(Getting rid of Spiritual Clutter and placing ourselves for effective Christ-glorifying work!)
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 KJV
WE NEED TO BE CAREFUL LEST WE ALLOW THE SIMPLE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST TO BECOME SMOTHERED UNDER A VIRTUAL AVALANCHE OF THEOLOGICAL OVERLOAD
A house remains new and empty for just a little while. In our natural lives we accumulate stuff over a period of time. We pack them in every available room, until we are so jam packed that things become squished together. Every nook and cranny becomes so stuffed, that we do not even remember what we have stacked away. The longer we have lived in a house the more we accumulate stuff in it.
Storage capacity on computers in this day and age has moved from the lowly Kilobytes era to Terabytes and beyond...So much storage! And correspondingly we can accumulate so much junk that we have system slowdown and overload! Junk mail rules over our inboxes. We lose our files somewhere in all that accumulated stuff on our computer hard drives.
Our spiritual life is no different. We accumulate stuff...spiritual junk...some good stuff and much bad. We squish them together until we can hardly distinguish the good...from the bad...from the outright ugly!
We become storehouses for so much spiritual buzzwords, religious jargon, theological terminology that our lives become a virtual stockpile, of often trivial, and many times dangerous stuff, taking up vital space, interacting and either amplifying or else nullifying each other!
Information overload, garbage overflow, junk pileup results in serious obstruction of our view and divert our course from our eternal goal. It's rather difficult to travel, much less run an efficient course when we're encumbered with junk and overloaded with useless fluff.
We become like Bunyan's Pilgrim, only we have exchanged the original burden for a bigger, ever increasing and more cumbersome burden, so that at the end of a wearisome day, instead of enjoying the sleep He gives to you His beloved, we pass the night with ceaseless groaning under self inflicted loads.
SPIRITUAL CLUTTER DOES NOT OCCUR SUDDENLY, BUT RESULTS THROUGH A GRADUAL PROCESS OF ACCUMULATION, OF SEEMINGLY HARMLESS BITS AND PIECES WHICH EVENTUALLY RESULT IN OVERLOAD, OBSTRUCTION AND OBFUSCATION OF THE SIMPLE SPIRITUAL TRUTHS!
We can become burdened down by man made rules, rituals, and religion.
We can become burdened down by our own tendency to unconsciously accumulate things that are many times not edifying or profitable.
We can become burdened down by the enemy who is also usually behind all the subtle efforts to deceive and tie us up
We keep piling on the burdens and become wearily weighed down, while all the time Messiah is saying "Come unto me all ye that labour are heavy laden and I will give you rest" We have been literally forcing ourselves to keep a stiff upper lip, and to grin and bear it. We have manfully struggled on, and cajoled, forced or enticed others to do the same. But we need to live the words of that old Sunday School chorus?
Roll away roll away roll away...every burden of my heart rolled away!
There comes a time when we need to do inventory, stocktaking and an examination or reexamination of ourselves, to identify those burdens and junk in order to roll them all away! What's hindering us from receiving from God? Sometimes like Bartimaeus we have to cast away that which may hinder our expedient approach to the Lord, irrespective of how relevant it may have seemed!
Paul declared that he only wanted to know one thing amongst the Corinthians, i.e. Jesus Christ and Him crucified! He refused to allow fancy talk and human wisdom to corrupt the simplicity of the gospel. He declared:
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:1-2
Compare the rich young ruler and the rich fool with Paul’s response: But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, (Philippians 3:7-8 KJV) Paul was willing to let go in order to grab hold! Our reluctance to let go can result in defeat at the brink of victory! Ask the Israelites!
Remember Messiah simplified to save...He stepped down to make it simple...don't complicate what God made simple!
Being burdened down is usually the result of allowing the darkness to creep in; and darkness can only creep in when light is shut out! The light may not have stopped shining, but we have succeeded in effectively covering it up with our clutter! It's usually a slow, casual process, that steals up unsuspectingly on us, making us gradually accepting of the slow diminishing of the light in our lives. Often we are unaware, until the first stumble because we’re unable to see! Now darkness is the new light, and when we allow the light in us to become darkness, how great is that darkness!
2 Chronicles 34 records Josiah's reign as Judah's king.
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 34:1-7 KJV
Eighteen years later, when he was twenty six, while repairs were being done to the house of the LORD, the book of the law was found and brought before him. The Word of God had been buried among all the debris in His house! Yet when it was found and read to the king it resulted in a major revival in the land, with peace all the days of his reign. It may be hidden and tucked away somewhere among all the debris in your mind but as soon as you clear away the junk and irrelevancy you will discover that the Word of God is forever potent, and able to effect a radical, revolutionary and renewing change in your life!
When you're burdened down with man-made theological baggage and religious activity, it is difficult to look up and see the Source of Light! Ask the woman in Luke 13! The religious leader had his own ideas of how it should be done, but will provide escape routes for himself with justification!
And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. Luke 13:10-17
Because of the spirit of infirmity this woman was bowed together...stooped down. She could not lift herself up. Jesus recognized her pretty obvious condition and did what was necessary to set her free. For 18 years she was bound and burdened down. In an instant she was set free, but instead of glorifying God, the board of religion was upset and angry that things were not done the way he and his comrades decreed. "That's not how we do things here!" In like manner so often the people of God are deprived of relief from their burdens because of the vain philosophy, copious regulations and tedious theology of man! Don't you just love it when Jesus upsets our limited expectations and it's no longer church as usual?
Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. Hebrews 13:9 KJV
Jesus upbraided the elite during His sojourn on earth for the burdens they laid on the people.
And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Luke 11:46 KJV
And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. Matthew 23:2-4 KJV
So often we have become event oriented looking for the next spiritual experience in a meeting of some famous person. We become church bunnies hopping from meeting to meeting seeking to find what we already have living within us! When we realize Who it's all about we no longer seek an external experience but we release Him who is in us to accomplish within us what He already perfected!
Peter declared that you should be Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 1 Peter 5:7 KJV
SINCE THERE IS A SPECIFIC PLACE AND PURPOSE IN THE ETERNAL PLAN, FOR EACH PERSON BORN INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD, WE NEED TO FIND OUR PROPER PLACE ORDER TO FUNCTION EFFECTIVELY, FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE WHOLE, AND FOR HIS GLORY!
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10 KJV)
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.(Colossians 2:18-19 KJV)
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Hebrews 10:19- 25 KJV
Many times when we gather together we are unable to achieve proper assembly because we are too much the individual…you know… (“Well this is ME, what I am…and I’m not changing for ANYBODY!) Are we assembled together or merely a gathering? When the various parts of the body are gathered together some assembly is required for it to be complete! There are so many gatherings today but not much assembling! Some assembly is required! The cluttered gathering of individual pieces should be assembled into the pattern laid out by God! We can be just a gathering of saints that are going nowhere, with no purpose for the rest of our sorry lives or we can find our place in the body of Christ and become functional! There are no Casual Christians or Convenient Christianity! There are no Part time Saints or Occasional Believers! We're either with Him or against Him, building or breaking, functional or obsolete! Your choice!
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. (1 Corinthians 12:12-14 KJV)
But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. (1 Corinthians 12:18-20 KJV)
