A Revelation

It all started with a lump under my upper lip which just wouldn’t go away. A cold sore? I tried salt water rinses and warm compresses, but nothing seemed to help. After several weeks, I started to worry that it might similar to the cancerous growth one of our former dogs had on the roof of his mouth.

Finally I made a dentist appointment and had x rays taken. The dentist discovered that a tooth on that same side of my mouth had cracked under an old silver filling. He thought that there might be an abscess and advised performing a root canal.

It didn’t seem like the problem was in the tooth, because it wasn’t extremely sensitive. 

But when he began drilling, there was a horrible smell. He said, “Can you smell that? It was abscessed alright!”

Not only could I smell it, I could taste it. Bad stuff! It took time, steady hands and concentration in order to open up the tiny root canal and remove the dead nerve.

My part was easy. I just had to hold still and keep my mouth open while he cleaned it out, put medicine in the hole and then sealed it back up. Only a shell of the tooth remained, but all of the decay was gone. In a few days, the painful lump disappeared and my mouth felt much better.

That was just the first step in a rather long dental process. There were a couple more visits leading up to putting an enamel-covered metal crown over the remaining fragment. I’m glad that the doctor was able to take care of the problem with skill and all of the right know-how, and am very thankful that it wasn’t cancer after all, but just an abscessed tooth.

What a graphic picture of what God must see when He looks into our hearts: negative thoughts and attitudes which lead to hurtful words and actions; selfishness, pride, rebellion...abscesses which not only separate us from other people but which also cause a separation between ourselves and God. Bad stuff!

And yet He loves us with an incomprehensible love. Dear friends, God wants more than anything to restore us to a right relationship with Him. He has provided the way—through Jesus Christ, who willingly paid the price for our sins through His death on the cross.  Do you believe this? Are you willing to accept Christ into your life as Lord and Savior?

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God can cleanse, heal and change our hearts as we surrender daily to Him. Let this good news transform your life! It has mine!

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalms 51:10 NIV

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6-8 NIV

(Published in the Porterville Recorder, 1-11-14)