How do I forgive someone who is unrepentant?

Question posted on Yahoo! Answers: I want to forgive someone who wronged me & my loved ones. I know it is important to forgive. I feel i must forgive so i can not only be forgiven but to feel more free of the grip of evil

How do you forgive someone though who has no sorrow of soul, no remorse & no resolution that they will not act in the same way, commit the same sin again? I do not wish to judge the behavior, not my place. But when someone sins against you, not caring about their actions what kind of forgiveness is appropriate here from me? what form should it take? I am confused I want this person to be helped, they do not wish help. They admit sins but take no responsibility and have no care.

Being around this person makes me feel further away from the christian life i wish to leave. But i want to be able to offer my forgiveness for the sins against me, so we both have that. I have been working very hard on restoring my own path to the lord. Thanks

Additional Details:

I understand I have to forgive! My question is how… in the practical sense…

I can not be around this person and nor would they allow me to go near them, speak to them etc etc… they are aware they have done wrong but will avoid at any cost taking responsibility. This is their choice.

I however want to choose to forgive and move on to a better place.

But how in the practical sense do i achieve this forgiveness…

Do i pray? is that enough?

Normally I would want to talk with the person but this is not an option.

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If God has put you in HIS Place, it is likely he put this person in forn of you for a reason.

When We ask God to direct us as in Proverbs 3:5,6 we are not told we will understand or agree with where God leads us or puts us, we are told in fact to 'Not lean into our own understanding'

There are hundreds of people just itching to tell you what to do on this occasion, but only you and HE (God) will know what is best for you.

In my case the best friends I have are the ones I couldn't stand, and to this day they don't know who they are because I was taught the person who drove me nuts was most likely the person who reminded me of me....

A person being forgiven is God's department. We are told to forgive period. No questions, no reciprocity, no feelings, because we are told as everyone knows, if we don't, we won't be forgiven.

In that case, God doesn't care HOW WE FEEL, he cares we let him take care of the justice part when he deals with the person.

Me? I give them cold water and hope they don't know it means fiery coals....kindness and forgiveness goes a long way...., but God is not mocked...what a Man Sows, He reaps, Good or Bad.

Michael James Stone

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Passing of a Pop Star ~ Charles Colson

The Passing of a Pop Star

The Pinnacle of Success?

By Chuck Colson

Christian Post Guest Columnist

Wed, Jul. 08 2009 11:44 AM EDT

I am an aging, white conservative Baptist. My taste in music runs from Bach to Mozart to Lawrence Welk. Indeed, my staff might say I am the un-hippest man alive.

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So you might think that I am surprised by the frenzied and non-stop media coverage of the death of Michael Jackson-perhaps the greatest pop star of all time. But I’m not.

You may think that I don’t “get” why his fans by the millions are grieving, buying up Jackson CDs like they are going out of style, holding vigils at his mansion, desperately trying to get tickets to his memorial service in Los Angeles. But I do.

Here is why they have reason to mourn: Michael Jackson was, by any standard, a musical genius. His albums and his videos thrilled successive generations of pop fans. In fact, I was enthralled myself when I first watched his video presentation at an Epcot exhibit some 20 years ago.

There was, indeed, no one quite like Michael Jackson. And now there will be no new albums, no comeback concert tour, no new dance moves. That’s why they’re mourning.

But here’s why they-and all of us-should mourn the real tragedy that Michael Jackson’s story is. Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic Monthly blog said it well: Michael Jackson “was everything our culture worships; and yet he was obviously desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone.” He was, as Sullivan noted, nothing but a creature of our culture, which puts “fame and celebrity” at its core, with money as its driving force, without regard for the person caught up in it or the character he exhibits.

By numerous published accounts, Jackson was emotionally abused by his father, a man consumed by the idea that his child could be a superstar. Jackson was a drug addict accused of pedophilia, given to all manner of bizarre behavior. He was, in the end, as Bob Herbert opined in the New York Times, “psychologically disabled, to the point where he was a danger to himself and others.”

It makes the scenes of adoring crowds pushing and shoving to get near yesterday’s memorial service, and the non-stop live television coverage, all the more bizarre and tragic. We worship the celebrity for his fame, degenerate lifestyle not withstanding.

Jackson achieved the summit of what this culture values most-fame-and paid for it with his life. And that is a tragedy.

Life is filled with teaching moments. And for parents, this tragedy is an opportunity to talk with our children about what they really want out of life-what matters most.

And it’s also a time for parents to look in the mirror and ask what we really want for our kids. If the answer is success in life, then we had better know what that definition of success is.

That’s because even Christian parents are not immune to the siren song of fame and fortune for their kids. It’s great that your child can sing and dance. It’s wonderful that he can hit a baseball a country mile. She just might win that academic scholarship to Harvard.

But winning that scholarship, or playing in the major leagues, is not the Christian definition of success. Doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with your God is.

Character matters. Not fame. No matter how un-hip that sounds.

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From BreakPoint, July 8, 2009, Copyright 2009, Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with the permission of Prison Fellowship Ministries. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or distributed without the express written permission of Prison Fellowship Ministries. “BreakPoint®” and “Prison Fellowship Ministries®” are registered trademarks of Prison Fellowship
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I know a few contemporary christian artist who fall into pits of fame and fortune cookies only to find the Price of Success is often your soul. I don't like a person saying I am a Christian Baseball player and I owe it all to Jesus.

I would they say I am a Christian who happens to play baseball and I owe my Christianity to Jesus Christ.

It's thankful for your salvation, not your good fortune.

Michael James Stone

Men Of God

Laodicea: the Plastic Church ~ Bible Prophecy Today

I read this post a few times trying to get a handle on it as I thought about it more and more I realized it was subtle, but there is a growing discontent among Christians who want to "perfect" the church, then let the prefect perfect the body of Christ.

That is Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

I read this:

Look at the phenomena within the church world that has occurred in our lifetime. There has been one fad after another. Religious television and the mass media take each fad and exploit it to the extreme and then we watch it fade. Notice how “fads” turn into “fades.” Jim Bakker and PTL was one of the first fads that I remember. Then, we had “The Prayer of Jabez,” the “God Chasers,” TBN and Paul Crouch, and then Rick Warren and his “Purpose Driven Life” phenomena. These are nothing but religious fads with short lives.

I was a little surprised.

I think it is marginalizing in a negative way what God used in a positive means.

Did people get saved by the Thousands in each of those cases above?
Are those Ministries all gone? Or are there people who can say they owe a Thank you for the time they were there?

I don't particularly choose to be a part of some ministries, but I do not doubt in any way shape or form, while I may be beyond some of those minstries, If God Chooses To Use a Jack Ass, he can do so I will admit it ten years later as easy as I do at the time of it.

People are not saints, but God makes people fit for his use and that is not by our being Righteous, Good, Or Holy. He uses unfit people so he can declare who did it, He Did.

PTL even in the midst of it's excess, was used by God.
The Prayer of Jabez, a rather amusing "wind of doctrine", was also used by God to help some who needed it.

TBN is still around, and frankly so is Paul Crouch.

I am glad Jesus doesn't let us pick and choose who he can use.
I would not be saved otherwise, nor would most of Southern California Hippies and Baby Boomers because theology off or on, Calvary Chapel was birthed by some unusual peoples....Lonnie Frisbee comes to mind.

I don't see a perfected saint in the Bible after meeting Jesus anymore than I expect to meet a perfect ministry as I can scripturally eat anyone for breakfast if I wanted to make a kosher diet of the Body of People Jesus died for.

We are all sinners, before and after grace.

But the Men God uses, and Judges, and even sets up and causes to fall, how dare we descry even one if a soul is saved from hell.

I think Jesus would confront all of us on our sacred cows of theology because being on fire for him in love, as we were in the Jesus Movement, was not about WHO was Wrong and Who was right, but it was ALL About Knowing Him.

It was all about Jesus.

And you know, the more I read posts, the less I hear about Him.

Maybe that is Laodicean after all.

Michael James Stone