IN PART OR WHOLE

IN PART OR WHOLE

   Luke [ESV] 11:33-36 [Jesus explained] "No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light."

   Romans 12:1-3 [Paul pleaded] I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

  Decades ago I heard a Coke executive explain that his goal for parched people rescued from the desert to not ask for water. Working toward this objective required inundating the public with “Coke”.

  Longtime bannering is effective. What of “Sunday, a day of worship.” Has it resulted in influencing our nation with a soda pop mentality? But then it didn’t begin with Coke-like streaming. Our inherent thirst is toward comforting scheduled predictability. This commonly includes a time for religion in part that is too often not in whole.

  Let us consider the thirsting expressed in Colossians 3:16 and the words of this precious old hymn:

 Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole,

I want Thee forever to live in my soul;

Break down every idol, cast out every foe;

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

  Whiter than snow; yes, whiter than snow;

  Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

 Lord Jesus, let nothing unholy remain,

Apply Thine own blood and extract every stain;

To get this blest cleansing I all things forego;

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

 Lord Jesus, look down from Thy throne in the skies,

And help me to make a complete sacrifice;

I give up myself and whatever I know;

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

 Lord Jesus, for this I most humbly entreat;

I wait, blessed Lord, at Thy crucified feet;

By faith, for my cleansing I see Thy blood flow;

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

 Lord Jesus, Thou seest I patiently wait;

Come now, and within me a new heart create;

To those who have sought Thee Thou never saidst, No;

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

To serve Him all our days in all our ways,

EBB4   Sunday, June 17, 2018