The Wound is the Battle

If an American soldier gets wounded in combat these days, his chances for recovery just got a whole lot better than they've ever been because of the beads. Yeah. It's actually a new technology that's being used to treat wounds - combat wounds. These dissolvable beads are applied to the wound and I guess they go deeper than any previous cleansing agents have ever gone. In fact, they can even penetrate bone. One of the doctors who helped develop this new treatment made a pretty interesting observation about the battle to head off infection in a soldier's wound. Here's what he said, "The wound is the battle; the infection is the war."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Wound is the Battle."

If you can win the battle by cleansing the wound right away, then you can win the war by heading off the infection. It's a strategy more of us should be using to prevent the kind of spiritual infection that poisons your joy, your peace, and your closeness to God. The wound is any point in your life where sin has been able to get in - it's that first detour from what you know is right. The infection is the widespread loss of spiritual health and power that damages so much that we care about, and it can be prevented by a prompt cleansing - a cleansing that goes deep...and there is such a cleansing.

God talks about it in 1 John 1:7-9. It's our word for today from the Word of God. It could be the very thing you need right now to heal your heart and restore you to the spiritual health that you once enjoyed. God says, "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." Man, what a promise this is! Total cleansing and total restoring if you confess that sin, which means calling it what God calls it.

You might say, "Well, not after what I've done. You don't know how awful it is." No, but God knows. And He's the One who said, "The blood of Jesus...purifies us from all sin." That includes whatever you've done, no matter how deep and no matter how frequent the sin. The cleansing agent is "the blood of Jesus" it says. The blood that He shed on the cross as the payment for every wrong thing we have ever done. Because, in the Bible's words, "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Hebrews 9:22). What no ritual can do, no religion could do, no church, Jesus can do because the shedding of His blood paid for every sin.

But to head off spiritual infection, you need to treat that sin-wound promptly. Don't let your sins pile up, unconfessed, uncleansed. As soon as you realize you've blown it, deal with it immediately, call it sin and then bring it to the cross of Jesus. And just because you've fallen down doesn't mean you have to stay down and start some cycle of repeated sin. I know Satan may be telling you, "Hey, you blew it, man! It's over." That's a lie. Jesus died so you could get forgiven, get right up, and keep on walking! This very day you may need to bring some of your recent junk under the blood of Jesus which, remember, "purifies us from all sin."

And look, maybe you've never given your life to this One who gave His life for you and for your sin. Let this be the day that you trust Him to be your Rescuer, your Savior from your sin - the only One who can forgive it because He's the only One who paid for it. Tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours."

You want to begin a relationship with Him? What you need to know about beginning that is at our website. And it's well named - ANewStory.com. I hope you'll check that out. Maybe your new beginning starts there.

Jesus paid the ultimate price so the wound of our sin need never become an eternally fatal infection. Today, you could experience that wonderful feeling of being clean and going to bed tonight forgiven.

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