White as Snow, Isaiah 1:18

God painted a beautiful, natural portrait for East Texans to enjoy this past Sunday night and Monday morning as we woke up to 10+ inches of beautiful, freshly fallen snow, covering the ground, cars, walks, drives, roads, and sticking to the trees. I’ve lived in East Texas most of my life and this is by far the most and longest lasting snow I have ever experienced in this area. To be able to look out, to walk out in it reminds me of the beautiful snow covered Rocky mountains and towns and ski villages I have been blessed to visit in the past. As I have been looking at the snow I have been meditating on Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” White as snow! Is there anything on earth that is cleaner, purer, whiter than a freshly fallen snow?

My friend Randy Pitts, posted this paragraph on his Facebook page Monday after waking and looking outside:

Ahh, snow! Seeing it reminds me that the phrase “white as snow” is mentioned only six times in the Bible…Twice it describes the appearance of lepers (Num. 12:10 & 2 Kings 5:27);Three times it expresses the majestic glory of Jesus’ face, hair & clothes in His resurrected body (Dan. 7:9, Matt. 28:3 & Rev. 1:14);And once, God offers us this

As I read Lamentations 1 this week, my mind was taken back, 35 years ago. Tina and I were newly married and we were driving from our apartment in west Longview to visit my family in north Longview. As we took a road known as the Spring Hill Cut Off and rounded a corner just outside the Spring Hill community, our eyes both caught the glimpse of someone lying in the ditch. We pulled over and both got out of our (new to us car, we had just purchased from my parents, a brown and gold, 4 door, Ford Granada) and began to walk back to where the body lay. I remember my heart pounding, wondering if they could have been hit by a car or killed and left on the side of the road. As we drew closer we began to identify a slender, small framed person, laying on their side, groaning. We came closer and discovered it was a young woman, short red hair, badly beaten and disfigured and barely verbal. My nose picked up the scent of urine and alcohol. We tried to talk to her and discovered she had been beaten by someone and thrown out of the car and had lain in this ditch, beside the road for sometime.

We pleaded with her to let us call an ambulance or take her to a hospital but she pleaded with us to not do that. I was confused, I was young nad I really didn’t know what to do. We asked if we could take her somewhere that she would be safe and get some help. She asked us to drive her to a friends house on the southside of town. We were able to help her stand up and assisted her to the back seat of our clean and fresh car. She slumped in the back seat as I began to drive to the south side of town where she said she could get help. The smell of urine and other body odors were nearly impossible to stand, so I cracked my window and turned on the vent, to let in some fresh air. We tried to engage her in conversation as we drove the 15-20 minute drive to a street off of Mobberly Avenue, near the original location of Mobberly Baptist Church. She struggled to talk and mostly mumbled. We arrived at the boarded up house and assisted her to the front door. We got her name and phone number, which she gave reluctantly. We followed up and discovered she lived with a man, whom we never got to know. She did agree to let us pick her up and take her with us to Liberty Baptist Church on Sunday. She stood out because of her dress, weakness, unkempt hair, no make up and scared and somber countenance. I can’t remember how she was received, but for some reason, were never able to get her to attend with us again and lost contact. I was traumatized for days, wondering how she was doing, should we have taken her to the hospital, should we have contacted the police? Looking back 35 years later, I would have taken her to the hospital where she could have gotten proper medical treatment and a report could have been made to the authorities to hopefully get her out of this sick situation.

Fast forward 32 years when Tina and I had the privilege to visit Teresa’s Night Club, before it opened one night and meet the owner, Teresa Fears. Mobberly’s worship leader, Laney Wooten at the Marshall Campus, regularly traveled Marshall Avenue where this night club stood and began to pray for the people inside, the owner, the girls who danced in bikinis, the patrons who attended and gawked at these young girls. Long story short, she got to meet Teresa Fears, the owner and began to visit with her along with Sharon Brooks, the Children’s minister at the Marshall Campus. They invited me and Tina to meet Teresa, and with some hesitancy, we did and listened to her story and shared my story of battling depression in 2006. God made a connection and we continued to go and visit her at the club before it opened and then met and visited with some of the dancers. Teresa began to come to church in Marshall first, then Longview. In early 2017, in our Pastor’s office, Teresa, Sharon brooks and I sat with her and shared and listened. I remember the Lord bringing to mind, Romans 2:4, which I read.

"Or do you presume on the riches of the kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"

We talked about the goodness of God, revealed in the gift of His son, Jesus, for our sin and disobedience, and Teresa prayed and gave her heart to Jesus. She began the process of closing the club, that she had started and managed for many years. In a few weeks she followed in baptism, began to be discipled by women of Mobberly and other local churches. I called Teresa this week and discovered she is still praying daily, loves the Lord, and wants to grow and serve. To read how Teresa’s story began go to: https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/church-ladies-stir-adult-club-owner-to-faith/?fbclid=IwAR2ORT0R4osxuDdTmHiCYleaEwmv-ny8pxZD26fAhYLv9bqH2G6J41WxyTI

God’s story through Teresa continues to be written.

As I look at the beautiful, pure white snow, reflecting on Isaiah 1:18 and the reality of the ugliness, darkness that can engulf a life absent of God, absent of forgiveness, absent of repentance and restoration as described in Lamentations 1, I have two contrasting thoughts, two deep, both troubling and comforting feelings stirring in my heart:

• How destructive, how defeating, how ugly sin makes our life, our living, our being. God’s people in Lamentations had turned from the Lord to idols, to sin, to riotous living and had sunk to a low state of living, involving captivity, idolatry, harlotry bringing great despair, disarray, disappointment, and deplorable living conditions. I’ll never forget a saying my youth pastor taught me as a young believer.

“Sin will take you farther than you ever planned to go, will keep you there longer than you ever intended to stay, and make you pay more than you wanted to pay.”

Dick Stagner, my youth pastor, friend, brother-in-law, mentor in ministry

• How amazing, how merciful, how radically transforming is God’s forgiveness and cleansing, made possible through the sacrifice and shedding of His Son’s precious and pure blood. Jesus voluntarily laid his life down for us (John 10:10-18). He died, was buried, and rose again (1 Cor. 15:3,4) I experienced this amazing cleansing, forgiveness, redemption and restoration, July 29, 1979 after Dick Stagners ordination service. I was made new, clean, pure in a moment.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold the new has become."  2 Corinthians 5:17

How amazing that at one moment, my life was marked by sin, disobedience, inner ugliness and guilt. Then in a moment, following the confession of my sin, the putting of my trust in Jesus, his perfect life, sacrificial death, powerful resurrection, I was cleansed of all my sin(1 John 1:9). I was made perfectly righteous in the sight of my Father, my Creator and Savior. I was made alive, raised from spiritual death to eternal life(Ephesians 2:1-10). I was adopted in the the God’s family and became his child (Romans 8:14-17).

This is the truth, this is the reality for every man, every woman, youth and child who comes to the end of themselves, repents and confesses their sin and failures, and turns to Jesus, believing on and receiving him into their heart (John 1:13; Romans 10:9-10; 13). Teresa, by her own admission has an ugly, painful, shameful past. But, praise the Name of Jesus, she has been made new, white as snow, and will appear before her Creator, her Abba Father, her risen Savior redeemed, justified and freely forgiven forever. I don’t know about the young women we picked up from the side of the road 35 years ago. But I do know we extended the love of God, shared the Good News of the Savior, inviting her to turn from her broken life to believe and receive Jesus. I can only hope that one day when I am finally home in heaven, I will bump into her on the streets of gold and she will have to introduce herself and remind me of our meeting on earth, because otherwise I would be unable to recognize her in a new, beautiful body, made clean and whole, perfect in the image of our Savior, Jesus. I pray she came to the place that she turned from her shameful and sorrowful way of living and turned to the Savior, came to him, reasoned together, and she was transformed, white as snow, born again, redeemed and restored. What an amazing story of grace that would be!

Brothers and sisters as we enjoy the next few days of beautiful, pure, white snow across our East Texas lawns and streets, take a few minutes to be reminded how you will one day stand before your Lord and Savior and He will see only righteousness, purity and holiness, because you will be wearing His robe of righteousness. If you have not come to the place in your life that you have faced the ugliness, the stain of sin in your own life (Romans 3:10-18, 23; Isaiah 64:6), then stop to day, be honest and turn to the One, Jesus the Christ, who calls your name, “Come (your name) let us reason together, though your sins (your name) are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” No matter how far you may have fallen, how deep or how long you have lived in sin, the Savior, Jesus, loves you so much that he gave his life, dying in your place (Rom. 5:8; 2 Cor. 5:17) that if you will just be honest before him and confess your sin (1 John 1:9) and turn to Him, trust in Him and receive Him into your life, your heart (John 1:13, Rom. 10:9,10, 13) he will receive you into His arms, He will cleanse you and forgive you, and will never let you go.

If you want to know more about how to receive this gift of cleansing, forgiveness and eternal life, please reply to this post. I would love to share more!