May 06, 2018

Sunday Devotional With Mr.E : ALIKE

I love the look that can be achieved with oil & chalk pastels.  Part of their appeal is that they are incredibly soft and easily manipulated. The very thing that makes them so appealing can also be considered their "issue".  No matter the brand or price point.....they are challenging to keep clean.  They easily pick up color from the other pastels around them.  Many times I've opened brand new boxes of pastels only to find they are far from pristine.  I teach my students to clean their pastels before using them to avoid contaminating their colors with something they may not want.  However, they will enevidably smear an unwanted color into their work from an unseen crumb or spot of color.  It doesn't matter if I store them in their original packaging with trays or if they are placed in a box together.  It doesn't matter if they are the most expensive or least expensive.  The issues are the same. They are alike. 
                                                                         

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.  
Isaiah 64:6

It is amazing the finger pointing, gossiping, and head shaking that goes on in the church.  We see the "BIG SIN" in others' lives, and somehow feel we're better than them because their struggles are not our struggles.  Their "BIG SIN" is not like our "little sin".  We justify our own inadequacies by categorizing sin into least acceptable to most acceptable (our sin clearly falling in the "most acceptable" category).  The truth is sin is sin.  There is no BIG SIN or little sin.  The word "sin" comes from an archers term meaning "TO MISS THE MARK".  We have all missed the mark.  We are more alike than we want to admit.  Our issues impact the things we do.  Like the unwanted crumb of oil pastel color that smears into your work....our sin impacts every area of our life.  We need to go before the Lord & deal with our issues.  We need to be real, humble, and honest with ourselves & others.  This is what the world is looking for.....loving, authentic(non-hypocritical), and non-judgemental people that claim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  

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