Wednesday’s Devotion: Stain, Stain Go Away

Jeremiah 2:22  Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Sovereign LORD.

One night while in Jerusalem some of us spent an hour out in the driving rain. I’ll save the entire story for my Travel’s Through the Holy Land study series but I’ll share that I had on my favorite red shoes and now I have pink socks.  We’ll have to see if my cleansing powder will get the stains out.  God is speaking through the prophet to a people whom God accuses of turning away from him and towards the worship of false gods.  In addition they have denied that they sinned. When we mess up and it’s so easy to do the best thing is to admit it to ourselves, to God and to others; to ‘fess up to our failings.  We can’t undo what we’ve done but God can take the guilt away.  Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we can obtain the forgiveness we can’t earn for ourselves.  “What can wash away my sin?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

Loving God, during this period of Lent, help us to look inward and see the stains we carry from our sins.  Cleanse us and make us whole in your eyes.  Help us to walk the path you would set before us.  We ask in our Savior’s name.  Amen.

Thursday’s Devotion: You Can’t Hide a Goat.

Hebrews 4:13  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Joe and I were walking in a Hapeville neighborhood recently when I heard the unmistakable bleat of a goat coming from a backyard.  I have seen chickens around town but this was my first goat.  I remarked to Joe, “You can’t hide a goat.”  We wondered about the city code on goats.  Sin is that way, too.  You can get away with something some of the time but not all of the time.  Our deeds are prone to catching up with us.  Even if others don’t know what we’ve done God knows.  God knows everything.  I ran into Melissa Gibson at the funeral home Tuesday night.  She has really good girls.  Still she said that she reminds them like her mom did her, that disappointing their parents is nothing like disappointing God.  Do you think about that when you plan your actions?  Do you think about disappointing God?  As the saying goes, there is nothing that we can do to make God love us more and at the same time there is nothing we can do the make God love us less.  And yet, we can disappoint God.  I sure hate to do that.

Heavenly Father, Often we don’t mean to disappoint you.  We disappoint ourselves when we can’t act the way we know you want us to.  Human nature is sometimes just too strong.  Help us please to live life of love and kindness.  We ask this in the name of your perfect Son. Amen.