Forgotten Memories

In those days... the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for ... and they shall not be found (Jeremiah 50.20)
My daughter and son-in-law are visiting from the States. When they drop in it is always a time to travel down memory lane. Usually there is much laughter and great happiness as we think about how God has blessed our family through the years. Though we are presently scattered over the wide world we have memories that take us back to a time when our family was nestled in a cozy little town in Michigan, attending a wonderful church together and basically enjoying each other.

Memories are sometimes prejudiced. They leave things out or they embellish. I seem to be stronger, smarter and better looking in my memories. However, the other day my memory completely failed me.

My daughter was recounting a surprise visit that I had arranged. In this memory Ann was living in another city. Thanksgiving was approaching and supposedly I wanted to surprise mom by paying for Ann and our grandson Gabe’s bus fare. All went according to plan and Dawn was completely astounded to the point of tears!

The problem is that as Ann stood there telling me this elaborate story I couldn’t remember any of it. She recounted detail after detail of things that I had said and done and all the while Dawn was nodding in agreement to each of the story’s details. As she went on and on I stood there with a blank stare on my face .

Ann finally said, “You have GOT to be kidding me! You don’t remember ANYTHING??” I shook my head while secretly wondering if Alzheimer's was setting in. I was drawing a complete blank.

This reminded me of Jeremiah 50.20 where God tells the prophet,

In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.

I had never thought about this wonderful fact before. God can’t remember sin that has been pardoned. We know the verse that tells us that our sin has been removed from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103.12). Sure we also remember the verses that remind us that God has tossed our sin into the deepest sea where He forgets them (Micah 7.19; Hebrews 10.17) but we have trouble believing it don’t we? We know how WE forgive. We forgive and find it impossible to forget. Our forgiveness is always tainted by our memory which most of the time embellishes the infraction.

My experience the other day helped me to understand a little about how God forgives. When God perfectly forgives He also perfectly forgets. Does this mean that celestial Alzheimer’s is setting in? Not in the least. This means that God’s perfect Judgment for our infraction has been wholly satisfied in Jesus Christ. There are no twinges of doubt or expectation of betrayal. The memory has been formatted in a way as to completely remove it from the divine mind! The Apostle John put it this way, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1.9). Aren’t you glad?

So my friend, confess and turn from your sin. God wants to forgive and forget! He will perfectly pardon (see Isaiah 55.7).

What were we talking about?

Daughter and dog...

About six months ago we discovered that Ann was pregnant and were very excited for she and Jackson. We will have babies on this side and that of the Atlantic. We weren't prepared for that news and we we were even less prepared for the news that our little dog is pregnant. To date we have spent more on the dog than on Annie (don't tell her... Ann that is). Ann has yet to discover whether her baby is a boy or girl. Both ultrasound images were inconclusive. Though I did some further investigation of my own and was startled with what I found. to me it looks as if the baby is definitely a boy and has some resemblance from both sides of the family. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think.

Urgent Prayer (part 2)

Does God ever give you a gut punch? He did that just a few days ago when I watched a missionary story from the other side of the world. It was short but poignant, and it punched me in the belly button and brought a few tears too. One thing that shook me was the final statement that the missionary made. He was questioning himself and said, I wonder if what I have done will make a difference. This question comes to a missionary's mind now and again as they ponder how vast God's world is and how tiny one’s work is. As I thought, and identified, with his sentiment, the Lord brought a verse to mind that I had used recently in a youth talk. It was this one in John 12:24, “ Very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ” When, in Matthew, the sower sowed his seed, it was the Word of God. Here in John, Jesus indicates that the seed is the life of the servant. Jesus talked of his comi...

Church Isn't a Place

Many times we say, I'm going to church on Sunday. What some fail to understand is that "church" isn't a building. I remember our pastor saying, "the church is an organism, not an organization." He was teaching us the Bible truth about the church. Jesus Christ is the head of the body, and the church is his body on earth. Another pastor once said, "God's hands have human fingers." This is a difficult concept for some to grasp, pun intended. However, it is important to understand that God accomplishes his work through human beings. He uses us, the church, to do his will and work. It's not that if we don't do his will that he is stymied. But he does use willing servants. To be in the church, one must be a part of the family. You cannot be in the church if you don't have the Savior. The church is not for the lost; it is for the edification of the saved. The lost can come and hear the message of salvation. But the church is made up of t...

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