_ The Bible is very expressive when it comes to speaking about how God can forgive our sins.
It uses many descriptions to tell us how our sins are both forgiven and forgotten.

Here are some of the great promises:

Our sins are ‘forgiven,’ (Psalm 32:5);
‘washed thoroughly’ and ‘blotted out’ (Psalm 51:2, 9);
‘forgiven and covered’ (Psalm 85:2);
‘washed whiter than snow’ (Isaiah 1:18);
‘taken away’ (Isaiah 6:7);
‘put behind his back’ (Isaiah 38:17);
‘laid on him’ (Isaiah 53:6);
‘remembered no more’ (Jeremiah 31:34);
‘pardoned’ (Jeremiah 33:8);
‘destroyed’ (Romans 6:6);
‘purged’ (Hebrews 1:3)’
‘borne for us’ (1 Peter 2:24);
‘washed away’ (Revelation 1:5).

What glorious news this is! In Christ we are truly forgiven! Our sins are cancelled! God will not hold our guilty past against us!

The prophet Micah has a very dramatic way of telling us this.
He says that God has cast our sins ‘into the depths of the sea’ (7:19).
So how deep is the sea?
Far out in the Western Pacific Ocean, two hundred miles from the island of Guam, lies the deepest part of the earth’s oceans. It is called the Mariana Trench. It is more than 1500 miles long and over 40 miles wide but it is its depth that is awesome. It plunges down into the ocean bed for some 35,800 feet. By comparison, Everest, the world’s highest mountain, is 29,000 feet in

height. That means that the Mariana Trench goes lower into the ocean bed than the peak of Everest stretches up to the clouds. At that frightening depth the pressure from the waters above is more than eight tons to the square inch!

While these geographical facts and figures compel our attention, the theology of our forgiveness is even more wonderful!
When we are ‘in Christ’ as his redeemed people, our sins are truly forgiven. God has thrown them into the depth of the sea, never to be resurrected! They are buried forever in the vast abyss of God’s unfathomable love and mercy.

What great, good news the Gospel brings! Our guilty past is both forgiven and forgotten!
Alan Tuddenham

We celebrate today and through the coming week two great gifts from God. Today is Bible Sunday and today also sees the start of  24/7 Prayer Week. The precious gifts of the bible and of prayer are essentials to provide us with the ‘tools’ we need to live the Christian life.

The bible is a spiritual book, just as prayer is a spiritual activity. To enjoy both requires us to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in the Scriptures and to exercise the opportunity to be in prayerful fellowship with God.

In Acts 17, we read of Paul and Silas’s ministry to the people of Berea. In v11 and 12: ‘ . . . they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed . . . ’

Three things stand out regarding the Bereans, they were willing to learn, to be disciplined and to be obedient.

1.Clearly they were open to God which is why we should pause before we read the Scriptures. We need to be quiet in God’s presence and ask Him to speak to us.

2. We need to be disciplined,  the Bereans examined the Scriptures every day. This is where bible study notes are so helpful in opening up the bible text to us.

3. They were obedient, the bible is not just a book for the curious. The bible is out to change lives, if we are not changed people as a result of our bible reading then something is amiss. We must act when God speaks to us.

There is no doubt in my mind that time spent in God’s presence, with our bibles open before us, is an essential to provide the life-blood to the Christian.

Prayer too is the other source of the Christian’s life-blood. David Watson wrote: ‘Paul the apostle was confident that God would deliver him—yet he asks for prayer. He urged young, inexperienced Christians to pray constantly for the mighty apostle! Even Jesus asked his disciples for their prayers. Why? Again, I don’t know, says David Watson, but I do know that when we pray, God works.’

Now, it’s good to meet with God individually but not exclusively, being with fellow Christians is a great way of learning more about God. Don’t miss the opportunities to pray especially during this 24-7 Prayer Week.

We read in Exodus 33:11, ‘the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to a friend.

Nothing has changed, we have the same opportunities, whether through the scriptures or in prayer we can still hear the Lord speak to us, face to face.
Alan Tuddenham