THE STAIN REMAINS

THE STAIN REMAINS

There is an ad on television for a cleaning product that has a daughter asking her mother if she has seen her green blouse. The mother responds
that the blouse "no" she had not seen it, and its not really the
style of clothes she would wear. The next scene is a flashback to her
mother wearing the blouse while partying with friends and spilling a
drink and staining the green blouse. The daughter leaves the house and
the mother rushes to wash the blouse with the stain removing product
and the stain comes out. The next time her daughter is leaving the
house she is leaving the house and her mother comments that she was
wearing the green blouse. The daughter replies, " yes, I found it
hanging in my closet, I must have just overlooked it." The camera pans
to the smile of relief on the mother's face.

The mother had originally lied to her daughter about knowing where the blouse was. She had cleaned the blouse and hung it back in her daughter's
closet to hide the fact she had worn it without permission and that she
had stained it. The mother also lied when she denied it was her
"style" and stained it while partying with friends. And then when the
blouse reappeared she let her daughter assume she had overlooked it in
her closet the first time.

This commercial promoted the effectiveness of a soap to remove the stain from the green blouse and inferred to us that lying about everything was okay because of the
cleansing power of the stain remover!

We, our babies, our young children, tweeners, teenagers, young adults are exposed to these subtle blatant images of lying, stealing, cover-up and stain removing
repeatedly everyday. We are bombarded with false images of what is
acceptable behavior in our lives whether we are Christians or not. We
fall prey to the subtle idolatry of lusting for products which make our
lives easier and free of conflict. We are enraptured by a culture
which lures us in to a life style that we are called to rebuke, yet
seems acceptable "because that is the way life is." Gradually, we find
ourselves buying into these lies and buying the products and accepting
the world's view of what is right and wrong. If we are not careful we
accept the world's definitions of truth instead of living obedient to
the Truth.

Matthew 18:6 says, "but if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in
the depths of the sea." That is the Truth of what will happen if we
accept the story of removing the stain on the daughter's green blouse
as truth!

We, you and I, are called to be vigilant and live counter culturally to the world's view of truth. When we stand firm, when we teach our children and ourselves to see the "lies" of the
world for what they are, and when we present the Truth that the stains
of sin can only be removed by our acceptance of forgiveness by the
power of the blood of Christ, then we are living according to God's
will.

We have choices to make everyday on how we are to live and ultimately what glory we will bring to Jesus Christ now and in eternity. Matthew 18:5 says, "And whoever welcomes a little child
like this in my NAME welcomes me." It is the children who are the
greatest in the Kingdom! Not only must we teach our children, but we
must become like little children in order complete our earthly journey
of faith to sing with the angels in heaven for eternity!

in His name and to His Glory,

Steve