Riding the Scooter

Steve Boots
9 minutes ago
2 min read

That he might sanctify and cleanse it [the church] with the washing of water by the word… Ephesians 5:26

I was privileged to preach at a Bible conference in Nepal. Like many of the people there, the missionary I was with relied on a moped for transportation. At least that’s what I called it until he corrected me and told me it was a scooter. He would pick me up from my hotel on the scooter, and I would ride behind him everywhere we went. One afternoon, he dropped me back off to freshen up and get ready for the church service that evening. More out of habit than anything, I grabbed a white washrag from the bathroom and used it to wash my face. To say I was surprised by what I saw on the rag would be an understatement. The rag was brown! Seconds before, when I had seen my face in the mirror, I didn’t notice anything on my face. The white rag revealed quite clearly, however, that I had been collecting all the dust from Nepal as we rode around.

The Word of God is very much like that white washrag. Though we may not be able to notice that we are being dirtied by the temptation and sin of the world, God’s Word will clearly reveal that to us. Not only does it reveal the dirt, it has the power to wash it away. Had I not been in the process of washing my face with the washrag, the dirt of Nepal would never have been revealed to me. The important thing is that we actually get in the Bible – read it, study it, memorize it, cherish it. Now, if we don’t read it, we may not recognize the fact that we are dirty, but it doesn’t change the fact that we are. There are plenty of Christians walking around thinking that they are pretty good Christians but only because they haven’t allowed the Word of God to reveal to them the areas that need to be changed. It doesn’t mean they are clean just because they don’t notice the filth.

The only way I was able to clean my face and wash off the dirt that had collected there was by using the washrag and being willing to let it reveal how dirty I was. Though it would have been foolish, I could have tried to hide the fact that there was dirt on my face, or I could have stopped washing the instant I saw the first sign of dirt. Thankfully I had enough sense to keep washing until the dirt was gone, and I didn’t stop washing until the rag came back clean. That is exactly what God desires His Word to be for Christians. Don’t let the pride of what someone else may think of you get in the way of thoroughly cleansing your heart before God. Keep washing until you are clean.