Category: Mercy

I don’t know how it is for students today, but when I was growing up, we heard all about the permanent record. And that phrase — this will go on your permanent record — was never intended to be good news. At least, not when it was said to me.

Which is why, somewhere deep within the historical archives in the hallowed halls of the Oklahoma Educational system, there can be found a thick manila folder with my name on it, containing a document listing all the misdeeds of my childhood years. Every time I ran down the hallway, or stuffed gum into the water fountain, or scuffled on the playground — it’s all there.

Everyone knows about the permanent record (thanks now to social media) and we quite naturally assume that God maintains such a file on each of us — as if he documents our every sin.

Except he doesn’t.

And he goes out of his way to let us know. As the psalmist said…

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? (Psalm 130:3)

I like how he says O Lord twice in one sentence, to underline just how dreadful it would be. David understood that if such a list did exist, none of us could stand.

For this reason God emphasizes again and again throughout his Word that when he forgives, he lets it go. The prophet Micah said…

You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:19)

And in the book of Isaiah, God has said…

“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” (Isaiah 43:25)

Listen to what God is saying: There is no permanent record.

When you’re forgiven, the slate is clean.

Today’s memo was adapted from Steve’s message Almost Too Good To Be True, originally published at PreachingLibrary.com

Patrick Henry, whose primary contribution to the history books is the phrase “Give me liberty or give me death,” made another statement that appears in a number of quotation collections.

He said, “I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.”

Repeat this before an audience and you’ll see heads nod in agreement. It has the ring of good common sense.

Be careful, though. This axiom might be true when applied to politics or history or investing, but it provides a lousy foundation in other areas of life.

And it certainly doesn’t reflect the way God relates to us.

God gives a chance to let go of the past and start over — each and every day. Jeremiah wrote…

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

God doesn’t judge our future by our past. He didn’t do it with David or Moses or Peter or Paul or countless other Bible characters. And he doesn’t do it with you.

He does not treat us as our sins deserve. (Psalm 103:10)

Every day meets us brand new. A good way to start the day with God is to remember that you’ve just been given new mercies — the opportunity to begin this day with a clean slate.

This is also a good way to begin the day with others. God doesn’t allow the past to stand in the way of your future; let’s give the same gift to one another.

It was a spiritual turning point for me when I decided to take God at his Word. It was two words, actually: Never and Every. In Lamentations 3:22-23 …

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.

When I most wanted to give up, when I was all but convinced that God would surely give up on me, I decided to believe that the words never and every are true.

NEVER. His love never runs out. Neither his mercy. And by the way, in the original Hebrew, the word translated never means never.

EVERY. His mercy is new every morning. Like this is Day One.

This means that you can open your eyes each new day in a right relationship with God, if that’s what you want. Not because you were perfect yesterday, but because this day, like every day, he extends his mercy brand new, to all who dare to ask. Just like Lamentations says.

Thank God for never and every.

You’ve seen Titanic, no doubt. And you remember when Rose lets the Heart of the Ocean slip into the depths of the sea.

As the priceless jewel drifts slowly to the bottom, you know without being told that it’s gone forever. Never to be recovered. The ocean is far too immense, and the diamond — though of great value — is far too small.

It’s the same with your sins. When you bring them to God, he tosses them into the sea, where they sink to the bottom and disappear into the ocean floor. No matter what you think their price should be.

Still, we have a habit of diving after them, reliving the shame and feeling again the pain that sin has brought into our lives.

That’s how the accuser makes his living — he comes around from time to time to remind you of your past: “I’ll never let you forget. I’ll make sure you remember your sins forever.”

That’s what the accuser says, but God has said about your sins: “They’re gone. They’re lost in the deep blue sea. And I will remember them no more.”

He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:19)

Today we can celebrate God’s forgiveness, deeper than the ocean, farther than the east is from the west, greater than our sin.

Today’s post is from a message featured at Preaching Library.

Forgive and Forget. We know that these two words belong together.

To forgive is just a matter of choice. To forget is often a matter of several choices, because it might be necessary to “forget” more than once.

Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was confronted one day with the memory of a betrayal she had experienced years before, but she acted as if she had never heard of the incident.

A friend asked her, “Don’t you remember what that person did?”

“No,” Clara Barton said. “I distinctly remember forgetting it.”

It may be that today you need to make the intentional choice (more than once) to remember to forget an offense that has come your way … just as God has chosen to forget our own offenses.

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. (Isaiah 43:25)

Today, make it a point to remember to forget.

In November 1930 the Chicago Examiner reported the story of Harry Havens, who went to bed and stayed there for seven years, with a blindfold over his eyes.

Why did he do it?

Because he was angry at his wife.

Havens (as he told it) had always tried to be a good husband. He worked around the house, took care of the yard, carried out the trash, and even helped with the dishes.

One day his wife complained that he wasn’t doing it right. At that precise moment, Harry decided that enough was enough.

“All right, if that’s how you feel, I’m going to bed,” he said.  “I’ll stay there for the rest of my life and I don’t want to see you ever again.”

Harry put on his pjs, got under the covers, put a blindfold over his eyes, and settled in.

He finally got back up when the bed started to feel uncomfortable…seven years later.

The article’s headline states, Man Spites His Wife By Staying Blindfolded in Bed Seven Years.

Maybe his self-imposed exile did get on her nerves somewhat, but who did Harry really spite? Who was the biggest loser in this extended temper tantrum?

It was Harry himself, of course. He lost seven years of his life. He lived seven years in darkness.

That means no reading. No walks in the sunshine. No laughter with friends. Just seven long, miserable years trying to settle a score that was probably never settled.

The writer of Hebrews said…

See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. (Hebrews 12:15)

Bitterness can damage a relationship, true. Most of all, it damages you. It destroys your happiness and peace of mind, and it causes you to miss out on the grace that God offers to each of us.

It reminds me of what Nelson Mandela once said:

“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”

It took Harry Havens seven years to decide that his haven of bitterness felt uncomfortable.

How long will you wait to let your bitterness go?

In 1954, This Week Magazine — with 11 million readers — asked a handful of high profile pastors and theologians a compelling question:

“If, as a result of some cataclysm, it were possible to retain just one passage from the Bible — what would your choice be?”

Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the most respected and influential theologians of the 20th century, chose the following…

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32)

In explanation, he said that this verse “…combines the high point of the Christian ethic, which is forgiving love, with a reference to the whole basic of the ethic, which is the historical revelation in Christ.”

The highest achievement for the believer, you could say, is to forgive others … because forgiveness is the foundation of Christ’s completed work on Calvary:

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. (Ephesians 1:7-8)

God lavished his mercy on us so that we might lavish mercy on others. Let’s not, then, take lightly this command to freely share with others what God has freely given to us.