I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more

Notes of meeting on 19 November 2019

Picture of many sheep and lambs in utter confusion, they seemed to be lost. They were on a rough path leading to a great Light but they were listening to sounds and voices around them enticing them to leave the true path and forage in what seemed more fertile places.
The older sheep kept to the path but some of the lambs went off towards the voices that promised them more lush and verdant pasture. As these lambs left the path some were injured by the very persons tempting them, some were left for dead.
The sheep were panicked but the Light drew them on.
Jesus appeared and He led them into the sheepfold and He bound up and soothed their wounds.
Then He and Our Blessed Mother with her helpers returned to collect the injured and dead lambs. Jesus buried His Head in their fleeces and wept over them and as He brought them into the sheepfold all recovered, even the seemingly dead ones.


I protest once for all, before men and Angels, that sin shall no more have dominion over me. This Lent I make myself God’s own for ever. The salvation of my soul shall be my first concern. With the aid of His grace I will create in me a deep hatred and sorrow for my past sins. I will try hard to detest sin, as much as I have ever loved it. Into God’s hands I put myself, not by halves, but unreservedly. I promise Thee, O Lord, with the help of Thy grace, to keep out of the way of temptation, to avoid all occasions of sin, to turn at once from the voice of the Evil One, to be regular in my prayers, so to die to sin that Thou mayest not have died for me on the Cross in vain. (St John Henry Newman, Meditations and Devotions)


Luke 19 v 1 -10
He entered Jericho and was passing through it. ² A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. ⁵ When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. ⁷ All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” ⁸ Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” ⁹ Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

Jeremiah 31 v 31-37    

³¹ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³² It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. ³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

³⁵ Thus says the Lord,
who gives the sun for light by day
    and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the Lord of hosts is his name:
³⁶ If this fixed order were ever to cease
    from my presence, says the Lord,
then also the offspring of Israel would cease
    to be a nation before me forever.

³⁷ Thus says the Lord:
If the heavens above can be measured,
    and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
then I will reject all the offspring of Israel
    because of all they have done,
says the Lord.

Forgiven

Notes of meeting on 31 March 2015

Isaiah 53 v 5- 6
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are  healed .
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Forgiven

The nature of God's love for us is seem supremely in the cross.
Because He is both holy and  just, God could not shrug His shoulders at sin and say, 'It doesn't matter'. All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. Sin is unholiness; whatever offends the Lord. The Holy One cannot be united with the unholy. It was necessary for God to do something to cleanse us of unholiness do that we might have fellowship with Him. There was only one alternative: we would die eternally and miss His glory.
Because of our sin we deserve eternal separation from God; we deserve hell, not heaven. WE could never earn the right to have fellowship with God. this is a gift of grace - God giving to those who deserve nothing. So He sent His Son into the world, not that men should be condemned, but saved _ from sin and eternal death.
Those who believe in Jesus will not be condemned, but are given the gift of eternal life now. Because He is the Son of God and your Saviour, you need to confess your sins to Him and ask for His forgiveness.
On the cross he offered to the Father His sinless life on your behalf as a sinner; He gave His perfect life for your imperfections, His holy life for your unholiness. God's love is so great for you, He deliberately sent His Son to make such an offering on your behalf: 'For the transgression of my people he was stricken' (Isa. 53 v 8).
Jesus died the death of a criminal because He was experiencing the punishment you deserve, 'the punishment that brought us peace was upon him' (Isa. 53v 5). you do not need to suffer punishment from God for your sins. He will not punish twice for the same offence. if Jesus has borne your punishment, you can be freely forgiven. And when god forgives, He forgets.
Jesus could cry out in triumph on the cross 'It is finished' or 'It is accomplished'. Everything for out forgiveness and salvation was accomplished. Jesus had made the supreme sacrifice of love that we might be set free.
John tells us plainly: 'If we say, 'We have no sin,' we are deceiving ourselves, and truth has no place in us; if we acknowledge our sins, he is trustworthy and upright, so that he will forgive our sins and will cleanse us from all evil. If we say, 'We have never sinned,' we make him a liar, and his word has no place in us.' (1 John 1 v 8-10).
When God forgives you, He makes you righteous in His sight; you are put right with Him. Rejoice in what Jesus done for you and know that every time you pray, you can pass all the burdens of your sins on to the Lord. He is willing to take them. He wants to forgive you and He died to make this possible.
He wants to see you freed from sin and guilt, rejoicing in His peace. He wants to see you enjoying your relationship with Him as your loving heavenly Father.

(Forgiven taken from  Listen and Live by Colin Urquhart. ISBN 0-340-41779-X)

Hebrews 9 v 24 - 28
²⁴ It is not as though Christ had entered a man-made sanctuary which was merely a model of the real one; he entered heaven itself, so that he now appears in the presence of God on our behalf.
²⁵ And he does not have to offer himself again and again, as the high priest goes into the sanctuary year after year with the blood that is not his own,
²⁶ or else he would have had to suffer over and over again since the world began. As it is, he has made his appearance once and for all, at the end of the last age, to do away with sin by sacrificing himself.
²⁷ Since human beings die only once, after which comes judgement,
²⁸ so Christ too, having offered himself only once to bear the sin of many, will manifest himself a second time, sin being no more, to those who are waiting for him, to bring them salvation.