“Purify me from my sins, and I will
be clean; wash me,
and I will be whiter than snow”(Psalm
51:7, NLT)
Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ!
One day, very early in the morning, as I dreamed of preparing for the month of March, I heard the sound of spring, I mean the raindrops tapping on the window right above my head. So, what did I do? I woke up and took my car out of the garage. Do you know why? Because, in my dream, I heard the prayer of my dirty car covered with salty and muddy marks, “Wash me! Wash me! Wash me! I am too dirty!” And it worked! In a couple of hours, this thirteen year old car looked very clean like a brand new, believe it or not. However, did spring come? Oh no! Not yet!
Anyway, it is very important to clean before we eat, before we go to bed, before we wear a new cloth. Why? Because it keeps us from all harmful bacteria and viruses, in other words, it is the most important way to keep our body healthy. Also it looks good when we are clean!
Some years ago, I happened to live around old mine towns. Can you guess what the most famous food around that town was? It was a pasty. It is made by placing an uncooked filling, typically meat and vegetables, onions and for some tradition, Rutabaga, on one half of a flat shortcrust pastry circle, folding the pastry in half to wrap the filling in a semicircle and crimping the curved edge to form a seal before baking, then, over an hour baking in the oven until the crust is golden brown. Sounds yummy!
It was a portable lunch for the miners some years ago. However, when the meal time came in the mine, deep under the ground, they were not able to clean their hands before eating. So, they hold the pasty and eat it… actually, they throw away the thick wide pastry edges after eating the rest of their meal… to avoid being poisoned by the mine dust from their fingers.
They were not able to clean their hands; however, they were able to eat clean food! What smart eating! How about our hearts? We are not able to clean our hearts by ourselves in our spiritual journey to the kingdom eternal, are we? So no wonder why the psalmist continually prayed like this because he was not able to do that by himself.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me”
(Psalm 51:10, NLT).
It was a prayer that David had after he realized how sinful and dirty he was in front of God. So what happened? God heard his prayer and forgave his sin and renewed his life so he is still considered as a great king in the history of Israel or in the Bible despite his sinfulness or dirtiness.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have now entered into the season of Lent, forty days of preparation to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ two thousand years ago. During those days, we spend our time for praying, fasting, studying and almsgiving, letting God clean our heart and renew our spirit because it is the only God can do! No wonder why the end of the whole book of Psalm is filled with the word “Hallelujah” with thanksgiving!
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name” (Psalm 100:4, NLT).
This is our vision of this season going through forty days of Lent as we let God clean our heart so that we can fully celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ with that song of Hallelujahs! Join us!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Kyochul
