East and West

          How many things from your past do you remember? You might think that the question is really a dumb question as I don't know the things I have forgotten, therefore, I don't remember them. My thoughts on this is that there are things in our lives that we often remember that are not the most pleasant things in our past but the more unpleasant things. Those unpleasant things seem to plant a picture in our minds which doesn't go away. I can still see the telephone pole being split in two by a lightning strike even though I was being held in my mother's arms at that moment. Then, there are those things which I have done in my life that I wish I could have done over again or take back, but you can't seem to make it work out. There are those phrases you said when you put your mouth in motion before you put your brain in gear and you said something that you wish you had not said as it caused some hurt in the life of the one to whom you were speaking. There are the occasions of the fits of temper that you wish you had not done, but you did. Those things seem to pop up now and then when the memories are triggered. Many sins are like that as you can't forget them but you hope that you at least can learn from them and not do them again. Psalm 103:12 says, “ As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us”

        It is a great comfort to know about how God forgives our sins. We know from the Bible that the Lord Jesus Christ paid for all of our sins and not just a part of them. We know that the list is wiped clean by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and we know that God has put them in a place where they have been forgotten and He doesn't bring them up again. The above verse of Scripture has always been a great comfort for me in the sense that north and south will meet each other. You can walk north for approximately 12,000 miles and then, without turning around, you will be walking south for another 12,000 miles. North and South meet at the poles of the earth, but East and West will never meet. You can walk the complete distance of 24,000 miles and still be walking east or west. There are no East poles or West poles. When God wrote the words east and west we know that it is in infinity as the two will never meet. As usual, the Word of God is explicit and shows us what God intended by what He said and the words that He chose. He has moved my transgressions as far away as the east is from the west. My feeble mind cannot comprehend just how far that is. When I think of this passage I can only thank and praise God for what He has done in regard to my transgressions. The Lord Jesus Christ made a final statement from the cross at Calvary when He said, “It is finished.” The meaning of that phrase is that the price was paid in full. That means that He paid the price for past sins and future sins. They were all under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know this fact yet we still remember many of those sins that took place in our life time. Our hope is however, in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. When your memory throws out one of your past sins, just remember that God has put them so far away that they are gone forever, as far as the east is from the west. Praise God today for payment for all of our sins, the sins of all of the yesterdays, the sins of today and all of the sins from the tomorrows that are left. Truly, Jesus paid it all.