GOD NEVER FORGETS!

Time with Jesus - Monday, 07 January 2013

Hi all,

Today’s meditation is on the fact that God never forgets anything. We do! We forget things very quickly. There’s a couple of lines in a song from yesterday that said, “You promised that you’d forget me not / But you forgot to remember. The introduction makes this clear. Thank you Lord. Jesus paid the price. Now you don’t need to remember our sins ever again!

Blessings,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Monday, 07 January 2013			Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give
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INTRODUCTION			DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES	GOD NEVER FORGETS!
Honore (Maurice Chevalier) - Mamita (Hermione Gingold) H: We met at nine - M: We met at eight H: I was on time - M: No, you were late H: Ah, yes, I remember it well.     We dined with friends M: We dined alone - H: A tenor sang M: A baritone - H: Ah, yes, I remember it well How good is your memory? We all like to think ours is excellent. For most, it’s wishful thinking. We’d like to have a good one, but somehow, things fade away and get lost in a sea of forgetfulness. Then, when we think we’ve got the picture just right; when we check it out, we find that it wasn’t quite what we thought we had remembered! I’m told that women remember romantic incidents better than men. It depends on the topic, but I find Phyllida and I are both a bit hazy about some incidents. The movie, Gigi made in 1958, featured, among others, Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold. I have a huge romantic, sentimental streak, so I loved the movie. One of my favourite scenes featured Maurice and Hermione reminiscing about a date they had together, many years previously. Maurice’s memory didn’t quite match with Hermione’s. I’ve included some of the lyrics to show the male/female memory “problem”. According to what we see on TV and in the movies, men have terrible memories about special days. He always seems to forget her birthday, wedding anniversary or similar occasion. I’m told that most men forget wedding anniversary dates; because they’re sorry they remembered to turn up that day! God has a wonderful memory. As a child I thought it was a great big machine, something like a super-computer that kept track on anyone and everything. How it worked or who made it I never did find out. Later in life, I started to try and get to know something about God. I found that He is far smarter than any computer! I learned He is infinite. By the way, the universe isn’t infinite. Only God is infinite. The next thing I learned, was that whatever God is, He is infinitely. Thus when we read that God is love, we have to come to grips with the fact that He doesn’t have love. I have love for my wife. But God doesn’t have love, He is love. He doesn’t have justice, He is justice. He is infinite love. He is infinitely merciful. He is infinitely just. Everything He is, He is infinitely. If you could find any “shortage” anywhere in Him, He would not be God. Think about it for a moment. He is infinitely just. This means there is no way He can forgive sin. Sin must be punished. If sin was unpunished He could not be a good God! But He is also infinitely merciful. Now God does not fight an internal battle with His righteousness and His mercy. Not at all. Because He has all wisdom and all knowledge, He solved our sin problem by bringing His righteous judgement on His Son. He dealt with all sin forever through Jesus’ death on the cross. God also has a perfect memory. God cannot forget. If He could forget, He could not be God. But He does have perfect control over His memory. So He can choose not to remember something. He hasn’t forgotten it; He has decided not to remember. Maurice sang, “Ah yes, I remember it well!” Maurice couldn’t remember. God chooses not to remember. My sins are not forgotten. He’s decided not to remember them. For me, it’s the same as forgetting them! Jim & Phyllida  Strickland			5 No one will be able to oppose you successfully as long as you live. I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will never neglect you or abandon you. 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will help these people take possession of the land I swore to give their ancestors. Joshua 1:5-6 GW 45 Every single good promise that the LORD had given the nation of Israel came true. Joshua 21:45 GW 19 God is not a man, so He does not lie. He is not human, so He does not change His mind. Has He ever spoken and failed to act? Has He ever promised and not carried it through? Numbers 23:19 NLT 9 Understand, therefore, that the LORD your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps His covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes His unfailing love on those who love Him and obey His commands. Deut. 7:9 NLT 4 He causes us to remember His wonderful works. How gracious and merciful is our LORD! 5 He gives food to those who fear Him; He always remembers His covenant. Psalm 111:4-5 NLT 15 Can a woman forget her nursing child? Will she have no compassion on the child from her womb? Although mothers may forget, I will not forget you. 16 I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are always in my presence. Isaiah 49:15-16 GW 17 The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing." Zeph. 3:17 TNIV	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 alone. Man persecutes Your people; he makes a holocaust. Yet even in their darkest hour; they never were divorced. You saw the crude 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; 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, For all their atrocities; they’ll find they have to pay. Jim Strickland  Written 7th January 2012