Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 Search Archive Print This Article Washed away Sunday, May 3, 2009 1 John 3:1 Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. During worship before Baptism Sunday at Vineyard I closed my eyes and looked around for Jesus. I found him. He invited me to come under a waterfall with him. This is the waterfall of forgiveness. I've been under this waterfall before. John Wimber used the metaphor and it's been important for me ever since. Forgiveness is not a concept but the experience of being washed clean. It's not a pitcher of water or a drink of water or anything I have much control over. It's not even a shower that I can turn on and off. This is God's waterfall of forgiveness, which falls without end on the just and the unjust. And yet ... I'd never been aware of Jesus' presence with me in the water. I'd never really thought about God in this experience except as the one who moved the controls. Now I am with Jesus and only with Jesus. I am not comparing or remembering or anticipating or thinking ... at all. I just am. Jesus said to me, "I made you. You've been made. There's nothing more to make." He hugs me. We are all washed wet together, and I am clean. Later when I lift up my hands during one of the songs, I notice Jesus is lifting up his hands too. And he gives me a high-five. O how happy you have made me, Jesus. In your arms. All is well. "; Add      Edit    Delete