Friday, February 4, 2022
The Pharisees
were religious leaders in Israel. It was
important to them to look like leaders who lived what they said. Jesus got to the crux of the matter when he
challenged one of them to be as clean on the inside as the outside
advertised. That’s a lot easier-said-than-done,
eh?
My dear
bride, Elizabeth, was sometimes called The White Tornado by our
three children. Elizabeth knows how to “clean
with a vengeance.” It was often stated
that Mom could spot a dust bunny under a rug or sofa at midnight, with the
lights turned-off, from three rooms away. Now, if there are, as my friend, Dr. Don
McCutcheon used to say, two kinds of people in the world…cleanies and
messies, there isn’t a shadow of a doubt on which side Elizabeth comes
down! However perceived by our
then-teenaged children, Elizabeth’s motive was always more than just keeping
spotless for the sake of pride; she knew the unseen enemies
couldn’t be cleansed away by hitting a-lick-and-a-promise with a dust rag. Deep cleaning meant a healthier house for
those she loved!
In “Praying
the Promises of God” English author Alan Redpath wrote about the difficulty of
having the inner person as deeply-cleaned as you try to present the outer
person to those around you:
Do certain behaviors and habits continue to plague
you, no matter how often you try to stop them and resolve to do better? This happens to all of us. When we belong to Christ, we long for holiness
in our outward behaviors because we have an inner barometer that is weighted
toward righteousness. Sin unbalances us
and makes us feel “off.” Each of the
behaviors we so want to change is the fruit produced by unrighteousness on the
inside. If the inner root were gone, the
fruit of it would be gone as well. When
we put all the emphasis on an outward behavior and don’t think about the root
of that behavior, we find ourselves chasing our own tails and repeating the
same behaviors over and over again. Then
we fall prey to the enemy’s attempts to discourage us. Or, like the religious leaders to whom Jesus
addressed these words, we compensate with outward forms and traditions and find
satisfaction in the mere appearance of holiness. Because Jesus comes to reside in us, he has
the power and access to work on our sins at their root. From within he cleanses and purifies us—making
the inside of the cup and dish clean. The
more we surrender to him in obedience and look to him for guidance and
strength, the more we will find old behaviors and thought patterns disappearing
and being replaced with healthy expressions of the Christ who indwells us.[1]
For You Today
The adage, what
you can’t see can’t hurt you is miles from reality. Our house’s foundation is cracked, due to soil
erosion underneath, where only the moles and worms live. But the evidence is there, and needed to be
addressed. The crew dug deep….down to
bedrock…and now the foundation stands firm.
The same can be applied to the inside
of your soul. And the only “crew” that
can get there is the one who walked out of an empty tomb on Easter morning. When He hears your confession, deep cleaning for
the unseen will take on a new meaning!
You chew on that as
you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
[1] Title and Other Images: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
[1] Alan Redpath(1907–1989), English evangelist, pastor, and author in Praying the Promises of God (Tyndale House publishers, Carol Stream Ill)
