I had a dream last night. An evil spirit in the shape of a woman was coming after me. And I was running in total unadulterated terror, running to find a place where I could hide from it. Everywhere I went, it was there, chasing after me, mocking me. I finally arrived at a place where I thought was the safest place in the pitch-dark building, which had multiple locks on it and I crawled up into a corner hiding in the darkness. But I knew it was coming, and it was going to break through the door any moment to get me. It was pure terror and the moment it got in, the very moment where I thought all hope was lost, I screamed out for Jesus to save me - and the moment I cried out, He came. Pure light flooded the pitch black darkness and He stood in between me and the evil spirit. And I knew I was finally safe.

Now isn't that a bit like our sinful lives? Sins and temptations are always coming after us, cornering us down and we try to run from it, trying to run into what we think is the safest place where it cannot get to us. But anything short of God is not safety, and we cannot find security in what our own hands have made or what our own minds have conjured up. We sit and try to find hope in what we call our security, but sin comes knocking to remind us of what we really are - filthy rags. And it drives us to that place where we are so terrified and broken and lost, that all we can do is cry out, "Jesus, save me!", and thats when beauty comes. Thats when Jesus hears your cry, and reaches down to stand in the gap between you and sin, to cleanse you with His blood and clothe you with His righteousness. And thats when sin is beaten, with the glory of God.