Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; 2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. 7 O Israel put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. 8 He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

With the Lord there is forgiveness! This one statement sums up the entire message of the Bible. God made man and man turned against Him and sinned. From this point on, the sto ry is one of redemption; all else leads us to forgiveness thru the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. This is because the Lord is full of unfailing love and redemption. When all has been considered, our hope rests on this. If God showed His compassion on us and His care for us only in this life, without forgiveness it would be futile and hopeless. All of His goodness would mean nothing apart from His redemption. God has made us with an innate awareness of His presence and our accountability to Him. This is why in every society that does not recognize the true God there is the attempt to “appease the gods that control our destiny”. Thus, mankind has lived with a guilty conscience and has been robbed of the peace that could be theirs without it. The wonderful news is that there is indeed a God who loves us, who cares for us and our eternal good and who has provided a means whereby we can live in an indescribable eternal bliss in His presence. We will not need the sun for light because He is light. There will be no need for locks on doors, windows or gates because there will be no harm or danger. There will be no sickness, no heartache, no such thing as pain and suffering, no grief or loss of any good thing, only that which is good. All of the finite things that control us today such as time, space and deterioration will no longer exist. God has made all of this available to us thru the giving of His Son in our place. We have sinned, as did our f irst father Adam. Death came to all thru the first Adam but God gives us eternal life thru the second Adam, Jesus Christ.

O God, I thank you today for your love, your mercy, your compassion and for your wonderful way of redemption in Jesus Christ. I do need your forgiveness because I have sinned against you. Please help me to open my heart and allow Your Spirit to control me and make me like you. Change me so that I can be ready to live with you when I leave this life. In Jesus name.

May God bless each of us as we live by faith in Jesus Christ.