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Sunday, June 21, 2020

Would you like a do-over?

Have you ever wished you could have a do-over?

Life throws us curve balls, things happen, and we are not satisfied, either with ourself or our circumstances.  Looking back, we may wish we could have grown up in a different place, a different family, perhaps more affluence, better school, etc.  

Of course wishing will never make anything happen.  It is good to review occasionally, even regularly, with a view to managing the path of our future.  If we want to change our future, action will be required.

Let's explore this a little.

What things do we wish had been different?  Here are some ideas:
  • Perhaps home was not a happy place.  We wish we grew up in a different family.
  • Perhaps we grew up in poverty.
  • Maybe school was a bad experience - I'm thing of deeper stuff here than whether or not we liked the classes we took.
  • Maybe we did things, or made choices in the past, that we wish we could change
  • Those words we said to our wife, husband, son or daughter.  We wish we could somehow take them back.
We cannot undo what happened in the past.  

That thing I said twenty years ago, has happened.  I cannot change this fact.  It is indelibly recorded in history.  The choices I made in my history have ongoing repercussions in my present and future.  I would like to keep the good things of my past, but somehow erase the negative things.

You know, such an erasing is possible.  In fact it is offered to each of us.

No matter what the things we have done or said, Jesus stands ready to forgive us.  

"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow" Isaiah 1:18.  
"You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea" Micah 7:19.
"Purge me with hyssop (soap), and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" Psalm 51:7
"As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us" Psalm 103:12
"Repent (turn from your sin) ye therefore, and be converted (changed), that your sins may be blotted out" Acts 3:19

Our sins can be blotted out, because Jesus paid the price for us.  Why don't you pray the following prayer with us?

"Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on a cross for me, so that my sins could be forgiven.  Would you please forgive and blot out my sins.  I welcome you into my life as my Savior and Lord.  In Jesus name, Amen."

When we take this step, Jesus starts to transform our life, giving us purpose and a future, both in this life and the life to come.  Amazing!