WRINKLES OR SPOTS

Ephesians 5:25-27 NLT … He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.

When we’re younger, we often look in the mirror and see some spot has popped up out of nowhere. Then as we grow older and look in the mirror, we can see wrinkles! All of which are disturbing for a time, but God says if we’ll look in the mirror of His Word we will see a different picture altogether.😊

2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 

He says the more we look in the Word we’ll see we’re being transformed into His likeness because it will reflect back to us who God says we are and how He now sees us. It doesn’t happen overnight, but we’re being cleansed by God’s word each time we read it. The secret is to read it and allow it to transform us!😊

As born again believers we’re all part of God’s worldwide church and we know we don’t always get it right, but praise God, we are all a work in progress being changed from one degree of glory to another. Even when we feel we have a long way to go, we can still see how far we’ve come, and God has made us this promise of being changed into His glorious image so we can rest in it and on it.

As Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” So we can be encouraged, because whether we have physical wrinkles and spots or not doesn’t really matter, because we are assured we are being changed into His likeness for His glory as we’re washed by the cleansing of His Word.😊 My question to myself is, am I allowing myself to be washed? How about you?

Thank You Lord. Amen.

Photo by Julia on Unsplash

CLEAR THE ROAD

Mark 1:3 NLT He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!’

When a famous person, or royalty come to visit the district, they sometimes make the decision to clear the road and everything and everybody out of the area as they prepare for his or her arrival.

I just felt the Lord was reminding us again of our need to clear the road for Him each day. To be prepared to put some other things aside so we can be ready for Him to speak into our day, and into our situations, not just for two minutes, squeezed in here or there, but to properly clear some time for Him.😊 

When life is pressing in on us, the ‘traffic’ of life can be very loud! It becomes so congested with the ‘stuff’ of life, that it makes it hard to hear His voice telling us of His love, or encouraging us on, or warning us of something to come. John the Baptist was chosen to clear the way for the Messiah and we are the one who has to clear the way, to make the time, for Jesus in our own lives. Nobody else can do it!😊

The wonderful truth is, Jesus went to the Cross so we could have a clear pathway to His Father and even if we blow it and repent, He is faithful and just to forgive us. In fact, praise God, He has done already! There is no blockage His end!😊

Jesus cleared the road for us to come, now He’s waiting for us to clear the road our end and do the coming. Let the Holy Spirit encourage us today, to put the traffic cones up, to clear the road, so the King of Glory can come in and spend some time with Him each day because He really wants to spend time with us. What a lovely thought to start the week.😊 Amen.

Photo by Maria Baranova on Unsplash