Stains

Reanna is still contagious, so Shorty and I switched off for church today. He attended Sunday school, and I went for the worship service. One of my FAVORITE things to do when most or all of my Crew is out of the house is clean. I just get so much MORE done without the demands of my little blessings (read "mess-makers" ;))! So I got myself mostly ready to go, and then I began the cleaning session. The majority of which was laundry.

Shorty's workout yesterday was a series of bear crawls, crab walks, and military crawls at the football field. This led to some significant grass stains on his sweat shirt and pants. He had asked me the night before if I could get grass stains out. I told him that I could... but it might take a while. =? So after starting a load to wash, I began working on the stains. And I started thinking about how my sinful actions "stain" me. It leaves a mark on me. Then I had the amazing thought that in Christ, God sees me spotless. Only God could wash the stains of sin from a human soul! And that's good news! =)

Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord GOD.
Jeremiah 2:22
 
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Psalms 51:1-3

"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
Isaiah 1:18

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:20-26