Stain Remover

I took a pair of pants to the cleaners because it had a stain I couldn't seem to remove. I was careful to point it out, and they did their best but the stain stayed. I almost gave up, then I saw what must have been a letter to an editor of a housekeeping magazine. It said:

"ALCOHOL REMOVES STAINS AND THINGS”

I should like to expand on an article in a newspaper that stated that alcohol will remove stains from summer clothes. The statement is true, and proves the amazing versatility of alcohol.

It will also remove winter clothes, spring clothes, and fall clothes from a man, also his wife and children if used in sufficient quantity. Alcohol will remove furniture from the home, rugs from the floor, food from the table, lining from the stomach, vision from the eyes and judgment from the mind."

And it went on. Alcohol is a great remover! It will even remove life itself!

Unfortunately, when people realize the dirt and depravity in their lives, they try to remove it from their conscious mind with alcohol. Sin and wickedness can't be removed with any man-made cleanser. The prophet realized this when he wrote in Jer. 2:22:

"`For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before Me,' says the LORD God."

David the psalmist also realized this. He cried out to God for help in Psa. 51:7:

"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

God responds to this cry of the heart! Most people know they are far from perfect, and that sin is just naturally a part of their lives. When you live and work in a dirty place, you keep getting dirty and have to keep washing. When your sinful nature has the upper hand in your life, sin keeps piling up and rotting your spirit. And God knows this better than anyone. That's why He responds to the cry of a sinner, as Isa. 1:18 says:

"`Come now, and let us reason together,'says the LORD, `Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

You don't go to a wedding in filthy rags, especially the great and final wedding of the universe. Everything is spotlessly clean, and the Apostle Paul mentions this uniting of Christ with His Church, His Bride, in Eph. 5:25-28:

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish."

Alcohol may delude some into thinking they have escaped the dirt of this life and have entered some heavenly state - for a few moments. But usually the next morning it's back to the hell of their own reality again.

Jesus says, "Come, let's be reasonable, your filthy sins can be washed away and your stains will all be gone." That's why He died: to purchase your cleansing through His shed blood!

You can wake up next morning clean, inside and out!