Blessed Are the Forgiven

Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Today in Church History: On August 5, 1900, the Chinese Christian evangelist Liu Fengshi, a former gambler and opium addict who became a follower of Jesus, was martyred during the height of the Boxer Rebellion. As violent anti-Christian sentiment swept through China, Liu offered himself up first to protect fellow believers as the Boxers raided the mission compound. His willingness to surrender his life for fellow Christians is a powerful witness to the growth and resilience of Christianity in China that is still active today.

Readings: Matthew 27 | Psalm 32

Matthew 27 is a dark chapter of the Gospel story: the trial, the mockery, the cross, the tomb. It’s tempting to rush past it toward Sunday, but the whole of Scripture insists we sit here first. This is the moment the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament had been pointing toward: the Passover Lamb offered “once for all,” as the writer of Hebrews would later put it. Every altar and ritual in Leviticus was a signpost pointing to Calvary.

In 2006, a gunman took the lives of five young girls in an Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania before turning the gun on himself. Within hours, members of that grieving community were reaching out to comfort the shooter's widow and family, and some even attended his burial. It stunned the watching world: forgiveness offered in the midst of grief. That's a faint, human-sized shadow of what happened at Calvary: forgiveness poured out at unimaginable cost, offered before we ever thought to ask.

Devotional Prompts:

• Is there a guilt or shame you’ve never fully let the cross settle?
• How does “already forgiven” change the way you’d approach today?

Prayer: Crucified Savior, thank You for carrying what we could never carry ourselves. Let the blessing of forgiveness settle deep into every guilty corner of our hearts today. Amen.