Wednesday, 9/30/20 – Pressing on… It’s a good thing to get cleaned up!

It’s a good thing to get cleaned up!

I remember the landscaping job I had during my early twenties. Fourteen long, hard hours of dirty physical work 7am to 9pm. Much of the day involved laying sod. It was hot and dry in those Saskatchewan summers; shorts and tees were a must. Sod soil would stick to the sweat of my thighs, forearms and face, then cake dry by day’s end. Arriving home late in the evening, covered in filth and sweat, dizzy with exhaustion and ravenous with hunger, I’d never know which need to satisfy first: sleep, food or cleanliness!

But O how good it felt soon after, skin scrubbed, hair shampooed and brushed, belly full and body ready for rest. Squeaky clean after such a soiling.

This is what God wants for our souls… my soul… your soul. He doesn’t want to pounce on you for being dirty. He wants to clean you up, satisfy your emptiness and the sickness that you feel in your heart. Give you a new one!

Ezekiel speaks on His behalf…

“…I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. …you will be my people, and I will be your God.” (Ezek. 26:25-26, 28b).

Sounds to me like a pretty good thing!

Now imagine if I came home from that landscaping job and didn’t clean up… didn’t shampoo that matted hair, didn’t satisfy that gnawing in my gut, that faintness in my head and weakness in my legs and body? What then? Pretty soon I would certainly begin to stink, continued workdays would pile on ever more filth and grime and eventually I would begin to get sick. I would be so weak and deteriorated that I would very likely need hospitalization — and if I refused that, I would very likely die.

God is not out to kill us; He is out to cleanse us… and re-cleanse us too if we fall in the mud or step on a rake head (see 1 John 1:9). But if we refuse there are consequences, and God wants to steer us free of those consequences.

Don’t fight Him. Run to Him. Acknowledge your uncleanness. Submit to the Soap of His Spirit, the nourishment of His Word, and the rest you will find when all this is done.

It’s a good thing to get cleaned up!

Press on…

To hear Pastor Storey’s Sunday message, go to the Facebook page of Lincoln Baptist Church, or link to the livestream from the church website.