Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The White Paper CAN Remain!

What is my excuse this time for not posting? Perhaps saying that being a Junior in High School is crazy!

I have had a very busy weekend and another wild start to this week as well. I had my first concert in my orchestra. It was very fun! All the hard work, and all the many hours and afternoons/evenings of practicing all paid off. As I was sitting there on Sunday afternoon, and just studying over the music, playing it all the way through for the very first time and feeling good about it, my mind was stable. It was quiet, relaxed, and in the moment of nothing. It actually felt so good. I did not notice that until the very end when all the thoughts which were gone for about 40 minutes came back. It was a clear picture up in my brain. It was as if you have a blank white sheet of paper. But when you take that paper and draw a few pictures, words, sentences, equations, and perhaps a few people, it is of course all filled up once more. That is how the mind works.

For a time, my mind was quite calm and thinking of things which were only important to me, or about situations which occurred that hour or possibly day. The white paper was filled with only a few and certain images. It was as if I turned older and that paper which was covered with few pictures, filled up more and more, thoughts of which I should possibly turn off. Although, often our mind is weak. As with me, my mind is hard to control. And yet I know Jesus has control of it all. It is when I allow to take things in my own hands and when then Satan finds a little passage way to fill it up with dirty imaginings. That void paper in the beginning of life slowly gets more and more congested with either clean and pure things, or sadly, impure and immorality. It is the beginning of sin and sometimes I like to think of certain things because it gives me only a little pleasure for some time, and then when it gets to far, it begins to hurt and dig down within my heart. It is not the right kind of pleasure, it is of the world.

A normal sized white paper can fill up with a lot of scribblings. Give it a try, get a pencil and mark all over it, put whatever you want on it, or just make long, sloppy slashes. Look at it now, it's full of pencil markings, and yet worse, it is dark and looks dirty. If you slide your hand over it, it will leave a dark shade of led. Next, if you were to take your hand which has some color from the led and wipe it on your clothes, it will stay, and possibly stain it if not washed off immediately. This here, is just how our mind works. We take a whole lot of thoughts into our mind. Whether it be about family issues, clothes, school, homework, friends, relationships, boys/girls, and the list can go on and on. So many things are thought of daily, and it just stays in our mind. If we allow it to happen, dirty and sinful things will then arise and captivate itself up there as well. It's no longer white, it's beginning to look just like that piece of paper, it's the exact duplicate. Those thoughts come into the heart, everything starts there. Then those thoughts will soon rub off onto others we come across, and then leave them with a shade of the dirt as well. It begins to feel comfortable up there and soon we do not even realize what is right to think of or not.

Jesus is the one who can wipe away that stain and shade of black dirt. He will wash it as clean and white as snow. Purely and beautifully he does this. If we allow the thoughts to take complete charge over us, it will stain our whole body, although it is never to late to let Jesus in and have him clean it all up. Would you rather be clothed in a stainless white shirt? Or a white shirt which is beginning to have holes, paint, ink stains and is bearing small rips at the bottom of the seam? It is your choice, allow Jesus to take of that mind of yours, washing it with his blood, or keeping the mind which is full of filth, a mind which cannot rest because it is constantly thinking of immorality? Which will you choose?

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

3 comments:

Kalani said...

Vanessa, I was just thinking about your concert and wondering how it went! I'm so happy that it went well!!! What a wonderful illustration you gave about white paper! I was curious what you were talking about when I saw the title on my blog!
P.S I'm so glad that our families met up!

Elena Pizarro said...

This is such a great post. I am glad that the concert was good. Great job!!!!

Erica Melugin said...

Nessa, that's an eye-opening devotion. It's really spoken to me. Ü Nothing but the Blood is one of my favorite hymns!!!