Saturday, March 29, 2008

 

Living For God Series

 

Isaiah 1:18 “Though your sins are like scarlet…”

 

The Spot

 

The stain of sin is not impossible to remove from our lives.  

 

This year on Easter I arrived in the sanctuary before the Sunrise Service to practice the sermon one more time.   I found a place where I had forgotten to highlight in my notes something I wanted emphasized.   My life is always surrounded by yellow highlighters.   In my excitement I mistakenly put the highlighter point down in my pocket without benefit of its top.    My first clue was a cold, wet feeling on my chest.   When I looked my heart sank! 

I walked around and greeted people on Sunday morning before Averette brought me a new shirt.  Of course, everyone noticed a big yellow spot on the front of my shirt.   Most people looked at me and said, “Chip, that won’t come out!”    Some men in the church said, “I hate when that happens.  You just have to throw the shirt away.”   One person looked at me and said, “Did you mean to do that?”   Most of the women said unanimously, again, “That stain won’t come out.”  

 

On Sunday evening I decided that I was going to get that yellow spot out of my shirt.   My wife and daughters felt my efforts would be foolish.   Armed with an old toothbrush and some specialty soap I use for removing oil paint, I began to scrub.  I found that yellow highlighter multiplied when I added the soap.   I also learned from basic color mixing, that yellow and blue makes green.   Soon I developed a system of putting the soap on the shirt, scrubbing for about ten minutes, and then rinsing.  I did this for several applications and finally, I used OxiClean for several more applications.   After much effort, the shirt came completely clean.  

 

Sometimes we make a mistake and it leads to a stain on our life.    The stain of sin can seem impossible to remove.   However, if we give God the opportunity, He can remove even the vilest stain of sin from our lives.   Isaiah the prophet says,

           

“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 as crimson, they shall be like wool.”  

 

It took a great deal of effort to remove the effects of that highlighter from my shirt.  It takes much effort to remove a particular sin from our lives.   If we ask God, seek forgiveness, and make every effort to place ourselves away from the siren song of sin, it can be done.  

 

Prayer:

Dear God, help me clean the sin from my life.  Amen.