July 13, 2020

As many of you know my dad isn’t feeling well at the moment. I know he missed seeing everyone this past Sunday and he will miss seeing everyone this week. Please continue praying for him because he will need all the strength he can gather for next week when he goes on vacation with us. 
Today would’ve been my mother’s 64th birthday. So in her honor and being that my dad isn’t feeling well, I felt led to write this email devotion. So let us think about Isaiah 1:18, my mother’s favorite passage of scripture. 

Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.  
“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD:
The Lord GOD invites His people to come reason with Him. What He offers us isn’t just offered because He is greater than us and has the right to dictate whatever terms please Him. God’s direction for us is reasonable. It is smart. It is the best way to live.
It is madness to reject and resist a God of infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite grace, and infinite power. True reason will drive any honest man to the humblest adoration and submission towards God.
It is just plain reasonable to follow God. Have you ever once heard of an old Christian, on their deathbed, gathering their children and friends around, and saying: “Now friends, watch out for that Christianity! I’ve followed Jesus my whole life and I’m so sorry I did.”
Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool: 
Jesus took upon Himself our stain of sin, and God judged sin perfectly and completely in Jesus, so we can be accounted white as snow and as white as wool.
What tremendous hope there is in God’s forgiveness! We really can be clean from the stain of sin. Our good works can’t clean the stain. Our best intentions or promises can’t clean the stain. Our suffering or pain can’t clean the stain. Time can’t clean the stain. Death can’t clean the stain. Only the work of Jesus can make us white as snow. The power of sin, the shame of sin, the guilt of sin, the domination of sin, the terror of sin, and the pain of sin is all taken away in Jesus.
I’m so thankful for what Jesus did. One day I will see my mother again, but more importantly I will see my savior. 
Have a blessed day,Jonathan