Old Sins Cast Long Shadows

Greetings Dear Reader,

I heard this phrase in a movie recently and began to search for it origin.  My research revealed that it is connected to Numbers 14:18 (NIV) “The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

This triggered some thinking on how my past failures impact others beyond me.  I can see clearly how my failure at my first marriage has had a lifelong impact on my children.  Choices I have made outside of Christ still echo in my world. 

I think we do a poor job distinguishing between forgiveness and consequences.  God always forgives when we acknowledge our sin.  That does not me that he removes the natural consequences from them.    Out sin has consequences that we must often endure.  Sometimes in his mercy we are not made to endure them. 

As the years flow through the glass I see more clearly how my sin has impacted others.   I see how my wrong choices have done damage beyond me.  I cannot waste time and effort on regret.  I must instead work to do good for others.  I must avoid repeating the same sins and walk in faith that the Father will bring all things to good.

Some days the regret wishes to rule me.  It wish to force me into inactivity through failure to move.  It is in the moving; the following that I can right some of the wrongs.  I can be honest about how I have failed and help others learn from my errors. 

What I must not do is let past sin keep me from doing my best to do good now.  If it means that I must be more humble and more gentle then that is what I must do.  If I need to earn the right to be heard over and over aging then I will.  I will keep moving.  I will keep following.  How about you Dear Reader?  Are you willing to move instead of being mired in the past darkness?  I will not let the long shadows of old sin keep me from bearing the Light.

I Dare you to Move – Switchfoot

Welcome to the planet

Welcome to existence

Everyone's here

Everyone's here

Everybody's watching you now

Everybody waits for you now

What happens next?

What happens next?

I dare you to move

I dare you to move

I dare you to lift

Yourself up off by the floor

I dare you to move

I dare you to move

Like today never happened

Today never happened before

Welcome to the fallout

Welcome to resistance

The tension is here

The tension is here

Between who you are

And who you could be

Between how it is

And how it should be yeah

I dare you to move

I dare you to move

I dare you to lift

Yourself up off by the floor

I dare you to move

I dare you to move

Like today never happened

Today never happened

Maybe redemption has stories to tell

Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell

Where can you run to escape from yourself?

Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?

Salvation is here

I dare you to move

I dare you to move

I dare you to lift yourself

To lift yourself up off by the floor

I dare you to move

I dare you to move

Like today never happened

Today never happened

Today never happened

Today never happened before

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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