Living with clutter

Proverbs 12:24 (New International Version)
24 Diligent hands will rule,
but laziness ends in slave labor.

I'm feeling a little like slave labor this weekend. My normal MO is that of a hermit. I go to work. I go home. I go out for necessities: food, Diet Coke, movies, and very occasional entertainment. The rest of the time I spend happy at home. I like it there. My dog is there.

But then I do something to mess up the plan. I invite people in. It's not that I don't like having people over. I do. I really do. But being a hermit means I don't have to worry about unexpected visitors. And the clutter gets out of control.

Here's the scene: a tottering stack of mail/bills, countless loads of laundry, yarn in every nook and cranny, books scattered higgledy-piggledy, layers of dog hair and dust. So after a month or so of laziness, I am slave labor. The problem is that my house has reached the state that I just can't determine where to start.

So I work some and then I regroup. I've determined that I just don't have a very high frustration threshold. What I mean is that it doesn't take long for me to work on a problem to get to the point where I am overwhelmed. I have to back off and come back at it. My house is like that. I think my spiritual life is like that too.

The mess in my heart is like clutter. One day at a time, I make a bad decision that pulls me away. And then the next I let something else in that has no place in my heart, but really it's not so bad. Until you look at a pile of those things and consider how much time it will take to get rid of it.

I sorta feel that way about laundry. I have many clothes. I wear them all before I do laundry. Day by day, it's not so much. But after weeks, facing that many loads of laundry feels like a crisis.

And in all things...whether it's cleaning the house, getting back on spiritual track, losing weight, or saving money...I expect immediate results. I want to correct in a heartbeat what it took days (or weeks or years) to build.

I know better than to pray for patience. Maybe I'll try diligence instead.
Back to the mines...

Why I'll never be president

As I was surfing around, looking for a good video that I never found, I came across all these clips of Rick Warren's interview of Obama and McCain. And I'll say this...I'm not political. But I really wonder about what this accomplished. They might have been different kinds of questions...but they were the same answers that we've heard for other questions. Right? Still, I never want to sit on a stage and be asked about my greatest moral failure. Really.
Of course, neither truly answered the question, but I don't blame them one bit. Imagining the stinging judgement that would come from my moral failures yesterday, never mind my greatest moral failure ever, would have me doing the sidestep as well.

It's hard to imagine a world where a political candidate could confess the truth to the world. I'm thankful that I can confess the truth to my God and know that the failure is wiped away, forgiven, forgotten, remembered no more. By God. On bad days, I still remember the times I've failed. Thank goodness they haven't been caught on tape to be run on 24 hour news.

I don't really want to hear about either man's greatest moral failure. I might be interested on what happened to change him, why that will never happen again. If it's the truty. What I want to hear is the truth...good, bad, or ugly...what's in the heart on the issues of the day. I suspect they're a whole lot alike. And that I won't get what I want.

What would it be like?

John 13:34-35
34"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

For some reason, this message of Christian unity keeps coming up around me...Bible study, messages, music, random conversations, and it's really so sad that the most important job we have, what should be the simplest, is the most difficult to get right. The church can't get it right, and so the world sees divisions and avoids the church because of the hypocrites. As one of those imperfect people who make up the church, I say that's just a convenient excuse, but I also know the church bears responsibility for that view. We squabble and fight, judge and pronounce judgement, draw lines over unimportant issues and miss the chance to show the world that we are Christ's disciples.

I like this song because it's happy. Happy like we'd probably be if we could get over ourselves and really learn to love one another, in the body of Christ first, then the rest of the world.

Set Free

While I'm finishing up the notes from Galatians, a Newsboys song occurs to me. "I am free."

That's what Paul wanted the Galatians to understand. They were free. We are free.

The song is good, but I couldn't find a video to go with. YouTube lets me down again. Then I was searching around and came across the video to a Casting Crowns song...so here it is. I'm not sure when this blog became a Christian video program but I really like the music and it runs through my head and I need a blog post...so here we are.

Galatians-Week 6-From the Inside Out

Paul finishes up his letter to the churches in Galatia with a little practical advice. First, he addresses handling sin, either in another believer or your own life.

Galatians 6
Doing Good to All
1Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Maturity vs. spirituality. Paul clearly says that each of us has a duty to pick up, hold up, and build up brothers and sisters struggling with sin. Well, those under the influence of the Spirit. Not the Bible scholars, not the grandmothers who've had decades of training...all of us living under the Spirit. Sin impacts us all...in our own lives, it robs us of joy, lessens our anticipation of Christ, destroys our usefulness...and it infects the entire body. To counter sin, every believer has an obligation to support fellow Christians...to help recognize sin, pray for freedom from it, and to share lessons learned.

9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

And in every life, God's law of cause and effect is still in operation. No, we can't lose our salvation. Yes, we still face consequences for bad decisions. And we all make them. And when we do, the command to love one another so that the world will know that we are disciples becomes even more important.

14May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which[b] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. 16Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.

And to finish up his letter, Paul remind the Galatians one more time: what counts is a new creation, the Spirit at work in you. Nothing on the exterior amounts to anything. And that way is open to everyone.

Galatians-Week 5-Living with freedom

So, if I'm "free" now, that means I can do anything and get away with it, right? I don't have to live with God's law because of the grace, right? I'll just do what I want since I don't have to worry about the consequences.

Right?

Paul says: Turning back to the law invalidates both Christ and his sacrifice on the cross. It also hinders spiritual growth. Just don't do it.

So does that mean we have no rules?

Paul says: Yes...and no. Now that you have the Spirit, you don't need the rules.

Thanks to the Holy Spirit, we:
understand the truth of the Word.
can be changed into character of Christ, to live like Christ.
know what sin is and when we do it.
want to do the right thing.

Paul says:
2But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Because we have the spirit, we have all these things (a.k.a. the Fruit of the Spirit (singular)):
Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness and Self-Control...against such things there is no law.

If you have the Spirit (and you do on the day you confess your faith in Christ), then you have the fruit.
And if you have the fruit, then you don't need the law. Love is better than law any day.

Remember what Jesus said about fruit? A good tree can't bear bad fruit...
Matthew 7:16-18 (New International Version)
16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Of course, you're going to continue to struggle: the old man vs. the new creation. But now you can make the right choice. You have the freedom to make the right choice.

Christian unity

Psalm 133:1
How good and pleasant it is
when brothers live together in unity!

This is a message that keeps coming up: how important it is for Christians to get along. In Sunday School, we talked about the divisions that we put on our religions that have very little to do with salvation: whether your worship music has music or not, electric guitars or not, whether you drink or dance or not, what you wear, what translation you use, whether you boycott Disney or not... These are the kinds of things that the world looks at and sees that we can't get along. And really, it's just too bad that sweating the small stuff has such a huge impact on the big picture.

I wanted the song that runs through my head when I read this verse. I couldn't find it in the approximately 2.5 seconds that I devoted to the search tonight. However, this commercial for one of my favorite t.v. shows was easy to find. And it sorta goes with the idea. Loosely. Very loosely. Very, very loosely. Feel free to skip it if you'd like (Gus is my favorite. I like Gus).