With the deep freeze and winter chill, friends are battling frozen pipes and other cold induced troubles. It reminds me to not take for granted my working shower, tub and toilet.If your shower and toilet work today... it is a wonderful place to pause for gratitude.
A working shower means we can get warm and clean any time we want. Randy had a really cold day at the office recently. Something was not working right with the heating system at the office. He was so chilled to the bone when he came home and could not seem to get warm that evening. A hot shower was what finally did the trick. True relief!
A working shower means we can wake up in the morning by breathing in the moist steam and basking the warm wrap of hot water. A working shower is comfort and joy. It is such a pleasant experience, we might forget that the real purpose is to make us clean.
Washing ourselves is good! A working shower (or bath) help make that happen.
The awakening that comes from a shower, helps us face the day.
This verse in Isaiah made me think about the way God showers grace and forgiveness on us. Jesus paid the price and provided the way, so we might be washed clean. Still, we must choose to be cleansed. There is decision, choices and re-learning. Here is the verse:
"Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause." -Isaiah 1:16-17
Having just finished Dressember, a campaign against human trafficking, the second half of this scripture struck me. "Learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless and plead the widow's cause." God does not change. These concerns are still close to His heart. When we seek his heart, we become more aware of the good that needs to be done. At times, He showers us with opportunities.
The short, New Testament book of James... so full of encouragement and conviction in equal doses. It packs a punch.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. -James 1:27 (ESV)
Let's look at that verse again in the NLT translation.
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. -James 1:27 (NLT)
To be His hands and feet, to carry the gospel and to seek the lost... we have to go where people are hurting and in need. We have to go step beyond the safe borders and take up the fight against evil, without being changed or tainted by it. We aren't told to sit in our beautiful, warm buildings and wait for the walking wounded to come to us.
"Visit widows and orphans in their affliction." It can be as simple as helping with the local food pantry or wearing a dress every day in Dressember. It can be as aventuresome as going to far aways places to work in an orphanage or help build systems for clean, fresh water where there are none.
Today... let's look at third translation... a paraphrase known as "The Message" speaks in the language of today:
Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world. -James 1:27 (MSG)
The world doesn't need "hot air". It is annoying and does not please God. We were commissioned to go, to love and to share the hope that is in found in Jesus. His truth sets us free from all the grit and grime of whatever sin binds us. That is the hope the world needs to know.
His grace to us is like a working shower. He washes away the hurt, the dirt, the shame, the wounds and the guilt. He brings us back to life... new life.
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