August 13 - Infinity

     Psalm 103:12 – "As far as the east is from the west, is how far God has removed our sins from us."

     Back in the days of 700 BC, in the Middle East, when someone compared the east versus the west, one probably had in mind a span of only a few hundred miles, as even the traders would not routinely travel much farther on their trade routes. So, in the mind of your average non-traveler, the distance between east and west was very far – far enough for our sins to not be a part of us anymore. If you had taken a long journey, and returned home, all the while leaving something personal behind at your destination, you would have deemed it gone forever. A trek back to retrieve it would take a long time and not worth taking again. That is how we as followers of Jesus should see our sins in the light of Jesus "removing" them from us.

     There is even a greater analogy of east versus west. Now that we can travel around the world in 24 hours, east and west do not seem contrasting at all, at least on the surface. That is, until one looks at the surface of a globe. If one starts anywhere on the earth and travels northward, he will eventually reach the north pole and start heading southward. The opposite is also true. If one heads south, he will eventually start heading north after reaching the south pole. The east-west traversal, however, is not the same. Even if one heads east, and goes all the way around the world to his starting point, if he continues in the same direction, he will still be heading east, and will forever be heading east. Therefore, the theoretical distance between east and west is infinity, because if one is always heading east, west is never reached. What an awesome picture of Jesus removing our sins when we give our lives in submission to him!  

August 12 - Reminders

      2 Peter 1:12-15 – "So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. I will make every effort to see that after my departure, you will always be able to remember these things."  
      2 Peter 3:1 – "Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking."  NIV, © 1973

      I use to work for a government agency in the operations division, which meant that there was round-the-clock work. This also meant that the work shifts were only eight hours. Work breaks were designated due to this structure. Every day around 2:45, I would take my afternoon 15-minute break. My usual custom was to read my Bible while on break. One day, a middle-aged man asked me why I read my Bible every day. I told him that I needed to remind myself how to think and act.

      Peter, in his second letter, tells his audience that he is reminding them of things that they already knew, because they were deeply rooted in the truth. If deeply-rooted Christians needed to be reminded, how much more so new Christians in the faith!

I think that Peter recognized what a later hymn-writer would pen in "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing": "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love." I think that one reason for that penchant to wander is that we do not remind ourselves daily of the promises of God, our standing in his family, or what God requires of us daily. We need to discipline ourselves in reminding ourselves!

      Jeremiah 17:9 says that the human heart is deceitful above all things. Paul reminds us in I Cor. 10:12 – "If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall". Jesus reminds us in several places to "be on our guard" – Matt 16:11,12; Matt. 10:17; Luke 21:36, e.g. These verses are given to us as warnings; reminding ourselves how to think and act will help in avoiding these pitfalls.

      So, don't forget to remind yourself daily of the truths in God's word.