An Ugly Stain
My wife and I had just built our new home. We were so pleased with the beautiful white carpet that graced the floors of our family room. Everything was so bright and refreshing. That is until our youngest son Stephen decided to place a nice green stain in the middle of the floor with the help of some super duper magic marker. You must understand that he was innocent of any wrong doing. The stain was just a mistake, one of those things that happen, especially when you have white carpet.
Bonnie came to the rescue and soon the stain was defeated, for a while. It soon returned, only to be defeated again, and again, and again. No matter how many times the carpet was cleaned, vacuumed, steamed, and sanitized; we could never remove the stain permanently. Of course that’s because we were cleaning the surface, while the heart of the problem lie deep beneath the carpet and was embedded into the padding below.
So it is with sin in our life. Sin stains. It’s ugly and ruins the beauty of the surroundings. Sometimes it’s not intentional. Few of us wake up and say “what sin can I commit today” yet so many times we still find that sin has left a stain in the middle of the floor. We can try to hide it by covering it up. We can pretend it’s not there but everyone can see it. We can even clean it up, but it soon returns just as ugly as before. The only way to get rid of it is to clean the heart of the problem.
Our sin is not on the surface, but deep in the heart of our soul. It can not be cleaned by changing our appearance or actions. If we do, it will soon return. But Christ came and offered himself as a sacrifice so that we can remove the stain at the source. He offers forgiveness and grace to those who believe on his name. Do you know him as savior? Have you gone to him for new life? He said that he came so that we may have life and have it more abundantly. We can live without the stain of sin and guilt thereof, but only through Jesus, the only begotten son of God. Start this new life today, call on him.