Monday, September 10

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Romans 1:1-7

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God — the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

I begin pretty much every day of my life reading from two sources: a daily newspaper and the Bible. I tend to read the newspaper first, starting with the sports section as my brain wakes up to the slow drip of caffeine, then I move on to the front section and the political, economic and serious news of the day.

On any given day the newspaper is filled with a good bit of bad news, even if I manage to ignore the Cubs box score. Today’s paper, for example, contained headlines like:

“Gov. Quinn headed to Charlotte: But faces tumult back home in Illinois”

“Yemen: 14 civilians killed”

“Elgin teen dies in early-morning crash”

“Freight train cars derail in Chicago”

Now there were other headlines as well – even some that were on the positive side – but the news is typically oriented toward bad news.

Then I read from the Bible.

And while the Bible certainly has it’s share of bad news (huge swaths of the Old Testament), the main thrust of the Biblical story is God’s good news: the gospel.

Paul begins his letter to the Romans, perhaps the most comprehensive presentation of the gospel in the Bible, this way:

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God…

So what is the “gospel of God” and why is it such good news?

The word translated “gospel” is the ancient Greek word “euongelion” – which is a combination of the words “good” and “message.” This word is where we get the English words “evangelism” and “evangelical.”

The euongelion, the good message, is that God has provided salvation for the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God — the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

So, then, why is this good news also revolutionary?

Perhaps a good place to begin is the life of the Apostle Paul himself. Here’s how Paul (Saul of Tarsus) is described in the Book of Acts before experiencing the gospel:

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples…if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them prisoners to Jerusalem… (Acts 9:1-2)

Then he meets the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, who appears to him in a blinding light from heaven, confronts his persecution of believers, and calls him to become Paul, the Apostle to the gentiles. Here’s how Paul himself describes the transformation:

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  Philippians 3:7-8

Saul, a man filled with hatred and even violence toward followers of Christ, became Paul, not only a follower of Christ himself, but a man filled with love even for his enemies.

The gospel is revolutionary because it has the power to radically transform a man from the inside out; to produce change so dramatic that it is often compared to being “born again.”

What Paul encountered in Christ was a love greater than anything he had ever experienced before; a grace greater than his own arrogance and hatred; a hope beyond the legalism of his religion. What he experienced was the gospel and he spent the rest of his life articulating that gospel for the world.

Have you experienced the “gospel revolution” in your own heart and life? As we embark on our “gospel journey” this year at FBCG, and as we study Paul’s letter to the Romans this fall, ask God to fill your heart and mind with a new appreciation for – and experience of – his good news!

Pastor Brian Coffey

Friday, September 7

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Malachi 4:1-6

“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things,” says the Lord Almighty.

“Remember the lay of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.

“See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.

So now we come to the end of the book called Malachi; the end of the 12 books referred to as the “Minor Prophets”, and the end of the entire Old Testament. I think it’s safe to assume that if God has been involved at all in the writing of the story, and we believe that he has, then we should pay special attention to how he chooses to wrap it all up!

In the end, the prophet says, there are only two destinations available to us: judgment or deliverance.

“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.

Several years ago Andy Stanley wrote a great little book entitled “The Principle of the Path.” The main point of the book, as I recall, was that every path has a destination. This is true not only for the roads on which we drive our cars – for example, if I drive west on Rt. 38 I always come to Elburn and never to Elgin – but it is also true for the spiritual paths of our lives. 

Malachi is reminding us that if we live as if God does not exist or is not paying attention, our destination will be inevitable judgment before his absolute holiness and righteousness.

But if we honor and respect his name; if we live in accordance with his word; if we seek his forgiveness and grace, our destination will be deliverance and joy.

Notice the promise of healing:

But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.

Some translations actually capitalize “Sun of Righteousness” because many scholars believe this is a reference to the coming Messiah who will bring salvation to his people. I believe this is a reference to the coming of Jesus Christ and his ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the world. 

Malachi concludes with yet another reference to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ:

“See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.

Some believe the reference to Elijah is a reference to the ministry of John the Baptist who would prepare the way for the coming of Christ. Others think this is a reference to Jesus the Messiah himself.

Either way, the message of the prophet is clear.

There are two paths and two destinations for every human being. One leads to the issues the prophet has been addressing; doubting God’s love and goodness; broken marriages and families; and ultimately judgment. The other leads to repentance, forgiveness and salvation. 

What is required is a “turning of the heart.”

He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers…

I believe we can summarize the 12 books of the minor prophets, which spanned some 400 years in the history of God’s people, like this:

“It’s time to turn your hearts!”

God is holy and God is good. 

God has always loved us.

We have often been led astray by lesser gods; we have often fallen into selfish and sinful ways; but God loves us too much to ignore our sin. He is paying attention and one day will judge all things. He sends his messengers with his word inviting us to turn our hearts toward him once again.

Will you turn your heart toward him today?

Pastor Brian Coffey

Thursday, September 6

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Malachi 3:6-10

“I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendant of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.

“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.

“But you ask,” ‘How do we rob you?’

“In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse – the whole nation of you – because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it. 

(v.12) “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

When most of us think of a “robber” we think of a man in a ski mask walking into a convenience store with a gun and a note that says, “This is a stick-up.” We think of robbery as the act of taking that which belongs to someone else.

Here God confronts his people with a different form of robbery; robbery as withholding that which belongs to him.

“I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendant of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.

“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.

“But you ask,” ‘How do we rob you?’

“In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse – the whole nation of you – because you are robbing me.

How many of us have thought to ourselves: “Money’s just a little tight right now, I’ll be able to give more when we catch up”? I know I have!

Or maybe we think, “The economy is just so ‘iffy’, I’d love to be more generous but I really should wait until the market rebounds.”

There are lots of reasons to withhold our resources from God. But all of them come down to one issue: trust.

Do we trust God enough to honor and worship him with our obedient generosity? 

I have come to believe that generosity is one of the marks of a heart surrendered to the goodness and love of God. 

Can someone be generous without knowing and loving God? Sure.

But you cannot know and love God without becoming more and more generous!

There are two things that strike me about this passage in Malachi. First; it is striking to me that God says that by withholding their “tithes and offerings” the people were “robbing” him. Now, we know that God is not “cash poor.” He doesn’t have any need for money or wealth or property, because everything belongs to him. So what does he mean by “you are robbing me”?

He is talking about worship. The tithes and offerings were the way God’s people were to express their worship, praise and trust. When they withheld those offerings, they withheld their worship. What God wants most is our hearts. Jesus said,

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21

So when I withhold or reduce my offering to God – out of fear or greed – I am actually withholding my heart. And in that way I rob God of the pleasure of giving me the joy for which he created me.

Second: notice God’s promised response to our generosity and worship:

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it. 

I can’t tell you how many people have confirmed to me the power and truth of this promise! The truth is this: God always honors generosity, and generosity always begets blessing. That blessing may or may not come in the form of material blessing; that blessing may be spiritual and relational; but the blessing always comes.

Finally, notice that God says “Test me in this!” I heard a speaker some time ago say (and I believe this is true) that this is the only place in the Bible where God says, “Test me.” In every other case the Bible warns us NOT to test God. But here he challenges us to trust his promise.

Have you tested God in your generosity? What does your current generosity say about the condition of your heart, the passion of your worship, and the depth of your trust? Is there any way in which God might say, “You are robbing me?”

Pastor Brian Coffey

Wednesday, September 5

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Malachi 2:17-3:4

You have wearied the Lord with your words.

“How have we wearied him?” you ask.

By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”

“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in the days gone by, as in former years.

Historians who study this sort of thing tell us that before an ancient silversmith fashioned silver into jewelry or some other form, they would subject the raw silver to the intense flames of a furnace until the impurities in the silver had burned away. This is what Malachi is referring to by the phrase “refiner’s fire.”

The “refiner”, of course, is God. The “fire” is that which he uses to confront, draw to the surface and then burn away the impurities and sin we carry in our hearts.

The fire might be God’s Holy Spirit searing away pride through the convicting truth of his word. The fire might be an event in our lives that drives us to our knees in confession and surrender. 

Here the Lord is confronting the resentful attitude harbored in the hearts of his people.

You have wearied the Lord with your words.

“How have we wearied him?” you ask.

By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”

Have you ever looked at what is happening in the world and thought, “It’s just not fair!” We see self-absorbed movie stars who earn $20 million per movie and buy their own personal islands. We see a star athlete who owns 25 luxury automobiles and flaunts a promiscuous lifestyle. We see these things and can easily start to think, “Where is the justice in that? Why do those who ignore God seem to prosper? Where is God in the world?”

Malachi says such thinking is wearying to God. 

God is wearied by such thinking for two reasons. First, questioning the justice of God because the wicked are prospering in this life is simply shortsighted. Remember, one of the central messages of the minor prophets as a whole has been, “God is paying attention and the day of judgment is surely coming!” We are to trust such things to God’s ultimate authority and judgment.

Second, such thinking misses the point of God’s blessing. While material and circumstantial blessings like houses, cars and good jobs are certainly part of God’s blessing in our lives, they do not necessarily reflect all of God’s blessing. And their absence does not necessarily mean that God has withdrawn his blessing from us.

The people of Judah were looking around at the prosperity of the pagan foreigners in their land and assuming that God was either impotent or simply not paying attention. 

But Malachi suggests that what the people of Judah are really experiencing is the refining fire of God.

“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in the days gone by, as in former years.

In other words, God is using their difficult circumstances to refine his people; to purify their hearts, to strengthen their faith and to call them back to himself.

Have you ever experienced God’s refining fire? The refining process is not comfortable, but it is good. In what way might God be seeking to strengthen and purify your heart through his refining fire?

Pastor Brian Coffey

Tuesday, September 4

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Malachi 2:10-16

Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?

Judah has broken faith. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves, by marrying the daughter of a foreign god. As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord cut him off from the tents of Jacob – even though he brings offerings to the Lord Almighty.

Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.

Has not the Lord make them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he is seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

“I hate divorce,” says the Lord God of Israel, “and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment,” says the Lord.

So guard yourself in your spirit and do not break faith.

As a pastor, I have had the heart-breaking privilege and responsibility of listening to many married couples as they wrestle with issues that threaten the survival of the marriage covenant. Most often those issues develop very slowly, almost imperceptibly, over time until husband or wife finally determines that his or her love is dead and/or enters into behavior that destroys the covenant.

There is hardly anything as painful to watch as the destruction of a covenant that is intended to be holy.

That’s what God is saying through Malachi.

Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?

What does the prophet mean by “breaking faith with one another”?

To understand what the prophet is talking about we need to know something about the economic culture of the time. Judah was now inhabited by both Jews and gentiles – that is, non-Jewish people from surrounding nations. As the Israelites returned from exile in Babylon they discovered that the merchant guilds and trading cartels already in place were run by foreigners. In order to gain access to these guilds many Jewish men had begun to divorce their Jewish wives and marry foreign women. And, inevitably, when these marriages took place, the men began to adopt the pagan worship practices of their wives.

So, basically, men were divorcing their wives – breaking the holy covenant of marriage that God had established for his people – in order to get better jobs.

In a way, I think, this is a precursor to the increasingly “casual” approach of our own culture to the covenant of marriage.

Throughout the Bible marriage is consistently defined as one man joined to one woman in a life-long covenant relationship. In Genesis we read:

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:24

That’s it; that’s the clearest definition of Biblical marriage that we have.

Now, what about those who have expanded and distorted this definition of marriage? 

Do we hate them? NO!

Are we called to love them and treat them with the same respect Jesus offered to religious and irreligious people alike?   YES!

Are they welcome in the church of Jesus Christ? YES! Everyone is welcome to seek God in worship and the word.

Does that then mean that we change the teaching of God’s word – to accommodate the changing mores and trends of our culture? NO!

We teach God’s word with compassion and grace – but we teach the truth unapologetically.

Furthermore, from cover to cover the Bible portrays the covenant of marriage to be symbolic of God’s own covenant love for his people.

Heaven itself is described as the “wedding supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9) as Christ is joined by his bride, the Church.

So when the men of Israel divorce their wives out of convenience and economic expediency, God is disgusted.

Judah has broken faith. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves, by marrying the daughter of a foreign god. As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord cut him off from the tents of Jacob – even though he brings offerings to the Lord Almighty.

(v. 16) “I hate divorce,” says the Lord God of Israel…”

A couple of things here: first, notice God says, “I hate divorce,” and not, “I hate divorced people.” Those are two very different things. 

God hates divorce because it destroys a covenant designed to be holy and permanent. God hates divorce because it brings pain and brokenness to a relationship he designed to reflect his own steadfast love and joy.

But God loves divorced people and offers his own grace, forgiveness and restoration. Remember that the whole book of Malachi began with God’s resounding promise, “I have loved you.”

For those who are married, God calls your marriage to be a reflection of his own steadfast and utterly faithful love.

For those who are not married, God has established a vision for what marriage can and should be – don’t settle for less!

For all of us, God invites us into a covenant relationship with himself; a relationship defined by love, faithfulness and spiritual intimacy. Do you know God like that?

Pastor Brian Coffey

Monday, September 3

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Malachi 1:1-2

An oracle, the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.

“I have loved you,” says the Lord.

“But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’”

Somewhere along the line I either read or heard someone say that when reading a book one should pay special attention to the first thing the author says and the last thing they say. I actually went through a whole portion of graduate school reading the first and last chapters of books – then going back to the middle only if I thought I’d missed something!

Here we see both the beginning of the book called “Malachi” and the end of the book we call the “Old Testament.” We would be wise, then, to assume what is said here is especially important.

The prophet Malachi begins like this:

“I have loved you,” says the Lord.

“But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’”

Notice two things right off the bat.

First: the message the Lord God wants to deliver is very clear: “I have loved you.” 

Second; notice that God also anticipates a question in response, “How have you loved us?”

This form of writing, where a statement is made then a question is anticipated in response, is called a disputation – and is a form of argument used in an ancient court of law. Malachi presents at least 6 such “disputations” – which take the form of 6 mini-sermons that the prophet delivers to God’s people.

The first of these sermons has to do with people questioning or doubting God’s love for them.

Malachi ministered in Judah in the early 5^th century B.C., roughly 100 years after the Babylonians had captured Jerusalem and carted thousands of Jews off into captivity (see the book of Daniel). At this time Jewish exiles were returning from Babylon to resettle in Judah with those who had not been deported. The Temple had been rebuilt to some degree but things were not as they were before. There is a sense of cynicism and disillusionment among God’s people. They have seen nearly a century of suffering and servitude under pagan rulers and have come to question God’s presence and promises.

The result is that their worship is reluctant and filled with apathy. They feel abandoned by God so their worship, or lack thereof, reflects their hardened hearts. Malachi continues God’s message for his people:

Malachi 1:6-8

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty. “It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name.”

“But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’

“You place defiled food on my altar.

“But you ask, “How have we defiled you?”

“By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.

(v.12) “But you profane it by saying of the Lord’s table, “It is defiled,” and of its food, “It is contemptible.” And you say, “What a burden!” and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the Lord Almighty.

“When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.”

Can you see what is happening?

Throughout the history of the Old Testament God had been quite clear about what he expected from his people in terms of sacrifices. When an animal was brought before the Lord God as a sacrifice it was to be without defect (Leviticus 22). In this manner God’s people were able to express their respect and worship because God’s holiness and glory required the best they could offer.

But the priests Malachi is referring to here had stooped to offering blind, crippled and diseased animals before the Lord. This not only was direct disobedience and disrespect but actually defiled the Temple of God because such animals were regarded as “unclean.”

Why would they do such a thing?

I think this might be called “passive aggressive” worship! I think both the priests and the people were frustrated and even angry with God. I think they looked at their circumstances and all they had been through and figured if that’s all God was going to do for them then all they would offer him would be the animals that were worth nothing.

While we don’t bring blind or diseased sheep to church with us, it is possible for us to carry such poisonous attitudes in our hearts. Sometimes when we experience pain or struggles - say, the loss of a job, the failure of a business, or even the tragic loss of a loved one - we can sink into a kind of spiritual disillusionment. We can feel that God has forgotten about us and even that he has abandoned us.

As a result, we can harbor a kind of bitterness that leaks into our worship. We might continue the external rituals of going to church or attending our Bible studies, but we withdraw our hearts from the process. 

During those times we must remember and trust God’s word: “I have loved you.” God’s love is constant and unchanging. His love is independent of our circumstances and even our behavior. He loves you completely, personally; he loves you beyond the events of your life and despite your failures. But to know this love requires trust.

Will you trust God’s love for you today?

Pastor Brian Coffey

Friday, Aug. 31

Friday

This week we have spent a good deal of time talking about sin and repentance.  This is not always the most pleasant or comfortable topic.  Today we come to the reason for all the depressing talk about sin, we come to God’s amazing and wonderful remedy for it.

On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.   - Zechariah 13:1

This verse is (in my opinion) the most important prophecy/promise in the entire book.  The reason why this is the most important promise, is because if it is not true, then all of the other promises really don’t matter that much.  If God does not provide a way for us to be cleansed from our sin, then we are stuck in our sinful condition and doomed to spend eternity apart from God.  Ah, but Zechariah tells us that God has made a way for us to be cleansed of our sin - he has opened a fountain!  

This is a picture of God’s inexhaustible fountain for sin and for impurity. It flows and flows and flows. God has grace greater than all of our sins!  You may be thinking, “But you don’t know how terrible some of my past sins were!” True, but God does know, and He opened this fountain for sin and for impurity.  What is this fountain?  The question is not what, but who?  Who is this fountain?  The answer is Jesus Christ!

The fountain in 13:1 is the culmination of what Zechariah is prophesying about in 12:10, And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.  This is a clear prophecy about Jesus the Messiah!

This fountain won’t do you any good if you look at it and think, “I wish my husband or wife would get into that fountain”, or I wish my kids would get under that water!”  It won’t do you any good to stand there and think, “It probably would be refreshing to plunge in.” To receive the cleansing grace of God’s fountain, you must look to Jesus and recognize that your sins put Him on the cross.  As God’s Spirit opens your eyes to your true guilt before Him, you will mourn.  But don’t stop there! Let that mourning motivate you to jump into God’s fountain.  You’ve got to apply it individually to your heart.  The instant that you do, you will know the joy of God’s forgiveness.

If we are to be forgiven and cleansed, it can only come through God’s undeserved favor, His grace.  Augustus Toplady puts this beautifully in his hymn, Rock of Ages;  “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress, helpless look to Thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly, wash me Savior or I die!”  

This is the same fountain that cleansed the sins of murder and adultery in the life of King David.

This is the same fountain that cleansed the heart of a man named Saul, who rejected Christ and persecuted his church, but was transformed in the Apostle Paul.

This is the same fountain that cleansed the sins of a notorious charouser and womanizer named Augustine.

This is the same fountain that cleansed the heart of the slave trader John Newton, who once cleansed penned the words to the great hymn, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”

This is the same fountain that cleansed the proud heart of the atheist and scoffer, Clive Staples Lewis!

This is the same fountain that cleansed the sins of my wicked heart, and it can cleanse your heart too!

To enter a relationship with Almighty God, we must come to Christ (His fountain) to cleanse us from our sins.  And, we should take frequent showers to wash off the defilement of the sins that we commit after salvation! As 1 John 1:9 promises, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Oh let us come often to God’s fountain!

Jeff Frazier