FALL CLEANING!

Fall Cleaning

Lead me to the cross where Your love poured out.
Bring me to my knees Lord I lay me down.
Rid me of myself I belong to You.
Lead me, lead me to the cross.

You can verify with my wife, I hate cleaning! But there are a few times a year that it just seems appropriate to get into certain areas in your home or office and do a deep cleaning. Last weekend at our home, Malia wanted me to clean out the basement. We needed to relocate a few things there for the kids and get it clean enough for them to play downstairs. Once you get into cleaning it seems like the mess just keeps growing, but in the end, the area is clean again and you can enjoy it. The kids are in the basement more and having a great time.
We seem to be in one of those cleaning moods here at the church as well. From classrooms, to closets, everything is being slowly cleaned. No church that I have ever been a part of has enough room for all the “stuff” that is accumulated over the many years of ministry. Just like it is at your home, it is even more true at church when you start cleaning, you start finding stuff and filth that has been hidden for years. You have a choice at that point; you can either relocate the junk or get rid of it. Too often in church, we tend to just relocate stuff and save the mess for someone else at a later time. The same thing happens in our own personal lives. We can either relocate the sin in our lives, deal with it another day or we can get rid of it by placing it at the feet of Jesus.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence;
And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of my salvation;
And uphold me with a willing spirit.
Psalm 51:10-12

Psalm 51 was written by David when the prophet Nathan went to him after he had entered into sin with Bathsheba. When David first sinned with Bathsheba, he did not clean himself of his sin against her and God; instead, he decided to clean out anyone who stood in his way. When Nathan, the prophet, confronted him concerning his sin, he was made to deal with his sin head on. He begged God for mercy and asked forgiveness for his sins. He was pleading with God for a clean heart so that he could once again have joy. It is easy to sit back and say “shame on David”, and put ourselves on a pedestal of never going to that level. But if we really look hard into our own lives, we will find areas of sin that need to be confessed and cleansed by God. It’s time to do a little fall cleaning, and clear out the cobwebs of sin in our lives. In doing so, the Lord will bring back to us the joy we once had in our salvation.

With a broken and contrite heart,
Aaron Hodges