Laundry Soap

When I was writing last week's blogs I kept coming back to the way God cleanses us.  He washes us until we are clean; then, He sweeps up our messy lives; He arranges our path and our future; He dusts up the junk we leave behind; and He disinfects the areas that needs to be erased. 

Today we'll talk about how He washes us clean.  Look at Psalms 51:6-8:

Surely you desire truth in the inner parts
       you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
       wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
       let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

The significance of "hyssop," is that it was a plant used for ritual cleansing purposes in the Jewish custom.  It was an aromatic plant similar to marjoram  (I know you want to run right out and get some so that you can identify the smell!)

The psalmist is saying to clean me so that I smell good!  Clean me so much that I am whiter than snow!  That's clean, right?  How is it that God can possibly get us so clean, after we have been so unclean?

Have you ever felt that way?  That there's no way God could forgive you, what you've done.  After all, you're a stinky rotten mess.  I know I've felt that way sometimes.  But yet, God longs to forgive us.  He has spent our lifetimes and beyond calling to us, loving us, showing us the pathway to Him.

I might have pointed this out already in an earlier post (I'm getting old and forgetting what I say!), but have you ever looked at Jeremiah 29:11 in context?  Look at the entire paragraph:

 This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity.  I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile." 

Look at the terms He uses with the Hebrew nation:  "My gracious promise."  "I will listen to you."  "I will be found by you."  "I will gather you."  "I will bring you back."   These are words from someone who is deeply in love and who is pleading for the one He loves to come back to Him.  It's not just a promise for the future, it's a pleading, a yearning . . . you can almost hear the ache in His voice . . . "come back to me.  Come back." 

That's how He can forgive us, and make us whiter than snow.  It's His love, and only His love.  Nothing we do, no salary we earn, no station in life, no good we do on earth can ever make us worthy of His forgiveness.  His love and His grace do that. 

Remember the old hymn, "I Shall Be Whiter than Snow?"

Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;
I want Thee forever to live in my soul;
Break down every idol, cast out every foe—
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 

Refrain:
Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow,
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Lord Jesus, let nothing unholy remain,
Apply Thine own blood and extract every stain;
To get this blest cleansing, I all things forego—
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

There's only one way to get the ultimate wash - Christ's blood, through His love, is the only way.  Won't you let Him wash you today?