8-11-2016

Good Morning All!!          

                Job 14:17; “my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.”

    One of man’s best inventions has to be the sealable bag.  You know the kind where you press one piece of plastic into the track of the other side and it makes an airtight seal.  I remember when these types of sealed bags were first advertised on television.  They would always fill them with water and then hold them over someone’s head and shake the bag to prove it was sealed.  Now you can store onions or garlic in your refrigerator and not have your milk taste like an onion-garlic sauce.

     We use them for many purposes.  We store small items we want to keep dry and sorted.  We use them if we find something that spoiled and smells bad.  We seal it up and then take out the trash.  Even the occasional “potent” diaper gets the same treatment.  These bags can seal odor out or it can keep odor in.  They are very effective.

    This is what God does to our sin.  He seals it in a bag so the stench of our iniquities, of our sin, is blocked from his smell.  He removes our sin and the then seals them up so they no longer dwell in us or on us.  Jesus died so that you would no longer be drenched in the sin of the day.  No longer will envy and greed, jealousy and avarice be our master but we follow Jesus and trust in his mercy alone to save us, to seal us from sin.

    We are cleansed of all our sin and we are free to live our life in the freedom from the tyranny of the devil.  We are no longer drenched in our sin for we have been cleansed by the life affirming, life giving and life cleansing washing of Holy Baptism.  The stench of our failures, the odors of our iniquities is sealed away.

    The great thing is that the stench of our sin is replaced by the sweet incense of Jesus’ righteousness.  So the sweet smell that arises before God covers us.  The sweet smell of holiness and righteousness, poured out on us through the blood of Jesus, brings us into God’s holy family.  We are no longer the rancid lost but rather we are the pleasant smelling son or daughter.  We live before God not with our worthiness but with Christ’s righteousness to cover our every sin.  Every sin, which is sealed in a bag and disposed of, never to be seen or smelled again.

Father, we give you thanks for the redemption through Jesus.  We thank you for removing the stench of sin from us so that we may stand before you pure and holy.  Send your Spirit to those who are suffering from the effects of sin and free them from the bondage and the stench of sin.  Strengthen our spirits and enliven our faith.  We ask this in the precious name of Jesus our risen Lord, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret