Better than lemonade in the desert

I read this verse the other day in the One Year Bible:

"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord..." Acts 3:19 (NIV)

I just love that, don't you? I love the words "wiped out" which remind me that forgiveness involves a measure of forgetfulness. When we truly repent, God doesn't just overlook our faults, he erases them completely and gives us a fresh start (over and over and over again!) The Psalmist tells us "as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12), and in Hebrews we read God's words, "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more," (Hebrews 8:12) and a couple chapters later, "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." (Hebrews 10:17) I am so easily exasperated by forgetfulness in others, but it looks like I need to rethink that....turns out selective memory is a Godly quality!

But my favorite part of the verse is "times of refreshing." It brings to mind such things as swimming in a cool ocean on a hot day, a frosty cold drink on a parched throat, or reading a book in a shady hammock. I've always been big on refreshing. (In fact one summer I actually taught my type-A friend how to do nothing! Couldn't believe she didn't know. lol) But you can be sure that "refreshing...from the Lord" is even better than anything we can humanly imagine.

A sober warning

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."
Colossians 2:8 (NIV)

This verse is used by author John Rosemond in reference to postmodern psychological parenting in his book "Parenting by The Book: Biblical Wisdom for Raising Your Child." Today marks the start of an online book club on my GottaWearShades blog, and this will be the first book we read. If you'd like to join us for some virtual discussion and see how parenting and fellowship and blogging can all come together, visit GWS for more info.

So how do we see to it that we're not taken captive? How do we recognize hollow and deceptive philosophy so we can steer clear? I'm reminded of something I heard years ago in small group Bible study. Lauren Blackburn related that people who are counterfeit money detection experts train not by studying examples of fake money, but rather by spending hours and hours examining every detail of the real thing. They know the genuine bill so well that the counterfeit is easy to spot. Her point was that this is how we should learn to discern lies, by submerging ourselves in the Truth, by studying and examining God's Word so much that we can detect the enemy's counterfeit.

If you are not currently involved in a Bible study, I encourage you to get started. Go on ChristianBook.com or Lifeway.com, narrow your search by gender, or topic or price or anything, and find something that appeals to you. The possibilities are endless. If you're stumped ask me - I'm building quite a library myself, and I even have some DVD kits I'm itching to lend out. Or participate online in a study of Proverbs, beginning next Wednesday on the GWS blog. Study all by yourself, or get together with a friend or a few, or join a Bible study class. God will bless your study, and he will give you a hunger for more. And all the while you'll be learning to recognize the world's lies by becoming familiar with the standard of Truth.