Family Night Lesson

We've been studying Isaiah recently for our Come Follow Me lessons.  I did an object lesson with one of our scriptures.  

Isaiah 1:16-18 says, "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil.  Learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

I had previously put a teaspoon of baking soda and a couple drops of red food coloring in a cup of water, and if you put in about a 1/4 cup of bleach, it takes the color out of the water.  It makes a pretty good object lesson about what Jesus Christ's Atonement can do for our sins, to make us clean.  

Isaiah talks a lot about what will happen to the wicked during the last days, but he also talks about repentance and redemption - "his hand is stretched out still."  We can avoid the destruction by making sure we're clean and come unto Jesus Christ.  Isaiah 12:2-3 says, "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation."  We don't need to afraid if we're on the Lord's side.  The Lord will create a "tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain."  We talked about these places of refuge and protection - temples, churches, our homes where the Spirit dwells.  We can seek these places of refuge and find joy amidst the darkness of the world.