Impure

We are called to be holy because God is holy (1 Peter 1:15 – 16). God is described as “the Father of lights” in which is found no “shifting shadow.” (James 1:16) Jesus has been recorded as saying, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9, NASB) To gain insight into this we will go to the account of the transfiguration where we find the face of Jesus shining like the sun and his garments as white as light (Matthew 17:2). Try to imagine being there and seeing God’s glory radiating from his face and shining through his clothing causing them to radiate and appear as light. Just imagine that someday we will be like that if we are spiritually alive in Christ.

What I have attempted to describe doesn’t exist now on earth because God’s glory is veiled behind our sin. We, as believers, have God’s glory within us and not until death will it be set free to radiate from a new body given in the resurrection. Our lives now are a mixture of light and darkness.

As I walked along the pedestrian walk with my camera on Thursday, I came to a place where this thought on holiness came to mind. I stood at a new four corners and took four shots. The first picture, below, is one of those shots.

I headed down the street, which used to be a beautiful old part of the city, and soon came to a disgusting pool of sewage that I would somehow have to navigate if I was to keep going.

I carefully picked my way around, along with several Chinese people, and came to one of several places where the sewage was pouring into a storm drain.

I continued along so I could show you where it was coming from. As you can see there is quite a stream flowing here and it doesn’t look like very good quality water.

I rotated to my left ninety degrees and saw that it was coming from over there someplace.

I shortly discovered part of the source and understood the problem.

As the old buildings are being torn down, the old sewer system is left in a broken condition underground. Pressure from surrounding buildings is pushing the sewage to the surface, where it then runs down to the remaining street and into a storm drain. Try to imagine you are one of those ladies, sitting on that back patio doing your knitting. How does that affect your level of thanks? These three ladies belong to families that haven’t gotten around to move yet. Everything around them has been torn down, but they are still hanging on. – Tomorrow I will show you a picture of the front of their place as we cover the third segment of our walk.

I couldn’t help think about all the impurity I saw today and thought about the impurity in my own life. To imagine that one day we, who are in Christ, will be holy like he is, is hard to fully grasp, but it is a living hope we have and cling to. How easy it is for humanity to become like the sewage running down the street. Under the disguise and deception the world shows us in its offerings, flows streams of impurity and death. God wants us to come to him and enjoy the benefits of the life he offers. Why do so many turn the other way?