SCRUB-BOARD THEOLOGY

Raise your hand if your grannie ever used a scrub-board…
Mine did. And my mother-in-law’s scrub-board hangs in my laundry room to remind me what a chore washing clothes used to be.

Mama often told stories about the three of us—Grannie, me, and mama’s scrub-board theology.

When I was little more than a toddler, my Grannie had an enormous tub on a stool in the back yard and Monday’s were always wash day. Grannie filled the wash tub with hot water, lye soap, and Clorox, then she’d cram a week’s worth of dirty linens into those stinky suds.

While waiting for the linens to soak, Grannie showed me how to pull weeds in her flower beds…probably why I love to garden today. And while I’m sure I dug up more flowers than weeds, she always returned to her faithful scrub-board hanging on the side of the tub of suds. She’d grab a sheet and commence scrubbing the daylights outta that sheet. Up and down, back and forth, into the suds of torture. But the end results were always sparkling linens.

After the lengthy rinse process and likewise hefty wringing, Grannie toted her basket of linens to the clothesline, and hung them in the morning sun—just about the time I was done digging in dirt.
I hated dirty hands, still do, and story is I’d head for Grannie’s clean, wet sheets. Now mind you, this is all hearsay. I’m told Grannie would just smile and say, “What a sweet girl…” as I wiped my nasty-dirty hands on her clean, white, flappin’-in-the-breeze linens.

But Mama didn’t think I was cute nor sweet, because she used her scrub-board theology on my backside and I’d wail. But word has it Grannie would smuggle me into the kitchen and turn my wails to smiles with hugs, kisses, and cookies. However, I’m also told many a visit ended with Mama and her mother disagreeing about discipline when Mama used her paddle to quiet my sass.

Sitting in front of my computer this morning, sharing the bratty DiAne, I’m so grateful Mama didn’t allow me to continue wiping my dirty hands and spoiled attitude on everyone’s lives and linens.

But we’ve raised kids who’ve never experienced the benefits of a good ole dose of what I’ve dubbed scrub-board theology. Dr. Spock told us we were wrong to spank and created “time-outs.” We’ve raised at least two generations of young people who’ve never felt the sting of their mamas’ switch or paddle. Young people who believe they are entitled to wipe their stinky attitudes and messy lives on everyone within their sphere of influence. Children who believe there is no right or wrong…everything is what you believe it is…

We’ve allowed our children and grandchildren to grow up believing the Lord God Almighty is a benevolent, old gray-haired, grandfather determined to shower us with hugs and blessings while we smear our sins all over His holiness. But I’m convinced God, like my Mama, also deals in scrub-board theology—only His discipline is groomed for each situation. Mama used her strong hand and a paddle—God often allows the painful scrubbing of consequences to stop us, turn us around, and bring us back to Him.

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:5-6 NAS).

The term scourging is the Greek word “mastigoo” and means “to flog” another Greek word “mestizo” means “to whip.” Good golly, you gasp. “Does that mean God agrees with whippings?”

In the Book of Proverbs 12:1 God says:
“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.”

In Proverbs 13:1 God says:
“A wise son accepts his father’s discipline, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.”

In Proverbs 14:34 God says:
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”

In Proverbs 15:5 God says:
“A fool rejects his father’s discipline, but he who regards reproof is prudent.”

In Proverbs 1:8 God says:
“Hear my son, your father’s instructions, and do not forsake your mother’s teachings.”

In Proverbs 13:24 God says:
“He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.”

Today, March 27, 2020, a good portion of America and the world finds themselves confined behind closed doors, for the first time in over one hundred years—frightened, worried, and bored.

Could it be God is in the process of beginning to apply His scrub-board theology to this nation who once proclaimed to be “One Nation Under God?” Could it be God is disgusted with the church playing in the flower beds of life all week, then traipsing to church on Sunday to smear His holiness with our dirty hands, yet tromping right back into the world to do the same idolatrous things all over again each week?

Stop and think about the number of idols yanked from our lives these past weeks…football, basketball, golf, hockey…you name the sport… robbing family time. Was your job an idol? Many of you will not return to the same places of employment that provided your self-satisfaction and self-approval in life. Bars, restaurants, and dives where you spent time and money you couldn’t afford to waste are closed. Hollywood and its glaring fixation over all things obscene and offensive to God…are closed. Disney’s unabashed flaunting of abdominal things…shut down. Credit cards maxed out. Bank account and way of life threatened. But abortion facilities remain open. Think about that for a moment.

Will you allow yourself to be buried in the debris of your idols or will you stop, fall to your knees, and seek God’s guidance and His will for you and your family during these attention getting days?

Or will you say…Oh, those aren’t idols…they’re just part of our culture…our way of life. God calls anything we put ahead of Him, or anything that comes between His face and our face, an idol.

I have seriously pondered, could this isolation be God’s way of getting our attention and drawing near those who will listen and trust Him? Or will we always be too busy doing the next thing we want to do? Remember God’s instructions in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14…

“If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”

Precious one, these are instructions for God’s people. If you’ve never placed your faith and trust in Jesus, He has another message for you. The message of John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world (that’s you), He gave His only begotten Son (that’s Jesus), that whosoever believeth (that’s you) in Him (that’s Jesus) should not perish, but have eternal life” (that’s you if you choose to trust and obey Him. To give Him your heart).

Now, back to the church. Never in my lifetime have I experienced a true reviving of God’s people. I long to see God pour out the fresh wind and fire of His Spirit among us…the verses in 2 Chronicles give us God’s formula for bringing about such an event. Again, I ask…Are you interested? Will you listen? Will you acknowledge what has separated you from Christ? Will you return to Him and obey?

Enormous flocks of locust are gobbling crops in the Middle East (with the exception of Israel). A flash flood of destruction wrecked areas of Iran and Iraq on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. And now this corona pandemic.

God has allowed the doors of churches throughout our nation to be closed. It’s not worship as usual. Because He is calling you and me, as He always has—individually—to Himself. Will we bow and listen to Him? Will we choose to open the Word of God and seek His guidance for ourselves and our families? Or will we, as soon as everything is back on track, return to business as usual, which doesn’t include a moment by moment relationship with the Lord God Almighty?

This very well could be His last attempt to call us as a nation, and a church, to Himself—His last attempt to call me and you to Himself—before the trumpet sounds and the angel speaks.

Turn off the TV, open your Bible, gather your children and listen and obey our Jehovah Elohim. Turn away from every false idol that diverts your attention from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Pray and listen. Many of us are praying, repenting, and fasting March 29th for God to heal our land and pour out His Spirit so our families and America can be healed…as He promised.

Will you listen? Will you hear? Will you pray?

“It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons…All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:7-8, 11 NAS).