Cool Waters of Confession and Forgiveness

Across the gravel road from the barn was a vast piece of land neatly rowed. I took off my shoes and sank my feet into the warm, dusty loam, walked across the turn row and down a row of cotton. The tractor drivers had plowed the loamy fields, turning the fertile soil, and the tiny plants had responded. They were only about six inches high. But in a couple of months, the stalks would be as tall as I, full of blooms, squares and bolls. This was my father's cotton field. He worked long and hard to build and maintain the plantation for someone else. He knew everything about cotton from the tiny seeds to the weighty bales. The smell of the soft white fiber will be with me forever. (And so will the memory of my father.)

From House Not Made With Hands, chapter 16.


When I think about walking those dusty Mississippi roads barefoot, I remember the times I've felt a need for the Lord to wash my feet, refreshing me in the way. The vulnerability is there, but so is the daily cleansing. A trek through the cool waters of confession and forgiveness is always available. What a blessed Savior who provides renewal and restoration when I mess up!
In John 13, after the last Passover supper with His disciples, Jesus rose up from supper, took off His outer garment, girded Himself with a towel, and began to wash His disciples’ feet and dry them with that towel.
Peter’s impetuous, questioning spirit and Jesus’ divine, profound answer helps us understand where we are positionally in Christ Jesus. Surely, because of His efficacious work, His shed blood, we are cleansed from all sin (Hebrews 10), but we need a daily walk through I John 1:9 that our fellowship may be restored, a washing from daily defilement. Metaphorically speaking—first a one-time approach to the Brazen Altar of Sacrifice where our sins were taken as far as the East is from the West and into the Sea of God’s Forgetfulness. Then, to the Laver of Cleansing, where our fellowship may be restored on a regular basis, for we are still clothed in sinful flesh.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1-9).

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