God’s Word is cleansing. Here’s how it works…

The Holy Spirit takes the revealed words of God (the Bible) and washes us from all the filthy junk that we get attracted to. Like, the addictions and the words and the thoughts and the patterns of sin and the images. The Bible scrubs us clean through replacing our sinful desires, thoughts and actions with holy and godly desires, thoughts and actions. The Holy Spirit gives us a bath through the Word.

David put it like this,

“How can a young man keep his way pure?

            By guarding it according to your word.

With my whole heart I seek you;

            Let me not wander from your commandments!

I have stored up your word in my heart,

            That I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:9-11)

Paul, speaking of Christ, makes it super clear in Ephesians,

“…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:25-27)

In both of these passages we can clearly see the agent God uses to cleanse us – it’s His Word!

Thinking we are going to get rid of the filth in our lives without getting into the Bible is like thinking we are going to take a bath without soap and water. We need the Bible; we need its cleansing power in our lives to gain the victory over sin.

Let me add a word of warning: we can’t rely on someone else’s teaching and preaching alone to clean us, we need to get into the scrubbing power of God’s Word on our own. Now, when I was a little boy my mom would give me a bath and scrub behind my ears and in all the right places. But, I quickly outgrew that and could eventually do it on my own. Wouldn’t it be tragic for a mom to be giving her 51-year-old son a bath? It is doubly tragic for mature believers to rely on someone else to give them a spiritual bath.

So, let’s get into the Bible. Study it; fall in love with its stories and teachings and poems. The Bible is trustworthy, reliable, clear, relevant and authoritative. Let the Holy Spirit wash you with the scrubbing power of God’s Word!

Grace & Peace,

Mother’s Day is upon us! Yes, this is a pre-warning for all the kids out there (young and old) that we have just a couple of days to write something special on a card and buy or make Mom something for this day. Over the years I have come to understand that Moms really don’t care about what they get, what they care about is that kids remember them in some special way. Moms want to know what’s deep inside us; they want to know what’s in our heart for them.

Here are some starters – call them appetizers for Mother’s Day:

·      Make her breakfast

·      Hand craft a Mother’s Day card

·      Make some coupons for her to use anytime she wants (foot rub, back rub, doing the dishes, cooking supper, playing her favorite game, etc.)

·      Make a 5 minute home movie telling her how much you love her

·      Movie night out (her choice!)

Here’s my point: put some thought into Mother’s Day, sacrifice some time for Mom, dig deep inside and pull out what you really feel for Mom on this day, and let her know that this isn’t the only day that she’s special! Husbands with babies or small children you don’t get off. Yeah, for the next several years you’re going to have to step in and help make this a special day for the mother of your kids. Hey, our day is coming soon! Let Mom set the agenda for the day; do the things she likes to do.

Now let me write something to Moms…relax, stop doing and just enjoy, let yourself be pampered, don’t worry if breakfast is a little runny or burnt or if it’s meatloaf with cereal, bask in your children’s love, and run from the temptation to get up and fix anything. Let this day be your day, you deserve it!

“Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.” (Proverbs 31:28)

Happy Mother’s Day!

I find that setting aside purposeful times for prayer helps me to pray. If I just go about my day without planning for a specific time to humble myself before my heavenly Father then at the end of the day I feel defeated and deflated. Jesus consistently did this very thing…

“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35; cf. Matthew 14:23; Luke 6:12; 22:41-44; Hebrews 5:7).

Even a casual reading of the Gospels will leave you with the sense that Jesus was busy. He had places to go and people to see. Add to that the constant interruptions from people clamoring to get His attention to ask Him a question or have Him heal them. And don’t forget the consistent badgering of the religious hierarchy seeking to trip Him up and bring Him down. Jesus was busy, but Jesus planned times of purposeful prayer.

Jesus simply takes it for granted that we would pray. When instructing His disciples about how to pray He began by saying, “When you pray…” (Matthew 6:5, 6, 7). Notice He said when not if. He assumed that His disciples, then and now, would pray.

I am writing this because our society has cultivated a culture of end zone to end zone living with no elbowroom. We are a fast-paced, narcissistic society that has no time for anything that doesn’t feed our egos. We live without margins and once our days get started…well, look out, because there’s no stopping until we collapse on our pillows. This is why we need to plan purposeful times of focused prayer. This is not to say that we should ignore spontaneous, unplanned times of prayer; those happen all the time, at all times of day and night. And when the Spirit moves us to pray we shouldn’t hesitate to pray. But if we don’t plan to pray then I fear that we simply won’t pray.

When do you plan to pray today?

Grace & Peace,