Thought for the Day 18/02/21 - Soap up!

AUDIO 

There's been such a lot of emphasis in the last year on washing you hands carefully using soap.

The virus causing our current pandemic is mercifully quite easy to polish off ... it takes nothing more complex than good old soap and water, and we've all got used to counting slowly to twenty while we give our digits a good old scrub.

The problem has been that the virus that causes COVID-19 can get stuck to your hands and travel from there through your skin, eyes, nose and mouth to cause multiple harms that can lurk unseen, until the symptoms break out and then grow to gradually take over the whole of you.

The consequences come with not guarding cleanliness 

The consequences of not following hand hygiene protocols can really be very serious indeed.

But there are other things that get into us through our hands, eyes and ears that damage our brains and our hearts.

Personality stains born of stigma don't come off all that easily, causing serious harm to our psychology, our health and our life.

And that's what the historical Easter was all about.

Guilt can be a terrible affliction on a life

Let's just get this fact in the open: guilt can be a terrible affliction on a life. 

Denying guilt just doesn't work ... but not cleansing it away effectively can be really debilitating.

Now, let's be clear, there is DEFINITELY such a thing as a stigma that shouldn't be there, and the effects of that too can be devastating.

But we can all look back at things we HAVE thought, said and done that still trouble us and for which we ARE responsible ... embarrassment and even shame that doesn't seem quick to just 'go away', stuff that doesn't just wash off your hands leaving your heart 'clean'.

But don't despair! 

There's good news coming up on cleansing the stains of guilt, and Zechariah for one was REALLY looking forward to that happening!

Zechariah knew all about this problem in his day, hundreds of years before Christ, and he prophesied how God would intervene to lift that really dark cloud:

“In that day there will be a fountain opened up 

for the dynasty of David and the people of Jerusalem 

to cleanse them from sin and impurity." 

Zechariah 13:1

And then ...

Jesus came to cleanse the soul and conscience from sin and impurity from all stains.

But the cleanser still needs to be applied

Now, quite obviously (just like soap) this cleansing only works when not simply supplied but applied.

And yet when you see that 'cleansing' changing a real human life, what you're watching can be utterly remarkable.

The Point

The load of guilt is there and is real ... but it needn't be terminal and can be lifted. 

Christ cleanses His people's record and purifies their conscience from sin's stains.

The Takeaway

COVID brought us hand cleansing protocols

Christ brought us cleansing of conscience

Isn't it time now to get on His protocol?

Time to go really often to that fountain, maintaining a really clear conscience ... rejoicing in the cleansing Christ brings?

Here's a song that might help you have a think about it ...

(Feel free to use the contact form I've put below too).