East To West...A LONG Way!

Good morning, and Happy Friday! I love Fridays...the entire weekend stretched out before me (and a long one this weekend)...nothing to get ready for...no where to be....the livin' is easy!

We had Bible Study last night - what a blessing it was! We discussed lots and lots of great stuff, but this morning just one thing is sticking in my head....East to West. The Bible tells us that He has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west. We talked about just how far away that is.

One person suggested that it was a distance equal to the circumference of the globe since you have to go all the way around the planet to get from the east to the west.

But then...what happens when you get all the way around? You're still not there! You have to start all over again because if you are in the east, the west is always...west of where you are. You never truly get there!

So the conclusion? INFINITY. Even if you tried to get there...even if you traveled at the speed of light...and you traveled forever and ever and ever...you would never get there. Never. Ever. Never Ever Never Ever Never Ever Amen!

Now that is a long way away!

But really, would we expect anything else? God Himself...God...the maker of the heavens and earth...the One who exists outside of time...who has angels serving Him and worshiping him...who, I must say, has it pretty easy up there in His kingdom...GOD. God came to earth and was human. He experienced all the pain and suffering that you and I experience. And he did it knowing that in the end he'd be killed in the most brutal and torturous way possible. And as He hung on that cross, He knew full well that He had the power to simply get down. He chose to hang on that cross and suffer...for us. Can you imagine the love it took for Him to do that? He did it for the precise reason of removing our sins from us.

Now, if God went through all of that to remove our sins...I gotta believe those sins are just flat...GONE. He's not going to do all of that to remove them half way, or most of the way, or sometimes. They are gone. All of them. Forever.

That's something that I know I couldn't do for myself. Sure glad He did it for me. How 'bout you?

I'm going to try and meditate on this east to west thing today. I'm afraid that I'm guilty of dredging up old sins so that I can feel guilty about them (or maybe someone's reminding me of them? someone who might like to steal my joy?). I'm going to try and remember that those sins are gone...I'm going to let it sink in...and I'm going to live like I'm washed clean and a fresh start...a babe just born. Because that's what I am.

That's what I AM. Not because I earned it. Not because I deserve it. Not because I want it. But because God in a human body hung on a cross and said "IT IS FINISHED". I'm gonna believe Him.