Clean

 

When we moved into a nice home in Maryland, my wife didn't like the color of the living room. No big deal we painted it. Once the living room was freshly painted however, the kitchen looked dark and dingy. No big deal. We painted it. Well then we noticed that going from the kitchen to the family room was a big let down - it looked like it needed paint --- Every room we painted showed up the need for paint in the next room.

 

It is funny how we compare things. If everything is so-so, then we don't notice it so much. When one thing stands out as clean, or new, or perfect, the imperfections in every thing else become obvious.

 

When we compare ourselves to our friends and associates, we often can feel pretty good about our selves. But when we ponder a perfect and holy God, we find a different picture. God is holy, which means he is completely separate from sin. He is the absolute moral standard of perfection. When moral purity is a standard, no one can reach it. In this day and age the word pure or purity is not even used when referring to people. All of us know deep down inside that there is somewhere a perfect standard, and we also know, we don't measure up.

 

But the Bible teaches that God is in the cleaning business. In Isaiah 6, the angel came with a coal to Isaiah's lips. In the New Testament we find that God sent his Son to live and die that he could bring cleansing to our lives. Spiritual life begins when we recognize that we are in need of His cleaning and ask him to do the work he does so well.

 

Isaiah 6:1-8 (NIV)

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"