Blessed Sunday to you all! It was almost cold this morning when I left for church and the rest of the day stayed so beautiful. Our worship at 11:00 absolutely rocked the house. We ended the service with “Soon and Very Soon.” The singing was amazing by the congregation and the praise team and special parts in the song were sung by Cheryl Carroll, Thane McCann and Jeremy Brewer. We sang the song as the sending song and then repeated it as the postlude. It was so cool. God be praised in song!!

Revelation 7:14-15 says, “These are the people who have come out of the great distress. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Because of this, they are before the throne of God.”

When do you shower? Kind of a personal question I know, but stay with me for a while. Growing up I always bathed at night washing away the dirt of the day. When I left home and went to college and began to study or whatever into the wee hours of the morning I began to be a morning shower girl. I am still pretty much a morning shower girl. It really did not matter when I showered or bathed, the point is that I acted on that responsibility each day. I washed every day so I did not go into class, church, or out with friends and smell like a goat. That would have been totally gross. (Keep reading, I promise to make a point!)

We go before God dirty, grimy, smelly and gross. We go before God broken and in need of healing and a shower. You see, nothing imperfect can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In heaven there is no sickness, sadness, blemish, nobody is 20 pounds overweight, and we enter heaven without sin and live in a state of perfect love where we are out of the reach of Satan. We come before God covered in our sin, shame, guilt and brokenness. We come before Him just as we are and He loves us so much that He cleanses us from our unrighteousness, heals our brokenness (the cracks in our soul for those of you who read this blog frequently) and then we are made perfect by His grace and mercy. He “showers “us with His blessings. We are allowed into the Kingdom for all eternity to live with the One who first loved us. We cannot come into relationship with God except by the invitation of the Holy Spirit. God allowed for a while a way for us to see the embodiment of the Holy Spirit. He became Jesus. Remember the Spirit came upon Mary and she became with child? And also remember from John, “The Word became flesh and lived among them”? Well, that Word was Jesus.

I don’t know about you, but I need the Jesus shower of forgiveness every day and sometimes more than once a day. Carrying around our sin is a dirty, smelly job. But because of the crucified Christ, His blood, His precious blood being so pure and so perfect spilled not just for us but covering us, God has given us a way to come before Him dirty and smelly and covered in grime. After the shower we stand clean before Him and not one blemish does He see. He does not see our blemishes or sins anymore because Jesus took all of our sins one Friday afternoon and nailed them to the cross once and for all. No more sacrifice need be made.

We come by the invitation of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Himself. No one is denied entry after the invitation has been accepted. Have you accepted the invitation to the Kingdom of God? If you are worrying about something to wear, please don’t. After the shower, you will be issued new clothes. You will be issued garments of praise and wear the robe of righteousness forever. What an awesome journey we have ahead of us and the destination is not in question.

Take joy in the journey. Love to you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.