Matthew 6: 14-15For if ye forgive men their repasses,

your heavenly Father will also forgive

you. But if ye forgive not men their

Trespasses, neither will your Father

your prespasses.”

Tom and Virginia Boles

By Thomas M. Boles, Phd., DMin., D.D.

On Feb. 9, 1960, Adolph Coors III was kidnapped and held for ransom. His body was found seven months later on a remote hillside.

He had been shot to death. Adolph Coors IV, who was 15 years old at the time, lost not only his father but his best friend. For years, young Coors hated Joseph Corbgett, the man who was sentenced to life for the slaying.

Then in 1975 Adolph Coors became a Christian. He knew this

hatred for Corbett blighted his growth in faith and also alienated him

from other people. Still, resentment seethed within him; He prayed,

asking God to help him stop hating Corbett.

Coors eventually felt led to visit Corbett in the maximum-security unit of Colorado’s Canon City penitentiary. Corbett refused to see him, but Coors left a Bible with this inscription: “I’m here to see you today and I’m sorry that we could not meet. As a Christian I am summoned by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to forgive. I do forgive you, and I ask you to forgive me for the hatred I’ve held in my heart for you.”

Coors later confessed, “I have a love for that man that only Jesus Christ could have put in my heart.”

Coors’ heart, imprisoned by hatred, was at last set free.

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.