8/15/13:

TFTD: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

“Do you pack-rat pain? Amass offenses? Record slights? A tour of your heart might be telling. A pile of rejections stockpiled in one corner. Accumulated insults filling another. Images of unkind people lining the wall, littering the floor.” This quote out of Max Lucado’s book Everyday Deserves a Chance is one that is kind of a smack in the face. How often do we find ourselves, when dealing with our friends, relatives, or coworkers, realize that we are still holding a grudge against someone and haven’t let ourselves forgive them because we are too hurt by whatever happened. Imagine what God’s heart would look like if He would keep all of our records right out in the open. First of all, we would never be forgiven because there are so many sins lining the walls that we couldn’t get past, and second of all we couldn’t get into heaven because the whole place would be filled with stacks and stacks of our records that there would be no place for us anyway.

            Thankfully God isn’t like that. Sure He has a record of everything we have done wrong, but it had an asterisk by it. That asterisk says this: PAID IN FULL. Paul does an awesome job of reminding us that nothing in the entire world, regardless of what it is or what you have done, can separate us from the love of our God. There is nothing that you can say, think, or do that can’t have that asterisk put next to it. Christ paid in full for our transgressions so that we don’t have to. All we have to do is ask for forgiveness and BLAM! The sin is wiped clean. Gonzo. Nada. There are no piles left anywhere or visible records to be seen. There is nothing left to ever keep us from spending eternity in heaven!

“I have never found any way to undo what Christ has done.”- Ben Haden