Spiritual Scrubbin' Bubbles....

Isaiah 1:18
"Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD.
Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are like crimson, they, shall be as wool.

The invitation, by God, to come and learn the truth about ourselves.
We all, everyone of us, suffer from the same malady.
Sin.
We have a nature, a bent, a propensity to do the wrong thing, make the wrong choice, and go against the grain (so to speak).
The bent in our nature is what the apostle Paul refers to as "The old man" or "the flesh".
We didn't ask for this way of seeing life or what's more, living it.
It's all part of the package that we inherited when the woman and the man got a hankerin' for some forbidden fruit.
Oh, the fruit didn't cause the downfall of the human race.
It was the decision to eat the fruit.
Just like for us today, the act of sin actually begins with the thought of sin.
I have the thought....
I entertain it...
I let it roll around in my brain, even though my heart is shooting up red flares, and bells and whistles are going off all around me to be careful and not fall prey to sin. 
I succumb to the thought and give in to act out the sin.

Another sneaky part to this whole "sin" thing, is that we are born with a rebellious streak inside.
It comes out in the from of our rejection of God.
We can come up with a gazillion reasons why we don't want God interferring (isn't that the way we always see God? He is interferring in our affairs) in our lives.
Don't tell me what to do...
Those Ten Commandments are so outdated.
I will determine what I want to believe or reject.
With such boastful statements, we sail the ship of our lives straight on to the rocks and shoals.
We can say it...
We just can't live it....
This is why we need a POWER  greater than ourselves.
A POWER that is not found in the collective intellect or will of the human race.
A divine POWER  that possesses the authority and ability to break the influence and power of sin.
That divine POWER would be Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 9:22 tells us that ...Without the shedding of blood there is no remission (cleansing).
In other words, the death of Jesus on the cross, his blood being spilt, is the door that opens to my healing from sin/addiction. His blood became an eternal payment for an eternal problem.
Jesus' blood, free from the presence of sin, became the capital and currency of heaven that gave me the opportunity to be free from the penalty of death that came with my sin nature.

Don't you find it strange that in the passage from Isaiah, sin is described as being "like scarlet" and "red like crimson". That sin and blood seem to have the same appearance. Hard to tell one from the other...yet it was blood that God used to bring forgiveness for sin in our lives.
We see that when we surrender ourselves to Jesus....
When we admit our we are powerless....
Something happens inside of us.
The sin nature that has plagued mankind since the garden of Eden, is changed.
The stain and color of sin is attacked and turned white....the whitest of white....like wool.
That is real Power! The ability to go to the spiritual molecular level and change the heart and mind of a person so that they can live life, deal with life, and face life in a new way that, prior to this process of salvation, was beyond their capability.
Now I tell you, if that doesn't set you on fire...
Then your wood is wet.

Think on these things today...
God on you....
mb