Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Tie (02/28/13)
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TITLE: The Scarlet Cord | Previous Challenge Entry
By Janet Kelly
03/06/13 -
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When you drag your Christmas decorations down from the attic every year do you find your lights are always a tangled mess? I know there are some of you who are neatly organized and take great time and patience to carefully wrap your lights before you store them. But for the rest of us....we toss them in the storage bin and forget about them until next year.
This makes me think of our lives getting so entangled in sin. We are so wrapped up, tied up, bound in sin, we, like those Christmas lights, are a tangled mess. We explore every avenue in sin city. We play there because Satan deceives us into thinking that it is just a harmless little pleasure. He lures us with city lights, lots of music, wine that sparkles in the cup and the most interesting people. So almost effortlessly we are drawn in and by the time we decide it isn't fun anymore we are entangled. We want out but we can't find any way to free ourselves from the bondage of our sin. Are we hopelessly tied up with sin? Is there any way to escape?
In Joshua chapter 2 we read the story of the spies that were sent into the land around Jericho. They were to spy out the land that the Lord had promised to give them. While they were there they were hidden and protected from the King of Jericho by a prostitute named Rahab. She hid them on the roof top of her house and told the officials that the men had been there, but had gone. She then made an agreement with the spies for the protection of herself and her family when they returned to overtake the land. She let them down the side of the wall by a rope through a window. She agreed with the spies to tie a scarlet cord in the window and when they came back, anyone who was in the house with her would be safe. They would be safe as long as the spies could see the scarlet cord in the window.”....So she sent them away and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.” Joshua 2:21 (NIV)
To me that scarlet cord is our freedom from the bondage of sin. Rahab realized that the God the Israelites served was the one true God. She knew that He was not an ordinary God. She knew He was all powerful. She had heard of the mighty things that He had done for the Israelites. The scarlet cord in the window was her protection. She knew when the spies saw that cord in the window she and her family would be spared. It was the same for the Israelites in Egypt during the passover, if God saw the blood over the door posts they would be safe. Exodus 12:22-23 “And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop , and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason,; …..... For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.”(KJV)
The scarlet cord represents the blood of Christ. The spies safety was in the house of Rahab, our safety from sin is in the blood of Christ. We are free from the penalty of our sin through the blood of Jesus Christ, who gave his life for ours. When God the Father looks at us He no longer sees our sin but sees instead the blood of His son Jesus Christ through which there is remission of sins.
“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” Hebrews 9:22 (KJV)
Also we read in Colossians 1:14 “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:” (KJV)
We no longer have to be entangled in or enslaved by sin. All we need to do is our hang the “scarlet cord” in the window of our heart. Trust in Christ today!!
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I really like how you tied Rahab and the scarlet thread into Christ death on the cross.
This was powerfully written.