Forgiveness

Washing Feet

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Why foot washing? Couldn’t Jesus have suggested something easier like hand washing or face washing?

But Jesus not only commanded that we wash one another’s feet: He humbled Himself to wash ours first.

It is a strange thing how washing feet shows Jesus that we love him and the world that He loves them! He washes us to prepare our feet to walk onto heaven’s holy ground. We wash one another to prepare each other to walk into the world and share the love of Christ.

With Lent on the horizon this is a good time to ask, “Am I ready and willing to wash someone’s feet today?”

White as Snow

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Why is snow so white? Maybe because it has fallen from the sky and has never been mixed with the colors of earth.

It is not like the memory of our sin which tinges everything it touches. That reminder clings to our attitudes and mixes with our words. No matter how we try we cannot remove its indelible deep red stain.

But God offers a way to exchange that sin for forgiveness. He sent us the reddest blood of Jesus to wash us clean. It washes with a purity that comes only from heaven. His is the gift that alone can make our hearts as white as snow.

“Come now, and 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 be as wool. Isaiah 1:18 NKJV

Honoring our Parents

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What is honor and what does it mean to honor our parents? One way I have come to understand it is that honor is a combination in equal parts of love and respect. Honoring our parents means we can not love without respect and we should never respect without loving.

Every week as I visit nursing homes I see the results of a culture that has often forgotten how to honor its mothers and fathers. and has abandoned it’s parents.

Yes they are professionally cared for. Yes they are clean and well fed, but they mostly spend their days alone. Though we may be honoring our own parents, God is also calling on us to hear the cry of the forgotten ones. On January 18th hundreds of thousands reminded our nation about the value of the unborn. Today we need many more among God’s people to also remember those left alone in institutions. God doesn’t forget a single sparrow. If we forget these mothers and fathers we have forgotten the heart of God.