Time with Jesus - Saturday, 07
January 2012
God
never forgets anything. He is perfect in every way. For Him to forget would
mean He was not God. In His memory, everything that has happened is known down
to the smallest detail. What is even more amazing is that every detail of what is
still to take place is known down to the minutia. He has known all this from
before the creation of the world. He knows this in a way we cannot even begin
to understand. He knows the instant when we will be born and the instant when we
will die. He knows it totally and completely. He will never forget anything.
God
has another “quality” we need to try and understand. He has absolute and
perfect control of His memory. He can choose not to remember something. It’s
not a matter of Him forgetting. That’s impossible. But He is able to choose not
to remember. Let’s see how it’s put by Jeremiah in his prophetic word
concerning the New Covenant. 33 But this
is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,
declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their
hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34
And no longer shall each one teach his neighbour
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." Jer 31:33-34 ESV
“I
will remember their sins no more.” Note that He chooses not to remember. He
hasn’t forgotten them the way you and I would forget. He transfers these memories
to a “place” in Him where He has decided that they will not be remembered. It’s
a decision He makes. He chooses not to remember. He is able to do so because He
has perfect control of his memory. From our perspective it is the same as
forgetting. We are able to totally rely on this. It follows that from our perspective;
if He chooses not to remember our sins, it is much the same as forgetting them!
For
as long as we are His sons and daughters, He will choose not to remember our
sins and iniquity. If, for some reason, we ever ceased to be His sons or daughters,
He may choose to remember them again. This means that God has graciously
granted His sons and daughters the privilege of influencing His decision to
remember our sins no more.
Today’s
meditation looks at what has taken place historically; the holocaust and the
crucifixion. These historical events have played a major role in the lives of
Christians and Jews. God was present during them both. These details He will
never forget. He says, “I have engraved you on the
palms of my hands”. Isaiah 49:16 GW It’s
possible that Isaiah was referring to the nail prints in the hands of Jesus. To
the best of our knowledge, they are still there.
Blessings
Jim & Phyllida Strickland.
God never forgets
|
O Lord, You
are so different in everything You do.
Forever You
are faithful, consistent, sure and true.
You don’t
forget Your people. They’re never on their own.
It surely is
unthinkable to say they are all alone.
Man persecutes
Your people; he makes a holocaust.
Yet even in
their darkest hour; they never were divorced.
You saw the
rough brutality; The death camps and the pain.
You heard
them calling out to you; they thought they cried in vain.
But never
for an instant were You not present there.
And even in
the gas chambers, they weren’t beyond your care.
They thought
they’d been deserted; that You had let them down;
Their skin
was used for lampshades, their bones were even ground;
And
auctioned off as fertiliser. All was stripped away;
Their
clothing and possessions. The theft was just child’s play.
The shoes of
little children were piled up in a heap
And in those
dreadful Nazi camps, all Jewish life was cheap.
Yet all this
is familiar to what occurred that day,
When You
were taken captive and You were led away.
You didn’t
try to fight them You let them do their worst.
They mocked
You and they spat on You. They said that you were cursed.
They beat you
like an animal; they crowned Your head with thorns.
They gambled
for your clothing and gazed at You with scorn.
They nailed
you to a wooden cross and hung You up to die.
And all your
friends could do for You, was hang their heads and cry.
I think the
Nazi’s “lessons”, were based upon that day.
The murder of
Christ Jesus; There was no “better” way;
It was the
right “solution” to obliterate the Jews.
The final
way to deal with, the people whom You choose.
They made
them die of hunger of sickness and disease.
The guards
had their permission to shoot them as they please.
And though
six million perished, they just could not achieve,
Their
ultimate solution. But Lord it made You grieve.
O Lord, You
won’t forget it. It’s etched into Your hands.
There’ll
come a day of judgement in each and every land.
The Love of
God will triumph, when justice is applied.
And You will
see the perpetrators criminally tried.
Lord, thank
you for the statement that you will not forget.
Your memory
is perfect and there is still a debt,
To pay for
what has happened to Jesus and the Jews.
The day will
come when all of them by You will be accused.
And those,
whom You find guilty, will all be led away.
And for all
their atrocities will find they have to pay.
Jim Strickland – Written Saturday 7th January 2012
|
