This past summer, I worked as a summer staffer for Crossings Camps. One of the Points of Impact that is available for students to do throughout the day is Messy Games. For some reason, kids love to go multiple feet deep in a horribly rank and disgusting mud pit. So one day when I was working this POI, one of the middle school girls was complaining about her mascara and lip gloss getting messed up. She nearly left the mud pit to go put more makeup on. I couldn't decide whether or not to laugh or just think about how sad and pathetic that is. I did both. But God convicted me about how often I act like that spiritually.
I thought of the old expression "putting lipstick on a pig", which refers to making superficial and exterior changes on the outside that cannot change the true nature. That girl was disgusting and caked in mud from head to toe. Putting on makeup wouldn't do anything. But I do the same thing. I'm a sinner. My nature is messy. Nothing that I can do can change who I am at my nature - a filthy sinner. Even my best attempts at righteousness fall woefully short. They are like "filthy rags" (like the clothes we had on in the mud pit).
| All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. Isaiah 64:6 |
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After being in the mud pit, we bring the students over to a large and powerful fire hose to wash them off. Of course, the hose is a symbol of what only the sacrifice of Christ can do to us.
| Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22 |
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Only the blood of Christ saves us from who we really are. We can try to make ourselves look good with our good works. We can put the best face on, try as hard as we can, and be good enough for God. Good works are done out of love for what God has done for us, not to gain His acceptance and save ourselves. Just like putting makeup on ourselves won't change our state of nastiness in a mud pit, trying to fix ourselves will not deal with our heart problem. Our sin problem. Only washing ourselves in the blood of Christ will cleanse our filth, and cleanse who we are at our hearts.
| "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 as crimson, they shall be like wool. Isaiah 1:18 |
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