Disclaimer: Before photography people read books with words and no pictures except for perhaps an illustration or two that was hand drawn and painted. I am going to attempt to post a blog without pictures since my computer is not allowing me to post photos. I will post the pictures on FaceBook.
Hopefully, the descriptions will cause you to see in your mind's eye some of our experiences and spiritual lessons/illustrations.
Brown sand and terracotta colored dirt is everywhere. Most homes have dirt floors. Most roads are made of dirt. It is very dusty everywhere. There is trash everywhere on the ground including bits and pieces of plastic bottles, discarded candy wrappers, worn out and broken sandals and so on. What do people do with all this trash in front of their homes and shops? They sweep it away or at least attempt to.
Everyday we see men and women with a small bunch of twigs about 15 inches long sweeping the dirt. The trash is swept up and piled up to be burned or thrown in a ditch nearby. The sweeper makes the dirt as pretty as possible with circles or swirls. Do you know what? It is still dirt! There is nothing that can change the fact that there is dirt everywhere. Can you picture that in your mind?
There is a spiritual illustration here and you do not have to be a theologian to understand.
No amount of sweeping in our lives can make us clean. We can do our best to clean ourselves up. We can get rid of some of the trash which may be undesirable or irritating habits. We can make ourselves look as good as possible through outward observable activities like church attendance, generous giving, daily quiet-time and small group attendance. We can even do good works such as teaching Sunday School, feeding the homeless or going to Africa on mission journeys. All these good attempts to be 'clean' do not change the reality of the human original sin that has tainted us all. Sounds rather hopeless doesn't it? What hope is there of ever being clean and getting rid of the dirt in our lives?
The good news has been shared for many years in an old hymn-
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
Yes the remedy for our 'dirt' our sin stained lives is the cleansing power of Jesus Christ. Truly God, Jesus Christ became human to be the perfect solution to humanity's greatest need of a relationship with God who is holy, pure and good.
You see at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly....But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:5,6,8
God made Him (Jesus Christ) who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:22-24
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith---and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God---not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:8-10
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