Though Sins Be As Scarlet ...

This post was hacked into. This was one of my online journal entries. Like everything else on this blog, it was my heartfelt, personal writing. But, at some point, someone turned it into gibberish. ... There's not even a prayer for when someone does things like this.

In Old Testament times, sin grew worse and worse.

It was in only a few hearts to look forward to our Savior, the promised Messiah: few who listened to those of the prophets who truly were guided by Heaven.

Living during a time when even child sacrifice was a problem, there always was the promise of the coming Savior, who would be lifted up — and that made for faith that kept people living into old age, despite a scarlet way of life in that day.

Even in that day, before the light of life we have in Jesus, one prophet wrote, "Learn to do right, seek justice, correct the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. 'Come now, let us reason together,' says the Lord. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.'"

Though your sins are scarlet, they will be white as snow.

That's the Bible. That's Heaven's word.

That's Heaven's view of long life as a gift: of whitening hair, white with age — a crown of glory for each one who lived faithfully despite trying times (Proverbs 16:31).

In Old Testament times, long years were almost synonymous with wisdom. But thank Heaven that God's grace, today, can bless us with a wisdom that's beyond our few years.

Compared to Moses and the early prophets, Jesus, in the flesh, walked this earth relatively few years. He gave Himself for our sins, that we could break free of sin and live more fully.

Some people have believed sins becoming white as snow has something to do with an outward covering, like the clean robes that appear in the Bible's book of Revelation. But the Holy Spirit seems to say differently.

Few of us are living freely enough to see the long years that grow crowns of glory. But the Bible's real meaning is pretty clear.

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A Footnote:

What are we supposed to do while aging in Jesus?

 

Well, what we're not supposed to do is willfully sin. By faith, we're what the Bible calls ambassadors of Christ. And we know we live in a complex, culture-focused world.

Walking in Jesus to the best of our ability, we know we're not supposed to lead anyone to believe not repenting of evil doings is okay, even if "culture" says something evil is okay not to repent of.

Many of us know what it is to receive new life, spiritually, in Jesus. And that feeling of new awareness and freedom from sin, isn't something any of us have wanted to lose.

Instead, we've wanted to walk together in faith — not a "one world, many gods" faith, but faith in Heaven's only way, truth, and life.

... Many Muslims, now, are being brave enough to say they've found the way. And, out of concern for those who are still walking many other religious paths, we're to be patient and try not to not willfully tempt, provoke, or mislead anyone. If someone doesn't dress quite the way someone else does, we're not to treat them as if they will need to join a trendy club in order to experience freedom in Jesus. But we're to accept what faith says to them about living and making personal choices.

While at home in Jesus, we don't need to follow laws that say to wear this thing or that. But we're convicted in heart about what's most comfortable to us as ambassadors in Christ, and we know how Paul admonished churches that had a certain sin problem: his ministry to a certain congregation may not apply to many of us today; but the principle of Paul's message to one, particular church was that many women were wearing things to advertise themselves for wrong purposes.

It's not our purpose in Jesus to provoke anyone to have the wrong idea about us.

We live in a complex, watching world, where we, as Christians, have to be considerate of the feelings of others who may one day come to faith in Jesus.

A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing

Ecclesiastes 3:5

Almost everything we do has purpose in Jesus.