"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." - ISAIAH 43:18-19

      "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." - PHILIPPIANS 3:13-14

      "Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun." - PSALM 37:5-6

      "Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” - LUKE 9:62. Through the magnanimity of love, God encourages us to forget our past and press on. With this in mind, LUKE 9:62 is a type of the encouragment of Peter walking on the waters of the Sea of Galilee, where he accomplished the impossible only by never taking his eyes off Jesus. In order to plow a straight line, where the notion of "plowing" remains deeply intrinsic to the imagery of the principle of "seedtime and harvest" that is "living and walking" in the kingdom of God, one needs to look ahead to the end goal of that plow line, so that before one sets off, one can set a definite, determined and straight trajectory. And in order to arrive at that destination, without deviating or compromising on "the straight lines" required for the field being plowed, one needs to never take one's eyes off the goal of Jesus, which is symbolised by focusing on the end point on the other side of the field when one begins to plow.

     When we do happen to take our eyes off that marker at the far side of the field, which is the working example of Peter taking his eyes off Jesus, and even look back over our shoulder, doing so is like when one is driving and one takes one's eyes off the road ahead so that without even realising it, one begins to drift off course, and before we know it, we have left our lane, or worse, have even left the road. By saying: "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God", God is saying that by taking our eyes off the kingdom principle of "keeping our eyes on Jesus" at all times, and on the love He stands for, which is represented by us "plowing straight lines", we end up plowing crooked lines instead. We plow crooked lines when we fall into the trap of instead looking at our errors of our PAST and condemining ourselves, thereby unequivocally insisting that our FUTURE is ensnared to our past. For God clearly and unequivocally says "there is NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ" (ROMANS 8:1). When we condemn ourselves, we cannot plow straight lines, for we feel disqualified from the task. Which is both the singular delight and specific endeavour of the accuser. But God assures us that not only will the devil flee if we resist him, but also that although we may be guilty, for those who are in Christ, we are NOT condemned. Our future is NOT determined by our past. We are to simply shake off the dust, and forgetting what is behind, straining toward what is ahead, we are to press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us all heavenward in Christ Jesus.

   God's encouragement to "shake off the dust" is the very same doting, paternal care of just like when a toddler is learning to walk, and it stumbles and falls, and in so doing, gathers some dust. But the abiding love and the never-ending encouragement, as well as the forever outstretched and extended hand of the doting parent who never takes his eyes off his child, is all purposefully symbolic of exactly how our Father in heaven is Himself also always there for us whenever we should fall. When we do fall, we effectively "return to the dust" that He initially stood us up from when He first filled us with the gift of His breath of life. We turn back to dust when we separate ourselves from Him through sin. But no matter how many times we fall, whether it be "seventy times seven" (MATTHEW 18:21-22), being the patriarchal Father that He is, He will never tire of helping us up from the dust back onto our feet. When we turn to Him, as the Potter, being "He who will perfect all that concerns us", in His persevering through the patience and magnanimity of love, He once again turns that dust into clay much the same way as with the parents who lovingly help the toddler to learn to walk. And in picking us up and teaching us to not only "live" in the Spirit, but to "walk" in the Spirit, He produces from the dust of each of us a "vessel of glory" out of clay by combining the dust with the water of life that is His Spirit. For God plainly tells us that where sin abounds, grace ALWAYS abounds more. God equally tells us that His mercies stand up new EVERY day. And through both these unshakable trust anchors, He ensures us that He will never leave us or forsake us, and that in Him, we always have the opportunity to rewrite a future entirely unencumbered from our past.

"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen." - 1 TIMOTHY 1:17

God's richest blessings, Wayne Biehn