Sitting in my office I have a beautiful lava lamp; it is an original one from the psychedelic days of old. I got it as a gift from my Aunt like 13 years ago, I though it was the coolest thing. Now that I am in youth ministry I figure why not have it in my office, teens think retro stuff is cool, right? The problem is it’s broken, the light bulb inside shattered during our move like 2 years ago and the whole electrical unit fell into the base. So I have a half melted ball of wax sitting in a jar that is sitting in a base that is nowhere close to being able to be used. Why do peoples spiritual walks end up like broken lava lamps? Looking beautiful, maybe even tricking people into thinking that we work with full functionality, when in fact we are broken. Inside we are torn to bits, glass everywhere; if someone were to reach in they would get cut to pieces. It is just like the white washed tombs that Jesus talked about
Matthew 23:27-28 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Now the thought that might run through your mind is “man those scribes and Pharisees, they were just so bad”.
Wake up Christians, we all act like this. We are all sinning we are all trying to hide something, sure you may be at a point in your life where you are actually actively dealing with the dead bones. But we are all here at some point. If we don’t wake up, look around and say, “Wow there is a dead rotting corpse of lying, stealing, pride, lust, greed sitting in the corner over there, you know what I might want to take it out and clean up this place” if we don’t wake up every day looking at our life searching with the spot light of the scriptures in the corners of our heart we will slowly rot and stink. We will look pretty on the outside. But guess what? When you put enough dead bodies in one room, eventually the whole house smells, eventually when you open the door (your mouth) the poison gas spills out, and if it gets bad enough you just smell like dead rotting sinfulness. Or you end up looking like a beautiful lamp shiny and new, ready to shine light and bring some joy to other peoples lives and in fact all you have inside is broken pain.
I don’t know about you but I want to be clean, I want to love, I want to worship God not only in word but also in action. I want to have God search my heart and find NO lawlessness; I want to be able to teach the word of God without fear that what is coming out is the rotten stink of pride, lust and greed mixed with the sweet aroma of Grace and mercy. Grace and mercy deserve to be smelled fully and savored with all earnestness.
Search me Oh God, and know my heart, Test me and know my anxious thoughts.
