It's that time of year again when most everyone wants to get rid of excess clutter. Usually when people think about spring cleaning - the house comes to mind. A house full of clutter can make the environment we're in confusing and upsetting. Being in confusion and turmoil can crowd out or dim our relationship with God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
In the book of Acts which contains the record of the early church, the new believers - a number os which had practices magic collected their books and burned them - to clean up anything that would distract them in their walk with God.
Quote:
Also many of those who became believers confessed and disclosed their practices. A number of those who practiced magic collected their books and burned them publicly; when the value of these books was calculated, it was found to come to fifty thousand silver coins. Acts 19:18,19 (NRSV)
Hopefully, none of us have these types of books but in a practical sense - I am sure that we may see a correlation with some of the things in our homes - or as stated before - just plain clutter. We find that after we have done this thorough cleaning - we experience a fresh, clean, peaceful environment.
We also can correlate this "clean up" with our minds. Sometimes we have so much "clutter" in our minds that it crowds out the word of God. Doubt, fear, and worry - anything contrary to the word of God needs to be dealt with and "cleaned up". We always need to stop and think about what we are thinking about!
Doubt, worry and fear have NO place in a Christian's life. We are believers - we believe!
We have trust in the promises of God (2 Co. 1:20) and that what He has promised - He will perform. (Hebrews 10:23)
We (my family and I) used to perform this little ceremony (I guess I can call it that) every year which we called "Burn the Ballast". Ballast is used to keep a ship steady or balanced. When we entertain too much doubt, fear, and worry, we become unstable or unbalanced and need to get rid of some ballast in order to return to being stable and balanced. We would write down on a piece of paper things that were in the way or interfering with our walk with God and Christ and burn the paper symbolicly getting rid of whatever was coming between our spiritual relationship as the believers did in Acts 19.
In many places in the word of God - He tells us to renew our minds (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23-25; Col. 3:10). In 2 Co. 10:5 - we are told to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God. Of course, these things need to be done more than once a year!!!
If you haven't done so already - I would encourage us all to do some "spring cleaning."
God bless.
In the book of Acts which contains the record of the early church, the new believers - a number os which had practices magic collected their books and burned them - to clean up anything that would distract them in their walk with God.
Quote:
Also many of those who became believers confessed and disclosed their practices. A number of those who practiced magic collected their books and burned them publicly; when the value of these books was calculated, it was found to come to fifty thousand silver coins. Acts 19:18,19 (NRSV)
Hopefully, none of us have these types of books but in a practical sense - I am sure that we may see a correlation with some of the things in our homes - or as stated before - just plain clutter. We find that after we have done this thorough cleaning - we experience a fresh, clean, peaceful environment.
We also can correlate this "clean up" with our minds. Sometimes we have so much "clutter" in our minds that it crowds out the word of God. Doubt, fear, and worry - anything contrary to the word of God needs to be dealt with and "cleaned up". We always need to stop and think about what we are thinking about!
We (my family and I) used to perform this little ceremony (I guess I can call it that) every year which we called "Burn the Ballast". Ballast is used to keep a ship steady or balanced. When we entertain too much doubt, fear, and worry, we become unstable or unbalanced and need to get rid of some ballast in order to return to being stable and balanced. We would write down on a piece of paper things that were in the way or interfering with our walk with God and Christ and burn the paper symbolicly getting rid of whatever was coming between our spiritual relationship as the believers did in Acts 19.
In many places in the word of God - He tells us to renew our minds (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23-25; Col. 3:10). In 2 Co. 10:5 - we are told to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God. Of course, these things need to be done more than once a year!!!
If you haven't done so already - I would encourage us all to do some "spring cleaning."
God bless.
