From 'Mud Pit' to
'Piggy-Back-Ride'
______________________________________________________________
Ezekiel 36:25 "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall
be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols."
______________________________________________________________
It's a tradition at our
house that late spring is "mud-in-the-garden" play time. I really
don't know how it started, but each year my grandkids mix mud in a homemade
'mud pit', then smear it all over their bodies. Sometimes they even make a
homemade
Was it worth the 'cold
hose' to do something for such a short time and then be sprayed and scrubbed?
What's amazing to me is that
no matter HOW many times WE, as sinners, get muddy...God allows us back into
His house after we allow His Son, Jesus, to scrub us clean. He even gives us a
'piggy-back-ride' into His house.
This is my personal 'mud'
to ' piggy-back-ride' story: I was a backslidden sinner. Saved and baptized
at the age of 10, I was an active young Christian, on fire for God. Filled with
the Holy Spirit as a young teen, I knew God's love, power, and His peace.
But 'the world' got to me
in my later teens and I didn't hold on to the wonderful gift of salvation. I
searched in the wrong places and tried to 'fit in' with all my piers. (of which I never did)
I tried it all...drugs,
sex, drinking, stealing...I slid down into the 'mud-pit' of my life. I even
tried having a family to replace what God had given me long ago... a place to
'fit in'.
As time went on, dropping
the party-ing and putting family first, I tried to go
back to "good morals"...I tried to spray MYSELF with the cold hose.
As a child, I had a human
Christian example...my mom. She had taught me AND shown me,
good morals...both through her words AND her actions. BUT, without the
"Source" of her example, trying to have 'good morals', never worked.
I could talk and walk by my 'head' and not with a 'changed heart'. It never was
real, only surface. I needed a 'scrubbing' from deep within.
So the search for true
'cleanliness' began anew. In my heart, I KNEW it was a personal walk with Jesus
that I needed...a good 'cold hosing' and internal sanitizing. But because of a
'fallen church leader' at a church we tried to attend, and MANY other excuses,
I began to search for the answer in OTHER places.
Yoga, and even studying
Buddhism, started my deep searching. But it never gave the lasting peace or joy
I craved...it was always unreal...never the deep cleansing I needed. I needed a
'piggy-back-ride' straight to the tub for scrubbing!
And so, through the help
of my Believing relatives, and my husband's decision to seek the true God, I
came back to the 'Source'. I again found the answer through
So, on my knees, I asked
for His forgiveness. And with His unfailing love and His never ending mercy, He
'hosed me down'...NO MORE MUD! THEN He gave me a 'piggy-back-ride' right back
into God's love, grace and forgiveness...the cross of
And so, my life and my
example to my grandkids are now through TRUTH!
God is teaching me, DAILY,
to walk with HIS morals, once again. And I stand in the 'cold hose' on a DAILY
basis!
Through 'mud pit'...a
smeared muddy soul...a 'cold hosing'...a 'piggy-back-ride' into God's
forgiveness and consuming love...THEN scrubbed with loofah
and pumice stone and the 'Holy Soap' of Jesus....I AM CLEAN! God says so,
and ON THAT I STAND!
____________________________________________________________
1
____________________________________________________________
Standing in the
"puddle" of eternal forgiveness,
