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Day 161 or June 10. Please let me start again. Our thoughts today are rooted in Psalm 51,

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verse 10. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

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Now the big picture surrounding this verse. Today we are back into some Psalms by David,

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and Psalm 53 is almost identical to Psalm 14 that we considered a few days ago. As

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its main theme is looking at the fool who says there is no God, perhaps it is appropriate

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to repeat it for us in the 21st century. This sort of wisdom bears repeating, and too often

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it's rejected first time round.

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Now today's action step. New starts are really attractive but very hard to come by in our

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world. Today is a great reminder that we have a God who specializes in second chances. All

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the way through the Bible, Old and New Testaments are dripping with offers of new starts from

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God. In the world of computers, we are often asked if we really do want to start again

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by reformatting a disk, as this will remove all previous data, which will not be able

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to be retrieved in future. That's a techy way of explaining the Gospel. Our verse from

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Psalm 51 first asks God to create a new start and then asks for strength and persistence

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to keep going after receiving such a wonderful gift. Don't be fooled into thinking that

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this is a salvation experience only. That's the first one. If I'm at all typical, it's

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the first of many. So the question is, have you asked God for a new start? January 21st

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could help crystallize your thoughts, so why not listen to that again? If however you have

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already done this, but have messed up, then a simple reading of Psalm 51 verse 10 with

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real sincerity is your next step. The Apostle John could have had this verse in mind when

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he wrote in his first epistle, chapter 1 verse 9. If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful

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and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. It's not just being

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forgiven but being cleansed, a whole new start available to each of us today. How are you

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to respond?