Before you are saved, you are first drawn by God. It can be through a message, some miraculous act or even a divine visitation. God has been searching for you from the day of your birth but you may have ignored Him for too long. He may have used your friends, relatives and different media to reach out to you, but His message may have fallen on deaf ears. It is time to accept Him today so that all may be well with you.

After drawing you, the next thing God does is to cleanse you. This is what is commonly called salvation. He said in Ezekiel 36:25 that:
“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.”
Why does He need to cleanse you? Why not accept you the way He found you? It is because God is a holy God. He is perfectly clean. Because God is light, He does not have even the slightest dot of darkness. If the President of your nation wants to invite a poor, wretched, dirty and unkempt beggar who lives on the streets to dine with him, the beggar must first be washed, shaved and dressed in presentable clothes.

Psalm 40:2 says every sinner lives in a horrible pit. Every sinner is stained with sin. We cannot with our physical eyes determine how clean or dirty a person is inwardly. You may be adjudged the neatest and best dressed physically, but be noted as the dirtiest sinner before God. No personal claim to being saved can make you saved except God cleanses you. Sin is such a tough and permanent stain that it takes only the blood of Jesus to wipe it off- nothing else! No sacrifice, no penance, no amount of scriptural recitations can erase sin. If the beggar picked on the streets says he is clean, does that make him clean? Any sin that God has not cleansed with the blood of Jesus is retained to condemn the one who committed it for all eternity. Are you claiming to be born-again when you are still living in sin? You are engaged in self-deception and endangering your life. No religion or philanthropy can erase a single sin from you. Accept God’s offer of salvation now and let Him cleanse you. Acknowledge your sinful life, confess your sins to God and ask Him to cleanse you with His blood today. Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord.

Memorise:
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
Ezekiel 36:25

Read:
Psalm 40:1-2

Bible in one year:
Numbers 34-36
Job 1:6-12

Key point:
Any claim of forgiveness of sin that is not attained through the blood of Jesus is fake.

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Culled from Open Heavens daily devotional for July 9, 2014 by Pastor E.A Adeboye.
Visit www.dailydevotionalsonline.com everyday to read a daily devotional.

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