(Getting
rid of Spiritual Clutter and placing ourselves for effective Christ-glorifying
work!)
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so
great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which
doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 KJV
WE NEED TO BE
CAREFUL LEST WE ALLOW THE SIMPLE TRUTH OF THE GOSPELOF JESUS CHRIST TO BECOME
SMOTHERED UNDER A VIRTUAL AVALANCHE OF THEOLOGICAL OVERLOAD
A house remains new and empty for just a little
while. In our natural lives we accumulate stuff over a period of time.
We pack them in every available room, until we are so jam packed that
things become squished together. Every nook and cranny becomes so
stuffed, that we do not even remember what we have stacked away. The
longer we have lived in a house the more we accumulate stuff in it.
Storage capacity
on computers in this day and age has moved from the lowly Kilobytes
era to Terabytes and beyond...So much storage! And correspondingly we
can accumulate so much junk that we have system slowdown and overload!
Junk mail rules over our inboxes. We lose our files somewhere in all that
accumulated stuff on our computer hard drives.
Our spiritual
life is no different. We accumulate stuff...spiritual junk...some good
stuff and much bad. We squish them together until we can hardly
distinguish the good...from the bad...from the outright ugly!
We become
storehouses for so much spiritual buzzwords, religious jargon, theological
terminology that our lives become a virtual stockpile, of often
trivial, and many times dangerous stuff, taking up vital space,
interacting and either amplifying or else nullifying each other!
Information
overload, garbage overflow, junk pileup results in serious obstruction of
our view and divert our course from our eternal goal. It's rather
difficult to travel, much less run an efficient course when we're
encumbered with junk and overloaded with useless fluff.
We become like
Bunyan's Pilgrim, only we have exchanged the original burden for a
bigger, ever increasing and more cumbersome burden, so that at the
end of a wearisome day, instead of enjoying the sleep He gives to you
His beloved, we pass the night with ceaseless groaning under self
inflicted loads.
SPIRITUAL
CLUTTER DOES NOT OCCUR SUDDENLY, BUT RESULTS THROUGH A GRADUAL
PROCESS OF ACCUMULATION, OF SEEMINGLY HARMLESS BITS AND PIECES WHICH EVENTUALLY
RESULT IN OVERLOAD, OBSTRUCTION AND OBFUSCATION OF THE SIMPLE SPIRITUAL TRUTHS!
We can become
burdened down by manmade rules, rituals, and religion.
We can become
burdened down by our own tendency to unconsciously accumulate things that are
many times not edifying or profitable.
We can become
burdened down by the enemy who is also usually behind all the subtle efforts to
deceive and tie us up
We
keep piling on the burdens and become wearily weighed
down, while all the time Messiah is saying "Come unto me all ye that labour are heavy
laden and I will give you rest" We have been literally
forcing ourselves to keep a stiff upper lip, and to grin and bear it.
We have manfully struggled on, and cajoled, forced or
enticed others to do the same. But we need to live the words of
that old Sunday School chorus?
Roll away roll
away roll away...every burden of my heart rolled away!
There comes a time
when we need to do inventory, stocktaking and an examination or
reexamination of ourselves, to identify those burdens and junk in
order to roll them all away! What's hindering us from receiving from God?
Sometimes like Bartimaeus we have to cast away that which may hinder our
expedient approach to the Lord, irrespective of how relevant it may have
seemed!
Paul declared
that he only wanted to know one thing amongst the Corinthians, i.e. Jesus
Christ and Him crucified! He refused to allow fancy talk and human wisdom to
corrupt the simplicity of the gospel. He declared:
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not
with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the
testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus
Christ, and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:1-2
Compare the rich
young ruler and the rich fool with Paul’s response: But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for
Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, (Philippians 3:7-8
KJV) Paul was willing to let go in order to grab
hold! Our reluctance to let go can result in defeat at the brink of
victory! Ask the Israelites!
Remember Messiah simplified to
save...He stepped down to make it simple...don't complicate what God made
simple!
Being
burdened down is usually the result of allowing the darkness to creep in; and
darkness can only creep in when light is shut out! The light may not have
stopped shining, but we have succeeded in effectively covering it up
with our clutter! It's usually a slow, casual process, that steals
up unsuspectingly on us, making us gradually accepting of the
slow diminishing of the light in our lives. Often we
are unaware, until the first stumble because we’re unable
to see! Now darkness is the new light, and when we allow the
light in us to become darkness, how great is that darkness!
2 Chronicles 34
records Josiah's reign as Judah's king.
Josiah was eight years old when he began
to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. And he
did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of
David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. For
in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after
the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah
and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and
the molten images. And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence;
and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and
the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of
them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And
he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and
Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and
Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about. And when he had
broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into
powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he
returned to Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 34:1-7 KJV
Eighteen
years later, when he was twenty six, while repairs were being done to
the house of the LORD, the book of the law was found and brought before
him. The Word of God had been buried among all the debris in His house! Yet
when it was found and read to the king it resulted in a major
revival in the land, with peace all the days of his reign. It may be
hidden and tucked away somewhere among all the debris in your mind but as soon
as you clear away the junk and irrelevancy you will discover that the Word of
God is forever potent, and able to effect a radical, revolutionary and renewing
change in your life!
When you're
burdened down with man-made theological baggage and religious activity, it
is difficult to look up and see the Source of Light! Ask the woman in Luke
13! The religious leader had his own ideas of how it should be
done, but will provide escape routes for himself with justification!
And, behold, there was a woman which had a
spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no
wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said
unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on
her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of
the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the
sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought
to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath
day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of
you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead
him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this
bond on the sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries
were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were
done by him. Luke 13:10-17
Because of the
spirit of infirmity this woman was bowed together...stooped down. She could
not lift herself up. Jesus recognized her pretty obvious condition and did
what was necessary to set her free. For 18 years she was bound
and burdened down. In an instant she was set free, but instead of
glorifying God, the board of religion was upset and angry that things
were not done the way he and his comrades decreed. "That's not how
we do things here!" In like manner so often the people of God are
deprived of relief from their burdens because of the vain philosophy, copious
regulations and tedious theology of man! Don't you just love it when
Jesus upsets our limited expectations and it's no longer church as usual?
Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines.
For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with
meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. Hebrews
13:9 KJV
Jesus upbraided
the elite during His sojourn on earth for the burdens they laid on the
people.
And he said, Woe unto you also, ye
lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye
yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Luke 11:46 KJV
And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on
the sabbath. The
scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid
you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their
works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and
grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves
will not move them with one of their fingers. Matthew 23:2-4 KJV
So often we
have become event oriented looking for the next spiritual experience in a
meeting of some famous person. We become church
bunnies hopping from meeting to meeting seeking to find what we already
have living within us! When we realize Who it's all about we no longer seek an
external experience but we release Him who is in us to accomplish within us
what He already perfected!
Peter declared
that you should be Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for
you. 1 Peter 5:7 KJV
SINCE THERE
IS A SPECIFIC PLACE AND PURPOSE IN THE ETERNAL PLAN, FOR EACH PERSON BORN INTO
THE KINGDOM OF GOD, WE NEED TO FIND OUR PROPER PLACE ORDER TO FUNCTION
EFFECTIVELY, FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE WHOLE, AND FOR HIS GLORY!
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
(Ephesians 2:10 KJV)
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary
humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath
not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, And not holding the Head, from
which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit
together, increaseth with the increase of God.(Colossians 2:18-19 KJV)
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath
consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an
high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and
our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith
without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider
one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one
another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Hebrews 10:19- 25
KJV
Many times
when we gather together we are unable to achieve proper assembly
because we are too much the individual…you know… (“Well this is ME, what I
am…and I’m not changing for ANYBODY!) Are we assembled together or
merely a gathering? When the various parts of the body are gathered together
some assembly is required for it to be complete! There are so many gatherings
today but not much assembling! Some assembly is required! The
cluttered gathering of individual pieces should be assembled into
the pattern laid out by God! We can be just a gathering of saints that are
going nowhere, with no purpose for the rest of our sorry lives or we can find
our place in the body of Christ and become functional! There are no Casual Christians
or Convenient Christianity! There are no Partime Saints or Occasional
Believers! We're either with Him or against Him, building or breaking,
functional or obsolete! Your choice!
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all
the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is
Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews
or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into
one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. (1 Corinthians 12:12-14
KJV)
But now hath God set the members every one of them in the
body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the
body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. (1 Corinthians 12:18-20
KJV)
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