Do you remember as a kid getting a really bad cut or wound and you would go running to your mommy bawling your eyes out? Annnnnnd ALL you know is that you are SOOOOOO HURT and that the ONLY person that can help you is your mommy? You think that going to your mommy will make you feel better, cuz you KNOW that your mommy loves you and because she loves you she is going to do WHATEVERRR it takes to help you feel better!!!
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Buuuuuut THEN mommy starts wiping away the blood and it hurts, so you start to pull back, you wanted mommy to help you, buuuuuut you weren't expecting any pain. Maybe you were one of those kids that had to be HELD DOWN by someone else so that your mom could wipe away the blood and clean out your wound. I remember, THE WORSE thing was when MOM would break out the alcohol and begin to pour it on the wound!!! Ooooo MAN that hurt soooooo BAD!!! Annnnnnd I know this may be hard for you all to believe buuuuuuut let me tell you all SOMETHING...I was a SCREAMER!!!! AHAHAHAHA!!!
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I remember my mom, she would be putting that alcohol on my cut and it BURRRRRRNED!!! Annnnd the whole time I was SCREAMING my mom would calmly be explaining to me, "I have to put this on your cut to clean out the germs and get out the dirt Mary! She would tell me that you can't put the bandaid on with dirt still on the wound, otherwise it will never really heal properly, it will end up getting infection and getting even worse...Of course I didn't care WHAT she said, I just KEPT ON SCREAMING!!!
I know now, as an adult that even tho what my mom was doing to me made my wound hurt EVEN MORE, i know NOW that she wasn't inflicting MORE pain on me to be MEAN, she was doing it because she LOVED me and because she was a GOOD MOM!!! Because of a GOOD MOM, I know now that you can't put on the bandaid and start the healing BEFORE you've taken the burning that cleans out the wound.
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Weeeeeeeelllll...REPENTANCE is the SAME WAY!!! According to the KJV Bible dictionary, Repenance is, "Sorrow for any thing done or said; the pain or grief which a person experiences in consequence of the injury or inconvenience produced by his own conduct." When you've got SIN in your life and you want to get it out, REPENTANCE, true repentance, is going to cause you some pain!!! "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." (2 Corinthians 7:10)
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Furthermore, when you come to God in repentance, you've got to come to him like David, humbly and honestly, willing to do WHATEVER it takes to be cleansed of your sin. David said,"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." (Psalm 51:1-4)
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Maybe your thinking, what? How can this be? I came to God because I was already in pain, I was already HURTING...buuuut NOW, now i'm just hurting EVEN MORE!!! I don't understand this! What's going on? Where's hugs? Wheres the love? Where's my band aid??? Can I tell you something, the pain that your feeling right now is NOT God being MEAN to you!!! God's trying to CLEAN YOU OUT!!! God is trying to get the sin out of your heart!!!
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Repentance is the CLEANSING of your self-inflicted wound from SIN!!! Maybe your sitting there like, buuuuuut this hurts! I feel like all my wounds that were starting to heal are being reopened...and God's like, "well DUH, you put the band aid on before I even had a chance to get all the dirt outta your heart!!! Your trying to put on your lil bandaid and get back to living for God annnnnnd HELLLLLOOOO there's still SIN all up in there!!! You leave it like that and give it a little bit of time and your just gonna have yourself an INFECTION in your heart!!!
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I was having a conversation one time with someone that I was trying to help get stronger in God and I said hey i'll come over later tonight and we can hang out. That person says to me, oh how about tomorrow night, cuz to night i'm watching some movies that I rented. Without hesitating I said, annnnnd your WONDERING WHY your struggling getting where you want to get with God??? They said, Oh you know how I am, I've got to get it ALL out of my system!!! There are a bunch of movies that I have been wanting to see, im gonna make sure I watch all of them, AND THEN i'll stop watching them! I said, oh ok, well you let me know how that works out for you!!! They said, well it worked THE LAST TIME!!! I'm like, Uh actually, NO, I don't think it really did! Because IF it had, we wouldn't even be having this conversation right now!!!
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Maybe your thinking, OH MARY, there you go being all holier than thou! No, let me tell you something, I used to STRUGGLE with watching TV/movies at work as a nanny! I mean, me and the Disney channel were pretty TIGHT with each other!!! I like LOOOOOVED watching all the latest cartoons, Nemo, Madagascar, Cars annnnnnnnd of course ALL the PRINCESS MOVIES!!! Buuuuut you know, when i made up my mind to quit and I put that all behind me, I REPENTED!!!
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Before I repented there was a list in my mind of movies I had been WAITING for the people I worked for to rent, buuuuuuuuut heeeeey I NEVER DID GET TO SEE CINDERELLA 2 or CINDERELLA 3, I know, I know, its TRAGIC ima have to go my WHOLE life without knowing what happened after Cinderella got married...HAHAHA... buuuuuut you know what, I ain't EVERRRR planning on finding out!!! Because I applied THE BLOOD to my life, I let the BLOOD of Jesus wash that sin out of me and I'm NEVERRRR going back!!!
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I ain't no nurse, I know I never finished college and I just by the skin of my teeth made it through highschool, buuuuuuuut i'm SMART ENOUGH to know, that you don't clean a wound by rubbing DIRT ON IT!!! Its the SAME way with sin, you don't wash away sin, by putting MORE sin in your heart! That kind of thinking is the equivalancy of me thinking that I'm going to clean my cut by putting dirt on it!!! You get it out by applying THE BLOOD of Jesus to your heart!!! Just like alchohol cleans dirt out of a fleshly wound, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin!!! "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out..." (Acts 3:19)
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When you apply the blood of Jesus to your heart and to your life in repentance, your going to feel a burning, a pain, a hurt as your cleansed? WHY? Because the BLOOD of Jesus is PURE BLOOD!!! There is NO SIN in His blood. His blood will NOT stay where there is sin, therefore when you apply it to your life it will cleanse, it will scrub, it will purify, it will scrape, it wash it will BURN, EVERYTHING OUT in order for it to be there!"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10)
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You say everyone is just being mean! They're all just a buncha meanie heads!!! Noooo they're NOT being mean, PEOPLE are TRYING to help you, buuuuut your just like a lil kid thats kicking and screaming as they're mommy tries to clean out they're wound. The only problem is that, UNLIKE when you were a kid and we got someone to hold you down so the wound could be cleaned out, we UNFORTUNATLEY, can NOT hold you down and FORCE you to let God clean the sin out of your heart...if we could WE WOULD...actually theres a few people I would just like to SIT ON!!! Like BOOYAH... Try and get up NOW!!! AHAHA!!!
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Everyone wants the healing from their SIN, but no one wants the BURN they feel as God cleans them out!!! Buuuuuuut REPENTANCE represents death!!! Your dying out to sin!!! The resurrection of Christ is a wonderful, beautiful, amazing thing, buuuuuut before there was a resurrection, there was a DEATH!!!When Jesus died on the cross he SUFFERED for us!!! You say, but, buuut, buuuuut I don't wanna feel the pain, it HURTS!!!
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You think it didn't hurt Jesus when he was beaten by a whip that had sharp peices attached to it? You think it didn't hurt when a crown of thorns was CRUSHED into his head? You think he wasn't ashamed when men SPIT IN HIS FACE??? Thats what REPENTANCE represents!!! You want the resurrection of Christ, the joy and newness of life, maybe your even willing to except the burial of Christ, the putting away of the sin and the past, buuuuuut its a little bit harder for us ALL to except the SUFFERING of dying out to Christ in repentance!!! Buuuuuuut...There woulda been NO resurection, if there hadn't been a DEATH!!!
"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." (1Peter 2:24)
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Get understanding in your heart, BEFORE THE BANDAID, before the healing of sin you've got to REPENT!!! You've got to APPLY THE BLOOD to your life!!! You've got to LET GOD CLEANSE you, so that you can be made a whole! You've got to Let God take all that sin and iniquity out of your heart! The process may be somewhat painful, but its soooo worth it when you are able to recieve the ressurection and rebirth and newness of life. God's NOT a mean God, he's a GOOOOOOOD GOD!!! The gift of repentance isn't the wrath of God on us, it is in fact God's loving kindness towards us when we don't deserve it!!!
"...the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance..."
(Romans 2:4)
♪♪♪What can wash away my sin? What can make me WHOLE again??? NOTHING but the blood of Jesus! ♪♫ For it reaches to the HIGHEST mountain, and it flows to the lowest vally!♪♫ I claim the blood, that Jesus shed on calvary! ♫ I see a crimson stream of blood, it flows from calvary and its waves which reach the thrown of God, are sweeping over me!!! ♪ I know it was the blood, I know it was the blood, I know it was the blood FOR ME, one day when I was lost Jesus died upon the cross, well I KNOW IT WAS THE BLOOD FOR ME!!! ♪♫♫♫
♪♫OH THANK GOD FOR THE BLOOD!!!♪♫♪
♥Mary Frances :)
