Verse of the Day

This Week's Message

Pastor Joe was away this morning.  Donna Klaeysen shared a few words in his stead.  Pastor Joe will be back next week.

Did you ever walk into a room and forget what you were going to do?  Then walk off and remember only to forget again when you got back to that room?  Or have you ever stopped into the grocery store for just a "couple quick" things?  So you don't get a cart, but end up with an armload of things you see.  Then when you get home and they are all put away you realize the couple things you went for are still at the store!

Our memories play tricks on us sometimes.  We can't remember things we want to remember and sometimes can't forget things we should.  Our wishy washy memory amuses us sometimes and frustrates us as well. 

Did you know God also has memory choices?  After the flood that consumed the world, except the inhabitants of the ark, God put a rainbow in the sky.  He declared that "When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." (Genesis 9:16 ESV)  He uses the rainbow as a reminder of His promise never to flood the world again. 

God made another promise of His memory. In Isaiah 1:18 we read, "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; thought they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."

God is perfect.  He is without sin. He cannot abide our sinfulness. Yet He loves us. He wants a relationship with us and wants us be be with him in heaven.  How does a loving God reconcile our sinfulness so we can be with Him in glory?

Through the sacrifice of His Son.  Jesus came to this earth, to live as one of us, to teach us about God's great love. Because of our sin, Jesus was nailed to a cross and died.  In dying, He took upon Himself the sin of all humanity.  In taking on this burden, He gave the rest of us an escape.  Because Jesus rose from the dead, forever denying death its final victory.  And through Jesus' resurrection, we can come to God white as snow.  We can come to Him, confess our sins and find forgiveness.  And in that forgiveness, God forgets the sin. He makes a deliberate choice not to remember.  He fulfills a promise made in Jeremiah 31:34:  "And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

When we come to God through Christ, He sees us as He created us - in perfection.  In the forgiveness we have in Christ, we gain the ability to stand before our God as His true sons and daughters, made perfect through our faith.

"For God so loved the world, He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life!" (John 3:16)  In Jesus we are made whole.  So if someone were to ask God, 'what did that person do?', His response would be "Who remembers?"  God will not.

Thank you, Lord, that you loved us enough to find a way for us to be with you forever.  Thank you for the amazing sacrifice of your Son, Jesus, so that we can be forgiven, and in that forgiveness, come to you white as snow.  And in His Name, Amen.


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