You wake up in the morning and put on a spotless white gown or suit. It is beautifully ironed. Not a wrinkle to be found. Then you open the door and step out into a muddy, filthy slum. You walk through it all day, interacting with its people. A handshake here, a hug there, a quick kiss on the top of a chubby baby's head who has just come from being fed. Half the food is on his face and hands. Someone offered you a seat in a little mud hut and you sat a minute to speak words of kindness. At the end of the day you go home happy, but exhausted. You have accomplished much. One look in the mirror and it is obvious where you have been. Your white clothes are now full of spots and wrinkles. There is smudge of baby food on your chest where that baby touched you when you kissed his head. Some mud must have splashed on the bottom of your gown. Either way, you need to have it washed.
The Lord is ministering to my heart about righteous people whom he has saved, dressed in white and then sent out into a filthy world to be Christ to the people and fishers of men. As long as you are in this world, spots and wrinkles are inevitable. Getting downright filthy and wallowing in sin is rebellion, but a wrinkle here and a spot there are inevitable. As long as you know how to get them out.
Ephesians 5:25 - 27 states:
25Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
26So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word,
27That He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things [that she might be holy and faultless].
Keeping yourself holy and blameless is not possible all by yourself. There must be a reliance on the blood of Jesus that washes white as snow, as well as the washing of water with God's word.
I therefore admonish you with Peter the apostle:
2 Peter 3:14
"So then, dear friends, ... make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him"
Stay in God's word and ask God repeatedly to wash you with the blood of his lamb Jesus. Make every effort to be found without spot or wrinkle!
1 comment:
Thank you for this! As ambassadors of Christ we shouldn't be afraid or shy away from meeting people where they are to be found in this world which can take us into some dark and dirty places! God Bless You Sister!
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