Spiritual Spring Cleaning....

Over the past few weeks, we have seen a flurry of activity in order to prepare for this new time here at Owl Hollow. Many people have been active in making preparations for the Rayburn’s move to our congregation, and there have been some serious man hours that have gone into revitalizing much of our buildings. First I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this effort and worked to make our facilities warm and inviting.

The think about revitalization is that you have to let go of the old to embrace the new. We painted my office this last week because it really needed it. The wall were marked and dirty where hands had be run over them over time, and the gray-green paint was beginning to show signs of age in this space that I call my office. Frankly, it was kind of a depressing place, and was not conducive to getting much work done. After cleaning out the room, painting the walls, and reorganizing the area the office feels like a place where I can get much more accomplished.

Our lives are much like this. We feel weighed down and somewhat depressed because things seem bleak and we see the need for renewal. Here are a few steps for renewal and renovation in our life:

CLEAN IT OUT (II Cor. 7:10)- We have to be willing to take everything in our life and set it aside only to bring back the things that are needed. We should realize that we should only bring those things back into our life that are good (I Thess. 5:21), and get rid of the things that are not. Otherwise, our repentance cannot lead to a state of salvation.

CLEAN IT UP: (Rom 6:4)- Putting on Christ is more than a paint job, it is a complete rebuilding of who we are. Christ takes us down to the frame and even rebuilds who we are with himself as the foundation (I Cor. 3:11), and but we have to be willing to participate in this process.

CLEANLY ORGAINZE IT: (Colossians 3:12-17) When we clean out the bad in our life we make ample room for the good to come in and take its place. We are told to put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love, and the peace of Christ. Life becomes easier to handle when we use these concepts to organize our life and how we deal with others.

When we look at revitalizing our life, it means that we have to make some significant changes. We have to be willing to sacrifice wealth (Matt. 19: 16-24), family (Matt. 10:37), friends (Luke 21:16), and even our very life (Matt. 16:25, Mark 8: 35, Luke 9:24, 17:33). We have to make the effort and admission that our lives are junky and we are ready to clean them up before Christ’s blood can have any effect on us as followers. Take time this week and ask yourself if you need to revitalize your life….