The Car Wash
Posted by Dion Todd April 20th, 2019 5,840 Views 0 Comments
Jesus answered him, 'If I don't wash you, you have no part with me.' Simon Peter said to him, 'Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!' Jesus said to him, 'Someone who has bathed only needs to have his feet washed, but is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.' For he knew him who would betray him, therefore he said, 'You are not all clean.' John 13:8 WEB
After spending most of my Saturday detailing our car, it looked great. I washed, waxed, leather conditioned, and gave it the works inside and out. Then after a week of sitting there, even though it had not been driven, it started to become dirty again. A cat walked across the hood, it turned green with pollen. It needed washing again because that is the natural course.
So it is with us, we lay our burdens and bondages down and then slowly pick them back up. Our 'feet' get dirty again. Be quick to repent of things that you know you did wrong or the enemy will use that as a foot hold, and then cause it to grow into bondage or a heavy burden once again. When we take our saddle off, he will try and put it back on. God already knows it, but it will do you good to get it off your chest. Sin is not a popular subject these days, but the Bible has a lot to say about it, and it is always bad.
'This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don't tell the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us' (1 John 1:5'8).
Religion without morality is just an illusion. Willful sin will be always a barrier to intimate fellowship with God, or satan and God would still be friends (Psalms 5:4; 66:18; Isaiah 59:1'2). What fellowship can light have with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14).
Just as the car, it is not once clean, always clean. Peter wrote: 'But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, The dog turns to his own vomit again, and 'the sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire' (2 Peter 2:22). Is your life different than it was before you met Jesus, or did you slowly return to the past?
In this scripture the dog got rid of the bad things inside of them, but then went back to it. The sow got rid of the bad things on the outside, but then returned to wallow in the mud. God underwrites a person's deliberate choice with: 'As you wish.'
The good news is that nothing that you have ever done can separate you from God when you repent of it. It allows Jesus to wash us clean. Repentance means to turn away from it, to say that you are sorry, to try and not do it any more. Keep a short list with the Lord and the enemy will not be able to use it against you. Jesus will give us a fresh start, if we only take a moment to ask.
Prayer: Heavenly Father I thank You for forgiveness and I am sorry for the things that I have done wrong. Wash me and I will be clean, deliver me and I will be free. Please guide me and I will follow, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray.
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