Meet me at the Table 5

My daughter is doing cheer for football season and we had our first game last week. Our cheer shirts hadn’t come in yet so we decided just to all wear a white shirt. I found an inexpensive white shirt on amazon with cute sleeves for her to wear with her navy skirt. It looked really crisp and white. Perfect. We put it on and headed to the game.

I have been helping coach so I was busy figuring out where we needed to set the girls up at and making sure everyone was staying together. I finally looked up at everyone and noticed that my daughters shirt didn’t look so crisp and white anymore. When she was standing next to some of the other girls, her shirt actually looked really dingy. So much so I said to myself..wow that shirt really is not white at all even though when she was standing by herself without any other white shirts around it looked perfectly clean and crispy white.

Hear with your spiritual ears today.. when we look at ourselves and evaluate our hearts, our morals, our deeds… they could look pretty shiny. We have never murdered anyone. We have never committed adultery. We have never stolen from the poor. Its easy to point fingers at others and magnify their sins to make ourselves feel better. To make ourselves feel more worthy. We say look.. I served at church, and I helped served food to homeless people… look, look, look what I did.. I know I am better than those people over there.

Romans 3 in verses 10 and 23 tells us “There is none righteous, no, not one.” and “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God..” The scriptures also tell us in Matthew 5 that if you have anger in your heart towards your brother that it is like you have committed murder, and whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

One of the most dangerous places you can be is in a mindset that you are more righteous, that you are better than someone else. This is a spirit of pride. This is a place where you are leaning on your own strength, your own control, and that pushes the need for a savior aside.

You see, all of us.. we are an unclean thing.. we are all as filthy rags. When we put our white shirts on and stand beside the one that we should compare ourselves to, Jesus Christ, they all look dingy.. hmm..my shirt is not as white as I thought it was.

This is the beauty of the gospel.. that “though my sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” -Isaiah 1:18

So what is this saying..how do our “filthy rags” get turned white as snow? Its only by the blood of Jesus. God is righteous and just and sin cannot exist with Him..they oppose each other. So God, in his great mercy, made a way for us to be right with Him- (“righteous”). So He sent His son to die a criminals death and take on the sin of the world, for all of those that had been, and all of those that would come. In the old testament blood had to be shed for the atonement of sins. They brought animals..many animals. They usually had to be perfect…without any ailments or spots or blemishes. Jesus came to be that perfect, spotless lamb once for all time. Thank you Jesus for your blood!

If you have fallen into a cycle of puffing yourself up and falling into pride.. I encourage you today- repent! This is something that most of us fight everyday… not me on the throne but you on the throne, Lord. Not my will, but your will. Not me getting the glory for this thing I did..but you getting the glory, Lord. After all, He gave you that gift, He gave you that job, those resources, the ability to get up in the morning and go and do. “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.” -Romans 11:36

If you have never accepted Christ as your savior, I pray today is that day!

Romans 10:9 says “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Confess & believe. Truly confess & truly believe and then you, too, can experience being made white as snow. Not because of what we do but because of what Jesus has already done. The price is paid.

Take some time today to repent if you need to. Thank God for the blood of His son, Jesus, and if you need to be saved altogether.. pray, confess, and believe.. and then celebrate because you are now made righteous with the creator.