Cleaning: it's a Chore

"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. Show me a man that a woman can trust. Now where did it say that on the eighth day He dusteth?" - Sister Mary Lazarus, Sistesr Act II.

Seriously, can I get a raise of hands who LOVES to clean.... period? ......Yeah, that's what I thought. Hardly anybody! To tell you truth, I'd rather watch paint dry..and that I have actually done. Wouldn't recommend doing that. :( I don't know what it is about cleaning that makes me dispise it soo much. Perhaps it brings back the haunting memories of me required to vacume the stairs. Oh how much I loathed that. However, like my mom always said and still says, it has to be done.

Cleaning. It's one of those chores each week you dispise doing. However, like my mom and probably every other mom says, it has to be done. How long have you gone without cleaning your room, apartment, house, etc? How gross did it get? Did you see cobwebs forming at the ceilings? Maybe dirt and newspapers piling up on the coffee table. Doesn't look very appealing now does it?

Now think about when you clean your house for when guests arrive. You bust your bus bodies to make sure everything is spick and span. Why is that? Perhaps you don't want them to feel like you live like a slob? Maybe you just need things to be in order. In essence, you are cleaning out the clutter in your house. You think it's your house, your apartment, your room. But guess what, it's not. It's God's House.

Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. - Matthew 12:44, NLT

The Bible verse described in Matthew talks about a clean house. Now a clean house can mean many things metaphorically. Yes, it can literally mean the place that you reside in, you sleep. However, it can also mean a state of life. Your well being...

In the NIV Bible, I found this insert they helped to describe the verse. Jesus was describing the attitude of the nation of Iseael and the religious leaders in particular. Just cleaning up one's life without filling it with "God's House" leaves PLENTY of room for Satan to enter. A dirty house can result in carelessness, inability to care, careless attitudes, the list goes on....The book of Ezra records how the people get rid of themselves of idolatry, but failed to replace it with love for God and obedience to Him. We also need to take a second step: filling our lives with God's Word and the Holy Spirit. An unfilled and complacent people are easy easy targets for the big D..the Devil.

So you thought this post was essentially about cleaning your house, didn't you? Like this post, God's Word is much bigger and deeper than all of us. We need to rely on Him to go throughout our daily lives. Clean out the clutter in our lives. It's a daily, ongoing process that brings us one step closer to Him.

You see, it's the little things such as "cleaning house" that really prepares our hearts for Worshiping with the big G....God that is! If we stop "cleaning", stop "vaccuming", our house of worship becomes cluttered, a mess. When our lives becomes a mess, eventually loved ones surrounding you are affected by that. We need to continue to open our hearts to Him and prepare our House for the Word of God. So what are you doing sitting around? Get cleaning, start "dusting" your house away..and prepare your House for the One, the True God. He's coming.....