"And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
Isaiah 1:15-18
This is instructive. In the first verse of the selection, God won't hear us because we're in the midst of sin. Before that verse it is talking about idol worship and hypocrisy mostly... pretending to worship God, but really honoring other traditions, or worshipping without sincerity. And in order to get back on track and be heard, we have to be sincere. And if we're sincere about wanting to change, then we wash... we have to get rid of all of that black sludge that we've rolled around in so we don't track it all over the Lord's white carpet. We have to wash our hands from the blood of animal sacrifice before we can show the Lord that we understand the symbolism of sacrificing our hearts and minds to do his will. I also like the order here... first, stop doing evil. Second, learn to do well. Start doing good things to fill up those holes in our lives where the bad stuff used to be... so we don't fall back into the mud.
Today, let's go to God. Let's reason with him, and start turning our lives around. Nothing goes on our permanent record if we work it out with him.
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
Isaiah 1:15-18
This is instructive. In the first verse of the selection, God won't hear us because we're in the midst of sin. Before that verse it is talking about idol worship and hypocrisy mostly... pretending to worship God, but really honoring other traditions, or worshipping without sincerity. And in order to get back on track and be heard, we have to be sincere. And if we're sincere about wanting to change, then we wash... we have to get rid of all of that black sludge that we've rolled around in so we don't track it all over the Lord's white carpet. We have to wash our hands from the blood of animal sacrifice before we can show the Lord that we understand the symbolism of sacrificing our hearts and minds to do his will. I also like the order here... first, stop doing evil. Second, learn to do well. Start doing good things to fill up those holes in our lives where the bad stuff used to be... so we don't fall back into the mud.
Today, let's go to God. Let's reason with him, and start turning our lives around. Nothing goes on our permanent record if we work it out with him.
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