(February 20, 1991)
It won’t be long until spring cleaning. Out come mops for dirt and garbage cans for disposables. It feels good to sort out and clean up, even if it takes courage to tackle a long-neglected attic or basement storage room.
One time I volunteered to help a girl clean up her dirty room — without first seeing the room. Never again. It was an hour before the two of us uncovered the floor. The whole project took three days and yielded a truckload of dirty clothes and an enormous pile of trash. Any sense of accomplishment was nearly lost in our exhaustion. Even though the job was necessary, it would have been a lot easier if she had done a little each day, or even once a week, and not allowed the mess to get so out of hand.
For Christians, spiritual cleaning is necessary too. While it is best to keep our hearts continually clean, that is, confess sins daily, sometimes that doesn’t happen. We don’t hear God telling us about the dirty places, or we hear but don’t listen. The dirt begins to pile up in the corners.
But, whatever the sin, and whatever the reasons we refuse to deal with it, even if WE allow a backlog, GOD will not. Because He loves us and determines to deliver us from it, He will expose the covered, unconfessed sin, sometimes quite dramatically, and force us to do something about it.
In other words, sometimes God opens up some closets, spiritually speaking. When He does, the about-to-be-purged Christian discovers some skeletons and maybe even a few rotting corpses. Not a pleasant discovery. In fact, most of us would just as soon close the doors on the putrid mess and “move out” rather than allow Him to clean it up. However, when such a thing happens His grace prevails and there is nothing to do but give the mess to Him and see what He is will do to clean it up.
One note, this may never have happened to you (yet) but watch out for a smug, “I never did anything so bad as that person did” attitude. None of us can boast. I have clutched and concealed collections that didn’t please God and know rot is rot in His sight, whatever the degree of stench it discharges. Even if someone's cluttered closets offend me more than my “less” odious messes, both are equally offensive to the nostrils of God.
Nonetheless, like that girl’s room, the first sight of previously concealed filth, can be overwhelming to someone who lets it pile for a long time. Ten or twenty years of trash seems to need a bomb, not a broom. However, God’s cleaning program isn’t quite like ours. We see a big mess and want to either run away or reluctantly roll up our sleeves, but all He wants is us to get down on our knees with a contrite heart. He will do the cleaning. The promise is found in I 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.”
In severe cases, it takes some while for all to be confessed. The offenders who allow the pile to accumulate agonize over each piece of junk, some of which has been hidden for years and years. But with each admission, the grace of God fulfills the promise. The cleansing happens. The closet begins to sparkle. In fact, sometimes the difference is so incredible it seems that there never had been any junk in there in the first place. All that is left are fading memories of the horror of first opening the door.
Not every closet is the same, but God’s promise covers your closets and mine; those that are nearly bare and those that have purposely been closed and accumulating far too long. From us, He wants honesty only, and the closet door (our hearts and lives) thrown open to His light. From there, He takes the blood of Christ and applies it to whatever garbage has been hidden in storage, washing it away and giving us a new start. What a wonder!
Certainly it takes courage to look at a big mess, either one from the present or one from the past. And it takes courage to pull out each rotten item and lay at His feet... but He is a capable Cleanser. His grace is sufficient to purge our hearts and change our lives. Not only that, He can keep them that way.
Showing posts with label cleansing process. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cleansing process. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Divine anger management ................. Parables 204
(February 14, 1990)
One quarter teaspoon salt dissolved in one cup of boiling water equals a handy, home-made saline solution. But the recipe is too big for my little container so I put one-half a measuring cup of very hot tap water in the microwave, pressed the buttons, and hoped to bring it to a boil and get rid of unwanted bacteria.
Because the container was small and I didn’t know how long it would take, I stood to watch. Suddenly, a large bubble formed in the bottom of the cup, rose to the surface and the resulting explosion blew the door of the microwave open and sprayed water all over the inside of the microwave, down the front of the cupboard and out onto the floor. No harm done just a mess to clean up.
Without a degree in physics, I’m not too sure what went wrong. All I know is that the water didn’t cooperate with the forces to which it was subjected. Sort of like me at times... like when life applies a little heat... and I explode.
There is an anger called “righteous indignation” which most of us never experience. Mine isn’t that kind of anger. I mean the kind that wells up from the inside, burns its way to the top, then blasts out the mouth like a sulphurous volcano. This is the anger that takes doors off at the hinges and spatters itself all over the lives of whoever might be handy. Maybe it should be called rage, or more appropriately, a temper tantrum.
Most of us don’t like having one -- and we certainly don’t enjoy trying to repair the damages. In fact, if we could come up with anger inoculations that prevented this explosive disease, it would be a great boon, not only to our emotional health but to our relationships with just about everyone.
This week I learned from experience how to avoid blasting open my microwave door, but anger is not as easily prevented. Since we seldom have control over those irritating circumstances, the best alternative reality offers is to learn how to control our volcanic eruptions.
Right up front, it helps to know that God can use all those provoking situations for our ultimate good. We just have to see His purpose in the thing. The Word of God helps me to do that -- and what should have happened to my saline solution provides an illustration. It should have been purified.
Job, probably the most “tried” man ever, alluded to another illustration when he said this: “He knows the way that I take: when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” He knew how a goldsmith uses heat to purify this valuable metal. As the heat is turned up, impurities rise to the top where he skims them off. Finally, when he can see his reflection on the surface, he knows the ore is pure.
In the same way, God may see some impurities in us, so He allows whatever “heat” is necessary (He knows what it will take) to bring that dross to the surface. Then, as WE realize it is there and confess our sin, bringing it to Him for His forgiveness and cleansing, He takes it from us.
The “heat” of life tends to bring selfishness and pride to a boil. When that happens, all the those areas where the Lord is not trusted become painfully obvious. In fact, whatever makes me blow up can be a very reliable spiritual barometer. As uncomfortable as they may be, these crucibles of life are part of God’s perfect plan. Through them, it is not His intention to push me to sinful anger but He is looking for His own image. Remembering He is using pressure to bring out the dross and produce greater Christlikeness in me, helps keep the lid on.
Anger still happens. After all, the Lord did say “Be angry and sin not...” but being open to His purifying process can result in fruit-bearing instead of going BANG!
One quarter teaspoon salt dissolved in one cup of boiling water equals a handy, home-made saline solution. But the recipe is too big for my little container so I put one-half a measuring cup of very hot tap water in the microwave, pressed the buttons, and hoped to bring it to a boil and get rid of unwanted bacteria.
Because the container was small and I didn’t know how long it would take, I stood to watch. Suddenly, a large bubble formed in the bottom of the cup, rose to the surface and the resulting explosion blew the door of the microwave open and sprayed water all over the inside of the microwave, down the front of the cupboard and out onto the floor. No harm done just a mess to clean up.
Without a degree in physics, I’m not too sure what went wrong. All I know is that the water didn’t cooperate with the forces to which it was subjected. Sort of like me at times... like when life applies a little heat... and I explode.
There is an anger called “righteous indignation” which most of us never experience. Mine isn’t that kind of anger. I mean the kind that wells up from the inside, burns its way to the top, then blasts out the mouth like a sulphurous volcano. This is the anger that takes doors off at the hinges and spatters itself all over the lives of whoever might be handy. Maybe it should be called rage, or more appropriately, a temper tantrum.
Most of us don’t like having one -- and we certainly don’t enjoy trying to repair the damages. In fact, if we could come up with anger inoculations that prevented this explosive disease, it would be a great boon, not only to our emotional health but to our relationships with just about everyone.
This week I learned from experience how to avoid blasting open my microwave door, but anger is not as easily prevented. Since we seldom have control over those irritating circumstances, the best alternative reality offers is to learn how to control our volcanic eruptions.
Right up front, it helps to know that God can use all those provoking situations for our ultimate good. We just have to see His purpose in the thing. The Word of God helps me to do that -- and what should have happened to my saline solution provides an illustration. It should have been purified.
Job, probably the most “tried” man ever, alluded to another illustration when he said this: “He knows the way that I take: when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” He knew how a goldsmith uses heat to purify this valuable metal. As the heat is turned up, impurities rise to the top where he skims them off. Finally, when he can see his reflection on the surface, he knows the ore is pure.
In the same way, God may see some impurities in us, so He allows whatever “heat” is necessary (He knows what it will take) to bring that dross to the surface. Then, as WE realize it is there and confess our sin, bringing it to Him for His forgiveness and cleansing, He takes it from us.
The “heat” of life tends to bring selfishness and pride to a boil. When that happens, all the those areas where the Lord is not trusted become painfully obvious. In fact, whatever makes me blow up can be a very reliable spiritual barometer. As uncomfortable as they may be, these crucibles of life are part of God’s perfect plan. Through them, it is not His intention to push me to sinful anger but He is looking for His own image. Remembering He is using pressure to bring out the dross and produce greater Christlikeness in me, helps keep the lid on.
Anger still happens. After all, the Lord did say “Be angry and sin not...” but being open to His purifying process can result in fruit-bearing instead of going BANG!
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