As far as the east is from the west.
We had a visiting pastor preach tonight's sermon at church. It was a wonderful message that I greatly enjoyed. I wish I could share the whole thing with you, but there is one thing in particular that I found so enlightening tonight that I wanted to share with you all. It's nothing much, just one little verse. Though all of God's Word is important in the whole of the Bible this verse isn't one of the most important, but I gathered something new from this verse, a better understanding and enlightenment.
I don't know about you but when I learn something new or gain a better understanding of something I already knew I get the good feeling chills. This is God at work in me doing exactly what He said He would do. Jeremiah 29:13 "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." You know, you always hear people say that you can read the Bible every waking moment for all your life and never stop learning. Now think about that. Isn't it amazing? The Bible is big, but it ain't that big. You could read a book just as big over and over, but eventually you will not get anything new from that book. But with the Bible you always will as long as you are seeking that knowledge with your sincere heart. We know many things about the Word, but there is a difference in knowing and understanding. When God gives you knowledge personally it brings on a whole new meaning to the word understand. Think about this... You know everything God said is true because you have faith, but when He shows you something, when you learn from Him, you don't just know, you UNDERSTAND. This is a wonderful thing. This is the Spirit and that's the only way to get it. I'm rambling, I know, but I am fired up. I just started going back to church last Wednesday and I am so excited to be back.
Now to get to what I wanted to tell you...
Psalm 103:12 "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."
Considering some of the verses in the Bible we can safely say that this verse is not a hard one to understand.
This is what the preacher said while touching on this verse in his sermon. Think about a globe. It only spins east or west depending on which way you turn it. It does not spin north and south. If you get in a plane and fly east, so long as you never change course you will always be flying east. Same goes for west. But if you get in a plane and fly north, once you get to the north pole and keep past it, you will be flying south. I never thought about that. When I think about east and west what pops in my mind is North Carolina and California. I never thought of in the way of the analogy above. The distance our transgressions have been removed from us as the verse says is an infinite distance. I told you it was nothing much, but I gained a better understanding of this verse than what I had before. You probably think I am nuts, but it excites me. Even something this small.
This is something else that I got to thinking about too on the ride home. This is just my personal thoughts and feelings that you can discuss with me if you like. You may see it differently. God gives us what we can understand. Now think about this. When God gave the author of this verse the words "as far as east is from west.." what do you think was in the mind of the author? We know that if we do not go in a circle it is possible to continue going north or south. We would have course have to leave this earth and go into space. But do you honestly think that this was in the mind of the author of this verse when he wrote it? Going into space was unheard of then, not a possibility. Therefore I do not think this was in mind when it was written. Why didn't the verse say as far as north is from south? I think it is because before it was known we could go north and south infinitly, people would have thought of it as a definite distance. But I believe when the verse says "as far as the east is from the west..." it means an infinite distance apart. What's my point? Not that I need any, but this to me is another small piece of evidence that the Bible is the true Word of God. These authors were given the Word by God and God alone. Now it can be argued by those who do not believe the Bible to be the Word of God that it is complete coincidence that the author did not say north and south instead of east and west, but I don't believe that. There is a reason why this verse says east and west ONLY. I believe that this had to have been given by God. Like I said, I know in the whole scheme of things this is not all that important, but I love when I gain better understanding and insight from God no matter how small.
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