Tag Archives: forgiveness

FORGIVEN Job 14

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Sometimes guilt feelings leave me flat-out wiped out. Things I’ve said and shouldn’t have. What I should have said but kept quiet about. Things I’ve done producing nasty byproducts. Things not done that should have been. Over and over I wrestle, shaking my head, wondering about myself.

These are issues that I’ve asked for forgiveness, which is Jesus’ gift when we’re honest with Him. Humble pie is offered on His menu, from which I order a large slice. And yet the rehashing continues. Replaying, over and over again, the same old sins of omission and commission. Is there no relief?

Here’s where Job helps me. Job? The Old Testament book? Really? Yes, I’m reading chapter 14 in my daily Bible time when a couple of verses grab my attention–‘For you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin; my transgression would be sealed up in a bag and you would cover over my iniquity’ (Job 14:16-17). Who’s Job talking to? His God obviously. In earshot of his three friends.

Here I sense hope that when the Lord forgives He means it. I may be half-hearted some of the time, but not God. I can be double-minded, some of this, some of that, but never Jesus. What He says He means. And here’s where I garner confidence.

Looking at those two verses, I find a 3-fold assurance. First, God refuses to keep watching Job’s sin. Rubbing it in, making a point he’ll not forget. And, in a sense, not remembering them by never throwing salt on old wounds. Or harping on and nagging about our shame and failure. Like I do.

Then, it’s as if the Lord seals up Job’s sins in a bag either to toss them as far out to sea as possible or bury them out of sight with no chance of digging them up later. Contrary to what I would do.

Finally, God covers his sins. No longer visible. Not causing pain and regret. Covered up. Out of sight, and out of mind’s focus. To rid them from Job, freeing him of his own entanglements.

That last hopeful bit about covering over sin reminds me of sandcastle building down the shore on the beach. Quite amazing structures until the tide rolls in and those sandy walls come a tumblin’ down! Also, notice holes in the sand made by crabs. They too get filled up and washed away by the incoming and all-covering tide.

Like what Jesus does for you and me. His incomparable forgiveness. Sins of all sizes and depths–washed away. Covered over. Tossed far, far away. Fault-finding by God never comes from His mouth. All because we’re forgiven. Plain though not simple. After all, it cost Him the life of His only Son Jesus.

His blood can make the vilest sinner clean. Even me. You too! Quit regurgitating old forgiven sins and start believing Jesus. Now I’m staring in the mirror. My fingers pointing right back at my old kisser. For as much as anyone else, I need to trust the One I believe in with all my life. Actually, with all His life.

To be forgiven. And believe what Jesus says and means. Wouldn’t that be the best?

Lord Jesus, for taking care of my sin, I thank you. Amen.

THE NUMBERS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES Psalm 51

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I’ve never been much for mathematics.  Not my long suite.  Doesn’t add up.  The only ‘D’ grade I ever earned was in junior high algebra.  Pocket calculators and computers save my financial planning career more times than not!

Reading Psalm 51, let’s pay attention to the Lord’s forgiving ways, as King David pours out his guilt-ridden heart to God, whose mercy and love he counts on.  So many verbs keep adding and multiplying–‘Blot out…wash me…cleanse me…purge me…create in me a clean heart…restore me…uphold me…deliver me’.  Sin…subtracted and divided.

Am I the only one who confesses sins to God yet feels like they’re still hanging around my neck?  Give Him my failures only to take them back like a boomerang?  That’s how it feels.  Does forgiveness give me the runaround?

No.  Not at all.  Unless forgiveness depends on me, I and myself.  But that’s not how it is.  It’s all up to Him.  Jesus takes my sin as if in a huge cup, which He feverishly gulps down, good riddance to the last drop.  Gone.

Hope can be found in Psalm 51.  The first half (vs. 1-9) shouts out confession.  Owning up.  Fessing up.  Coming clean with God.  Sin and its synonyms can be found twelve times.  God only once.  Then moving to the second half (vs. 10-19), we find God referenced six times with sin only twice.

What gives?  Think about it.  It’s as if we’ve emptied ourselves of sin by being humble and honest with God.  He empties us of failure, taking all of it on Himself on the cross, and then filling us with Himself with what’s been null and void which now becomes fully His.

This week spend time in Psalm 51.  Allow Jesus to divide and subtract any of sin’s rot and decay, all the while adding and multiplying Himself within our daily lives, making us clean as a whistle.  Free as a bird.  Scrubbed and spotless.  In apple-pie order.  Enjoy?  Why not?

Thank you, Jesus, for new life… forever.  Amen.

LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF!… I Timothy 1: 12-17

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Could the Apostle Paul have been the worst sinner ever?   He said– ‘…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.’  The worst one of all?  Really?  Worse than Judas Iscariot?  Stalin and Hitler?  What about Satan?  Of course not.

The Apostle Paul is looking into a spiritual microscope, one focused on every aspect of his life.  Like gazing at a mirror, seeing every blemish, showing us as we truly are.   He’s looking deeply within,  without pretense or excuse,  noting how far he misses the mark of God’s holiness and perfection. The comparison?  Well, there really is none.

As a believer in Jesus, God has sensitized Paul to every part of his life.  We humans, since Adam and Eve, are far away from God.  As far as far can be.  Truly one of the ironies of the Christian life is the closer we get to God, the more we know that, of sinners ‘I am the foremost’.   When we thought we could hide it, He nails us with the truth.

Times when I wasn’t particularly close to the Lord, even though a believer, I glibly headed out the door doing my own thing.  Sin didn’t seem to bother me very much.  Not really.  Maybe a twinge or two.

Now,  the closer I get to Him, the farther away I feel.  Like Paul’s foremost and chief of sinners.  Let me introduce myself.  I’m an old sinner saved by grace.  That’s me.  My salvation has nothing to do with my goodness. Nothing.  Neither does yours.  It’s all of God’s love and mercy,  forgiveness and grace.  All those words that lead directly to Him alone. ALL OF HIM, OF JESUS CHRIST.

I’m an old sinner…saved by God’s grace.  Let me introduce myself…no, let me introduce the One who gave Himself on the cross for you and me!  Have you met Him?  Welcome Jesus into your life…today!

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for making us new in Jesus Christ, your Son and our Savior.  In His name.  Amen.

WASTE NOT… Proverbs 5: 7-14

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‘Waste not, want not’.  Good advice!  Don’t waste your life , and you’ll not want for meaning and purpose in the short years we’re given.  Seems like life is on the fast-track in the latter years.  Know what I mean?  Like the ride uphill was not as fast-and-furious as the downhill slope and slide!  Time flies by… but you don’t get any frequent-flier miles!

As I look back, it bothers me about all those opportunities I’ve squandered.  Time wasted, the living for the Lord that was in name only.  With that in mind, I was hooked and dragged to shore by Proverbs 5:9–‘lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless’.

I can’t blame others for the wasted times.  I’d like to, but I gave them away.  And  I can’t get them back.  Words said that are forever out there.  Words not said that would have helped and maybe healed.  Who knows?  Too late now.

Things done that can’t be undone.  Things not done forever incomplete.  Given away.  Tossed to the wind of whim and whimsy.  Proverbs warns against giving away our honor and our years.  We have choices to make in life.  The way of wisdom or the way of folly.

I’m not blaming someone else for all the times I’ve given away.  I’d still like to!  Certainly, there have been many times when others have wronged me, causing pain and mess, not of my own making.  For you too?  Not much you can do about that except to let it go, to move forward and let the Lord take care of them and their malicious designs; and,  in some cases,  to walk out of their lives for good.

What the Bible is saying is to get focused,  get on track with the dreams and desires of my life.  A life for Him.   A life for others– not for me alone.    Find out more about who God made us to be. Try,  as best you can,  to follow the star of Jesus to make the most of the best that God has in store for us. And when we fail, we find Him to be merciful and gracious,  loving us like no one has ever loved us before or since.    Amen?  Amen!

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for a life worth living.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

INTO DAVY JONES’ LOCKER!……….Read Micah 7:19

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Only one verse for you today, but packed with wonderful meaning from our Lord’s Word, the Bible. The Prophet Micah is encouraging his people Israel that God will have compassion on them once ‘again’. God’s anger will not last forever–as a matter of fact He is a long-suffering and patient God(now that’s for next time!). He will ‘again’ have compassion on His people, then and now. That’s for us, for me and you! We’re included. And now comes even more good news–how could there be more? But there is! Micah tells us that God ‘will tread our sins underfoot.’ He won’t point His finger at us in accusation. He won’t hold our sins over our heads or shove them in our faces. No, He’ll trample them underfoot, blot them out, grind them into the tiny grains of sand so that it will be impossible to ever find them again. I remember losing a good watch while down the shore in New Jersey, at the beach. Can’t dredge up the brand now but it was not a Timex and certainly not a Rolex! But then it hit me…where’s my watch? In a panic, running back to where I had been at the beach or so I thought, trying to find that expensive watch. Gone…gone…gone. That’s the bad news. The good news is that our sins when confessed to God, covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, realizing how damaging our sins have been to us, others and of course God Himself–are ‘tread underfoot’. Thank God today…our sins, under His foot. Gone…gone…gone. Thank God! But Micah tells us more, even better news. God ‘hurls our iniquities into the depths of the sea’. When I just typed this, I realized that I left out the word ‘all’ from the Bible verse. It reads– ‘hurls all our iniquities into the depths of the sea’. All of them. Not just the ‘white lies’ or the ones we think rather harmless and therefore easy for God to forgive. No, all of them. Even the ones we have never shared with anyone. The ones that shame us even to this day. All of them, He promises. And where does He hurl them? Into the depths, the deepest part of the seas and oceans. That’s pretty deep. I remember being on a cruise ship in the Caribbean approaching some tropical island we were going to dock at for the day. Many of us were out on deck to see this beautiful and colorful island in the sun. The woman next to me, who told me she was a lawyer from Washington DC, had a marvelous camera in her hand that looked real pricey, when digital cameras first came out with all those bells and whistles. People were packed in tight on those decks, all squeezed in like sardines. And more and more passengers kept pushing and shoving. You guessed it…this poor woman standing next to me was shoved by someone behind her and that camera went flying out of her hands over the railing straight into the depths of the sea, right into Davy Jones’ Locker never to be seen again. That’s the bad news. The good news is that our sins, in God’s hands, not pushed or shoved, but willingly, are tossed into the depths of the sea. Glub…glub…glub…gone! Let me recommend to myself first of all and then to you as well—leave them there. God has put up a ‘no swimming’ sign and a ‘no fishing’ sign right where they went down. Thank God…can you feel the release and relief God wants us to have? Can you? Can I?

OH, REALLY…Psalm 18:20-29

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Oh, the wisdom of youth! If it were only true! How I wish I could take some of what I’ve learned in life, as little as it is, and play it back into decisions I made as a young man and certainly into my middle years. But as they say, no can do! Let me ask you a question. What did you think when you read Psalm 18 today? What was your reaction to what the psalmist David had written as a song of his heart? Some of the phrases just hit me the wrong way: ‘according to my righteousness’, ‘the cleanness of my hands’, ‘I have not turned away from His decrees’, ‘I have been blameless’, ‘I have kept myself from sin’…Oh, really! Like he’s singing off-key here. Now we know lots and lots about David’s life, his successes and then his struggles. Hardly one of the Ten Commandments that he didn’t break at least once and sometimes many times more. Lying, adultery, murder…you name it. So, what’s he talking about–blameless, righteous, clean? Oh, really! Let’s go back a moment and read what’s right before the body of this psalm, underneath where it says ‘Psalm 18’ (at least in most Bible’s today). Called by Bible scholars the ‘superscription’, it is from tradition identifying where a psalm comes from in the life of the author, in this case David. This is a musical psalm, as most are. It calls him ‘the servant of the Lord’, and tells us that the occasion for this psalm is God’s deliverance of David from all of his enemies and especially Israel’s jealous first king, Saul. We don’t know David’s age here, except that he is a young man, early in his life. He’s got a lot of living ahead of him, good times and bad. Good decisions and lots of not so good ones as well. Sound familiar? Certainly is my experience. When I look back I had such good intentions. Then I got in the way; me, I and myself. Am I alone in this? Hope so, but I doubt it! What I do know is that David’s exuberance quickly was deflated by his own sinful nature, and so has mine in so many ways, at so many times in my life. Let people down, said what shouldn’t have been said, done what shouldn’t have been done, selfish and thoughtless. The list is just beginning. And that is why I look to Psalm 143 for a more mature word and song from David; later in his life, looking farther back over the decades of decadence and defeat. Now he says, ‘O Lord…listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief…Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you…(Psalm 143:1, 8). David sounds a bit different here, doesn’t he? He’s been eating that humble-pie after looking carefully and honestly in the mirror of his long life. That’s why he cries for mercy, for God’s love and forgiveness, exhibiting trust not in himself but in the One who is always righteous, always good, always clean and just. It’s not about me, but about Him. God’s grace is getting what I don’t deserve. His mercy is not receiving what I do deserve. The longer I live the more I depend not on me but on the One whose grace and mercy is new every morning…both now and forever. That’s good news, right? You agree, right?