[pebbles-Nibbles]

There is a natural law, which allows one to look at a dark-red rose through a crimson glass, and we see it as white as snow. Try it sometime. You will be surprised and delighted.

The same law operates in the plan of salvation, for God, looking at you and me through the precious blood of Christ, does not see our sin-stained past. He sees only the purity of His own dear Son. (Read 1 John 1:9) The moment we fulfill the conditions of that text we are justified before God. We are cleansed in His sight.

In the experience of justification, God forgets the man I was. This was fully demonstrated in the life of King David. All who know David can name his sins. No man, of course could sin so grievously before the Lord without have a very troubled conscience. If you want to know how deeply repentant David was, read Ps. 51. No person could have been sorrier for his sins than he. He new he had dishonored his Maker, and felt separated from Him. Now he prays for restoration of the joy of salvation, asking God to purge him, cleanse him, and renew a right spirit within him.

Did God hear that prayer? He did. David regained fellowship with his Maker. His new-found faith is well described in Ps 116: “I love the Lord because He hath heard my voice…Yes, our God is merciful…. For Thou has delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my fee from falling.”

In 1 Kings 14:7, 8 God indicates what He thought of David after his death. “Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made the prince over My people Israel, and rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and yet thou has not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments, and who followed Me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in Mine eyes.”

What do we read here? The truth that God had forgotten David’s sin! He had kept His promise. When he thought of David, He said, “David was perfect before God. He was in God’s sight as if he had never sinned. That is the gospel of justification by faith.

EGW says, "If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as yoru lfie may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ's character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned." Steps to Christ, pg 62

Friends, do you want to forget your past? Knowing that someday all must give an account of their actions before God in judgment, would you like to have yoru past cleansed by the blood of Christ? Would you like to have a new start in Him this year--to be justified and appear henceforth int he sight of God as one who has never sinned? You may have that glorious experience now.

O wanderer, in that far, far land,
From God still fugitive.
Turn homeward where thy Father waits
Today, look up and live.

Though mighty famine grips the soul,
By sin's dark narrative,
The eyes of love still watch for thee
So now, look up and live.

Thy Father sends His word of love.
That word? "I do forgive."
O famished heart, come home, come home.
Just now, look up and live.


Father in heaven, I have learned that Thou art merciful, lving and kidn to those who are in need of Thy pardoning love. Lord, I need Thy forgiveness. Like the prodigal of old, I have sinned against Thee and my fellow men. I am not worthy of forgiveness, but Thou has promised in Thy Word that if we confess, Thou wilt forgive. Please forgive for all my past, and help me from henceforth to be a worthy child of You. Gove me grace and strength to live a life pleasing to Thee, I pray in Jesus' precious name. Amen.