Peas in a Strainer

One evening while  I was cooking a package of frozen peas for our evening meal, the Lord  unexpectedly revealed to me the most amazing analogy. Right before my eyes the Lord so clearly explained Calvary. I have never forgotten.

When the girls were young, peas were not their favorite vegetable. But now that  our nest is empty,  my husband and I do  enjoy the small sweet peas that we can mix in with our mashed potatoes.This  night when I poured the peas into the strainer, this revelation hit me ," The strainer was the cross of Jesus Christ, the peas were all my sins.  They staysd in the strainer, while the water passed through Just as in my new birth. I was free from the power of my sin. That was it!!! The peas in the strainer represented all my sins and every time that I sinned, I could repent and be free from guilt and shame.  The cross is a living power in my life that keeps me separate from my sin.  I am so grateful for the gift of repentance and a new life in Christ.. 

I believe that Jesus doesn't want us to stand looking at the cross, but by faith to know that we have been consumed  in His death, burial and resurrection. That he has separated us from our sins.  As a new creation,  we are no longer sinners, but saints that can choose to sin.  It is quite a difference to think of yourself as a saint, one set apart to God being transformed into His image every day, rather than as a sinner in need of a Savior all of the time.  That need has been satisfied in Christ Jesus.  His sacrifice has produced in me a daily deep gratitude for the cross, because by faith through grace, Jesus has set me free from my physical birth in Adam to a new spiritual  birth in Christ. If it cost Him His life, it will cost me my SELF-LIFE, my lower nature.  It is no longer my will, but His will that is important to be done.  It is all about Jesus and not about me. What a freedom I feel every day, as He is working out my salvation!!!  

Every time I cook a pot of peas, and drain them in a strainer, I think of this analogy. We have been separated from the power of our sin by the grace of God.  St. Paul acknowledges this struggle with his flesh in Romans 7  "Now if I do what I do not want, IT IS NO LONGER I WHO DO IT, but SIN ( my lower nature) that dwells in me." God's grace enables us to repent and turn from any sin that might entangle us.  He finally concludes the answer in Chapter 8 verse 1, 2. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death."  We are the most BLESSED people in the whole universe.