Tampons and the Righteousness of God

Got your attention yet? Grossed out? Offended? Please continue reading—there is a method to the madness! :-)

It bothers me when pastors and teachers of Scripture do not make it obvious what the Bible says! I am highly offended at people who will not declare the entire counsel of Scripture…and it ticks me off when people back off of the truth because of a fear of offending someone!

So—I am going somewhere today that few will go…and I am not concerned with who I offend!

A disturbing pattern I have noticed in my sixteen years of ministry are people who think they are going to heaven…and when you ask them why they think they are going on this trip they reply, “Well, I am a good person…I have gone on a missions trip…I have a Bible with my name on it and I read it 30 minutes a day…I tithe 11%...I have grown up in church.”

Have you heard these before? Have you said them? What are you depending on to get you to heaven?

All too often people claim they are going to heaven because of what they DO! They think they are a good person and that one day when they get in front of God that He is going to be SO impressed that He’s going to say, “Come on in…you are an all-star up here already—in fact, you should be sitting here instead of me…”

But nothing could be further from the truth…stay with me here…

The Bible says this in Isaiah 64:6, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”

All too often we skip over this verse; however, I want to explain it in a way that is very obvious!

The literal translation of the highlighted section is, “All of our righteous acts are like a woman’s menstrual cloth.” In today’s language God is basically saying, “On your BEST day—the BEST you can do is equal to a tampon.”

That’s gross I know—it’s offensive…it makes us want to throw up; however, it’s the same deal, when we try to depend on our “good works” to get to heaven—its offensive to God! And so He lets us know how offensive it is by letting us know that the best we can do is a tampon!

In other words—we can’t work our way into heaven…and thus the need for Jesus! In order to get into heaven we need to be declared righteous…and if our righteous acts are like a tampon then we are in trouble!

Enter Jesus Christ! The Bible tells us in II Corinthians 5:20-21 that Jesus takes our sin and makes us righteous! HE makes us righteous…not all the stuff we do…not our Bible studies…not our perfect attendance in Sunday school—HE, Jesus makes us righteous!

Jesus was never intended to be someone we hang a picture of in our living room to make us feel better about ourselves after a tough day. God knew that we were screwed when it came to eternity—He knew we could never achieve a righteous life on our own—so He sent Jesus! And Jesus died on a cross, paid for our sins and made us righteous…but…

The question is, “Have you received Christ?” As you look back over your life has there ever been a time where you realized, “I am separate from God because of my sins”? AND then you realized, “This separation could never be reconciled by my good works—they are like a tampon in His sight…I NEED JESUS!”

Salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone. You are not going to heaven because your parents are Christians. You are not going to heaven because you are Catholic or Baptist…or because you were baptized as an infant—those are things that we do—righteous acts—TAMPONS…salvation is God’s work—not ours…and salvation is found only in Jesus Christ.

Has there ever been a time in your life where you received Jesus? He’s necessary for salvation!

THE reason for the success at NewSpring is that we preach Jesus! We are not into boycotts or politics…we don’t major on the minors…Jesus Christ is the reason our church is here…and we lift Him up and beg Him to use our church to draw people to Him! NewSpring will always be about the person and work of JESUS! If you take Him away…we go “out of business!” He’s our focus and we exist for Him!

For those who now are sick to their stomach…good…I hope I have put it in terms you can understand. For those who are offended—GET OVER IT! For those who need Christ—drop me an e-mail!