CLEAN UP!

Whenever there is a natural disaster (often tragic for many people) there is the need to clean up what disorder may have occurred from the event (be it flood, fire, wind, earthquake, etc.).  As you think about this, it is easy to understand how cleaning up is really a part of any tragic situation, as whatever contributed to the tragedy led to things being out of their normal order.  Think about how there is even obviously the need to clean up problems with the economic conditions that have come to impact each of us.  Cleaning up is not only needed and necessary in the physical world and in our emotional worlds, but is also much needed in the spiritual world where we live…

You have to clean up every day (or should if you want to be more healthy and effective 😀).  This is true because there is a natural law or entropy (called the 2nd law of thermodynamics) that brings about disorder.  While energy is ultimately preserved (the first law of thermodynamics), it changes form and becomes less ordered, unless there is input to make it more ordered and useful again.

Dear reader, I suppose you agree with most that there is the need for change in many areas of our lives and our society today.  I have alluded to this in many of my blog articles, including the ones talking about the key to the best change and renewal that is needed (c.f. the 10-22-08 Blog, “CHANGE and REVIVAL!”).  If the priority is to be where our Creator intended, then the spiritual must be in order first.  We need to CLEAN UP there first.

You may be able to clean up your body and wash away any dirt, yet you cannot by your own efforts clean up your soul.  We are all sinners.  We sin by nature and by choice (see my 07-12-08 Blog, “Paradise Lost”).  Only by coming to trust in your Creator, who became your Savior, can you be morally clean (morally washing cannot remove the deeper stain).  Jesus Christ gave His life’s blood, which is spiritually effective to wash away the deepest stain.  It is only applied individually when one trusts in Jesus as the substitute for his or her own sin stained soul.   That is the first step in getting truly CLEANED UP (see the Gospel tab above)!

Romans 13:11-14 gives a great outline for basic things that apply to our entire being.  I have used this in my home and as a teaching reminder for my children (spiritually, emotionally and physically).  The first is from Romans 13:11—WAKE UP!  I wrote about this in my 08-27-08 Blog, “WAKE UP!”  The second is from Romans 13:12—CLEAN UP!  That comes from the phrase there, “cast off the works of darkness.”  I will talk about the other two things in future blog articles.

Do you have habits that need to be broken?  Do you feel emotionally out of order, maybe even because of some tragedy in your life?  Are there areas of your life needing some attention or cleaning?  You must be spiritually clean first and then you can make the successful effort (having the ability then) to clean up and daily “cast off the works of darkness.”

Please contact me (my info. is below) with any further questions or thoughts here.