LARCHMONT HAPPENINGS: Memorial Service on Sunday, January 22nd at 6:00 PM
Free Community Dinner on Saturday, January 28th at 6:00 PM along with a hats and gloves giveaway
Each Saturday - Men's Bible Study @ 9:00 AM
Second Saturday of each month - Our Clothes Closet is open to the community. Third Saturday of each month - The Food Pantry is open to all who are in need. 
WEEKLY DEVOTION: "Letting Go of Past Failures"
I enjoy playing golf. I’m not the best golfer in the world, but I can par a few holes when I go out and I usually shoot somewhere in the mid-90s. When I first started playing golf, I would get frustrated when I had a bad hole and then that frustration would carry over to the next hole. So I would not only do badly on one hole; I would do poorly on two or three holes in a row. I knew I had matured as a golfer when I could put a bad hole behind me, get focused again, and then par the next hole. That showed that I had become a better golfer.
I think there’s a life lesson here. Just as a good golfer forgets a bad hole and moves on, so we need to forget our past failures and sins and move on with our lives. Once we confess our sins to God, he forgives us and removes our sin from us as far as the east is from the west. The Bible even says that God no longer remembers our sin. He forgets it, and so should we. We should not live in the guilt of past mistakes. We should live in the joy and peace of present forgiveness. God wants us to enjoy our relationship with him and to know that our sins have been completely forgiven.
Living with regret is a terrible and unproductive way to live. If you look in your rearview mirror too often, you’ll have a wreck. You may need to glance backward occasionally when you drive, but the main direction that you need to look is forward. 1 John 1.9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” It dishonors God when we keep bringing up sins that he has already forgiven. When we confess our sins to God, we need to receive his gracious forgiveness and then move on with our lives.
What would you think of a person who never put their trash out? Or what would you think of a person who put their trash out and then when the garbage truck took it away ran after the truck to retrieve their garbage? You would think that person is crazy. But we often do the same thing. Sin is our garbage. When we confess our sins to God it is like taking the garbage out. Once that garbage is taken away we are free. We don’t need to chase the garbage truck down and go through our old mess. We need to let it go. The devil loves to bring up our past sins and make us feel condemned for what God has already forgiven. Scripture calls him “the accuser of the brethren” (Rev 12.10). He accuses us and condemns us. Don’t let the devil ruin your life. Trust in the forgiving heart of God and stop living in the past. If you have sins you haven’t confessed to God, do that now. If you have already confessed them, let them go and rejoice that you are forgiven and loved by God.
Pastor Mark
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