I've made an astonishing and disturbing discovery about myself: I can predict the future. I don't know how I acquired this super power - perhaps though overexposure to coffee - but the fact is, I can accurately predict the future. Here are some predictions:

Throughout the remainder of the year, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will continue to throw touchdown passes at a rate of one every 3.42 minutes.

Next summer 18 sequel movies will be released, including Indiana Jones IV, "Indy and the Secret of Beating Arthritis", and Star Wars Episode VII, "The Untimely Death of Jar Jar Binks".

Within two years a cup of coffee at Starbuck's will cost $17.50...and your first born child.

Google will become an actual country, located somewhere in the western United States.

For the rest of my life I will continue to sin regularly

Although most of this list is silly, the last item is sadly true. Even though I have been born again by the Spirit of God, I will continue to sin for the rest of my life. Yes, I will grow to be more like Christ, but sin will remain with me until the day I die.

Assume for a moment that I'll live to be 75 years old. That means for the next 5o years I'll break God's perfect and holy law on a daily basis. What a sobering thought! Because of remaining indwelling sin, I'll think impure thoughts, say unkind words, and commit selfish acts for the next 50 years. Fifty years of wickedness lies ahead of me. Why doesn't God simply cast me away right now? If you knew that a friend was going to do something every day to hurt you for the next fifty years would you continue to be their friend? I don't think so. Knowing that a future of sin lies ahead of me, why doesn't God simply condemn to hell this instant? Because of the glorious, magnificent, infinitely powerful sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

O how great is the sacrifice of Christ! When He hung upon the cross, He took all my sins upon Himself. The death of Christ is so great, so powerful, so effective, that every one of my sins has been paid for. Every sin in the past - gone. Every sin in the future - paid for. The death of Christ stretches over all of my life, canceling the record of all my transgressions, past, present, and future. It is like a great, cleansing wave, sweeping over my entire life, carrying with it my many sins.

There is no sin that can separate me from the love of Christ Jesus. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain - over my past and my future - but He washed it white as snow. So I will rejoice in God! I will praise God for the glorious sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which is so powerful that it cleanses me not only from the past, but from the future as well.

Rejoice with me today. Lift your heart in praise to Christ, who died to cleanse your past and to secure your future.