Wiped Clean – Welcome to Whoville

Psalm 103:12 12 As far as the east is from the west,  So far has He removed our transgressions from us.  I was wiping a white marker board “clean” this morning to write something new on it and I noticed that there was some faded marks that I could see just slightly on the board.  This same board a few weeks ago had a dullness to it that made me think, “I wonder how I can get this thing back to the “new” clean look?”  Solution:  I bought a can of throw away wipes that are made for cleaning marker boards and I proceeded to cut through the faded marks of past markers and underneath I could see it was very clean.  The more I cleaned, the cleaner it got.  But then it started to smear because now the cleaning wipe had gotten the marker on it and I was just smearing the marks instead of cleaning them.  I turned the wipe over and it started cleaning efficiently again, and then I got another new wipe to finish it off.  Voila!! (had to look that word up). It was like new!!  That is how God wants us to live our “grace” lives.  CLEAN!!  Our enemy would accuse us of past sins, present thoughts, and control even our future, if we start trying to live out of accusations.  But God has given us His grace and our sins are “no more” in God’s eyes.  As the psalmist said in  Psalm 103 12 As far as the east is from the west,  So far has He removed our transgressions from us.  That not only means they are gone, but they are no more!!  What does that kind of grace accomplish for us in our daily lives?

1.  We live in freedom.  Ephesians 2:8,9 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.  Our salvation from sin comes through all God does and we just have to accept it by faith.  The end result—-freedom!!  Satan is the accuser and since he cannot do anything about the freedom we receive, he lies to us about it and lets accusations rule our lives.  But we are free because of God’s grace.  We no longer live by a worldly view of right and wrong, but we live the spirit-filled life. Galatians 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.  This grace has a strong effect on our lives and it replaces the flesh-driven life with a spirit-filled life that is so strong it changes us from the inside out.  Like the marker board we can sometimes forget this freedom we live in and live our life with built up faded marks from the sins of the past.  Don’t do that.  God has already forgiven them and they are no more.  Get it.  The distance from east to west is no more….infinity…. 

2. We walk in new life.  The burden of a sin-driven life is lifted and the cross we take up in following Christ is one that is easy to carry.  Yes, I said easy.  But Jesus said it long before I did in Matthew 11:30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  I went through a fun house at a carnival one time and the smell inside was so bad I didn’t want to breathe it in, so I held my breath for a longggg time.   I remember when I exited the fun house and walked out into the night sky I took in a huge breath of “fresh air.”  Jesus is that fresh air and the more we breath in His grace the fresher the air gets.

You may wonder how the Maker of the Universe can realize my struggles and give me that new fresh life.  Well, read the earlier verses in Psalm 103 and you will see just WHO He is.  Psalm 103:1-11 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; 3 Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; 4 Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; 5 Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.  In the Grinch that stole Christmas, the Grinch lived high above Whoville, and it was his greatest joy to give them grief, and especially at Christmas time.  But through the childlike example of one little girl, he was changed.  Our enemy the devil is trying to Lord over our lives as judge and jury and is accusing us and trying to hold us to our past sins,  But God’s grace has stopped that nonsense and through the birth of a little baby that started into motion the redemption of our lives.  NEWS ALERT!!!  God really loves us!! We are just a speck in this vast universe, but God knows WHO we are and he is WHO we need.

In the 2000 live-action film adaptation

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, from Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, Whoville is located inside a snowflake, south of Mt. Crumpit within the mountainous Highrange of Pontoos, described in the movie’s introduction. All of which is located inside the frozen crystal structure of a snowflake, rather than on a clover flower.  God loves us and our life may seem insignificant to us, but it isn’t insignificant to Him.  He is The Who to our Whoville and He has wiped our board clean, with no past residue to be seen.  He compels us to live our lives out of this great grace that replaces hopelessness with great hope and forgiveness. Put that in your Christmas pipe this year and smoke it!!

2 Timothy 1:7. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

God’s grace.  Don’t live life without it!!

The Pilgrimage continues….

David Warren