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Generous in love - God, give grace! Huge in mercy - wipe out my bad record. Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry. I know how bad I've been; my sins are staring me down. You're the One I've violated, and you've seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil. You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair. I've been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born. What you're after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life. Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life. Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing. Don't look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health. God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. Don't throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me. Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails! (Psalm 51:1-12 The Message)
Good day, dear Friend! I trust this finds you and yours doing well. It leave us a bit still under the weather; but we're praying for full recovery before Sunday as I am preaching! Please pray for Carli, Nellie, and I! Thank you! Oh, yes, this comes late due to my feeling bad.
If you had to write a confession to God after a major mistake (okay, huge sin!) what would you write? This psalm is what David wrote. He came to worship in a disguise; a scarf around his head, sunglasses; sat towards the back; tried to hide among the crowd. But this was on his heart and he wrote it down. He never forgot that God is generous in love, and that God majored in mercy. He also knew that God has a big eraser and uses it quite freely as he wipes out our bad records. Then David begins his confession: He is aware of how sinful he has been, and his office is decorated with posters of each sin (He didn't place them there, but we have this opponent who does!). He knows that he has violated his relationship with God; for God knows the extent of his evil. All the facts are before the Lord and the verdict is a given: Guilty! But David is resigned to accept whatever the Lord decrees.
The petition of David is to ask God to come in to his life. He asks for a complete washing of all that is evil out of him. He asks God to conceive a new life in him; he asks for the joy to dance as one hardly dances when we're depressed about our sinfulness. Then, today's title: "God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life." In other words, start over with all of creation in me; like You did with the chaos of all there was, great things came out of it, so make great things of what wretched things I have in me. And his plea: "Don't throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me." Let me start over!
This could be our psalm as well. God knows our sin, and as we stressed yesterday, God can remove all of that; today we can ask for a fresh start, with new creation happening in us; and from a gray exile, the wind of God's breath will lead us to a new land and new relationship with Him and His.
PRAYER: Loving God, forgive me. Create in me a new creation. Take the chaos that I have muddied myself with, and make it all new. The dark muddy waters of my soul should be crystal clear with You in me. This I pray in Christ Jesus' strong name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Smile! You've been made new!
Eradio Valverde
PRAYER REQUEST: Please join me in prayer for: The family of Rev. Chengju (Newman) and Mrs. Tina Huo. Newman was the pastor of Chinese UMC in San Antonio. He and Tina were killed in an automobile accident north of Ballinger, Texas, on July 31. Their 17-year-old son, David, survived the crash and is hospitalized in San Angelo. Please be also in prayer for The Rev. Scott Bradford, pastor of FUMC-San Angelo who has been ministering to David and those around him. Pray for one another. Pray for yourselves.
