Wednesday, October 04, 2006
.: House keeping of the Heart! :.
Doing the house hold chores have slowly become part of my daily things I do at home. Coming back home for dinner means I would be the one cooking and once you see cloths hanging up on the window grills means it is time for me to do the iorning. Saturdays are normally left to do the bigger cleaning up of the house, which is the sweaping and mopping of the whole house, and any other cleaning would be a bonus and addition. However even as I had to do all these form the beginning which I did not really like to do, over time it became normal to me and through this God did put me through to learn some lessons.
One of them is that when you realised, although I can clean the house from top to bottom, it will never stay clean for long. I soon realised that as long as I kept the house resonably tidy, it appeared to be clean even when it wasn't. Gradually I concentrated on the appearance of a clean house and neglected thorough cleaning. This compromise was not only convinent, but also convincing. However when I look closely again, or when on sunny days, the clean-loooking house was revealed for what it was- dusty and dirty.
God Brought me to this verse: " You also appear righteous to men, but insdie you are full of hypocrisy" mat 23:28
In Jesus' day, the Pharisees were hyprocrites who concentrated on the appearance of holiness while neglecting their heart-holiness. When the light of Jesus shined on them, He revealed the truth about their outwardly religious life. He didnt say these external acts were necessarily wrong, but they were wrongfully used as a coverup for wickedness . For them, inner housecleanng was long overdue.
What struck me was, keeping up appearance in our housework isn't wrong, but pretending our hearts are clean is. Only those who are clean on the inside will welcome Jesus with confidence when He returns. It brought light to the way I treated doing house work all these while, as in my heart to serve the family; and also upon the own condition of my heart, has it been really clean or just something on the oustide?
Even as I seek the Lord on this, I come to realised I have grown to really want to serve my family, not with a grumbling heart, but with the heart of Jesus. The way I did things, and the attitude in which I went about doing did change and hence my parents also could understand and is starting to realise. Although I dont get good comments form my family when they come home at times, or smiles on their faces after all the effort which I put in, I personally knew that I have stored up treasures in Heaven and what I did pleases the Heart of God. That's of most importance.
Secondly it also reminded me that I need to constantly make sure I clean every part of my heart and let it be pure and holy in the site of God, such that I would not be like the Pharisees who concentrated on the appearance of holiness. It is not about how many times you come to church, how many times you attend cell, how you worship the Lord (note I am not saying these are not important). But if our focus is on that, then we have short change oursleves of the larger and greater picture which God has installed for us. Like what was said before, not about the religious things we do, like getting the surface things cleaned, but about the character that God is molding within us, the constant cleaning up of the house. The process through cleaning the house is never easy, just like how we allow God to work through certain issues in our life, to clean us, will also not be a nice journey to go through. However we know that what comes out of it will be something so special to us.Question is: Have you been serving as a dim light for the Lord in the house, reluctant in many things, or have you been a bright light that shines for the Lord as you serve the family?Have your heart also been only a tidy house, not fully clean, or have it always been tidy and clean? Me blogged @ | 12:51 AM
