Another Sunday! I always look forward to Sundays because of the many encouragement I find from many blogging for the Lord. If you want to know more about Spiritual Sundays, please visit this great site hosted by Sister Charlotte and Sister Ginger. Thank you both for always inspiring us to gather together, to encourage, to amuse, or to pray.
Filthy As Rags
Handcuffed, he came out of the police’s squad car. A nauseating stench followed him wherever he went. His unkempt appearance obviously told his condition of being homeless. With only a backpack crammed with a few things, it was the only belongings he carried, day after day.
The deputies took everything away and stuffed them into the big, plastic bag. He was brought into a cell where he could shower. His dirty clothes were stripped and stuffed into the big, plastic bag, together with the backpack. This would go to “Property” where they would store all the inmates’ belongings and be returned to them, once released. Everything he had was filthy, same with himself.
Cleansed from a bath he never had for a while, he was issued the orange jail uniform. If he remained dirty and housed with others, he would be prone to being attacked by other inmates if the lingering stench would make them angry. But now that he had showered and all cleaned up, it was safer to have him housed with the rest of the jail’s population.
Aren‘t we all filthy, too? Smudged by sins that are deserving of God’s anger. But because of His love, mercy and grace, He chose to offer the cleansing power that comes from the death of His own Son.
The only way we can be housed with God is when we choose to be cleansed by the “blood of the Lamb”.
Isaiah 64:5-7, Contemporary English Version:
5 You help all who gladly obey and do what you want, but sin makes you angry. Only by your help can we be saved.
6 We are unfit to worship you; each of our good deeds is merely a filthy rag. We dry up like leaves; our sins are storm winds sweeping us away.
7 No one worships in your name or remains faithful. You have turned your back on us and let our sins melt us away.
Our righteousness will not save us. It’s God’s righteousness that makes us clean. Our only hope is faith in Jesus Christ, the One Who can cleanse us and can bring us into God’s presence. There is no other way!
