Thursday

It's Thursday and it's going to be a great day. I'm praying that today you will encounter the Almighty. 

Yesterday, we started working on my deck, prepping it for staining. After we cleaned it, we saw that there were about 5 boards that were rotten and needed to be replaced. So, we cut those out and put new boards in. The deck is strong. It doesn't look "good as new" it has wear and some scars and obviously patches but it is strong and will be completely useful. 

I thought, "How often we need to look closely at our lives and cut out a few things?" And...it's not quite as easy as fixing the deck--the cliche "old habits die hard" is a cliche for a reason. And after those things are removed, we may not look like new this side of heaven because we will have some scars and some wear, but we will be strong and be ready to be used by God. 

I love how David says it in the Psalm after he was confronted about his sin. 

“Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean, scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life. Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing. Don’t look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health. God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. Don’t throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me. Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails! Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home. Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways. Unbutton my lips, dear God; I’ll let loose with your praise.”

Psalm 51:7-15 MSG

Wash me..scrub me..make me new..let me start over...save me...open my mouth for praise.  As a believer, David was asking for a return to holiness as much as for the joy of his salvation. David saw he had an unclean heart but he also recognized that he did not have the power to fix it. That was God's job so he begged God to create a clean heart in him--to make him new. 

In the straight translations of this passage, it says "cleanse me with hyssop". Hyssop is a herb from the mint family that has been used for centuries as medicinal and cleansing purposes. It is symbolic throughout scripture to represent purification--God commands using hyssop to ceremonial clean people and houses; the children of Israel used hyssop to smear the blood of the lamb on the doorposts for Passover; and the Roman soldiers offered Jesus a drink of vinegar using hyssop, a picture of purification as Jesus bought forgiveness with his sacrifice. Here David is asking for cleansing, not physically, but spiritually with the strongest agent available. He wants to be purely clean. And isn't that our desire as well? To stand holy and pure before the Great God Jehovah? 

Today, seek holiness. Ask the Almighty to help you cut out anything that doesn't need to be in your life and wash you in his laundry. 

Love you dear one,

Pam.