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Leap of Faith Poetry's DEVOTIONAL READING #2 The Closet of Forgiven Sins	Creator of fine gifts and cards since 1989	Julie Schwartz
	Author, Artist, Calligrapher
	Who's Who in Poetry
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	Golden Poet Award Winner
In the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob a man was forgiven for a sin if he sacrificed a specific animal or group and quantity of livestock. It may have been a cow or several cows, sheep, goats, or birds. It might have required a combination of these animals. The guilty person would take the most perfect animals from his herd to the temple to be sacrificed by the priest. If he had no perfect animals, he had to go out and purchase them for the sacrifice. He felt the results of seeking forgiveness because, in order to erase the sin, he had to make a sacrifice - he had to give up something of value. In some ways, we have a more difficult time with forgiveness than they did because our forgiveness is free. We aren’t providing the sacrifice. Someone else has filled our fields with an endless supply of perfect animals (so to speak). We don’t personally feel the loss. This can make it hard at times to feel forgiven.... difficult to accept that our sins have really been erased and are gone forever --- deleted from the hard drive and permanently removed from the memory. But that is God’s promise to us. God promises us that when we confess our sins -- our mistakes in judgment and our failure to obey His commands -- that He removes that sin forever, casting it out, away from Him into eternity, as far as East is from West. The question then is, can we cast it as far? When we are feeling low and unforgivable, we open the door to the Closet of Forgiven Sins, and out tumbles our sin. When we are at our lowest, the sin jumps up like a boxing glove, and gives us a right cross to the jaw. Then after that, every time we are feeling low and our self-worth is shaken or we are faced with the ugliness of our sinful nature, those boxing glove sins jump up and start beating us again. We cry out to God to forgive us and to rid us of our sin, and He says, “What sin? I forgave that sin long ago as I promised I would.” We ask ourselves why, then, it is still here hurting us. But it’s not the real sin, it is a false copy. And who do you think has brought it to life? The one who doesn’t want you to forget... the one who wants you to feel unworthy, to feel separated from God. When we sin, a wide and deep chasm opens up, separating us from God. But God’s forgiveness is the bridge that brings us together again, and the sacrifice that makes it possible is His Lamb -- the perfect sacrifice that will last for eternity. So the next time you re-visit an old sin, remember what wolf is making you feel unforgivable. Then praise God for His Bridge! "And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word..." (Numbers 14:20) "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12) READ ALL OUR DEVOTIONS: A New Year The Closet of Forgiven Sins There's More to Me... Stained Blessing, not Burden My Father Who are Your Giants? Copyright © 1989-2008 Julie Schwartz
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