WHEN WE RELIVE THE PAST
Luke 12:2-3/2 Cor. 5:17

It was a typical street business deal; an exchange of drugs for money. Sheila Young, a 15-year-old girl of Winchester, England passed the drugs to the three young men, and waited to be paid. But instead of paying her, they tied her up, beat, and raped her. It was a horrible incident, and Sheila struggled to forget the whole thing and get on with her life.

Six years later, Sheila married, had children, and was living a new life in another town believing that her past was behind her. Then one day there was knock at the door. It was at that time that a detective confronted her with evidence of her past crime. One of the three assailants had filmed the entire ordeal. "The past that I wanted to forget was relived before me," commented Sheila.

How can something in the past, something completely gone and forgotten, return to point a condemning finger? Sheila had never told anyone about the beating and rape because it was connected to her illegal drug crimes. To reveal one would have also revealed the other. In her effort to hide her crime she also had to hide the assault.

The past, however, caught up with her when she least expected. What she thought was completely hidden, what she thought no one would ever know, came back to haunt and condemn her.

The Bible contains this statement: "Know that your sin will find you out." (Numbers 32:23) This is an undeniable law of life. In one form or another, today or tomorrow, our sin will be found out. Which one of us has a totally perfect past? Who is totally clean? The question is rhetorical. We all have skeletons in our closets, but does this then mean that forever we will have to confront all our past mistakes?

Jesus Christ came to the world to cleanse us of all our sins. Just like a magnet erases everything that has been recorded on a magnetic tape, in the same way the grace of Christ erases all our past mistakes when we allow Him to come into our heart. David, the psalmist, one day wrote: "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." (Psalms 103:12)

When we receive Christ as our savior, not only does He erase our past completely, but He also begins a new work in us that He continues to perfect day after day. Let’s thank Him for making us a new creation!

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