Tonight at church, the children's choir did a musical called "Jonah's Druthers", a western version of the story of Jonah, complete with cowboys, a well (get it?), and a Jonas Brothers reference. The last scene featured a discussion between Jonah and the "gullywashers", or laundry ladies, of Nineveh. This is after Jonah has preached repentance, and he's sulking around outside the city of new believers. After a friend of Jonah's from "wayyy out west" informs the ladies that he's a prophet, he doesn't need repentance, one speaks up to say that it seems as if everybody needs a good gullywashin', regardless of who he is.
Let's take a breath and take a moment to look inside ourselves. I for one have failed a lot this week. I've failed a lot today! I'm certainly filthy with sin, and naturally the first thing I wanna do is point a finger at the Ninevites and say, "See God? I'm not as messed up as them, the heathens. Go show them who's boss!" But the truth is, I'm probably worse just because I think I'm better.
Recently I read a book called The Wise Woman and Other Stories by George MacDonald. In the first short story, "The Wise Woman", the main characters are two girls, a princess and a pauper, so to speak. The princess is a spoiled brat, who's convinced everything is everyone's fault but her own. The pauper is a good girl who does what she's told, but she takes such pride in being "good" that it makes her self-absorbed, even when being "unselfish". They both come in contact with a Wise Woman, who's goal is to make them better. The princess struggles and fights against being told what to do, and as a result ends up miserable and hungry just because she won't clean the woman's one-room cottage. The poor girl is put in a sort of mirror bubble, where all she can see is herself, and she finally has the company of the only person important to her.
In the end, the princess repents, and is given the responsibility of sharing the Wise Woman's teachings with her parents and her kingdom.
The poor girl is more wretched than before and turns her own parents in for a crime they didn't commit.
We have a choice.
We can be the princess, and finally see past ourselves, or be the poor girl, given up to her own desires and her own self-righteousness. The scariest thing about this is the majority of us are the pauper without even knowing it. I didn't see it in myself until I read it, written in black-and-white. I am proud. I do good things simply because I am the "good girl", which in itself makes me no longer the good girl. I forget that without God, I am incapable of doing good. Of the two evils, this one is harder to see, and therefore more dangerous.
We have a choice.
We can be the Ninevites. We can repent from our treacherous ways and be saved from destruction. Or we can be Sodom and Gomorrah, left with nothing but fire and a pillar of salt.
It's hard. We all know what choice we want, but as Paul says in Romans 7:
"14So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.15I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate." (NLT)It's a battle we must fight every day. We must make the choice daily to die to self and live for Him. Keep in mind, we're gonna mess up. If we didn't mess up, we wouldn't need Jesus. But we do. The true test comes when we mess up and begin to wonder if it's worth fighting. After all, how and why would He redeem us if we're just going to fail again?
He will say, "Child, you forget that your debt is paid. I bought you with the blood of my Son. You are precious to me, and I will always take you back with open arms. Remember the parable of the Prodigal Son? That is the story of you and Me."
Lord, forgive me when I forget that my debt is paid and my sins are forgiven. Forgive me when I think that anything could ever satisfy more than You. Show me the filth in my heart, even if it takes me to the stomach of a fish. And then give me a good gullywashing; make me clean again.
"So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins."-Romans 8:1-3 (NLT; emphasis added)
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