Once
again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into
the depths of the ocean! -- Micah 7: 19 (NLT)
We raise our hands on Sundays across this country and sing about such Christian concepts as freedom yet so often we miss the mark in our own lives. There is always a big difference between singing about how things are supposed to be and living how things are supposed to be. The abstract is always easier for us. But Jesus said that He came that we might have life more abundantly, now. I am afraid sometimes that Christians think eternal life is something waiting for them after they die. Will heaven be better than this existence? Absolutely, but that does not mean we are relegated to a menial or miserable life until Jesus comes. We are supposed to be more than conquerors. We are supposed to be over-comers. We are supposed to walk above the storms of our life. Yet so often we remained shackled in this life. Iron restraints around our ankles, preventing us from enjoying the freedom Christ died to appropriate for us. One of the shackles the devil likes to convince us to use is our past.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old
has gone, the new is here! -- 2Corinthians 5: 17 (NIV)
We hear this verse all the time
but do we truly live it? Are we the new creation God has called us to be? Has
the old really gone? Or do we cling to the old? Do we walk up to the altar at
every prayer meeting begging for God to take it from us only to clamp the cold
iron around our ankle and hobble back to our pew? In the key verses from the
Prophet Micah we see a reminder of the limitless grace of the God we serve. A
God whose compassion is not fleeting or capricious like ours. A God who not
only forgives our sins but tramples them! A God who then takes the sins of our
past and throws them into the depths of the ocean!
But we have too many fishing
Christians. Too many Christians who love to sit by the ocean of their past and
cast their rod into the depths. See what is biting today. I guarantee you that
if we go fishing for trouble, we will always catch it. If we go fishing in our
past, the fish will always be biting. That is because the enemy loves nothing
more than to make us ineffectual for the work God has for us to do today and we
cannot concentrate on today if we are living in yesterday.
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold
of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what
is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which
God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. -- Philippians 3: 13-14 (NIV)
If anyone had some past sins to
dwell on, it was the Apostle Paul. He once presided over the deaths of Christians,
including Stephen, the first martyr. He persecuted the church. He was a sworn
enemy of Jesus until Christ visited him on that
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called
an apostle, because I persecuted the
Paul remembers what his past was.
He remembers his former life and the sins it entailed. But he does not use it
to shackle himself but rather -- to glorify God! This is the true message of
grace. The sins of our past should be remembered only to bring glory to God for
His great mercy and grace. There would be far less arrogance and pride in
modern Christianity if we would simply remember where God found us. But for the
grace of God go I. The precious blood of Jesus Christ shed on
So we need to put down the
fishing pole today. God did not cast your sins of yesterday into the ocean so
you could go dig them back up again. The Bible says we should not walk under
any condemnation. When the devil reminds you about your past -- you need to
remind him of his future! When the devil tries to throw something in my face
from my past -- my response is always how great is the God I serve that He was
able to cover that sin and no longer hold me guilty of it! But preacher, you
don't know my past"I do not have to! Could it be worse than the Apostle Paul?
We look at the characters in the Bible sometimes as abstract veggie-tale
figures. These were real people and God used them. God took his number one
human enemy in Saul of Tarsus and transformed him into Paul, who would go onto
evangelize the entire known world and write three quarters of the New
Testament! Saul could not become Paul however if he lived in his sinful guilt
ridden past. He could only become Paul by straining towards the future.
The same goes for us today as
well. Wherever this writing finds you -- if you continue to be haunted by your
past then you need to embrace these truths today and take those shackles off
your feet. Put your fishing pole down. If God is not going to hold it against
you -- why are you? Forgiveness is quite often the most difficult when dealing
with forgiving ourselves. There is absolutely NOTHING we can do about what has
past; other than learn from it. God has a future for you to press on to; if you
would just come out of your past and strain towards God. No more fishing
beloved.
Rev. Anthony.
