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Dear
Chuck,
I'm a
43-year-old woman who divorced my husband two years ago. The reason
I left the 20-year marriage was that I was miserable and so was he.
When we married we were both drug addicts and alcoholics ... we were
both high when the actual ceremony took place. As a result, I
have never thought that God blessed our union. Along with living a
drug-filled life, I committed adultery several times. At the time of
the divorce, I was having an affair.
A
year ago I fell to my knees and acknowledged Jesus as my Lord and
Savior. I repented and was baptized and am trying to live my life
like Jesus.
I
have met a Christian man, we have been dating for almost a year and
we have talked of getting married. I am quite concerned about
getting married again. But I am a completely different person than
when I married the first time. My question is this: In the eyes of
the Lord, is it OK to remarry, now that I have been born again?
Thank
you and may God bless your ministry.
Chuck's
Response
Thanks
for the note concerning your new life in Christ. God and His angels
are still celebrating ... and I am very excited for you. You'll
never regret putting yourself in the hands of a loving God. I have
good news for you. Since you have asked God's forgiveness for your
sins with a broken heart, here is what He does with them. He
forgets them! Here are some scriptures that talk about this.
"He
has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the
west," Psalms 103:12 (Living). North and south meet at some
point. If you go north for awhile, eventually you will begin to go
south because of our round earth. However, have you ever stopped to
think about the fact that East and West are different? If you go
east you'll always be going east. Or if you go west, you'll always
be going west. The two will never meet.
"Repent
ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,
when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the
Lord," Acts 3:19 (KJV). " ... and blotted out the charges
proved against you, the list of his commandments which you had not
obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to
Christ's cross," Colossians 2:14 (Living). "For God was in
Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men's
sins against them but blotting them out. This is the wonderful
message he has given us to tell others." 2 Corinthians 5:19
(Living)
You're
probably too young to remember blotters, but we used to use pen and
ink in school. We would blot the ink to keep it from smearing,
because it dried slowly. However, if you blotted it too
quickly, you took all the ink away. God's "blotter" erased
all of our sins.
"I
will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds when sins
have once been forever forgiven and forgotten, there is no need to
offer more sacrifices to get rid of them," Hebrews 10:17-18
(Living). "And I will be merciful to them in their wrongdoing,
and I will remember their sins no more," Hebrews 8:12 (Living).
I take God at His Word when the Bible says He will never remember
our sins anymore. They are forever out of His memory. What a gift
that is.
"It
was good for me to go through all of this bitterness. You have
delivered me from death, and have put all of my sins behind Your
back," Isaiah 38:17. I love the picture of God reaching around
and putting my sins behind His back where He can't get at them.
There are many other scriptures that imply that our sins have been
covered by Christ's blood and thrown in the deepest sea. God
forgives our mistakes, so we can forgive others for their mistakes
as well, and help them go on. So if the God of the universe has
forgiven and forgotten ... you don't have to still carry the burden.
You are now as pure as the purest snow in God's eyes, so put the
past behind you and move on.
I'm
glad God has brought a Christian man into your life. Just focus on
the future, since God has forgiven your past. Because of God's
forgiveness, you are free to marry again.
Chuck
Snyder |
