Spring Is Here
By ED ALLARD, Monticello Church of Christ
Spring is here. With spring comes spring cleaning. Things are cleaned up, patched up, repaired, and remodeled. Warmer weather seems to invigorate us and give us the desire to do those things that we have put off doing during the winter season. As the flowers start to bloom and the trees bud, we seem to take on renewed energy and life also.
Now, you may dread starting and be thinking about what all has to be done. Just think of all the accumulated trash—even under the bed maybe. There may be a lot of picking up and putting away and throwing away to be done. But, it can be done.
And, just think how nice things will look and what a great feeling of accomplishment you will have when you’re finished. Furthermore, we have the advantages of all the modern conveniences that make the job easier. One of those is the vacuum cleaner. Why, even a man can handle one of these.
I want to follow the example of Jesus now, and use these earthly things as He often did, to teach spiritual truths. He used illustrations from life to teach heavenly truths. Where shall we begin? Unlike with us, there are no seasons for spiritual cleansings. If our hearts and souls need a spiritual cleansing, that’s always in season with God.
Often our hearts and souls need to be cleaned up, and things patched up with God, a relationship with God established or repaired or remodeled.
The Bible calls it cleansing, making all like new, or a converting of our ways of thinking, feeling and acting. It leads to a change in our lifestyle and living for God instead of for self.
It is a reconciliation with our Heavenly Father, our Creator, or a restoration of our relationship with Him if that is what is needed.
Do you have a lot of little hidden problems? Get out that spiritual vacuum cleaner that sucks them all up. Are there big problems you feel you just can’t handle? Whether the problems are big or little, God can handle them all, though we can’t by ourselves on our own.
I don’t have all the answers, but Jesus does. He tells us in His word how to handle them all. God’s word starts us out in the spiritual cleaning problem by its motivating, transforming and constraining power.
Let the story of the love of God, Christ and the Cross, move you to believe, or to have faith (Romans 10:17). That story is in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
God’s word that creates faith in our hearts can also transform our thoughts, our beliefs, our feelings and act on our will, so that we have a godly sorrow for seeking our own desires and seek the will of God for our lives. The Bible calls that repentance. Read what Jesus had to say about that in Matthew 21:28-31 and Luke 13:3 and what the apostle Paul said in Acts 17:30.
God’s constraining power tells us of those things in our life we need to handle in a spiritual cleaning, making a decision to get rid of those things in our life that separate us from God, hindering and keeping us from having that relationship with Him that makes all things clean and new again.
Repentance can be thought of as the decision to do those things, submitting our will to God’s will.
And, God’s transforming power tells us of the need to be, and how to be, united with Christ, and have our sins washed away by the blood of Christ. You can read about this in Revelation 1:4, 5, Acts 22:16; 2:38, and Romans 6:1-11.
That completes the spiritual housecleaning, giving us the forgiveness of our sins, uniting us with Christ in His spiritual body, His church, where we receive all spiritual blessings and have the unlimited aid and power of God that enables us to live a life of victory in Christ.
Are you interested in spring house cleaning? Are you interested in a spiritual house cleaning? That can be accomplished now, this spring also. If I can be of help to you in this, please call on me.