Spring Cleaning
LAMPLIGHT DEVOTIONAL GUIDE
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path”
Psalm 119:105 (NIV).
“Living From the Eternal Perspective”
A Devotional From PATHH Ministries
DATE:
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
HEADING
Spring Cleaning
By Teddy A Jones
TEXT (Col. 3: 8-9)
so make sure it's all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. Don't lie to one another. You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. [MSG]
8But now put away and rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips! 9Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old (unregenerate) self with its evil practices, [AMP]
But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. [NLT]
COMMENTARY
Spring cleaning is the period in spring time set aside for cleaning a house, normally applied in climates with a cold winter. The most common usage of spring cleaning refers to the yearly act of cleaning a house from top to bottom which would take place in the first warm days of the year typically in spring, hence the name. A person who gets their affairs in order before an audit or inspection could be said to be doing some spring cleaning. Iranians continue the practice of "khooneh tekouni" which literally means "shaking the house" just before the new year. Everything in the house is thoroughly cleaned, from the drapes to the furniture.
In addition to the call to engage in mortal combat against the desires of the flesh lurking inside us, the disciple who lives with a higher meditation must also actively engage in a thorough shaking of the house. The list of behaviours and attitudes in verse 5, which belongs to the old self is expanded to include very specific actions, which are labelled as wicked. Let’s call a spade a spade. Let us not engage in euphemistic attempts of self justification. The onus is on the individual disciple to pull the curtains aside, open the closet door, search for and identify the clothes of the old self that do not fit the resurrected life and get rid of them.
To our great discredit it is often observed by those outside the Kingdom of God that our lives are filled with much of the same things as theirs. Could it be that unless we are intentional in routinely engaging in this spring cleaning exercise these trappings of the flesh will continue to be woven in the fabric of Christianity?
Something to Meditate on:
How many items on that list will my family/co-workers etc see me wearing?
A decision I need to make
When will I shake the house?
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path”
Psalm 119:105 (NIV).
“Living From the Eternal Perspective”
A Devotional From PATHH Ministries
DATE:
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
HEADING
Spring Cleaning
By Teddy A Jones
TEXT (Col. 3: 8-9)
so make sure it's all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. Don't lie to one another. You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. [MSG]
8But now put away and rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips! 9Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old (unregenerate) self with its evil practices, [AMP]
But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. [NLT]
COMMENTARY
Spring cleaning is the period in spring time set aside for cleaning a house, normally applied in climates with a cold winter. The most common usage of spring cleaning refers to the yearly act of cleaning a house from top to bottom which would take place in the first warm days of the year typically in spring, hence the name. A person who gets their affairs in order before an audit or inspection could be said to be doing some spring cleaning. Iranians continue the practice of "khooneh tekouni" which literally means "shaking the house" just before the new year. Everything in the house is thoroughly cleaned, from the drapes to the furniture.
In addition to the call to engage in mortal combat against the desires of the flesh lurking inside us, the disciple who lives with a higher meditation must also actively engage in a thorough shaking of the house. The list of behaviours and attitudes in verse 5, which belongs to the old self is expanded to include very specific actions, which are labelled as wicked. Let’s call a spade a spade. Let us not engage in euphemistic attempts of self justification. The onus is on the individual disciple to pull the curtains aside, open the closet door, search for and identify the clothes of the old self that do not fit the resurrected life and get rid of them.
To our great discredit it is often observed by those outside the Kingdom of God that our lives are filled with much of the same things as theirs. Could it be that unless we are intentional in routinely engaging in this spring cleaning exercise these trappings of the flesh will continue to be woven in the fabric of Christianity?
Something to Meditate on:
How many items on that list will my family/co-workers etc see me wearing?
A decision I need to make
When will I shake the house?
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