TRANSFORMATION: FROM FOUL POOL TO HIMALAYA SNOW

Transformation is the promise of the Gospel for those continuing in obedience in Christ and seeking to be “filled to the measure of the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:19).  They become “participants in the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4).  The perfecting love of God transforms their hearts in holiness making them “whiter than snow.”

James Nicholson (1828-1876) wrote  –

Lord Jesus let nothing unholy remain,

Apply thine own blood and remove every stain;

To get this blest washing I all things forgo;

Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

E. Stanley Jones, twentieth century missionary to India for fifty-five years, speaks about such a transformation:

       I once stood in a village and gazed upon the dazzling whiteness of the everlasting snows of the Himalayas. At my feet I saw a tiny foul pool, stained by the life of the village. I said to the little pool: "I know a power that will lift you out of this foulness, will purify you and make you share the whiteness of those everlasting snows. Here is the sunbeam; yield to its upward pull, trust it completely." The foul drops yielded, were lifted, and I saw them again dropped as pure snowflakes upon the everlasting mountains. 

O soul of mine, very like those foul drops, to you is offered this Gentle Power to lift you out of the uncleanness of even your mind-sins to the white purity of God. Let go, let God!

-        E. STANLEY JONES, THE CHRIST OF EVERY ROAD

We all understand how white is the snow.  We’ve had so much of it this winter.  Imagine a pure heart, a clean heart, and a heart after the likeness of God’s own heart whiter than snow.  That’s what is possible as we permit God to do a work in our hearts that only he can do.