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Refreshment in Refuge

    by Gina Burgess

There art we happy!
Date Posted: August 25, 2013

The LORD forgives the past. His great compassion is far beyond understanding. If we were to be asked to give our first and only beloved son to pay for the lives of the most wicked of people who had nothing worthy to give back, our hearts would be granite and our faces would be flint. Yet, God has mercy for us because while we were yet sinners, Christ willingly died for us. Below is the Biblical proof of it.

Hebrews 10:17 “their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.”

Here’s an exercise. Fill in the blanks below.

Jeremiah 31:34 And they shall no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Jehovah. For I will __________their iniquity, and I will _________________ their sins no more.

Isaiah 38:17 Behold, for peace was bitter to me, most bitter; but You loved my soul from the pit of destruction; You have cast all my ____________ behind Your back.

Isaiah 54:10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills tremble; My loving kindness shall not __________ from you, nor shall the covenant of My peace be shaken, says Jehovah who loves you.

What happens to our past moral and spiritual failures when we repent of our sins and claim God’s forgiveness? Have you ever had an itch right in the middle of your back? Ever try to scratch it with your hand? That is where God casts our sins when we confess and repent, never to be reached, touched or thought of again by Him. He will never reproach us for them ever again. Glory!

Christians have a skewed vision of ourselves and of God. We think we are worthless and unworthy of His attention. We Christians do not believe that God can, in fact already has forgiven that horrendous sin that we keep hidden in our hearts. That vision is a rather arrogant perception and actually reflects an attitude of “bigger than God”. When we think that way, we are basically saying to God Jesus’ death wasn’t good enough to cover our sinful acts.

Holding on to the sin is tantamount to making Jesus go to the cross all over again. That is what unbelief does. Since we know He only went once, and that was enough, then we should know that those guilty feelings which Satan aims at us as fiery darts are literally harmless breaths of hot wind. They have no teeth or thorns, it is merely baying at the moon. Unless, of course, we give him the power to shame us, and permission to judge our guilt, then we are stepping squarely into his guilt trap.

Since our Kinsman Redeemer has already bought the sin, why do we insist on hanging on to it?

Unbelief.

I can hear you say, “But, I do believe.”

Remember the father whose son had epileptic fits and he asked Jesus to help his son “if you will.” Jesus told him everything is possible for the one who believes. The father replied, “I believe. Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9)

Unbelief creeps up on the most faithful.

It isn’t hard to do, either. Even Moses, who was the conveyor of such miracles of God as the parting of the Red Sea, the providing of water for more than two million thirsty people, plus all the livestock (which is an astronomical amount of water every day); and let us not forget the forty-year-old shoes and garments which never wore out plus many other things, even Moses had a moment of unbelief and anger which cost him the promised land. Numbers 20:10-12. He struck the rock twice instead of speaking to it. God said it was his unbelief that caused it. It would be more than a millennium before his feet touched Beulah Land at the transfiguration spoken of in Matthew 17:3, Mark 9:4, and Luke 9:30.

Here are most beautiful words to any Christian who has had those moments of knee-bending, face-in-the-carpet shame: You will no longer remember your disgrace.

Why did God say that? Because we have a conscience and we are prone to dwell on the negative. The saying one bad apple spoils the whole barrel is true. Negativism breeds and multiplies faster and further than anything imaginable. Just look at the murmuring and rumbling of the Israelites in the wilderness. When you get that old Dragon, the Accuser firing guilt tipped darts at the chinks in your armor; you have a problem of unforgiveness of the self-kind.

Here is the central truth, and Paul said it best:

Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead

Of course it isn’t easy to do. It is why Paul continually speaks of working in the Lord, running the race, and persevering. It is doable because we possess that greatest treasure of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and we possess the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). There art we happy!

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"Refreshment in Refuge" from Gina Burgess

The Servant Leader

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Biography Information:

Gina Burgess has taught Sunday School and Discipleship Training for almost three decades. (Don't tell her that makes her old.) She earned her Master's in Communication in 2013.

She is the author of several books including: When Christians Hurt Christians, The Crowns of the Believers and others available in online bookstores. She authors several columns, using her God-given talent to shine a light in a dark world. You can browse her blog at Refreshment In Refuge.

If you'd like to take a look at some Christian fiction and Christian non-fiction book reviews check out Gina's book reviews at Upon

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