Stains

Stains. Little kids and stains go together like peanut butter and jelly. My little guy was all dressed up for church today and by the time we made it through lunch, his nice pink button down shirt was covered with macaroni and cheese stains all down the front. As a three year old, we have come to the reality that his clothes are going to get stained when he eats, it’s just a part of life with children. All we can do is depend on the capability of the washing machine to get out the stains.

Children aren’t the only ones to get stains on their clothes, adults can be just as bad. But what about the stains of sin in our lives?  There is no moral washing machine that we can throw our sin stained lives into that can make us clean again and ready to go on to the next stain. How do we go about washing away our sins and being made new again?  The old hymn is pretty clear the only way this can happen; “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!”

We shouldn’t get our theology from a hymn book, so what does the Word of God say about cleansing us from our sins?  “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” - Isaiah 1:18. Even in the Old Testament, before the incarnation of Christ, the answer to the cleansing of sins was the promise of One to come.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” - 1 John 1:9. The first step of being cleansed of our sins is acknowledging that we have them. Then we must confess our sins and repent from doing them again. If we do that, God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness. Have you been cleansed or do the stains of your sins still remain?  God is waiting to cleanse you, all you have to do is ask.

Have a great day and God bless.