Clean Slate Reprise
New year. Fresh start. Here's post from a while back to encourage you about Who holds your future.
Ancestry.com, be warned, has the potential to suck hours of your life away. I discovered this last year when my dad uncovered an old letter amongst my grandmother’s things. This fragile letter, dating back to the Civil War, sent my sister and I into a tizzy. We painstakingly transcribed the script in a Word document until we had enough information to attack Ancestry.com with a fury and see what stories lay dormant in our family history.
The letter was written by my great-great-great grandfather to his wife, Wilhelmina Bradford. Her name triggered in me a ferocious hunt to see if we might be related to the incomparable William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth. I’ve always been fascinated by his story. Sleep took a back seat as I searched records that journeyed back closer and closer to the man in question. I convinced myself that this would explain why I loved forging new territory, and pioneering new visions- I was a Bradford at heart.
It was an incredible moment when that little green leaf showed up and low and behold…we were direct descendants.
For a few weeks, at least.
Until my dad tried to get us into the Mayflower society and the fact checking revealed a misidentified son in the line. Back to the family tree drawing board, I began to journey through other branches and discovered a far sturdier link to the Mayflower. Though Bradford was not on the other end.
Miles Standish was.
Do you know him? Perhaps not. He was in charge of the defense and military operations of little Plymouth, and best known for his brutality towards the Native Americans. Um, yay.
It’s easy to accept your woven tale of legacy when your ancestor is the father of a nation, less so when he’s the one remembered for being a trite too bloodthirsty.
But here’s what I’ve discovered in Christ.
Your past does not dictate your destiny.
He likes to wipe our slate CLEAN. Clean from the mistakes of our ancestors – or the mistakes we made yesterday. He is making all things new, and His mercy is fresh every morning. I’m a daughter of the King, and that’s the best lineage around! And because of this sweet gift, I am forgiven, I am clean, and I am free to forge a destiny with Him.
And so are you, my friends. So are you.
"...Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." Ephesians 5:25-26
Wednesday, January 09, 2013
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Clean and Soapless
Recently,
my Old Testament Bible readings came from The Law, the instructions God laid down for his people after he freed them from Egypt. In all of the instances of people needing
to be cleaned, whether from disease or touching something unclean or to enter God’s
presence, they had to be washed with water, usually their whole bodies and
their clothes.
Of
course, rather than focusing on the extensive and beautiful symbolism of water,
my little brain immediately went to the distinct lack of a cleansing
agent. “What? No bleach?
No peroxide? No ammonia, vinegar
or lemon juice? Are you kidding me? NO SOAP?!
ONLY WATER?!” [shudders from the
heebie-jeebies]
With
all we know today about germs and viruses and bacteria, to wash with only water
seems downright dangerous. Surely at the
very least we should pray over the water, as we pray over meals, right? That way at least if the water is
contaminated we can ask God to protect us from it…
That’s
when I remembered the important factor I’d left out of the equation.
God.
He
said water. He meant water. Plain, simple water.
This
is the God who can turn water into wine (and good wine at that), walk on it,
calm it down, and make it into something living. I’m guessing he knows a little bit about its
effectiveness to clean people and their stuff.
Maybe
we make it harder than it is. Just
as we don’t need all kinds of ceremonies and fancy prayers to be saved, we
don’t need all kinds of chemicals and cleansing agents to be clean. We are saved by a simple confession (Romans
10:9). We are baptized simply with water
(Matthew 28:19).
But
the cleansing of water doesn’t end there.
We have the Spirit, the Living Water, in us. “Whoever
believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will
flow from within them.” (John 7:38)
Clean
on the outside and clean on the inside.
Yep, hold the bleach. I think a dousing, dunking or drink of water is good enough for me.
Debbie Legg is your server today! Find out more about her here and don't forget to sign up for updates by email or RSS before you go.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
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Clean Slate
Ancestry.com, be warned, has the potential to suck hours of
your life away. I discovered this last year when my dad uncovered an old letter
amongst my grandmother’s things. This
fragile letter, dating back to the Civil War, sent my sister and I into a
tizzy. We painstakingly transcribed the
script in a Word document until we had enough information to attack Ancestry.com
with a fury and see what stories lay dormant in our family history.
The letter was written by my great-great-great grandfather to his
wife, Wilhelmina Bradford. Her name triggered in me a ferocious hunt to see if
we might be related to the incomparable William Bradford, the governor of
Plymouth. I’ve always been fascinated by
his story. Sleep took a back seat as I
searched records that journeyed back closer and closer to the man in
question. I convinced myself that this
would explain why I loved forging new territory, and pioneering new visions- I
was a Bradford at heart.
It was an incredible moment when that little green leaf
showed up and low and behold…we were direct descendants.
For a few weeks, at least.
Until my dad tried to get us into the Mayflower society and
the fact checking revealed a misidentified son in the line. Back to the family
tree drawing board, I began to journey through other branches and discovered a
far sturdier link to the Mayflower. Though Bradford was not on the other
end.
Miles Standish was.
Do you know him? Perhaps not. He was in charge of the defense
and military operations of little Plymouth, and best known for his brutality
towards the Native Americans. Um,
yay.
It’s easy to accept your woven tale of legacy when your
ancestor is the father of a nation, less so when he’s the one remembered for
being a trite too bloodthirsty.
But here’s what I’ve discovered in Christ.
Your past does not dictate your destiny.
He likes to wipe our slate CLEAN. Clean from the mistakes of our ancestors – or
the mistakes we made yesterday. He is
making all things new, and His mercy is fresh every morning. I’m a daughter of the King, and that’s the
best lineage around! And because of this
sweet gift, I am forgiven, I am clean, and I am free to forge a destiny with
Him.
And so are you, my friends. So are you.
"...Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." Ephesians 5:25-26
Thursday, April 26, 2012
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Deep Clean
A few months back, my husband accidentally spilled a cup of
coffee on a special hand-made quilt. It was not just any handmade quilt
either….it was the wedding ring quilt my mom made for our (as the name implies)
WEDDING. It was a total accident, Phillip felt terrible about it, and so did I.
We sprung immediately into action and tried those two things you do when you
need to get a potentially rotten stain out of fabric….soaking and scubbing.
We soaked the quilt in water and soaked some more. Then we
scrubbed the fabric nearly raw trying to get that stain out. We didn’t give up
until it looked as good as new (which it eventually did!).
We worked hard to clean out the stain because the quilt had
been a very special gift to us. You work hard to clean stains out of things you
care about.
God is like that. He cares more about us than we even have
the words to express. And when it comes to cleaning us, I truly believe he
takes the same two-step approach we did…soak and scrub. We are to be fully
immersed in the Living Water and He will begin to clean us from the inside out. We are
to be willing to crucified with Christ until all selfishness is scrubbed out of
us. (This is not always a pain-free process.)
God won’t ever tire in this endeavor. He will not cease. He
will keep working on us until he has accomplished a thoroughly deep clean and
we begin to look like new again.
“Though your sins are
like scarlet, they shall be as as white as snow; though they are red as
crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18
“He who began a good work in you will carry
it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” – Phillippians 1:6
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
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Team Clean
“Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share…” –Barney
Even pre-schoolers know that sometimes cleaning requires a team effort. Some jobs are just too big for one person to handle all alone. What seems overwhelming to one becomes a small task when two or three more are involved. Ask any kid you know, and they’ll agree that cleaning is easier when you don’t have to do it alone.
Why then, do we adults decide to face our biggest clean up jobs on our own? We have a community of “cleaners” surrounding us, but when it comes to our spiritual spills we resolve to handle the clean up all alone. We’re content to struggle with our mess and chaos when help is usually one “Can we talk” away. Blame it on pride, fear or an inflated sense of our own power—the bottom line is we often wear ourselves out on life-clean-ups that would be much easier with a little help from a friend.
Trust me, cleaning is faster and a lot more fun when they are friends involved, especially the kind of friends who don’t judge your mess, condemn you for it or add their own mess to the pile. I pray that you face your next round of soul cleaning with faithful friends by your side. If Barney and his pre-school fans understand the power of team cleaning, you can too!
“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results.” James 5:16 NLT
Anitra Elmore is your server today! Find out more about her here and don't forget to sign up for updates by email or RSS before you go.
Monday, April 23, 2012
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Clean Inside
There is absolutely no way I could write on the topic of Jesus giving us so thorough a scrubbing that our lives will shine as brightly as the sun, without pulling out this video.
I was first introduced to this song by fellow writer, and former gospel choir director, Anitra, waaaay back in . . . when was it????? 1990-something.
Repeat after me.
"Won't He make you clean? Inside. Won't He make you clean? Inside." Lather, rinse, repeat.
The answer is "yes".
There is no mess we can make that He can not clean.
When we are dull, He is the polish.
When we are dirty, He is the broom.
When we are damaged, He is the repair.
Believe it or not, God already sees the gem that you are - even if covered by black soot. He will remove the soot. He will reveal to YOU how he sees you - beautiful.
You must believe this.
Joline Atkins is your server today! Find out more about her here and don't forget to sign up for updates by email or RSS before you go.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
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Clean
Create in me a clean
heart, O God,
And renew a right
spirit within me.
Caste me not away from
Thy presence;
Take not Thy Holy
Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the
joy of Thy salvation;
And renew a right
spirit within me.
In my earliest memories of church, I can remember singing
these words during worship. We sang this hymn so often, I knew it by heart without
ever consciously setting out to memorize it. We sang it so often, I also tended
to forget to meditate on its words. I tended to forget that in asking for God
to create a clean heart in me, I was also admitting that my heart was in need
of being cleaned.
Ever happened to you?
This week, the Daily Fast Fuel is serving up our thoughts
and meditations on what it means to be CLEAN. After all, it IS Spring, the time for new life!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
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