Does He Remember?

I was thanking the Father for His mercy. I began listing the sins He had forgiven. “Remember the time I. . .”  I was about to thank Him for another act of mercy.  Then I stopped.  Something was wrong. The word “remember” seemed displaced, off-key. It did not fit.  Does He remember?

Then I remembered His words, “I am He who blots out your transgressions, and I will not remember your sins.” Wow!  That is a remarkable promise. God does not just forgive, he forgets.  He destroys the evidence. He clears the hard drive. He does not remember my mistakes.

Someone once said, "second-best is the worst enemy of the best." People have always tended to cling to the old even when something far better is offered. Most of us have been in churches with conservatives who insisted that the old way of doing something was necessarily the right way. There is security in clinging to the familiar, even when the familiar leads eventually to our undoing.

The Mosaic covenant was a unilateral agreement that structured every aspect of Israel's social, religious, physical and civil existence from the time of Moses until Paul's day. The sum total of commandments that regulated the Jew's life were numbered at 613. This did not include rabbinic interpretations of the law (the Tannaim of the Mishnah), which were also considered binding.

A second covenant was needful because the first one was faulty. The old covenant was built the Law and human obedience; there was no way it could be fully obeyed by sinful people. We will be misconceiving if we think that the new covenant is achieved by human effort as the old covenant was.

God promised and has supplied a new covenant "That's right. The time is coming when I will make a brand-new covenant with Israel and Judah. It will not be a repeat of the covenant I made with their ancestors. They broke that covenant even though I did my part as their Master. This is the brand-new covenant that I will make with Israel when the time comes. I will put my law within them--write it on their hearts!-and be their God. In addition, they will be my people. They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about GOD. They will know me first-hand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow. I will wipe the slate clean for each of them. I'll forget they ever sinned!"

The new covenant is better in that, the Lamb of God offers up Himself in the heavenly sanctuary. The Old Covenant was faulty in that it was written on dead stones while the new covenant is written on living hearts. Through the new covenant all can be saved.

Why do we trouble ourselves to read the stories of the Old Testament and the covenant therein? 1 Corinthians 10:11 has an answer to that: “These are all warning markers--DANGER!-in our history books, written down so that we don't repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel--they at the beginning, we at the end--and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were.” Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

How blessed we are to live in the years following Calvary. Our new life in Christ enables us to live for God and overcome the desires of the flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit. The new covenant is God’s gift, but it comes with great responsibility. We are commanded to take the gospel to every corner of this world and to point other to the redemption offered through Jesus Christ.

Supremacy of Jesus

An inquisitive Sunday school student asked the question, “If Jesus came back today, would He be able to understand computers?” That also begs the question—would Jesus know how to use an IPod, IPad, or IPhone? Some people today wonder whether Jesus, who walked the dusty roads of Palestine years ago, has any relevance for a world filled with the technological wonders of computers, instantaneous communication, nuclear power, and space stations. Most people doubt it!

It seems as if Jesus has fallen on hard times. All of the scientific discoveries, technological advances, and new spiritualties leave little room for Jesus today. They have even caused people to ask the questions, “Who is Jesus?” and more importantly “What does it matter?” Have you ever asked these questions? We live in an age and place where Jesus’ supremacy is seriously undermined!

Recently God spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. This Son (Jesus) perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God's nature. He holds everything together by what he says--powerful words! After he finished the sacrifice for sins, the Son took his honoured place high in the heavens right alongside God, far higher than any angel in rank and rule did.

Did God ever say to an angel, "You're my Son; today I celebrate you"? Or, "I'm his Father, he's my Son"? When he presents his honoured Son to the world, he says, "All angels must worship him." However, he says to the Son, You are God, and on the throne for good; your rule makes everything right. You love it when things are right; you hate it when things are wrong. That is why God, your God, poured fragrant oil on your head, marking you out as king, far above your dear companions.

In becoming a man, Jesus did not give up any of His divine character; He temporarily limited Himself within a human body. His resurrection body, a glorified body of a divine power, pointed to the divine nature He has possessed throughout eternity. These infinite qualities of Jesus’ divinity are described as the ‘brightness of His (God’s) glory and the expression of His image’ Hebrew (1:3). His return to heaven signalled the completion of His sacrifice for our sins. Nothing more will ever be needed throughout eternity to atone for sin. The only question now for every person is whether or not Christ’s atonement will be accepted by faith. The answer for the problem of sinfulness is found in Jesus Christ alone. No one or nothing else is needed.

Jesus through His sacrifice was made eternal, righteous, and possessing the full power of the divine throne. Jesus Christ has no limitations. His complete devotion to righteousness gives Him God’s compete attestation. This made God place Jesus at His right hand, the ultimate position of divine honour and power, and places all the enemies of God under His feet.

To be partakers of this heavenly calling, we as believers need to keep our eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed--that exhilarating finish in and with God--he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. Now he is there, in the place of honour, right alongside God.

Take a good hard look at Jesus. He is the centrepiece of everything we believe, faithful in everything God gave him to do. But, if we can only keep a firm grip on this bold confidence, we then are the house!

Faith Works

A town had not had rainfall for quite a while. The longest the present generation had witnessed. As the drought continued for what seemed an eternity, the local church felt it was time to get involved and called a prayer meeting to ask for rain. An eleven year-old girl sat in the front row in the prayer meeting hall. Her face was beaming with excitement and she quietly sat in her place. Next to her, poised and ready for use, was an umbrella. The beauty and innocence of the girl made the pastor smile as he realized the faith she possessed. No one else in the congregation had brought an umbrella. They had all come to pray for rain, but she had come expecting God to answer with the needed rain.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” (HCSB). Faith enables us to view with certainty and clarity that which we expect but have not seen. Faith is buying baby cloths because God has promised you children, faith is building an ark, expecting flood when there had been drought, just because God says so, faith is leaving your kinsmen to go to a land you do not know or have ever heard of because God said you should. Now that is faith.

We admire those who overcome hardship to achieve greatness or those make giant strides owing to their faith. They inspire us to rise above our own problems and gain victory over personal struggles. After hearing their stories we can feel that we too can win victory over the things that may stand in our way.

Salvation is all God’s idea, and all His work. All we do is trust Him enough (have faith) to let Him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! It is impossible to please God without faith. Our belief in Him please Him. Without faith, nothing else we do can please God. Faith enables us to believe for our own salvation from sins penalty. Faith keeps our minds focused on eternity and helps motivate us to live for Christ in the here and now. 

Faith accomplishes great things. Each of us in our lifetime may face serious tests and challenges. We must hold to our faith. It can accomplish great things for us. Overcoming should appeal to us all. We all face obstacles, challenges and difficulties. Negative experiences, tragedies, hardships, - these things touch all our lives. When the difficulties come, the choice before us comes down to two responses – we can become discouraged, give up, and experience defeat or we can overcome.

Faith works when you place your Trust in Jesus Christ. It is impossible to please God apart from faith. Why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that, he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.

If you have not yet placed your faith in Jesus Christ, do so now. Let Him become the Rock in the middle of the turbulent seat, which is life.

If you know Jesus personally, recognise how important it is to live by faith. When testing times come, trusting Him will be what gets you through the storms to the place of tranquillity.

Master Plan

If you visit a ship or air plane in a port and ask the Captain his next point of call, he will tell you in a single sentence where he is headed, even though he cannot see his destination for 99% of the journey, he knows it is there. Barring unforeseen and unlikely catastrophe, he will reach his destination.

If someone asks you for your next point of call, can you tell him? Do you have a clear and clean goal? Do you know where you want to be and what you are to do to get there? A human being without a plan is like a ship without rudder. They just float adrift hoping to be lucky and turn up on one rich coast. Success is the progressive realisation of worthy goal. Be choosey about what you want because you will get it if you plan towards it.

God is the master planner. Like any good builder, God has a plan. When a contractor has even a small job, he draws up blueprints for the project. He also arranges a schedule for the various subcontractors and inspectors so that no step in the process is left out. With all this careful planning and the cooperation of all the parties involved, the project can be successful.

We would be making a terrible mistake if we thought that God had waded into His work without a plan! God's plan, of course, is far grander and more involved than a construction job—and also incredibly more important. Though God is Creator, the physical creation is just the environment for His most important work, creating a Family to share it with for all eternity! We find the blueprint for this wonderful, ongoing creation in the pages of the Bible.

God knew what we would grow up to look like when we were first conceived. We may claim that our age or inexperience makes us the wrong person for the task God has given us. Often our excuses are a cover for our fears and our unwillingness to surrender ourselves to the Lord’s plan for us. We should be confident that God has a plan for us that we can discern. We can look at the gifts and abilities God gives us, the burden He places on our hearts and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit to help us discover what He is calling us and equipping us to do for Him.

Living according to God’s plan is a choice. It may be a choice others do not understand or approve of. The choice may mean giving up a career, moving away from family, or having to live on less money. Yet countless Christians have chosen to follow God’s plan for their lives.

Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here is what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It is the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition is not wisdom. Boasting that you are wise is not wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise is not wisdom. It is the furthest thing from wisdom—it is animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you are trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others' throats. Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honour.