Friday November 7, 2008 IT'S AN INSIDE JOB
"How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! You are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy - full of greed and self- indulgence! Blind Pharisees! First wash the inside of the cup, and then the outside will become clean, too. How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs - beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity. You try to look like upright people outwardly, but inside your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness." Matthew 23:25-26 Do you ever feel like God is reading your mail? Well, He is! He knows everything about us. His Word tells us that one day everything about us (including all our dirty little secrets) will be revealed! Scary thought for someone like me. We may think that we are doing very well, our homes are clean (well it's true for some of us), our cars are clean, our clothes are clean and freshly pressed, but what is going on inside? God knows. Like the old saying goes, "We can fool some of the people, some of the time, but we can't fool all the people all of the time." We sure can't fool God! I may be a little on the weird side, but I am truly grateful for the knowledge that I can't fool God. Now, I haven't always been this way, but I'm getting more so day-by-day. I'm sitting here with a huge smile on my face as I write. I remember all too well something that happened many, many years ago. When I first met my friend, Merri Jane, I just fell in love with her. Merri Jane had it together. Her house was clean, her kids were clean, and she dressed perfectly. In my eyes she was the epitome of perfection. Well, apparently she thought I was the same way, at least until she came to my house. It blew me away when Merri Jane announced, after being in my house for a few minutes, that she was shocked. She just knew after meeting me that my house was going to be every bit as neat as I was. Oh, well, it hasn't changed much. However, underneath all the clutter around here, it looked really nice - for a while. I grew up hearing that "cleanliness was next to godliness." Until yet, I have been unable to find that in the Bible. However, I do know that God is the God of order - not disorder. Therefore, in this area as well He wants us to live balanced lives. He wants us to have control over the clutter in our lives instead of allowing the clutter to control us. He wants the inside of our lives to be in line with the outside. When God turns up the heat as He refines us, we will begin to really see how cluttered and dirty we are on the inside because who we really are will be revealed in the glow of His love. I believe He will clean us up only when we submit to His cleaning process. If we fight it we lose. Father, I want to be clean inside out. I want to be so full of You that nothing comes out of me that would offend anyone. I am far from that place Lord. I submit myself to You. Clean me up. Make me a fit vessel to serve You. ******************************************* O. Addison Gethers e-mail address : [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] window live messenger: [EMAIL PROTECTED] aim: durangoadd64 skype: cowboys62 yahoo messenger: OADDISONGETHERS --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Deaf-Blind Inspirational Life Group" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/DBILG?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
