Wednesday, September 30, 2020

It's so good to get clean!

Washed pure...

We often look at the word of God as a grand list of what we can't do. Not me! I look at it as a grand revelation of know Him!

However, what if we also understood the "can't do" as "ain't healthy" and saw the scrolls as wash clothes? How would we change our approach to the Word if we saw it as our good Father coming to wash the face and hands of His beloved children?

Know Him; let Him clean me. I like this approach!

I don't know about you, but I remember those Grandma-licking-her-finger-and-near-'bout-rubbing-the-skin-off-my-face to get a speck of dirt cleaned from my cheek. I also remember the great difference between yielding to Grandma's caring hand and fighting her insistent touch.

Do you know the sweetness of yielding to God's caring hand? Do you know what it's like to fight your Father's insistent touch? I do!

Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them in Your truth; Your word is truth." (John 17:17 ESV) Jesus looked upon His disciples, both those then present and those to come (me and you!), and He prayed to the Father to set up apart by giving us lives that are founded in His word.

The Apostle Peter said, "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;" (1 Peter 1:22-23 ESV) See that? "Having purified your souls..." Do you understand that? God wants to set us apart, even this world, and God wants to make us clean and pure, even in this world, because we are new -- because we are "born again".

And, God wants that to continue. The Psalmist said, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word." (Psalm 119:9 ESV)

Beloved friends, I could go on and on! God didn't send Jesus to condemn and He doesn't give us His word to burden us; rather, He sent Jesus to save and gives His word to wash us and make us pure. He means to bless us!

To His disciples --to the men and women who'd been walking with Him, the Living Word-- Jesus said, "Already you are clean..." --let me interject here...how are they clean? by what means?-- Jesus continued, "...because of the word that I have spoken to you." (see John 15:3). They were clean because the Living Word had spoken Himself and the revealed word to them!

The Holy Spirit will wash over you, beloved friend! Meet Him willingly! Let Him cleanse you! Don't fear His insistent touch! Be washed pure! Be more excited by what God desires to deliver than you are fearful about what your flesh will lose.

Be blessed, beloved friends.



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