Stains

I've been getting some of my kids' things together to sell at a consignment sale.  I usually like to give my things away but I thought I'd try consigning this time.  I read the rules and they said there could be no stains on the clothing.  Of course, that makes sense.  It almost seems silly they'd have to put that.  I've bought clothes at a consignment sale before though and when I took them home I realized they had a stain on it, often hidden behind the price tag or something else.  I was always bummed and frustrated someone would sell their clothes like that. 

So I've been examining my clothes carefully to be sure there were no stains.  The closer I looked the more I realized I tolerate more stains on my kids' clothes then I realized.  Not that my kids are wearing clothes that aren't clean but often it would be a little stain that was light.  Or in a place that isn't easily seen.  They are kids after all and have a tendency to spill or use their shirt as a napkin or even worse a tissue (eeww!)  At home it's not a big deal to have little stains but now that I knew it would be looked at carefully it put a new standard on it. 

So I carried the stained clothing to the laundry room.  I turned on a lamp, that acts more like a spotlight, to see where the stains are and sprayed stain remover on them.  Then it dawned on me this is just like when we become a Christian we are cleaned by Christ's work on the cross.  However, the process of sanctification or living a life set apart for Christ is just that…a process.  We have to make sure that we don't have stains on us continuously because the old sins and things that tripped us up in our past are crouched and ready to consume us any given chance.  It may not seem like a big deal, some of the things we let in our life, but when we put them under God's spotlight more stains appear.  Some we didn't even realize were there.  We scratch our heads and wonder, "How did I miss that?"

I've recently been fasting.  There's nothing like a fast to shine a spotlight on undesirable or down right wrong attitudes or actions that slipped in our life.  Or sometimes we have something we didn't completely surrender to Christ when we accepted Him as Lord of our life.  We need to break free from the "sin that so easily entangles".   (Hebrews 12:1)  My Pastor painted such a good picture of the portion of scripture last Sunday.  When we accept Christ the work of salvation is done in an instant because of what Christ did for us on the cross but sanctification or learning to walk a holy life that God desires for us is a process. The sins that bound us before we were saved are hungry to consume us once again. You can't leave room for any piece because sin is like a parasite, it grows and always tries to kill it's host. Pastor had one of the other pastors go on stage and demonstrated the effects of sin hanging on a Christian by giving weights to the other pastor. There were small weights but they added up as he continued to give them to him. Some he even hooked on his belt, then he had and extention cord and drapped it on the man to show how sin entangles. He asked Pastor Micah to walk around. It was not easy for him to do. We also can not walk around with sin weighing us down and tripping us up. There is no way we can walk the Christian walk in all that Christ has given us if we allow sin, even a little bit, in our life.

He told a story about a crooked man who sold his house. The crooked seller told the buyer he wanted only to keep the nail above the door. One nail, that's all he had rights to. The rest was the purchasers. The buyer agreed and signed a paper stating their deal. Years went by and one day the crooked man went back to the house and told the buyer that he wanted to buy his house back. The man living there said, "No. It's my house.  You sold it to me." The crooked man said, "You better sell it back to me or I'll make your life miserable." The man said, "No there's nothing you can do. The house is mine." So the crooked man found a dead dog and nailed it up with his nail, right above the door to the house. The purchaser of the house saw the dog and removed it. So the crooked man got an officer and showed him the agreement both men had signed. The officer told the man living in the house he couldn't do anything to that nail because the crooked man had legal right to it. So the crooked man hung the dog back up and it stank and decayed and attracted maggots. Finally the man living in the home was driven from his home. Lesson of the story; Don't give the devil EVEN ONE little bit in your life. It only takes one little bit for him to have rights on you. Jesus paid for you in full with His blood. Don't give the devil a foothold by allowing sin in your life. Do not be tolerant or grow numb to sin in your own life. 

Pastor gave a list of the most common things that so easily entangle us. Unforgiveness, fear and anxiety, sexual immorality, occult involvement (even the seeming innocence of a ouija board or palm reading), rejection and toxic grief, addiction, and dishonesty and pride.  If you knowingly have one of these in your life and the Holy Spirit is tugging on your heart, here is your chance to break free.  I broke free and it's a wonderful thing.  God created us for so much more!  Walk in the freedom of Christ!