Tuesday, March 06, 2012

An Illusion

I got stuck in the snow today! The snow blower would not work, so I shovelled some snow, and soon gave up. I got the car out of the driveway okay and managed to start down our street. Then came the corners. I made it past the first one, then got hung up on the second. After much shoveling and help from others, I got going once more.

The snow looked soft and "friendly" but in reality it was hard, and stopped my vehicle in it's tracks.

In the passage for today we are challenged in regards to our lives. We had such a tendency to lives for the sake of what we might look like to others. Yet, on the inside, we know we are not what we appear to be.

16 Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
17 Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.[a]
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,”
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.
- Isaiah 10:16-18

When we come to Christ, seek and receive his forgiveness, we truly become white as snow. On the other hand, when we try to "cover up" what is inside and pretent we have it all together, we not only harm ourselves, but hinder others in finding true cleansing and hope. In Matthew 23 Jesus warned against hypocricy.

1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5 “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
- Matthew 23:1-7

Lord, today may my life be a reflection of your work in my life. May I experience true purity as you make me pure and I follow your ways.

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