“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice” (Ps 51:7-8).
Dinny Malone, a retired sea captain, was reading his Bible when a Christian friend came calling. As they talked, old Dinny confessed a struggle he had been having. He said, “I’ve been trying to get God to forgive me for six years, and He won’t.” “Have you repented? Are you trusting His Word?” he was asked. “Yes, I believe I am,” he replied. The believer took up his well-worn Bible and read 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
“Dinny,” the friend continued, “when you give your word, do you keep it?” “Sure I do,” roared the old fellow. “Doesn’t a gentleman always?” “So, Dinny, don’t you think the Lord is a gentleman?” Glory burst upon the sea captain’s face like a lighthouse breaking through the fog. “I see it!” he exclaimed. “Just take His word for it.”