Dr Paul Allen

Trevin Wax Most of us know the feeling at some point. We reach a level of familiarity with the Bible, or we grow so accustomed to our church routine or sing the same song so many times that we get bored. We lose our interest in the things of God. We go to church, open the Bible, and send a few words to God in the morning, but we no longer feel any real passion or excitement at contemplating the realities of the Christian faith. Our senses grow dull. Our vision is dim. Our tastebuds don’t work anymore. In a fallen world, we can count on feeling bored at some point, even in our walk with God. Ironically, the solutions to boredom provided by our phones and technology (where, at any moment, we can find a morsel of entertainment) can be the source of spiritual boredom, keeping us perpetually distracted from truth and substance. Boredom often coincides with feeling jaded. Sometimes, that jadedness arises from being disappointed in others. The more experience you have in church, the more like

By John Piper We all die. We all believe in the promises of scripture regarding eternal life. But what will it be like? The prophet Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 65:17 something pretty incredible. In the new creation, he says, “the former things” — the experiences of this life, it seems — “shall not be remembered or come into mind.” And that raises questions about eternity. In the new creation, are we mindwiped? Isaiah 65:17— Does this passage effectively say that we will be memory-wiped before we enter the new creation? How does it relate to Revelation 5:12,  which puts Christ’s sacrifice — the past-tense ‘was slain’ memorial of his crucifixion in this world — front and centre for eternity.  Well, here’s the quote. Let’s put Isaiah 65:17 right in front of us so that we can be specific. God is speaking: Behold, I create new heavens  and a new earth,  and the former things shall not be remembered  or come to mind. Does that mean a complete memory wipe — like, I assume, the hard drive of our

We serve a forgetful God . This forgetfulness reflects no fault in him, no weakness of his mind or memory. Rather, it reflects the strength of his mercy and grace, for he forgets only what would separate us from him, only what would alienate sinful humans from a holy God. It is our sinfulness that he puts out of his mind, our wickedness that he remembers no more. Though he has seen all the evil we have done and all the good we have left undone, still he has banished it all from his mind. He regards us as if we had never sinned, relates to us as if we had only ever been as righteous as Christ. Such forgetfulness is intentional, not inadvertent, a decision, not a mistake. It is evidence of God’s character, a manifestation of his mercy. And it challenges us all with a question: Why should we remember what God forgets? Why should we dwell upon the sins we have committed that God himself has forgotten? Why should we live in a shameful past that God has already put out of his faultless mind?