Yes, God does forget

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…. for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:34

No game safari would be complete without at least one encounter with elephants. The massive African elephant and the slightly smaller Asian elephant enjoy the distinction of being the largest land mammals on earth with life spans that can reach 70 years. These gentle yet powerful creatures move about the land gracefully and majestically. The beautiful creatures also have a remarkable memory that gives us the saying, “An elephant never forgets.” According to a 7-year Kenya study, the matriarch passes her knowledge on to other members of the herd. Additional studies revealed that as an elephant ages, its memory improves.

I’m sure San Francisco resident Stefan Thomas would have welcomed an elephantine memory when he couldn’t remember the password to access a secure hard drive that contained 7,002 bitcoins valued at approximately $220 million. Forgetfulness is a common problem with 39% of Americans having forgotten or misplaced at least one everyday item in the past week according to a Trending Machine national poll.

We are not surprised when we forget things but what about God? How could God, who is omniscient, forget anything? How could God who created all things, forget anything? How could God who knows our inner thoughts, forget anything?

It is no surprise that God forgives us of our sins. Scripture tells us that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9).

We can have confidence that God forgives but forgets? When it comes to our sins, God has total amnesia. “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Hebrews 10:17. “I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.” Isaiah 43:25(NLT) “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8:12

It is amazing to think that God chooses to forget. In that moment of forgiveness, God also chooses to forget. God chooses not to keep bringing up our past. God chooses not to throw our mistakes and failures back into our faces. God chooses to maintain a relationship with us that is new and fresh each day.

Unfortunately, the one who can’t forget is yourself. Knowing we are forgiven doesn’t seem to be quite enough. We choose to carry the baggage of our past until the weight breaks us from enjoying the beauty of forgiveness. Yes, you will remember but “remember your sin redemptively.”

“We are not capable of forgetting. The memory of a difficult event will always be with us. But we can choose to remember in a redemptive manner. We can remember the event as a time of real pain but also as a testimony of God’s forgiveness and grace. We will always remember our mistakes, but we can also remember that they led to healing.” (James Bryan Smith)

Could it be that Peter stood at the water’s edge reflecting on how Jesus pulled him from the waters of his fear? Could it be the woman caught in adultery walked by the temple spot of her condemnation reflecting on Jesus’ words of grace and healing? Could it be that Paul again walked the road to Damascus but remembered the gift of salvation he received?

Could it be now as you look back you remember “that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Cor 5:17NLT)

God is great,

Until the End

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The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I; send me!” Isaiah 6:4-5,8

“Send me” is the only response Isaiah can make. In this moment of complete surrender, Isaiah said he would go. In this moment of total worship, Isaiah knew he had to say yes. In this moment of overwhelming emotion of his own sinfulness, Isaiah said yes.

If you had been standing there, would you have said yes, “send me”?

The call of God hasn’t changed over the generations. He still calls us to go into this world that needs Him. We may be called to the marketplace where we encounter the lost. For some of us the call is to the ends of the world, to other cultures and people groups. Granted the call for most people will never be quite as dramatic as it was for Moses, David, Peter, Paul or Isaiah but the impact will still be Kingdom changing.

Sitting in the Regal Cinema watching the Mission Aviation Fellowship documentary “Ends of the Earth,” I couldn’t help but think, God is still asking the same question, “who will go?”  “It’s a mysterious part of the gospel that says God loves the people at the very edge of what the world thinks matters, the people who are marginalized. You know, even among Christians there’s a kind of calculation about return on investment (ROI) and “bang for our buck.” You hear this with mission work too. But we can’t really approach this from an ROI perspective. The gospel is costly. Jesus comes and he gives his life so we can have life. And he’s the shepherd who goes after the one lost sheep.” David Holsten, Pres MAF

The gospel is costly in so many ways. It puts you in the crosshairs of our secular culture. The cost will require you to sacrifice time and energy. For some such as MAF pilot, Joyce Lin who was killed in a plane crash in Papua, Indonesia. Her yes to “send me” cost her life. In Haiti this week, 17 missionaries were kidnapped. Their yes to “send me” is a loss of freedom and maybe worst.

Your yes to “send me” will cost you. Will the cost be worth it?  Isaiah doesn’t ask what he will suffer, his only question, “How long, O Lord?” God’s answer: forever. Isaiah doesn’t think, he simply says, “send me”. Frederick Buechner writes, “And that is what a prophet does for a living and, starting from the year that King Uzziah died, when he saw and heard all these things, Isaiah went and did it.”

A young coal miner from Iowa said yes to God’s call. George Bennard became an itinerant missionary and preacher. When he was interrupted and harassed in a service by those mocking the cross, it caused Bennard to think deeply about Christ and the Cross. As he meditated on the meaning of the cross, six initial words “I’ll cherish the old rugged cross” birthed the hymn, “The Old Rugged Cross.”

Our yes to “send me” will cost us something. Our yes to “send me” will look different from anyone else’s yes. Yet in the end, our yes will be worth it. The words from the final verse of Bennard’s hymn says it well:

“To the old rugged cross I will ever be true; its shame and reproach gladly bear;

Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away, Where His glory forever I’ll share.

 So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged cross, And exchange it some day for a crown.”

Use me Lord to the end. Let others see you in me. Give me eyes to see, ears to hear your call in my life. Fall fresh on me. Fall fresh on me. Amen

God is great,

 

Would your faith be made easier by having a Lord you could see?

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Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. Hebrews 11:1-3

Would your faith be made easier by having a Lord you could see?

Over the years the people of Israel had experienced a rhythm of revival and regression, domination and defeat. Finally, they had an answer for all their problems, we want a king! They had God but how much better it would have been if they had a flesh and blood king like all the neighboring nations.  Instead of listening to the prophet Samuel’s warnings about what it would be like to live under a king, “the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! but we are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.” (I Samuel 8:19-20)

“Yahweh alone was King over Israel, the prophets thundered: to be feared, to be loved, above all else to be obeyed. When the people decided they wanted a king of flesh and blood like all the other nations, Samuel warned them that the consequences would be tragic (1 Samuel 8:4-18), and history proved him correct in every particular. In the long run Israel as king and kingdom vanished from history altogether.” (Frederick Buechner)

Mark Buchanan tells the story of musician Ray Charles who went blind at age seven. “He lived his childhood in rural poverty, in a one-room shack at the edge of a sharecropper’s field. In the movie about him, in a scene from his childhood, he runs into his house and trips over a chair. He starts to wail for his mother. She stands at the stove, right in front of him, and instinctively reaches out to lift him. Then she stops. Backs up. Stands still. Watches.

Ray stops crying. He quiets. He listens. He hears, behind him, the water on the woodstove whistling to a boil. He hears, outside, the wind pass like a hand through cornstalks. He hears the thud of horse hooves on the road, the creak and clatter of the wagon they pull. Then he hears, in front of him, the thin faint scratch of a grasshopper walking the worn floorboards of his mama’s cottage. He inches over and, attentive now to every sigh and twitch, gathers the tiny insect in his hand. He holds it in his open palm. “I hear you, too, Mama,” he says. She weeps with pride and sorrow and wonder.” Charles later explains to someone, “I hear like you see.”

To “hear like you see” beautifully describes the faith that allows us to see beyond our physical realm of life. You may think “flesh and blood” answers will solve all the problems but they seldom do. Living a God-focused faith allows you to hear like others see. It allows you to enter deeper into the heart of God than any physical senses can ever take you. Living a God-focused faith allows us to see what others will never see.

Israel looked for their answers in a flesh and blood king but was quickly disappointed. Today we look for answers in “flesh and blood” solutions. If only this political party could be elected, they would solve all our nation’s problems. If only our elected officials would act boldly against neighboring countries. If only…. becomes the “flesh and blood king” that never can provide a future.

Would your faith be made easier by having a Lord you could see? Without a doubt but the great thing, we have that LORD.

He is called Jesus-Immanuel; God is with us. He is called “Our Father” who provides for us, forgives us, and leads us.  He is called Jesus-the Good Shepherd. He is called Jesus-the Resurrection and the Life. He is our Advocate.

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you—the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. –Psalm 121

God is great,

 

 

Your Treasure Chest

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Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Matthew 6:19-21 (NLT)

“How much money is enough?” John D. Rockefeller responded to the reporter’s question with his answer, “Just a little bit more.” Rockefeller would amass a fortune becoming the first billionaire in the United States before his death at 97. Yet I think Rockefeller fully understood the “little bit more” could not be held onto for eternity. Rockefeller who daily read his Bible, attended prayer meetings twice a week and led a Bible study along with his wife understood the temporary status of his treasure. A lot of his giving was church-related; generous to Baptist missionary causes, funding universities and social ministries.

What is the value you place on your treasures? Rockefeller used the wealth entrusted to him “where moths and rust cannot destroy.” Unfortunately, we often don’t realize the real value of something until it is gone. It could be something material or lost intimacy with a family member or a relationship with God. An antiques enthusiast in Connecticut could easily relate to Jesus’ parable in Matthew; “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (13:44)

The antiques hunter came across an interesting looking porcelain bowl at a yard sale in New Haven, Connecticut paying $35 for the bowl. The buyer did some research and found out the bowl was a 15th century Ming Dynasty-era piece. The yard sale $35 bowl ended up selling for $721,800 at a Sotheby action. Angela McAteer with Sotheby said it was a once in a lifetime discovery. McAteer said, “How the bowl ended up at a Connecticut yard sale remains a mystery. It’s possible it was passed down through generations of the same family who did not know how unique it was.”

How easy do you discard your treasure? A 64-year-old man in southeast Germany found two framed paintings in a roadside dumpster. The paintings were actually 17th century original portraits by Italian artist Pietro Bellotti and Dutch artist Samuel van Hoogstraten. The police launched an investigation on how two priceless artifacts ended up in the trash can. I am pretty certain that whoever threw out the two paintings had no idea of their real value.

Time after time Jesus confronted the religious leaders of the day because they repeatedly rejected the precious gift of God’s love replacing it with worthless rituals and requirements. “The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure.” (Matthew 12:35)

Do we discard the real treasure of a friendship over a heated argument about politics? Do we discard the real treasure of a church family because of a disagreement over an issue? Do we discard the real treasure of a relationship with God because He didn’t answer a prayer the way we though He should?

In Star Winar, a most interesting article was posted on the relationship between happiness and treasure. “The most remarkable research is one done between the world’s richest and world’s poorest.  Forbes 400 “richest” list was given a survey and their satisfaction was rated at exactly the same level as did the people of Masai of Kenya and Intuit people of northern Greenland, who have no electricity or running water.

Money is a necessity to live but apparently it can’t buy happiness and that’s for you to decide.  And as the old saying goes, “Money can buy you a house but it can’t buy you a home.”

Regardless of the size of our bank account, our 401k or the square footage of our house; the real treasure is “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians that “we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.” There is nothing wrong with earthly treasures if you hold them loosely. The real treasure you need to guard and hold tightly is the treasure of heaven found in Jesus Christ. One writer asked the question, “What do others see in you—the glory of God in a clay pot, or a clay pot trying to look like a treasure chest?’

God is great,