Go gloveless

Nathaniel Hawthorne said, "A pure hand needs no glove to cover it." A pure heart needs no covering, either. It becomes evident no matter how hard the journey - purity is something we cannot (and should not) ever try to hide. Some might want to shun such purity, probably because it pricks at their conscience just a bit more than they'd like. Regardless of society's norms, we need to remain true to those God lays out in his Word. Only then will we realize purity of heart, mind, spirit, and soul.

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob. (Psalm 24:3-9)

Be a generation that seeks him. If we want to see God move across our city, we might just be the first one to seek him. It takes one spark to ignite a whole forest - be the spark. Don't ever fear that others will be offended by what God is doing within your life - it is light in a very dark world that pushes back that darkness, little bit by little bit. Stand with God - regardless of those who stand against him.

Vindication from God our Savior - isn't that a mouthful? I know I have so much sin that I need Jesus to wash away from my life. I needed his light to reveal what I kept hidden - no glove could cover over my sin. How about yours? We try hard to 'make good' what is really rotten to the core within our lives, but we don't do a very good job of it. A glove merely masks what is underneath it. Our facades are nothing more than lame masks trying to put forth one image of 'us' to the world, all the while knowing there is something else underneath that facade we don't want them to seem.

Who may stand? The one with clean hands and a pure heart. Clean hands come from a pure heart. A pure heart comes from having our sins washed away by the blood of Christ. Grace is the only thing that washes us clean. Grace means we don't need the gloves any longer. Just sayin!

Who may?

Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. (Psalm 15:1-2)

Who may worship in the presence of a holy God? Those who lead blameless lives - who do right and speak the truth they have been given by their loving heavenly Father. The first time I read this passage, I thought there was absolutely no hope for me because I was a sinner, not living blamelessly and not speaking God's truth, much less my own truth! Yet, as I read it time and time again, I found God reminding me of his grace, pointing me toward his finished work on the cross, and assuring my doubting heart that there is hope for the one who gives God access to their heart.

Blameless lives are more than just living 'above suspicion'. I made some pretty questionable choices in my younger life, no one really pointing the finger at me, but I was not blameless - I was just 'above suspicion'. Blameless lives are guilt-free. There might be questionable stuff that occurs within those lives, but because of the grace of a merciful and loving God, there is the ability to confess and live 'guilt-free'. As a teen, I struggled with acne, usually with large red blotches developing into 'Mount Vesuvius" on my face or the end of my nose. Those areas 'cleared up' in time, but not before they became quite obvious and embarrassing. Our sin is a bit like that - it develops and eventually exposes some ugly stuff - but it needs more than a 'clear up' to be totally gone. It needs an excision!

It is indeed a blessing to live 'unblemished' than it is to deal with the 'blemishes' of sin in our lives. The good news is that the blemish of sin doesn't have to remain. There is a way to excise it once and for all. We need the truth of his Word washing over our lives daily. We must listen to the still small voice of his Spirit within prompting us to make right and wise choices. We also must relinquish control of our willful pride and ask God to do within us what we have been unable to do within our own strength or 'will-power'. When we finally do that, we realize we are living what God calls 'blameless lives'. We have entered into fellowship with him and value the 'cleanliness' of living guilt-free under his grace. Just sayin!

Confess, but repent

Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. (Isaiah 1:16-17)

I remember undertaking the task of repainting a dock on an empty pond at a Girl Scout camp in Southern California. You have to scrape the old paint before you put on the new, but you also have to use a very thick, oil-based paint to redo the dock. Why? It helps preserve it from rotting. As my friend and I undertook the task, the weather got warmer as the day progressed, the task was less than interesting at some point, and we got a little mischievous at some point. We were at the point of applying the paint when all of a sudden, an all-out 'let's paint each other' rebellious attitude overtook us. There we were, swiping oil-based blue marine paint across each other's faces, arms, legs, and even our painting clothes. We were a mess by the end, but we had a few good laughs along the way. But then...we realized that the paint would not wash off! It required turpentine to remove it! As you can imagine, it took us way longer to remove that stuff than it did to have that momentary insanity we called 'fun'. That is how sin is - it is momentary, but with a very lasting effect that is almost impossible for us to remove ourselves.

Wash yourselves and be clean was almost impossible - we each needed the assistance of the other to remove all the signs of the paint. Even then, we weren't without telltale signs of having undergone the folly of the day, for our skin was reddened, dry, and very irritated from all the scrubbing with turpentine! Sin isn't easy to remove from our lives - there will be telltale signs of it if all we do is endeavor to wash ourselves clean from its nastiness. We need God's help to be truly clean - “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool." (vs 18) There is only so much we can do for ourselves - such as confession of our sin and repentance (turning away from it). We require a good deal 'scrubbing up' that isn't possible alone. We need God to remove the very evident sign of sin in our lives - completely, without harm, and as only his blood can do. We needed the aid of turpentine to be 'clean' from the marine paint. God needed only one thing to leave us perfectly clean - the blood of his Son, the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.

Confession is one part of 'being cleansed'. We also need repentance in order to really 'walk clean'. Repentance is more than just asking God for forgiveness - it means those sins are no longer our pursuit. We 'put them out of sight', not by masking over them, but by having God's help to remove ourselves from their influence any longer. Eventually, the paint on the brushes dried and we could no longer pursue the folly of flinging paint at each other. Sin doesn't quite behave the same way, though. It lingers and wants to get us all dirty again. If we are to be free of its 'attachment' to us any longer, we need to walk away from it. We do this by first having a change of thinking about the pursuit of that sin. Since all action begins with thought, whether we believe it or not, our thinking requires change if we are to walk away from the pursuit of that sin. When we change our mind, we change our behavior. If you put down the paint brush, no more paint will be hurled your way! Confession allows us to get out the words that show we no longer want to pursue that sin, while repentance incorporates new actions, so we won't go that direction any longer. Just saying!

No grit should remain

Only the person involved can know his own bitterness or joy—no one else can really share it. Laughter cannot mask a heavy heart. When the laughter ends, the grief remains. Only a simpleton believes everything he’s told! A prudent man understands the need for proof. A wise man is cautious and avoids danger; a fool plunges ahead with great confidence. A short-tempered man is a fool. He hates the man who is patient. The simpleton is crowned with folly; the wise man is crowned with knowledge. (Proverbs 14:10, 13, 15-18)

Whether we know it or not, we often bear our bitterness alone - although others may step in to attempt to help us bear it, it is primarily something we bear alone. We can experience great joy, but no one can fully experience it the same as we do. Emotions are really something others attempt to share with us and we with them, but in essence, the joy or bitterness of another is something we can never truthfully fully comprehend and experience in the same manner as the one experiencing it personally. Bitterness is a harsh emotion. I have a dark grey/black quartz kitchen sink and if I us an abrasive cleanser to clean it, I usually see something after having finished the cleaning - a residue. I don't wear gloves in the process, so I usually experience a little bit of an "after-taste" of the cleanser on my skin when I bring my hands to my face. Bitter things often leave an after-taste and a lot of residue in our lives. The after-taste and the residue are really experienced by the one with the bitterness - although others may see the mess left and get a little flavor of the issue which led up to the mess they see just by being around the bitter person.

Laughter is often used to attempt to conceal either the mess which has been left behind or the sourness which remains. Even after the laughter ends, a heaviness frequently returns - unspoken, but real to the one experiencing its weight. Things that are hard for us to bear, or wear us down, are never meant for us to bear alone. They aren't meant for us to hide deep within and never express. Try as we might, we really can never conceal what leaves a residue or gives a sharp after-taste anyway! The prudent carefully consider their steps unlike the fool who just believes everything he sees or is told. Now, consider how we might deal with bitterness in another. Brush the surface of that 'offended' area and we know something is hidden deeper because we experience the "grit" of bitterness. If we "listen" with our hearts to the 'concealing' laughter of the one who is really dealing with the mess left behind in their life by tragedy or misguided steps, we might just hear the extreme hurt and haunting emptiness bitterness has left in its path.

Laughter is an action or sound. In most circumstances we'd think it was linked to joy or excitement, but in some situations, it may just be a masking of something wearing the individual down on the inside. We use it as a tool to hide the real emotions we are experiencing. We have become quite proficient at concealing our emotions - using one thing or action to mask another. The wise will see beyond the action of laughter or the sound of "cheer" it may resemble. What they will experience when the laughter fades away is the "after-taste" of bitterness. If we really want to help another bear up under the weight they are experiencing, we need to cut past the laughter and get at what has left the residue - what brings the offensive after-taste in the first place. When we considered my sink, scrubbed a little raw by the cleanser, we might just have believed what remained is just a sign of the "cleanliness" of the sink. If we are truthful, the residue which remains isn't very attractive, nor is it pleasing to us because it rubs off on those who come into contact with it, the food rinsed in it, and neither is all that pleasant.

How do we deal with the cleanser's residue? Don't we rinse it time and time again until it has finally all found its way down the drain? Maybe we might just learn from this illustration as it applies to the residue of bitterness in our lives. We need a little more than the initial "cleansing" of those bitter feelings - we need the continual rinsing provided by the Word of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit until the remaining residue and sour after-taste is finally gone! We often don't see the residue because we believe the cleaning was all there was to the matter. A close friend may be the one who will actually point out the need for the "rinsing" of the residue! If they experience a bit of the 'grit' of bitterness, they might just say something - we need to hear what they say. Just sayin!

Your Inside World

You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. (Matthew 5:8)

I just caught a short post on social media about a 'street takeover' in a local community here in which streets were blocked, vehicles were doing donuts around the intersection, a home was hit by gunfire, and people were just acting really dumb. Purity sometimes gets overlooked because we don't live in a very "pure" world, do we? It is hard to make pure choices when all around us we are bombarded with all manner of wrong choices. Purity is the freedom from anything which debases (reduces in quality or value), contaminates (adding/mixing in that which makes unclean), or pollutes (corrupts or defiles). Impurity is the "adding in" of something which does not belong. That which does not belong actually changes the consistency or integrity of what does. It may be hard to keep out that which does not belong, but we certainly need to do everything within our ability to do so!

But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own. (I John 3:2-3)

Purity of heart - mind, will, and emotions untainted by that which "adds in" the things that confuse, bring conflict in our motives, or sets us up to rely upon the unreliable. It is with pure hearts we are able to see God - for God is pure. Children like to emulate adults, don't they? They mimic behaviors they see in the adults they are frequently around. The same is true of a child of God - we mimic the behaviors of the one we behold the most frequently. If we are beholding Christ, we mimic his behaviors. If we are beholding others who are not like Christ, we might just begin to mimic their 'not so pure' behavior. Purity is the absence of something. We somehow think purity is the "adding" of something rather than allowing something to be removed. In scripture, this might be accomplished in the refiner's fire. The fire of the refiner burns hot, allowing the metals to melt, bringing to the surface the things which are "contaminants" in the metals - those things which will weaken the integrity and strength of the metal. We also see the idea of the threshing wheel - the place where the grain is turned over and over again until the grain is separated from the unusable part known as the chaff. The chaff is blown away, the wheat remains. There is also the winemaker observing his wine. As the grapes are crushed, the juices are extracted, leaving behind that which will only add bitterness and impurity to the finished product. All these speak to the idea of being free from something which contaminates, weakens, or renders less than useful.

Purity is the absence of the "contaminating" influences which impact our choices in life. Whenever we are faced with choices, we find ourselves "weighing" the choices. Why? One appears better than the other - it has some "merit" which makes us want to make one choice over the other. When we are making choices from a pure heart, they will be wise ones. When we have impurities in our heart (mind, will or emotions), we might just find ourselves making choices which don't produce the purest product in the end. Purity is actually the result of several things: Cleansing, Sifting, and Burning. We often think of cleansing as that which is accomplished through some process of scrubbing, sanitizing, or a sweeping away. God might just think of cleansing as any process which actually empties us. Empty vessels are readied to receive something afresh. Cleansing actually "freshens" us - readying us for the new thing God wants to do within.

Mom always had a sifter back in the day. We don't so much use them today. In fact, they are hard to find. The purpose of the sifter was to separate. The coarse parts of the flour were separated from the finer parts. This is exactly how God uses this process in our lives - he separates the coarser (unwholesome) parts from the finer parts. Not too many of us want to jump into the fire because the furnace is a "hot" place. If a farmer has a stump right in the middle of his field, he may work at removing that stump for a long time. Digging it out may not seem practical. Leaving it there allows for it regrow and is a hindrance to the plow. He will often resort to burning it out. He exposes it as much as possible and then burns it. As the burning process occurs, the stump is "consumed". In the consumption of the stump, it reduces in size and strength. The fire of God's Word is kind of like this in our lives - it consumes us, reducing anything which will present a hindrance to our spiritual, emotional, or relational health.

Purpose is the reason we exist, passion is what gives us the "umph" to fulfill our purpose, and purity is the basis by which we see God's purpose fully come alive in each and every aspect of our lives. Instead of resisting the cleansing, sifting, and burning in our lives, maybe we'd do well to embrace it as the means by which we come into what God fully purposes for us - the place where the inside and outside perfectly reflect his passion. Just sayin!

Get up and move on

I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences. (Ephesians 4:2)

Devotion to God doesn't happen by accident - we have to actually 'get up' and 'move forward'. Two very specific actions that require more than just mental investment. They require movement on our part. To 'get up' one has to actually stop sitting right where they are at - there must be a change in position. Too many times we think we will manifest change in our lives all while we are taking little to no action to see change occur. To 'move forward' means we have to put one foot in front of the other. There can be no good growth where there is stagnancy. Yes, there may be growth, but it is muck and mire, not good growth!

A few weeks ago, they drained the canals around us and we noticed many things at the bottom of the canal that had no business being in the canal. Street signs, grocery carts, pylons, furniture pieces, and lots of dirt or debris of some sort. While the canal was full, the murkiness of the water made it impossible to know those things were down there. The catfish and carp probably loved all those things they could hide in, but those things actually created obstructions in the canals. It was apparent to us that a 'clean out' was necessary. In one small section of the canal, many small fish were busy growing, but due to the lack of water flow through that area, they all died in the murkiness of the stagnant waters.

That is the problem with stagnancy - it leads to us getting filled up with things that actually bring death, not life. We need the flow of the Holy Spirit in our lives - the Word of God getting into places within us that would otherwise be untouched and unnoticed. We need 'movement' in order to see growth! The things that 'don't belong' are only exposed when there is a full 'clean out' of those areas - that may mean we stop totally, allow the clean-up to occur, then allow ourselves to be filled again. 'Sitting around' is the worst thing we can do. We only see life flourish when we are moving without all those 'obstacles' in our path - those obstacles are removed in times of purposeful 'clean-up'.

We may not be moving very well on the path God has called us to be on right now. Perhaps it is time we need to ask God to 'drain us' of the murkiness that has surrounded our lives and remove those obstacles that impede the flow of the Holy Spirit within us. Maybe we just need to get up from where we are and take the first step on the path we know God is asking us to travel. In humility, we need to ask for God's 'clean-up' and in discipline we need to act upon the truth we know God has shown us. Just sayin!

Be unstoppable

If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you’re still better off. Don’t give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God. (I Peter 3:18)

I am gonna meddle a bit this morning, so get ready. I have to ask you how your 'conscience' is fairing these days - is it clear some of the time, most of the time, or very infrequently? Truth be told, hardly anyone can say their conscience doesn't get a little 'muddied' from time to time. We all entertain doubts, get wrapped up in ways of thinking that are not very edifying for us or the other person we are thinking about, or just get a little too close to entertaining things in our minds that we would be best to never have explored. How do we keep a clear conscience before God? It really isn't all that difficult, but it does require some concerted effort on our part. This whole business of 'taking every thought captive' is harder than it sounds. Get one thought reined in and the next unruly one begins to brew. That's why our passage today reminds us we need to 'keep' our hearts 'at attention' - in full adoration. 

I served in the military after high school and remember being called to attention for the first time as we all piled off the bus onto the grounds of our training base. We were a rough looking bunch, all mismatched in our civilian clothing, and a bit 'unruly'. Let me assure you of one thing - those Drill Sergeants were not going to allow any 'mismatched' or 'unruly behavior'. Why? They were charged with getting us into sync with each other, creating a group of individuals that no longer thought only about themselves. We don't keep our hearts at attention all alone - it is hard to do that alone. We need each other and the 'company' of positive influences. I oftentimes keep Alexa tuned into one of my favorite Christian artists or music stations for this very reason. The 'background' of the music reminds me whose I am, how much I am forgiven, and how greatly I am loved and cared for each and every moment of the day. 

Too frequently we give the opposing forces in our lives way too much of our attention. As pointed out in this passage, we aren't even to give that opposition any 'mind space' in our lives. That means we don't entertain those thoughts that the enemy of our souls wants us to ponder - even for the smallest amount of time. Do you want to be an unstoppable force on this earth? Then keep your conscience clear! How? By 'filtering out' the stuff you don't need to ponder and allowing a continual renewal of your mind by 'bringing in' the stuff you do need to ponder. A steady 'diet' of the Word of God. The pleasant reminders of worship songs that center our attention on the one who loves us so much. Solid and honest conversation with God on a regular basis. These are the things we can do to 'bolster' our thought life. In time, our conscience is 'filtered' because we are allowing the 'evil' or 'vile' to be washed out by the 'holy' and 'pure'. Just sayin!

A little more than Spring Cleaning needed

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. (Romans 5:1-2)

Do you ever get to the spot in your life where life is coming at you so fast you just cannot "pull it all together"? You feel like you are under a mountain of stuff and cannot seem to see any relief on the horizon, much less the solution to the present muddle your are dealing with. I doubt you are in that muddled mess alone! Sometimes we just need a good catharsis to clean out the "stuff" that buried us so deeply! If you have ever gone garage sale hopping, you might have wondered about the people who come, some just shopping for the bargain, but others on a very specific mission - finding the one item they desire or need. Either way, you seek out these sales to unburden the seller of the mounds of stuff they have likely accumulated for which they no longer have any use! You know it is those colorful signs, arrows, and promise of bargains that directs you to the destination. Whether we "stumble upon" the signs, or purposefully sought the destination by following them, we get there! What the seller hopes for is to unburden themselves - what we hope for is to take home the treasure we seek - maybe even one we didn't know we needed. I think salvation is a little bit like this. We hope to be unburdened from the stuff that "clogs up" our lives - God hopes to take the greatest treasure he could find home to be part of his family.

We enter into what God wants to do for us by faith. God has had this gift of grace prepared for us for a long time - we just have to reach out to take hold of it. It is like the people seeing the signs along the roadway to the sale - they had to turn first this way, then that, until they came to the destination of the sale. We often need to pay attention to the signs in life, placed carefully along the paths we travel, designed to draw us into the place we find the greatest treasure of our lives. God did all the preparation - he laid out the course, provided all the neat stuff we would come to experience, and he even prepared a way for us in advance of us even knowing we'd follow that path! When we pay attention to the signs and make the decision to actually follow them, we are doing so by faith. We don't know what awaits us at the final destination, but we trust it will be something awesome!

Sometimes we go about this whole salvation thing from the wrong perspective. We think we can clean up our own act and somehow unburden ourselves of the junk which has accumulated in our inner man. The problem is - we often justify a reason for holding onto the junk (after all, it may have a use down the road). Ever clean your closets and cabinets? You feel pretty good when you do, but trust me on this one - not everyone is thoroughly cleaned out, but many are devoid of the clutter and the "stuff" that we thought we might want to hold onto. Most of us need to realize we might have "cleaner inner cupboards" if we'd let God clean them out! The truth is, we justify the need for some "stuff" in our lives while God knows the "stuff" only clutters us with what only serves to 'complicate' our lives! God is all about creating "wide open spaces" in our lives. His goal in providing for our "emptying" is to allow us to enjoy the sensation of living unburdened (uncluttered). 

If you have ever lived in really close spaces for a period of time, then moved into a bigger space, you might just understand this a little better. When I was in the military, I crammed as much of my "life" into that 10 x 12 foot space as possible. Stereo, shelves, fridge, bunk, desk, chair, locker, and all my worldly belongings. It was crowded. Then I got married and we got a two-bedroom apartment off-base. We had so much space! Then, one day, we looked around and saw we not only filled the space of the two-bedroom apartment, we filled a small storage unit in the basement, as well! Aye! What we did was move from one "cluttered" space into another! Just bigger! That is how we are - we want to "handle" our clutter by getting a bigger space. God wants to clear us out - giving us "grace space". The place where we come to experience his love, enjoy his presence, and really live free of the clutter we have held onto so long. Clutter like unforgiveness, resentment, fear, doubt, and the like are not really that good to keep around. Instead of clutter, we come into God's "grace space" - and a mighty fine space it is! I have come to the conclusion - being "clutter-free" is best! Just sayin!

A little spring cleaning?

Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be—you get a fresh start, your slate’s wiped clean. Count yourself lucky—God holds nothing against you and you’re holding nothing back from him. When I kept it all inside, my bones turned to powder, my words became daylong groans. The pressure never let up; all the juices of my life dried up. Then I let it all out; I said, “I’ll come clean about my failures to God.” Suddenly the pressure was gone—my guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared. These things add up. Every one of us needs to pray; when all hell breaks loose and the dam bursts we’ll be on high ground, untouched. God’s my island hideaway, keeps danger far from the shore, throws garlands of hosannas around my neck. Let me give you some good advice; I’m looking you in the eye and giving it to you straight: “Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule that needs bit and bridle to stay on track.” God-defiers are always in trouble; God-affirmers find themselves loved every time they turn around. (Psalm 32)

As I grew up, there were times when I backed myself into a few corners - lying to cover up something I did, but didn't want my parents to know I did. You may not have ever felt 'cornered' before, but I can recount one such occasion when I got into my grandma's stash of 'All-Sorts' licorice candy. That may not seem like a big deal to you, but it was one of her favorites so it was not really for my consumption. I was encountered by mom as she returned home, asking why I had been in the candy. She hadn't even stepped into the room where it was kept, nor opened the drawer in the hutch - so how on earth had my 'sin' been discovered? That saying about parents having eyes in the back of their heads took on a whole new meaning that day! She kept asking me over and over again why I had eaten my grandma's candy. I kept maintaining I had not, but somehow she knew I had! I was cornered. Little did I know it didn't take eyes in the back of her head to tell - the smell of licorice on one's breath is a dead give-away - let alone the tell-tale black tongue! I laugh at that now, thinking how ridiculous it was to maintain my 'innocence' when the truth was all so apparent. I wonder how many times we maintain we are 'innocent' when we are clearly in the wrong - just not really feeling like we want to admit our 'wrong-doing' for fear of the consequences?

The good news for all of us is that God doesn't 'back us into a corner' just to make us squirm. He knows our sin is eating away at us - guilt weighing heavily on our hearts - all the while looking for a way of 'escape'. We are the ones that back ourselves into that 'guilt corner', my friends! God is just there to do what any good parent will do - help us find a way out of the corner and back into the good graces of his arms. Mom didn't ground me, nor did she give me extra chores. My 'way out' of the corner was to go to grandma and let her know I had consumed nearly half of her favorite candies. Do you know what grandma did? She hugged me, thanked me for my honesty, and warned me I might not want to be far from the restroom for the next couple of hours! I had no idea what that much licorice would do to a gal!!! God's forgiveness is there - we just get 'cornered' by our sin and we think there is no way out, so we keep attempting to cover up what is so very obvious. Silly us - trying to conceal what is so apparent. We are indeed like the 'ornery horse or mule' that needs the bit and bridle - almost needing to be 'drug out' of the corner in order to realize how liberating the freedom from our sinful shame can be.

Keep sin bottled up inside - allowing that guilt to eat away at you over and over again - inventing one more cover-up to attempt to conceal it and you will find yourself in a truly miserable place. The 'corner' is no place to dwell. What goes to the corners in your rooms? Look closely - there are dust bunnies, gathered tufts of fallen hairs, perhaps even a few dead bugs that found their way into your home. Does light get into the corners very well? Not usually - but when it does, we see all the 'mess' there. The corner is no place for 'good people' to dwell - it is filled with all manner of yucky stuff. Isn't it about time we allowed ourselves a little 'breathing room' from our guilt and shame? We won't find it buried under the dust of our sin - we find it as the corners are swept clean. Just sayin!

Scrubbed Up and Ready to Go!

Have you ever considered just how 'clean' your hands really are? In nursing school, I remember this exercise we did where we rubbed hand lotion on our hands, then were told to go scrub them to practice a good handwashing technique. Most of us were going the extra mile by scrubbing back and front, in between the fingers and then even up above the wrist area. Surely our hands were clean, right? We came back to the room for the 'inspection' of our handwashing jobs only to find our instructor had turned the lights off, had a black light set up, and inspected our hands under that glowing beast! Guess what else 'glowed'? Our hands! The lotion was 'laced' with this 'dust' that illuminates under the black light, allowing each of us to see the specific areas around cuticles, under nails, and even here and there on our hands that got totally missed by our good 'handwashing' technique! What we thought was clean really wasn't clean at all. Clean hands and a pure heart - two conditions we often proclaim we'd like to enjoy, but we might just find they are both harder to achieve than we'd like to admit. Our hands get "dirtied" by the things we do - the actions we take. Our hearts reveal their "soiled" condition by the words we speak and even the thoughts we entertain. 

Who may go up the mountain of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. He who has not lifted up his soul to what is not true, and has not made false promises. He will receive what is good from the Lord, and what is right and good from the God Who saves him. (Psalm 24:3-5)

The question posed - who may go up to the mountain of the Lord? Today we don't find ourselves making the journey to the holy city of Jerusalem in order to go to the Temple of the Lord. In the times of the psalmist, this was a regular journey for the worshipers of the Lord. In fact, there were regularly "scheduled" feast days when all of Israel was expected to gather in Jerusalem, bringing various types of offerings and a penitent heart. Each offering served a purpose - some to make "atonement" for sins, others to offer thanks for the tremendous harvest taken in from the fields, and others to just celebrate the greatness of God. Today, we think of "going up to the mountain of the Lord" as us going into God's presence, sitting at his feet, and worshiping him. Since the completed work of Christ at the cross, we all have this free access to the "holy place" of God's presence - we don't have to travel to some 'holy city' in order to enjoy that presence. Scripture declares we may come boldly into his presence, yet the majority of us might admit the "condition" of our hands and hearts give us a little concern in doing so - kind of like seeing the glowing 'black light' in nursing school!

Clean hands and a pure heart are not a one time condition. The ability to keep clean hands is impossible without frequent and thorough washing! Think about it - how many times in a day do you "physically" wash your hands? Why do you wash? Simple - to get rid of what "contaminates" those hands - hand hygiene is heightened when we are concerned about the spread of germs or viruses, especially during a pandemic! You desire they be clean before you eat, after you touch something that "soils" them, or just as "good measure" so you and your family stay safe. The same is true of our "spiritual hands". They need frequent washing to remain clean! Purity of heart is elusive if the heart is not continually touched by the great healer himself. In time, our physical heart will become "occluded" with all kinds of fatty build up and hardened by "calcified" crusts if we don't take good care of what goes into our bodies and what we do to keep our bodies physically fit. A similar process occurs when our heart is not continually renewed by the touch of God's healing. We begin to feel the "choking off" of the very supply we need in order to survive. We become hardened to the things which move his heart so freely. Our hearts need "tending" and "mending" in order to beat as his does!

He who has not lifted up his soul to what is not true and has not made false promises will enter boldly into the presence of God. Guess what? All of us struggle with getting a grip on truth - some of us more than others. All of us absent-mindedly promise things we have very good intentions of doing, but find the will to do it is harder than the intentions ever were. By the grace of God, we can enter boldly into the presence of God - not because we do all we intend to do, or hold onto truth as we should. It is by grace. It is as we "wash again", or perhaps as actually "washed again", and submit to the "purifying process" of God's touch we are made "clean" and "pure". No one struggles alone - we are all in the same boat of being a little 'less than clean' when it comes to our thoughts, actions, motives, and intentions! Maybe this is why God encourages us to look out for each other, spurring one another on in this walk of grace! We all need grace - renewing of our minds, cleansing of our hearts, and anointing of our actions. So, who goes up to the presence of God - ALL who are willing to be washed! We don't wash alone! There is a BIG "sink" in God's house - one in which grace runs freely and the 'scrub brush' of his love gets into all the corners! Just sayin!

A little house-cleaning needed

Have you ever stopped to consider how hard it is to get your body to do what your spirit is telling you to do? You likely will find that the way to your "body" is not so much through your "spirit", but rather through your "mind". What you believe in your mind, you see acted out in your body. What you commit to in your mind, you usually see commitment toward in your body. What you focus on long enough in your mind will eventually become a primary part of your life. Most of the time, we try to get our body to dictate what our spirit should do, but it should the other way around. Your spirit should be the one dictating to the body since you get to your body through you mind. If you want to really change the way you are making choices in life, you need to ensure the spirit is working on the mind, not your body!

“Still, if you set your heart on God and reach out to him, if you scrub your hands of sin and refuse to entertain evil in your home, you’ll be able to face the world unashamed and keep a firm grip on life, guiltless and fearless. You’ll forget your troubles; they’ll be like old, faded photographs. Your world will be washed in sunshine, every shadow dispersed by dayspring. Full of hope, you’ll relax, confident again; you’ll look around, sit back, and take it easy. Expansive, without a care in the world, you’ll be hunted out by many for your blessing.” (Job 11:13-19)

In life, there are really two choices - either we walk in the path God sets out for us, or we choose to dictate our own plans and walk in our own stubborn ways. To really make any inroads in a spiritual sense, we have to commit our minds and bodies to doing what our spirit tells us. If our spirit is united with Christ's, it will not steer us wrong! One of the hardest things to learn in life is that there really is no "neutral" ground in our walk. There is no real way to be neutral in our thoughts, our actions, or our emotions. You may say you are remaining neutral, but you always have an opinion or are bent one way or the other. No one is entirely neutral. To be neutral is to not be aligned with either side. It is saying I won't listen to my body and I won't listen to my spirit. So, in essence, you are saying "I will choose to be dead"! A car in neutral goes nowhere - unless it is put in neutral on a slope - then it just heads toward the first thing that presents a barrier and will stop it. The collision of the car against the first really hard surface doesn't do much for the car, does it? Life in "neutral" is kind of like that - we might coast for a while, but at the end of the coasting, there is a collision of some sorts.

Set your heart toward God. What better place to "land" our emotions than on the rock of God's unchanging character. Our emotions are up and down. We need stability in life if we are to be able to get this "mind-body-spirit" thing all put together correctly. Reach out to him. Again, this Christian walk is not a life in "neutral" - there is some action required from us. Reaching is with the purpose of seizing. You "stretch" a little when you "reach" like Job is implying here. There is some exertion beyond what you "normally" do or think. Get right with God. Scrubbing your hands and setting your house in order is really a way of saying get rid of the junk that does little more than add clutter to your life. Sin clutters almost every part of our lives until we allow God to clean house! Even the best "house-cleaning" by God requires some obedience on our part to allow him access, leave the stuff he puts in the rubbish pile right there, and to desire to keep a clean house long term!

The results: The old life becomes like old faded photographs. As time passes, you can barely make out the features like you used to! Why? The image of the old is no longer what you are today. This is the hard part for most of us that hold onto things for way too long. Some old photographs need to be totally discarded because they no longer are a part of who we are today. Why do we hold onto the old ways of thinking, allowing them to influence the actions of our body today? It is usually because we have not made a clean break with the "old image" we have of our sin. If we want to be truly free from our past, moving forward, mind/body/spirit in tune with each other, we need to make a break from our old ways of thinking and doing. We might just need to do some 'house-cleaning' in our lives. Just sayin!

Oh, I am dirty again!

What are some of the ways you get the 'dirtiest' in life? For me, I am tinkering with learning to work with wood. All that type of work can leave you incredibly 'dusty', 'stained' with this or that, and kind of 'stinky' by the end of the project. Clean hands and a pure heart - two conditions we often find eluding us or hard to maintain. Our hands get "dirtied" by the things we do - the actions we take - like the times I am working out in the shop. Our hearts reveal their "soiled" condition by the words we speak, the thoughts we entertain, and the ways we respond to life around us. There are clearly benefits to maintaining both clean hands and a pure heart, but I wonder just how often we focus on one and not the other?

Who may go up the mountain of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. He who has not lifted up his soul to what is not true, and has not made false promises. He will receive what is good from the Lord, and what is right and good from the God who saves him. (Psalm 24:3-5)

The question posed - who may go up to the mountain of the Lord? Today we don't find ourselves making the journey to the city of Jerusalem like they did in the times this passage was penned. The journey was for them to go to the Temple of the Lord - to kind of 'go to church' as some might think of it today. In the times of the psalmist, this was a regular journey for the worshipers of the Lord. In fact, there were regularly "scheduled" feast days when all of Israel was to gather, bringing various types of offerings all the way to the city - regardless of where they lived or how long the journey might be for them. Each offering served a purpose - some to make "atonement" for sins, others to offer thanks for the tremendous harvest taken in from the fields - but all pointed to some aspect of the work of God in our lives and the ultimate sacrifice his Son would make for us.

Today, we think of "going up to the mountain of the Lord" as approaching the throne of grace - getting ourselves in a frame of mind and heart to receive from God what he might provide to us in that time of focusing on him for just a while. It is us going into God's presence, sitting at his feet, and worshiping him - not always alone, but with deliberate focus and purpose. Since the completed work of Christ at the cross, we all have this access to the "holy place" of God's presence. In fact, scripture declares we may come boldly into his presence! Yet, the "condition" of our hands and hearts may give us a little concern in doing so! We 'get dirty' with things we don't even know are 'soiling' our lives at times. The condition of our hands and hearts oftentimes isn't even in our focus as we enter his presence, but God knows the condition of these two things determines how well we will receive what he has prepared for us!

Clean hands and a pure heart are not a one time condition. The ability to keep clean hands is impossible without frequent washing! Think about it - how many times in a day do you "physically" wash your hands? Why do you wash? Simple - to get rid of what "contaminates" those grubby little hands! You probably are like me and desire they be clean before you eat, after you touch something which "soils" them, or just as "good measure" to avoid spreading all manner of 'unseen diseases'. The same is true of our "spiritual hands". They need frequent washing to remain clean! Purity of heart is elusive if the heart is not continually touched by the great healer himself. In time, our physical heart, if not taken care of, will become "occluded" with all kinds of fatty build up and hardened by "calcified" crusts. A similar process occurs when our spiritual heart is not continually renewed by the touch of God's healing hands. We begin to feel the "choking off" of the very supply we need in order to survive. We become hardened to the very things which move his heart so freely. Our hearts need "tending" and "mending" in order to beat as his does!

He who has not lifted up his soul to what is not true and has not made false promises will enter boldly into the presence of God. Guess what? All of us struggle with getting a good and solid grip on truth! All of us absent-mindedly promise things we have very little intention of ever doing! Yet...by the grace of God, we can enter boldly into the presence of God - even when we aren't all that 'pure' or 'washed' prior to coming into it. It is as we "wash again" and submit to the "purifying process" of God's touch we are made "clean" and "pure" all over again. No one struggles with this 'purity' thing alone - we are all in the same boat! Maybe this is why God encourages us to look out for each other, spurring one another on in this walk of grace! We all need grace - renewing of our minds, cleansing of our hearts, and our actions being anointed by his grace. So, who goes up to the presence of God - ALL who are willing to be washed! We don't wash alone! There is BIG "sink" in God's house! The moment we realize we need to be 'washed' is the moment we realize where it is we find this 'cleansing'. Just sayin!

A little spring cleaning may be in order

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he...  (Proverbs 23:7) Whatcha thinking? It is a common question, but maybe the better one is, "Where you even thinking?" There are all kinds of things that "vie" for attention in our mind. The "loudest" voice is often the one heard the best. Just as much as there are things that demand our attention in our thought life, our emotions are constantly being "played" by the events of our days. Depending on what it is that is running through our thoughts at the moment, our sometimes up-and-down emotions can be manageable, or completely out of control. Therefore, learning to "manage" our minds, or our thinking, goes a significantly long way in learning to live with an emotional "balance" in our lives.

Our mind really has two "sides" to it: the totally present and evident conscious side, and the less recognizable, but ever present unconscious. The conscious side of our mind is pretty evident to us - when we are actively thinking on something, it is easy to see that our actions follow that thought pattern - we are aware of something and take some form of action based upon that awareness. The unconscious side of our mind is not as easy to see, so we often don't equate our present action with what we are unconsciously thinking (or have entertained in the past within our unconscious mind). It is often the "unconscious thought" that gets us into the greatest emotional upheaval and trouble in our lives.

What am I saying here? It is simply that there is unrecognized power in our memories - all memories beginning in some type of thought. Whatever we "store away" in the recesses of our minds has the potential to ignite our actions in either a positive or negative way, but equally as important, those 'stored away' memories can also quench the ignition of any type of action. Periodically, I need to clean out my file cabinet, the top of my desk, and the other "clutter" areas of my home, like the den closet, top of the workbench, etc. Whenever I do this, I find that I was keeping all kinds of stuff that I really did not need to keep. After all, how many of certain things like grocery bags does a person really need to keep? When the next shopping trip comes, why is the old pile of those bags still lingering? We didn't use what we had, so why are we saving even more? You get the point! Some things are better not saved!

Just as we must "un-clutter" our physical space, we must focus on the "de-cluttering" of our minds, as well. There are things that we hold onto in our thoughts that should have been discarded long ago. The first thing we should rid from our memories would be what I will call "falsehoods" - those things that we embraced as reality that really aren't. These could be things we have been taught that really have no basis of proof like the idea that sunscreen "keeps" you from getting a sunburn. This is not entirely true - it just "lessens" the burn. You still need to limit your time in the sun to avoid the burn. There are a lot of "false" beliefs that we have formed about ourselves and others that really have no foundation in reality. Yet, we hold onto them like they were true and these wrong thought-patterns influence how we see ourselves and others. Let them go!

The next thing we probably need to focus on discarding is "memory of wrongs". In simple terms, we call this forgiveness. There are past hurts that we hold onto for one reason or another - these come back to haunt us as the weirdest times. The emotional baggage of unforgiveness is tremendously weighty, so it is one of the most significant things we need to focus on when we seek to "de-clutter" our minds. The list could go on, but you are probably getting the idea that not everything we have put into our minds is worth hanging onto. Sometimes we just need a little time and space to begin that decluttering process. The investment of time in evaluating what we have "tucked away" into the recesses of our unconscious mind is really worth the investment. It is not until we discover what it is that we unconsciously accept as truth that we can counteract it with the reality of truth! Just sayin!

I need a housekeeper!

Ever get so 'into' your day-to-day "plodding" through life that you overlook the needs of others, show yourself insensitive to their plight in life, or are just plain oblivious to the heartache of your neighbors because you are just way too caught up in your own life. Been there, done that! Sometimes our "overlooking" of the other's need is not intentional, but a byproduct of the "busy-ness" of our day that results in us not being very open to seeing what is creating huge pain for another. There are other times, though, when we are quite aware that another is in pain and we simply don't want to invest the time, energy, or "heart" to reach out to them.

Don't run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God's concerns, and he will take care of them. We've warned you about this before. God hasn't invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful—as beautiful on the inside as the outside. (I Thessalonians 4:6-7)

Don't run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters." The idea of "running roughshod" is really easily divided into three defining characteristics: 1) Actions or attitudes that inflict pain or suffering - these can be purposeful or unintentional, but nonetheless, by their very expression, they cause the other to experience pain or suffering. 2) Being unjustly overbearing and domineering - the tendency to be "on top", demand one's own way, or to tell someone how to live their life is probably a good descriptor of this type of behavior. 3) Callous inconsideration or harshness - this carries the idea of actions and responses that are simply unkind, meant to hurt, or are just plain rude. The warning we are to receive from this passage is to NOT display these types of behaviors or attitudes because it minimizes the needs of our fellow man and limits the development of strong relationships in which we can find the source of counsel, wisdom, and support we need to face life's challenges.

Why are we given this warning?  God views their concerns as HIS concerns - they aren't just some stranger's concerns. When we minimize them, ignore them, or treat them as though they are not worthy of our attention, we are saying that what God takes very seriously is insignificant to us. Ouch! Let me be the first to admit that I have "run roughshod" over some of the needs of my friends on occasion (I hope it has not been too often). In almost every case, it has been unintentional, but it has made an impression on that individual that takes some time to overcome. By my actions I have damaged the reputation of a caring and loving God.

There are probably a few times each week when we need to ask God to help us "start differently" so that we might "finish differently". I am not referring to a simple 'promise to be better' here - but a genuine commitment to God to "display him" differently in our lives within those relationships. God honors that kind of request. He is open to creating his image in us - perfecting it at every turn - until we finally exhibit consistency in our expression of his love, grace, and care for a hurting world. God wants to take our disorderly, unkempt lives and turn them into something of beauty that reflects him ACCURATELY to those within our immediate influence. His goal is to change us on the inside - thereby, impacting what others see on the outside. So, if we need a little "house cleaning" on the inside, this is the time to allow God to begin that process - righting, ordering, and cleaning up what needs his touch. In so doing, we begin to reflect his image with a clarity that those within our lives soon begin to see as a symbol of hope for their own needs. Just sayin!