Washing The House

In order to begin writing today’s blog entry, I looked up the dictionary definition of “pervasive.” It means: “an unwelcome influence or physical effect spreading widely through an area or a group of people.” What I was doing yesterday and today involved something that had become pervasive and it was definitely unwelcome. It was sticky brown dust and green algae — all over the house!

My mother’s house is covered in white vinyl siding. When it was first put up years ago it was brilliant white. Then, as the year came on, so came the dust and algae. How did it get there? Basically, farmers plow their fields, and north winds blow cold that produces algae in places where the sun doesn’t shine all that much.

The grime creeps up slowly. It’s barely noticeable until one day the streaks of brown and green scream out! It’s been building up throughout the year, but it seems to have arrived overnight. Well, I tackled it good: a spray bottle of bleach and a garden hose to wash it away took care of the problem. The bleach eats the grime and in minutes it’s all pretty again. There was a section of the house that didn’t look so bad. I nearly left it until I stepped back to look at the whole house. Wow! That put it all into proper perspective. When I looked at what was already cleaned, the part that I thought was okay actually stood out in its obvious dirt! I quickly applied the bleach, and now the whole house is gleaming white.

Don’t we do that in our spiritual worlds? When we invite Jesus into our lives and ask Him to forgive us of all our sins, He applies the blood of the cross and cleans us up perfectly! We’re gleaming clean and forgiven! Of course, we still live in an imperfect and sinful world. Therefore, we get our feet dirty. Perhaps that’s the obvious grime. What if we cleaned our feet everyday but ignored the rest of our bodies? What if we asked forgiveness for some sins but ignored others? Of course, when we take time to step back and see ourselves as God does, it puts things into proper perspective, and we clearly see that our minds and our hearts need cleansing. All sins must be dealt with because just one left will leave us still dirty. Even if we consider it a “little” sin, if left unattended, it will grow, and when it grows, it will choke our joy. Sin left unattended will keep us from reaching our full potential in Christ. Why, therefore, do we try to hang on to sin? It’s destructive! It’s not pretty. It is of no value to us.

Let’s not do that to ourselves. Let’s not lie to ourselves, saying that just one sin doesn’t matter. Jesus died for that one sin; it matters. Let Him wash it away. Then, walk free and full of joy. The only other choice is to walk around dirty.

Let’s come to Jesus everyday to be washed and forgiven. He never refuses a repentant heart. Read His loving words in Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, let’s settle this,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.'” Go ahead, get your house washed today and bask in the beauty of holiness.