Tune in on Thursday at 4:00 pm Central! To listen in – go here and just click on the player in the top right corner.
Join me tomorrow for Amish Wisdom’s encore presentation of last year’s interview with Pastor Joel Kime and his parents. Joel has an amazing story to share with us about God’s grace and forgiveness. I shared his story in my book, Amish Peace. When he was a teenager Joel accidentally crashed his car into an Amish buggy, killing an Amish woman (a bride on her honeymoon). Don’t miss Amish Wisdom on Thursday to hear how Joel and his parents dealt with this tragedy and how they experienced the power of inexplicable forgiveness. God has used this incident over and over to show His love and grace.
In Joel’s words: It is a story familiar to us; perhaps too familiar. All of us can share probably numerous personal illustrations of broken relationships, bitterness, and grudges. We wonder when we’ll ever experience the full life that Jesus promised he came to give us. Jesus skillfully used this parable to illustrate that full life should never include grudges or bitterness toward people for anything they do to us. Symbolically, and certainly in reality, forgiveness frees us. We see in the parable the joy of the first servant, who, if he had not received forgiveness from the king, would have remained locked in a prison, despairing for his lost wife and family and everything he had. Sadly, like us, he returned to that prison as a result of his inability to receive forgiveness and show it to others. I know from firsthand experience that this parable is true-to-life. I am that first servant.
More about Joel and his family: Michelle and I are beginning our ninth year of ministry at Faith Church, but third as Pastor. I graduated from Lancaster Bible College with a Bachelor of Science in Bible and Missions. I have been on the “eternity” plan at Evangelical Theological Seminary, and it felt so good to graduate with an MDiv in May 2010. Prior to coming to Faith Church as Youth/Associate Pastor, we served as church-planting missionaries in Kingston, Jamaica, with the Island Missionary Society. We are the parents of four children. If you catch me in a free moment, I’ll probably be reading a book, listening to U2 or REM, playing sports or Legos with my kids, enjoying a movie with Michelle or rooting for the Phillies or Redskins! More likely you’ll find Michelle and I talking about God’s heart for the oppressed and how we Americans can live the Gospel. We are so excited about how Faith Church is becoming a church that beats after God’s heart, removing the chains of injustice, freeing the captives, preaching the good news, feeding the poor, discipling the believers, praying for the world.
