Forgiveness

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

Confessing the Truth

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My mother always could tell when I was lying. I often invented some of the wildest excuses to avoid admitting the truth. Then she would cross her arms and look straight at me and say “Oh what a tangled web we weave.” Somewhere early on I decided it was way easier to fess up than to get punished first for my misdeed and then for lying.

The same is true with God. He already knows the truth so why do we have such a hard time confessing? Sometimes when we get caught in our own tangled web it is God’s loving discipline leading us the quickest way out of trouble and back to walk with Him.

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. Psalms 119:67 ESV

Bridging the Great Divide

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The greatest example of all loving service is the cross. But there is no other symbol on earth that attracts more anger and division. On the cross God once more divided the light from the darkness. One thief cursed him and one believed. One disciple betrayed him and one came to the cross. One soldier gambled for his robe and another believed He was the Son of God. Yet on the cross of Calvary where its very beams divided the universe in two Jesus built a bridge over the great divide between God and man. There His sacrifice joined together forever anyone who say goodbye to their old world of hatred and sin and meet Him by faith at the cross.