Author Archives: Pete Harrigan

Does God forget?

Does God forget things? Well not quite, but he doesn’t remember our sins once we repent of them:

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” ~ (Hebrews 8:12).

A slight difference then maybe, but surely it takes even more love and grace to ‘not remember’ something than it does to ‘forget’ it? i.e. making a conscious effort not to recall a person’s wrongdoing against you. Sadly, the world doesn’t always work like this – people hold grudges and their hearts become bitter and hardened, but someone’s sin can not be truly forgiven unless it is remembered no more!

That’s the kind of loving, gracious God we serve. He doesn’t want to examine our past, but looks towards our future instead. When some Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in the act of adultery they wanted to stone her for her sins. However when Jesus spoke to her he wasn’t concerned with condemning her for what she had done. Instead he simply said: “Go now and leave your life of sin”, (John 8:11).

That’s because God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours, (Isaiah 55:9), but wouldn’t the world be a much brighter place if more people chose not to remember sins committed against them? That’s God’s challenge to us, and He’s already set the best possible example – by forgiving and not remembering our sins!

Is your wineskin too old for new wine?

When some disciples asked Jesus about how his teachings were different to those at the time he replied with some quite interesting imagery:

“No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined.” (Mark 2:22)

In those days people kept wine in animal skins and over time they became tough and hardened – like the hearts of some poeple. So if you poured new wine, (which is still fermenting and needs room to expand), into an old wineskin, it would not be able to contain the new wine, and would burst.

You see, when Jesus comes into our lives he won’t be bottled up and kept in storage; he wants to grow and expand into every available space, and a hardened heart doesn’t have room for this to happen… like the old wineskins!

Do you need to trade-in your old, hardened heart for a wineskin that still has growing space for God’s plans and promises?

Suffering: Sin or Opportunity?

While passing a blind man at the side of the road, Jesus’ disciples questionned him saying:

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2)

A fair question, maybe, but Jesus replied saying:

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned… but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

That’s pretty amazing isn’t it? Some doctrines might have claimed that this man’s blindness was punishment for a previous sin, but Jesus didn’t. He only saw opportunity for God’s tremendous power and grace to be displayed in the man’s life for all to see, which he then carried out:

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Do you feel like you’re suffering? Unsure as to why God’s plan for you might include pain or discomfort? Remember, He knows the beginning from the end and has the ability to exibit His might and mercy in your life.