Christian Time Machine

Time travel.

There are numerous movies, books and television shows about it, from Doctor Who (old and new) Back to the Future and Quantum Leap. And really,who can forget Uncle Ricco's time machine in Napoleon Dynamite?
It just seems people are enamored with time travel. I am sure everyone, at one time or another, has thought about what it would be like to go back to a specific period of time, or a special moment or day.

Or to go back and fix something they had broken, or listen to advice given, or just not do whatever it was that they had done and to and make things right again.

God has been so merciful to give us a 'Christian Time Machine'. Numerous scriptures tell us that when we come to Christ our sins are forgiven, blotted out:

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Hebrews 8:12

When God looks at us after we have become Christians He no longer sees us as defiled-He sees us as righteous through Christ:

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Romans 5:19

And then we are given instructions to use the 'Christian Time Machine' ourselves. We are told to walk forward and not look back at our past lives of sin, to strive for holiness and to overcome the sins that daily entangle us. And we are told that if we sin after our new life begins:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

And we are told that if we offend our brother, or or brother offends us, to use the Time Machine to forgive:

And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. Mark 11:25

Forgive as we have been forgiven and walk forward into a new day.

It almost seems impossible-but it isn't.

Loving our Christian brother, asking for forgiveness and moving forward as if the wrong never happened can be the most difficult and painful thing anyone can do. But that is what we are called to. That is what Christ has done for us. He has made us a family, a family of Christ followers. I once heard a speaker ask the parents in the audience how they would feel if they had two children who weren't speaking to each other. Would that grieve them? Would they try in every way they knew to get the siblings to reconcile?

That is how God looks at us- His children. If we are squabbling and bringing up records of wrongs (1 Cor. 13) we are not Glorifying God!

So I encourage you to use the Christian Time Machine today for:

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness
Hebrews 3:7