"Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you." Luke 11:39-41
The literal translation of that last part is: "give that which is within as your alms."
Christ doesn't want our works alone. He wants us, first, to put our faith in Him. He wants us to lay out all of our sin, our hurt, our pain, our shame, our pride, everything we hold inside of ourselves, and lay it down at His feet. He can handle it, He wants to handle it. He wants to help bear your heavy burdens and replace your shame with joy.
The next verse goes on to say:
"But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs and pass by justice and the love of God."
We in our flesh spend years and years hearing the Truth over and over and with our noses in the air replying, "I am a good person." We think we are in no need of penitence. In our pride, and arrogance we pass by the LOVE OF GOD! We are all sinners, and have fallen short of the glory of God, but there is hope because of Jesus' sacrifice.
Do we ever realize what it is that we are missing out on?
As I continually write, nothing in this world will satisfy us like the love of God will. Our good works alone do not offer us remission of sins. Our faith in Christ and His labor of love for each of us is what is needed.
The Lord loves you, Reader. He died for your weighty sins so that you may live. Do not wait;
"...confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Romans 10:9-10
I pray the weight of God's glory will bring all of us to our knees. Grace is where we can live, and grace is freedom for our prisoned souls.
In the Love of Christ Alone, Jess
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