Filthy and What the Holy Spirit is Telling Me

I was reminded of sin this morning. That's right S-I-N. How? You might ask. Trash. I was bagging up my trash right before I got in my car to head to school and after I got in the car I realized the funk had gotten on my hands. I don't know what kind of funk. There are lots of kinds of funk in my house. Dirty diapers is the first that comes to mind. Old disgusting food. But what I think it must have been was a dead animal. I'm pretty sure we hadn't killed anything lately but it sure did smell like it this morning. I tried two things in vain.

#1 was using some dew off the rear window of my car to wash the funk off. Obviously that was unsuccessful.
#2 I thought would definitely work and I was singing it's praises before I tried, hand sanitizer that I had in my car. No. Now the funk was masked but it was still there. I couldn't wait to get to school to wash my hands.

You might ask, how does this remind me of sin? If you have to ask you don't get it. Sin is here to stay, it lingers and tries to hold on. We let it hold on by trying to cover up the funk. It won't work. In fact it just makes it worse. We are denying the fact that we are in sin. I needed to be cleansed (or my hands did at least). We are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. That is how we can get clean again and wash off the funk that so easily entangles us.

I thought all of this was interesting and so I typed this little section out and saved it as a draft this morning. Then, several hours later, I got this e-mail asking for someone to teach our small group next Sunday night. I accepted and realized that we would be in I John 3 by then. I opened up Bible Gateway (a wonderful web site) and printed out the whole chapter and a commentary on it so that I could prepare some thoughts. And this is the section of I John 3 that I agreed to teach next Sunday night (not this coming one but the next one) for my small group at church. Pay close attention to verse 5.

1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,[a]we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

My question now is what is the Holy Spirit saying to me about Sin. What about sin in my life is so vital that I need to wake up and change my life? I have a lot of questions and no answers right now. It's time to dig deeper. At this stage in my life I find it very hard to dig deeper. That's sad but I am getting caught up in life. Not life as Christ spoke about but life here on earth. I need to slow down and get a new perspective I think. What do I think? I need some serious meditation time and rest. Recharge those battaries.