vulnerable from her own journey

and invites us to release our desire for revenge

and surrender to God's justice.

Here's Bethany.

We are going to start our next practice tonight, which is, yeah, it's exciting, except that

it is on forgiveness.

So, you know, like one, two, punch, and it involves, forgive, thank you, one person's excited.

Well, it is exciting. I think there's

the reality that there's attention, even when we speak about forgiveness, particularly with those

that we like or don't like. So I think just like with some of the other practices, this has the

potential to hit us at our core, which is why I think more than ever we need to be settled

in this space just to receive what the Lord has for us tonight. A lot of you know that we as a country

saw a gunman shoot up a high school. And while there were a lot of different messages that

kind of came out of that horrific tragedy, there is one that has continued to surface as we've seen these tragedies happen all throughout our country over a period of time.

...