How many of you remember the crooked man you used to read about in your nursery rhyme book?
“There was a crooked man,
And he walked a crooked mile;
He found a crooked sixpence
Against a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat,
Which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together
In a little crooked house.”
He WAS a funny fellow, wasn’t he? HE was crooked, and everything ABOUT him was crooked. He chose a crooked house and a crooked cat. Why do you suppose he did that? “Because he was crooked himself.” Yes, that’s right.
But you know, boys and girls, we’re all pretty much like him. Our hearts are wicked; we love wicked things, and we like to walk down a crooked path in this world just like the crooked man. God wants us to walk a straight path, but we can’t do it the way we are, can we?
That crooked man couldn’t walk straight until HE was straightened out. And if we’re going to walk on the path where God wants us to walk, we’ll have to have our hearts changed. God is the only One who could make that crooked man straight. Doctors could not help —he’s SO crooked only God could straighten him.
And, you know, our hearts are so sinful that no doctor or no one in the world can make them clean. We can’t do it ourselves either. God is the only One who can—by washing them in the blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you ever opened YOUR heart to Jesus and asked Him to make it clean? The Bible says that your heart is wicked, but Jesus can make it white as snow. Accept Him as your Saviour, and He’ll cleanse your heart right now. Believe that He died to save you.
Oh, yes, oh, yes, there’s something more,
Something more than gold:
To know your sins are all forgiven
Is something more than gold.
ML-03/06/1977