In different places and at different times, it seems to come in various ways that are unique to the specific area where you live. Some look to the shadow of a particular groundhog to predict its arrival. I am referring to that wonderful time of year we call spring. As I write today, the calendar tells me that summer has not yet officially begun and so it is yet spring.
The evidence of spring seems all around me. The grass is so green and there is no doubt that it is growing at a more rapid rate as the days go by. Flowers of many different kinds have been blooming everywhere, displaying their wonderful colors. They capture the eye with their different shades of blue, red, pink, yellow and white. Their various smells can grab ones attention. The birds, like one seen recently, even seem to have a little more flutter in their movements. As I saw in my recent trip to Diamond Lake, the winter's snow is melting under the warmth of the rising daytime temperatures. Insects of every kind are coming out of their winter living quarters. It is truly a beautiful time of year as God's creation testifies of its wonderful Creator!
Traditionally, with spring comes "spring cleaning". Like so many others, we have been involved in many of the "spring cleaning" activities around our home. Washing windows, working in the yard, planting flowers and vegetables, cutting and stacking firewood and catching up on the unfinished projects abandoned last fall or winter. For some reason, I hope it is the Lord; I began to consider this matter of "spring cleaning" and more specifically, what seems to bring it on. Please bear with me as I explain.
For me it started a few weeks ago as I sat at our dining room table in the early evening hours. We had experienced one of those beautifully bright and warm spring days on the North Oregon Coast that make people love this area. As the sun was shining brightly on the west side of our home, its rays were exposing the dirt that lay covering the large living room window and the windows of our storm door. Many days of rain and wind had left the dirt from the winter and fall months behind on the windows and their screens, obscuring the view through them. It was striking at how dirty the windows seemed to become as the light of the sun shone upon them, making the dirt so noticeable. During the cloudy and raining months that had preceded this day, little attention had been drawn to the dirt that lie there unnoticed in the darker days of winter. The light of the sun had been the difference. It seems as if it is the sun that both exposes the dirt and gives us the pep needed to begin cleaning.
More recently I was in our family room having coffee one morning when there was a brilliant sun rising over the bamboo hedge that borders our backyard. Again, it was illuminating the accumulation of dirt from the winds and rains of the preceding months. Perhaps it was my close proximity to it or just the way the sun was hitting the sliding glass door that opens onto the deck on the east side of our home. But my eyes and then my mind were drawn to the screen for this sliding glass door. The sun's bright rays were exposing the smallest particles of dirt that were "hidden" in the tiny mesh of the screen. It was then that my thoughts turned to the Son and the light of God's word.
I considered the deep recesses of my heart and mind, the "mesh" if you will of my being, that collects the ugly and obscuring dirt left behind by sin and the winds and rain of this world. It seemed that mine was even more hidden than the dirt I had seen in the mesh of the screen door. In fact, mine was actually out of sight. Out of the sight of man that is. But not out of sight of "the One with whom we have to do". I was reminded, convicted and then reassured that His word "is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow". That He is in the business of washing, cleansing, purifying and renewing. Like the sun, the Son of God is also both the illuminator of the dirt and the inspiration and strength to seek its cleansing.
It was, and is, the "spring cleaning" mindset that I was concerned about as a believer. As I considered this matter, I felt that this sort of thought process was all too present in our lives, the members of the body of Christ. A "spring cleaning" or seasonal approach to our need for spiritual cleansing is an error that we often make. We are in need of a continuous cleansing process and not some approach that assumes that cleaning every so often, perhaps only when something happens and we see the glaring truth of the dirt that has collected. The admonitions that we find in scripture are spoken of as ongoing and reveal the truth of a new life and of an active relationship in Christ. The resources He provides, as He calls us to walk worthy, are not to be seen as tools kept in a closet, only to be taken out from time to time as seems necessary by us.
Although we are admonished to not live like or love the world, Jesus himself said that He did not ask the Father to take us out of the world but to keep us from the evil one. As we walk in this world as ambassadors for Christ, we will be exposed to the filth that is in it. Like Jesus explained to Peter, it will be necessary for us to wash. No, we will not need to bath all over again but we will need to wash. As the Apostle John was inspired to write in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness".
Father, I thank you for the light of Your holy word and the light of Your Son Jesus. Help us to trust Your desire to illuminate the darkest areas of our being, exposing the areas of our lives that need washed in the water of Your powerful word. May You cause us to remember that You desire what is best for us; that we might share in Your holiness. May we not fear the light of Your word that shows us the areas of our life that have been ill affected by sin and the filth of this world, blurring our vision of You and Your perfect will. Thank You for Your desire to cleanse, not only to remove but to replace and renew. Help us to trust the Holy Spirit's work of conforming us to the image of Your dear Son.
The evidence of spring seems all around me. The grass is so green and there is no doubt that it is growing at a more rapid rate as the days go by. Flowers of many different kinds have been blooming everywhere, displaying their wonderful colors. They capture the eye with their different shades of blue, red, pink, yellow and white. Their various smells can grab ones attention. The birds, like one seen recently, even seem to have a little more flutter in their movements. As I saw in my recent trip to Diamond Lake, the winter's snow is melting under the warmth of the rising daytime temperatures. Insects of every kind are coming out of their winter living quarters. It is truly a beautiful time of year as God's creation testifies of its wonderful Creator!
Traditionally, with spring comes "spring cleaning". Like so many others, we have been involved in many of the "spring cleaning" activities around our home. Washing windows, working in the yard, planting flowers and vegetables, cutting and stacking firewood and catching up on the unfinished projects abandoned last fall or winter. For some reason, I hope it is the Lord; I began to consider this matter of "spring cleaning" and more specifically, what seems to bring it on. Please bear with me as I explain.
For me it started a few weeks ago as I sat at our dining room table in the early evening hours. We had experienced one of those beautifully bright and warm spring days on the North Oregon Coast that make people love this area. As the sun was shining brightly on the west side of our home, its rays were exposing the dirt that lay covering the large living room window and the windows of our storm door. Many days of rain and wind had left the dirt from the winter and fall months behind on the windows and their screens, obscuring the view through them. It was striking at how dirty the windows seemed to become as the light of the sun shone upon them, making the dirt so noticeable. During the cloudy and raining months that had preceded this day, little attention had been drawn to the dirt that lie there unnoticed in the darker days of winter. The light of the sun had been the difference. It seems as if it is the sun that both exposes the dirt and gives us the pep needed to begin cleaning.
More recently I was in our family room having coffee one morning when there was a brilliant sun rising over the bamboo hedge that borders our backyard. Again, it was illuminating the accumulation of dirt from the winds and rains of the preceding months. Perhaps it was my close proximity to it or just the way the sun was hitting the sliding glass door that opens onto the deck on the east side of our home. But my eyes and then my mind were drawn to the screen for this sliding glass door. The sun's bright rays were exposing the smallest particles of dirt that were "hidden" in the tiny mesh of the screen. It was then that my thoughts turned to the Son and the light of God's word.
I considered the deep recesses of my heart and mind, the "mesh" if you will of my being, that collects the ugly and obscuring dirt left behind by sin and the winds and rain of this world. It seemed that mine was even more hidden than the dirt I had seen in the mesh of the screen door. In fact, mine was actually out of sight. Out of the sight of man that is. But not out of sight of "the One with whom we have to do". I was reminded, convicted and then reassured that His word "is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow". That He is in the business of washing, cleansing, purifying and renewing. Like the sun, the Son of God is also both the illuminator of the dirt and the inspiration and strength to seek its cleansing.
It was, and is, the "spring cleaning" mindset that I was concerned about as a believer. As I considered this matter, I felt that this sort of thought process was all too present in our lives, the members of the body of Christ. A "spring cleaning" or seasonal approach to our need for spiritual cleansing is an error that we often make. We are in need of a continuous cleansing process and not some approach that assumes that cleaning every so often, perhaps only when something happens and we see the glaring truth of the dirt that has collected. The admonitions that we find in scripture are spoken of as ongoing and reveal the truth of a new life and of an active relationship in Christ. The resources He provides, as He calls us to walk worthy, are not to be seen as tools kept in a closet, only to be taken out from time to time as seems necessary by us.
Although we are admonished to not live like or love the world, Jesus himself said that He did not ask the Father to take us out of the world but to keep us from the evil one. As we walk in this world as ambassadors for Christ, we will be exposed to the filth that is in it. Like Jesus explained to Peter, it will be necessary for us to wash. No, we will not need to bath all over again but we will need to wash. As the Apostle John was inspired to write in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness".
Father, I thank you for the light of Your holy word and the light of Your Son Jesus. Help us to trust Your desire to illuminate the darkest areas of our being, exposing the areas of our lives that need washed in the water of Your powerful word. May You cause us to remember that You desire what is best for us; that we might share in Your holiness. May we not fear the light of Your word that shows us the areas of our life that have been ill affected by sin and the filth of this world, blurring our vision of You and Your perfect will. Thank You for Your desire to cleanse, not only to remove but to replace and renew. Help us to trust the Holy Spirit's work of conforming us to the image of Your dear Son.
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