COULD YOU PASS THE HAND SANITIZER?THESE RAGS ARE A LITTLE DIRTY!

Last year I attended a lot of funerals/memorial services .. Sometimes I am asked to sing - sometimes I participate by leading a Prayer or reading a Scripture passage. I have been encouraged by many messages that I have heard at funeral services! My Pastor friends ALWAYS make it a priority to preach the Gospel during that time.. what a great time to share the Good News! You have lots of people gathered together AND they are being reminded of their mortality.. The Lord can use that time of sadness to open the eyes of a mourner- and draw a soul into the Kingdom!SOMETIMES the "messages" are not so encouraging.. you know.. I am talking about the services where the Pastor, speaker,or loved one is "preaching the departed into Heaven" ! It goes something like this: "we Know that Uncle John is in Heaven because he loved people,gave to the poor, he was a good person, he helped the downtrodden..." This goes on and on- AND the people in the congregation are "amen-ing" all these statements( at least silently)! Sometimes, there are several speakers who get up one after another, and the cycle continues: it's all about the "GOOD WORKS" that made the departed fit for heaven!!The BiBle says that "ALL our righteousness is like Filthy rags"The ONLY WAY that anyone goes to heaven is because they trusted in Jesus and what He did on the cross for them!!It's is a free gift! BUT WE DO'NT want to hear that!We want to use those "filthy rags" of righteousness to comfort ourselves! We pass those rags around to each other. as we talk about our departed friend -"hey here's one: he gave some money to the Church when things were really tough!" .. "hey- how bout this one.. He loved his friends and family" DEAR READER: Those rags of righteousness can NOT help us to dry our tears.. They can not help us OR anyone get to heaven... when it comes to using them to gain ETERNAL LIFE: they are useless.. they are Rubbish! Jesus Kept the WHOLE law and suffered the punishment for us so that we could be forgiven! He offers us, NOT dirty rags .. but a ROBE. a robe of righteousness that He BOUGHT with his blood! He offers us HIS righteousness!! We need to remind ourselves of the Good News and stop trying to clean up our hearts with those rags... Passing around filthy rags can be messy.. and the consequences are eternal...

This is a "re-write of a previous post on Facebook"