Steroids and the Grace of God

Steroids, with a new rash of baseball players busted I had to think about the * or the asterisk. The asterisk, of course, means that the record is a sort-of record, a footnoted record. The asterisk means the record is tainted. Take home run king Barry Bonds back on August 7, 2007, Bonds hit number 756, the home run that broke Hank Aaron's record. Most of the talk about the new record, though, is whether it really should count, because Bonds was juiced up. Sports buffs say if his name goes in the record book it should be accompanied by an asterisk.

But what if God placed marks beside our name when we messed up or cheated at life? I mean what if all of our infractions and sins were held over head, talked about, thrown in our face for the rest of life? How awful would that be? Thankfully Psalm 103 10-12 says

10 He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve
or repaid us according to our offenses.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is His faithful love
toward those who fear Him.

12 As far as the east is from the west,
so far has He removed
our transgressions from us.

Then the great words of Romans 8:1

Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those who are in Christ Jesus

Thankful may name is free of the * because of the grace of God, Pastor Phillip