The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,[a] so that we may serve the living God! Hebrews 9:13-14 NIV
For high school graduation, a relative gave me a laundry bag. A practical, if unimaginative gift. It said, “Hi, Mom. I’m Home.” During my college years I wore out that bag and a couple of baskets! Every time I planned to go back home to visit my parents, I saved up as much dirty laundry as I could. Then hauled it many highway miles with me. In fact, I saved my dirty clothes for so long that I never had any clean ones to pack for the trip! I wore straight out of the dryer for the entire visit.
My mom didn’t do the laundry for me (she wouldn’t if I’d asked anyway). I happily washed and folded my own clothes there because Mom’s machines required no quarters. And at Mom’s house I didn’t have to worry that my jeans might get stolen from an unattended machine. Totally happened to my Rocky Mountains (Anyone else remember those?).
When my sister and I came home on the same weekend or for the holidays, that washer and dryer ran around the clock. We made sure to clean every shirt and pair of socks we owned while there. After which we hauled everything back to school to hang in our closets – sparkling clean and pressed.
Christ made the ultimate sacrifice of Himself so that we could be forgiven of our sins and made “whiter than snow”. I thank the Father that nothing I’ve ever done can be held against me because I’ve trusted Him to expunge it. No stain sets too dark or too stubborn for those who love the Lord and accept His gift of salvation.
…let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22 NIV
And now for this week’s featured link up post!
My writer heart just loves Lois Flowers’ Telling Our Stories (and a Giveaway). Not only is her post a great philosophy for good writing, but I think it helps with good communication overall! And the giveaway is so sweet! Thanks, Lois.
1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.
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We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.
MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
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HEATHER HART & VALERIE RIESE – Candidly Christian
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LAUREN SPARKS
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LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
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What a cute saying to put on a laundry bag! I lived too far from home to save laundry for a visit, though I did do it while there for Christmas and summer breaks. My two youngest brought laundry home for a while as young adults until they got their own appliances. My oldest lives too far away to save his up, but I always invite him to wash his clothes before he heads back home. His first apartment had a coin-operated washer and dryer. His condo now has a mini washer.
I’m so thankful we don’t have to save up our dirty spiritual laundry til we get to a certain place or save up quarters for it. I’m thankful for God’s cleansing and His willingness to pay the cost.
I’m so thankful, too, Barbara.
Such a beautiful Bible Verse and illustration. TFS. Thanks for the party.
I’m so glad it was encouraging to you, Amy.
Hi Lauren, I was out of town and offline last week, so it was a sweet surprise to see my post about telling our stories here. I’m so thankful that the blood of Jesus covers every stain! ❤️
It was a pleasure to feature you, Lois. I hope your trip was fun and renewing for you!
Praise God for the sacrificial way He has cleansed us from the inside out! Where would we be without Jesus?
I don’t even want to imagine where and what I would be without Him!
Love this analogy, Lauren! It really drives the point home! Thanks for sharing and linking with me.
Shelbee
http://www.shelbeeontheedge.com
I love linking with you, Shelbee!
My son is getting ready to go off to grad school in August and already talking about saving $$ by doing laundry at home. It’s only 40 minutes away, after all.
A seriously good message about not carrying around our own dirty laundry, though. Thank you, Jesus!
It felt worth it to me to save those quarters! And Praise Jesus!
I love the laundry analogy, Lauren. How wonderful to know that there is no stain that the blood of Christ can’t take care of. Hope your July is off to a good start!
Praise Him!
I can do identify with kids hauling their laundry home. And how wonderful to be cleansed, forgiven, and right with God.
Yes! on both fronts.
I can remember my sister lugging home huge bags of laundry from her college dorm! I commuted so I never had that problem. But I’m pretty sure my mom did my sister’s laundry for her to give her a small break since she didn’t make it home all that often.
It felt worth the quarters saved to haul it all home!
Aww! I love this! And yes, I remember Rocky Mountains ;). I had all of my underwear stolen off the clothesline on the last day of school in Spain. I had to go out and buy new undies before I could head off on my summer travels. That’s when I understood why someone had stolen all of MY undies! The offerings in the Spanish stores were nothing like the nice cotton ones I left hanging on the line!
Now that is a funny laundry theft story!