Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of song, images, and lyrics from The Maranatha Singers singing … White As Snow … poignantly singing of how we, as Christians, are cleansed white as snow from the scarlet of our sin nature when we surrender to be repentant disciples of Christ.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Isaiah 1:18 [ESV] ... 18 “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.
… The only way for the scarlet sins of God’s people can be cleansed is thru their complete surrender of will to the ways of the Lord.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Isaiah 1:15-20 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… Isaiah prophesies for God what it will take for the sins of Judah to be cleansed from crimson to white as snow.
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Reference Passage : … John 8:12 [ESV] … 12 Again Jesus spoke to them [i.e., His followers], saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
… Jesus declares that following His way is the only way out of the darkness of our sin in to the eternal light of Christlikeness.
Reference Passage : … John 15:13 [ESV] … 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
… Jesus shows Thomas (and us) that surrender of our scarlet sins to Him is the only way for sinners to be cleansed by His saving grace.
Reference Passage : … 1 John 1:7-9 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s word makes it clear what it takes for our blood red sin to be cleansed, i.e., thru confession and repentance.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Linda Washington, uses a common word picture to illustrate how surrendering in repentance to God’s way is the only way to be cleansed of our sin nature. … The ODB author wrote: In the seventeenth century, Sir Isaac Newton used a prism to study how light helps us see different colors. He found that when light passes through an object, the object appears to possess a specific color. While a single ice crystal looks translucent, snow is made up of many ice crystals smashed together. When light passes through all of the crystals, snow appears to be white.
The Bible mentions something else that has a certain color—sin. Through the prophet Isaiah, God confronted the sins of the people of Judah and described their sin as “like scarlet” and as “red as crimson.” But God promised they would “be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). How? Judah needed to turn away from wrongdoing and seek God’s forgiveness.
Now that I’ve lived in the south of the USA for most of my life, snow is not my favorite weather event. But I have to admit, tho it may not be often, when we do get an early morning blanket of snow over our grounds (see photo), with the sun shining off of the glistening whiteness, it is a beautiful picture of what the Prophet Isaiah was saying, for God, to his people [see highlight passage and hear the linked song]. … And as Jesus was saying to His followers [see red-letter reference passages], that we can only find a cleansing of our sin nature by surrendering in repentance and walking as obedient disciples of our Lord.
Which raises the question from today’s ODB entry, … “Are we?” Because if we are, our lives are able to shine the light of Christlikeness into a very dark world so that they might see that Jesus is the only way for any of us to have our crimson sin nature cleansed to be white as fresh snow in the light of dawn. I pray we’ve all experienced God’s cleansing like the new morning snow; and we’re shining His light of grace for all to see His fresh covering today.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for cleansing me of the scarlet of my sin to be white as snow.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me today, to give praise and thanks for the cleansing we have received thru our Lord’s saving grace - even today as we confess our sin. Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.</ span>
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