We invite you all to the Gospel Meeting we are hosting next week, October 8-11, with Jack Honeycutt speaking. Jack has been traveling to India to preach for over twenty years. He is my old friend.
On my first trip to India’s tribal areas (around here we call it “living in the country”), the local ladies would gather up our dirty clothes for washing. They didn’t have washing machines in those places back then, so they would take them to the river and wash them by hand, then they would use their ingenuity for the spin cycle. They would flip the clean wet garments into the air and then crash them down on the biggest rock they could find, over and over. Viola – mission accomplished! Your socks would end up twice as long, but that was okay, they were clean.
What’s that spin cycle for, anyway? Whether in a machine or a river, the idea is to rinse the soapy water and the remaining dirt from the clothes, and begin the drying process by getting as much water out of the clothes as possible.
The Spiritual Spin Cycle works in a similar fashion. Frequently the Bible speaks both literally and figuratively of sin’s effects on people. “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6 NKJV). What are we to do? Revelation 1:5-6 tells us Jesus “loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father”!
How can we partake of God’s washing process? In Acts 2, Peter convinced his listeners that they had crucified God’s Son, Jesus Christ. That sounds like too deep a stain to be washed, but think again. When they asked, “What shall we do?”, he responded, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” There you go – stains gone! The washing process works the same today for you!
My wife likes the smell of clothes hung outside to dry. She says they just smell fresher. When you go through the Lord’s washing process, you come out the same. “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). I smell better already!
Stop by next week to hear from Jack on how you can wash your spiritual clothes. We’d love to see you!
Jeff
This article was first published in the local newspaper. Feel free to copy/reproduce/post this article, but only in full.