A Minute with Tom (June 26)

Jun 26, 2014Tom Ellsworth

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On occasion, a forgotten a dollar bill in my pants pocket has survived a trip through the washer and the dryer. I am always amazed how clean that bill looks after it’s been washed. Hi, I’m Tom Ellsworth from Sherwood Oaks Christian Church with a minute message.

There was a time when our Treasury Department experimented with money laundering. No, I don’t mean some illegal scam, I mean real laundering. Between 1912 and 1916, the government decided to cut expenses by washing and ironing old bills. A machine was created that could wash 40,000 bills a day and then each was ironed to make it look crisp and new. It wasn’t a bad plan – the money did look much better, but a washed bill could never quite compare to a brand new dollar bill! Today, cleaning money would be a futile effort since the useful life of a dollar bill is only 22 months.

Spiritually speaking, most of us need a good cleaning but God knows that a laundered soul cannot compare to being brand new! He makes us this promise, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” And that newness lasts forever!