Hi! Greetings in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ! (who had me studying about clutter, just this morning!).
“Clutter” is not a word that’s in our bibles, but we now it exists. Don’t believe me? Check out the picture (above!). Do we see why we should not limit our terms and uses of language to bible language only (now?). Clutter is a real thing!
So often, we clutter our minds with opinions, useless information, all the jokes we saw online yesterday, and at Christmas especially, most of us get all cluttered up with the festivities that go with “Christmas.” It’s all good clutter, isn’t it? And yet sometimes, it is clutter, nonetheless.
It’s wierd how a study on Clutter this morning, (just one word the Spirit gave me) wound up being a study on uncleanness too! I had a friend just recently, who told me a mouse was in her trap and she wanted it disposed of. She said “I have mice” what should I do? Incidentally, she didn’t want to use poison, mostly because she didn’t want dead mouse-bodies laying around (where she could not see them.).
No, clutter is not the same as “dead things” (which were a big deal in Old Testemant times). God had special rituals listed in the Book of Numbers on how to get “clean again” and in Leviticus, and even 2 Kings, uncleanness was just a very big deal in those days.
Why? Why was touching dead things such a very big deal to God Almighty?
On top of that, why did God give Peter a Vision (Acts 10) and tell him not to call any man unclean? (Acts 10:38). Just as “back then” science had not developed to a place where people understood say “How to cook a Lobster” (and not get sick) or nobody knew that they needed to use Chlorine or something anti-bacterial to protect themselves after handling “dead things” (in order to protect and preserve one’s life), therefore, God listed everything that would bring his children harm, or potentially bring them harm, and deemed it all to be a big fat ‘No no.”
We understand clutter makes it hard for us to find “good things’ (which we have lost in the pile of clutter) and we easily understand “germs’ make us sick, dead bodies carry disease, and mold or mildew can especially cause immediate sickness (or even death!).
At the same time, we tend to clutter up our lives, and ignore the warning signs that we are spiritually “sickened” by all the things we expose ourselves to in this life.
We want God to “clean up the mess” and we need to get after it ourselves! “Clear the Way” (John the Baptist) “Prepare for his coming (answer) and not just the coming of him as the last trumpet sounds. See? We’ve got work to do!
How often do people cry out to God (for answers), and wonder why they can’t find or even see the answer from him? We get “clutter of the soul” and wonder why we can’t hear God, when he promised “the sheep will know his voice.”
What about the audible clutter in our lives? (Noise Pollution). We listen to many things, think our own thoughts, and spend a whole lot of time stressing out, trying to figure out how to solve a problem!
At the same time, we wonder why we can’t hear God very well? We clutter up our lives and wonder why we cannot SEE Him? Didn’t you promise I would see you, God? Maybe the answer is “right there” and we can’t see it, because of the clutter!
James had the answer “Purify your hearts” He said (in other words, de-clutter, get the junk out, and pay attention to him!). We want living water, but we mix it up with the defilements of this world (and wonder why it doesn’t refresh us!).
Ponder this awhile! (to be continued) ……With Love,
Laura Grace, Author Grace to Grow, Grace to Soar…….(etc and so on).
gracetogrowdaily 