The Bungee Cord 2-21-22

Hello,

I was going to see a friend, my seminary roommate and fraternity brother from the University of Illinois, who lives near Gettysburg, Pa. The route from my house was mainly Turnpike, but to get to his house the last portion of the trip took me through rural Pennsylvania. Even in the winter, rural Pennsylvania is beautiful scenery. As I drove along, I came upon a site that caught my attention. It was an item that was placed by the side of the road that someone was trying to get rid of. A toilet with a sign on it that said, “Free.”

Had I had a need for a toilet, or room for it in my car, I could have stopped right there and procured a way to flush the refuse of my life out of my life….for free! As I contemplated this offering, it occurred to me that such is the same thing that God offers to us through Jesus. It’s not in the form of a toilet, but instead it is in the form of a tortured man on a cross who in three days walked out of a grave, never to die again.

Jesus came to flush sin out of our lives….all people’s lives, and on the cross when the Bible tells us that Jesus gave a huge shout saying, “It is finished!”, there was a universal flushing sound taking all the sins of all time down to the grave to their final resting place in that septic tank of death. And then, after the flush, a huge sign could be found on that cross, “Free.” To the world, it cost nothing. To Jesus, it cost everything.

But here’s the difference between that toilet on the side of the road and the cosmic toilet in the form of the cross, we don’t have to stop by the side of the road and try and find a place for it in our lives for it to work for us. The flush that came from the cross had such force that it gathered all the sins of the world in its swirl. No need for us to install it in our lives. So powerful was the flush….a free flush for us….that it caught and catches all the “refuse” of our lives down to the septic tank of the grave, and out of our lives. “FREE!”

Interestingly enough, when the Apostle Paul, considered all the good deeds of his life, let alone the sins that were part of his life, he said that it was all “refuse”…..actually the word that is translated in the Bible from the original language really is “s$@t”. The stuff that goes down a toilet.

So the next time you see a cross, or the next time you see a toilet, see it with the sign on it that I saw, “FREE!” The flushing forgiveness that God gives you is FREE. The mess that you have made of your life. The secret sins that only you know. The failures that you carry on your shoulders. The misery that comes with letting yourself down, the people you love down, and even God down. Hear the flushing sound sending it all to the septic tank of the grave. Forever!

It is FREE. Completely FREE! You can’t pay a cent to have it take hold of the “refuse” of you life. You don’t need to pay a cent. So….the next time you push the lever on the toilet that disposes of the “refuse” of your life, hear a cosmic flush coming from the cross gathering up the “refuse” of your life and sending it off to the grave. Sin stinks…..and Jesus sends that stinky stench where it belongs…to the grave. As the Bible says, “as far as the east is from the west, so has God forgiven your sin.” Thank God. Say “Good bye” to the stench, and go out into the world carrying the wonderful aroma of God’s love and mercy. For FREE!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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