Enjoy Life, Enjoy God
CLEAN
December 24, 2012
It's Christmas Eve. But this day is about more than birth, but God's on-going plan of salvation, not to condemn the world, but to cleanse the world.
A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man, "I am willing," he said, "Be clean!"
--Matthew 8:2,3 TNIV
--Matthew 8:2,3 TNIV
The on-going plan of God's redemption, God's salvation, involved cleansing. Sadly, the leper who came to Jesus to be healed had been told that his leprosy was a result of his sins, or his parents, and he was dirty of sin, and needed to be cleansed. The illness did not render him dirty, but sin stains us all. Yet due to a baby born in a cradle, and an empty cross on a hillside, we can be clean from the soil of our sin, no matter it's origin.
The great tidings of joy we celebrate this Christmas Eve are inseparable from the joy of being able to say, "We are clean! Rejoice, in Christ we are forgiven!"
The great tidings of joy we celebrate this Christmas Eve are inseparable from the joy of being able to say, "We are clean! Rejoice, in Christ we are forgiven!"
Joyfully,
Dale Patterson