Yes, You Can Ministry

Wash me!

“For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”-Isaiah 64:6

At times we feel like God could not go on without us. Like we are the fastener that holds everything together; the clasp that keeps everything joined. We look at others, and see what they do; and we think to ourselves WOW look at that heathen! I thank God that I’m not like they are. When we feel like that we need to remember Isaiah 64:6 because when we feel like that then God reminds us of what we’re really like.

No matter how good you think you are and no matter how important you think you are to God you cannot read those words, and not realize how wrong you are. King David spoke of how we should see ourselves in comparison to God. He said in Psalm 22:6, “But I am a worm…” David knew that when he and all of his accomplishments were weighed with the mercies of God that he was a worm. Less than a worm we are like slugs! Remember the words of Isaiah in Isaiah 6:5 he said, “Woe is me! For I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…” Isaiah understood what we should all understand; that when he came into the presence of God he was trash, a slug. But, I have good news for you God likes slugs!!!!! When Isaiah realized how desperate he was, the Lord sent His angel to clean him, so that he would be presentable to stand before the King!

The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:4, “…If anyone else had reason to put confidence in the flesh, I far more.” Paul was referring to his life before Jesus Christ. He was born to a Hebrew family of the tribe of Benjamin; he had been taught as a Pharisee by some of the most respected Jewish leaders of his day, and he had been a persecutor of the Christian church. Paul was close to being perfect as any human could be, but even though he knew about God; and he knew about Gods’ laws he was as far from Him as you can get until one day on the road when he came face to face with the risen Savior, Jesus Christ. He then considered everything that he once cherished to be garbage. He said in Philippians 3:8, “More than that I count all things to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…” Nothing mattered anymore to Paul, nothing except the knowledge of who he was in Christ. Along with the knowledge that he was a new creation in Christ also came the knowledge of how despicable he was before Christ.

Listen to the words that Paul wrote to his apprentice Timothy in I Timothy 1:15, “… Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am chief.” You can almost hear Paul echoing the words of Isaiah, Woe is me. Paul realized that he was a sinner, and like Isaiah he knew that he was a man of unclean lips. Paul realized what a wicked, worthless person he was before Christ, but he also recognized that Christ, and Christ alone, could set him free. (Romans 7:24-25)

When we realize how despicable we are before God, He sends Jesus to clean us; and to clothe us in His righteousness!!!

Father, I thank You for being my freedom, and for sending Jesus to pay the price that I could never afford to pay. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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