And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.
Great time at Catalyst Recovery last night....
Great worship....
Motivated crowd....
And oh yeah....
God was truly in the house.
Last night's topic was "Cleaning House"....
Step #4 through Step #11.
Identifying all the crud and junk that we've allowed to accumulate that keeps us from moving forward in recovery and our relationship with Christ.
Things like unforgiveness....
Bitterness....
Jealousy....
Anger that we've never actually dealt with...
And oh yeah...secrets.
The things we've done, thought, spoken about ourselves and others that are toxic by nature. Things that we've stored deep inside that haven't seen the light of day in a while.
In recovery, the saying goes..."You're only as sick as your secrets." Which means that those hidden things we refuse to give up or reveal have power over us. This power is the fuel that drives us to use time and time again.
I took the verses from II Kings 23 to highlight the need to clean house in our lives.
In the account, King Josiah has an itch to return to God....but this itch really isn't leading anywhere or accomplishing anything. Until one day, during work on the Temple, one of the men find the Book of the Covenant and brings it to the king. He is so convicted of what he reads that he calls for a time where the entire city of Jerusalem is to come to the Temple where He will read the words of this Book.
Then the King did something radical.
He ordered that men were to go into the Temple and removed all the articles used in the worship to pagan gods....all these things that had been closed up within the walls of the Temple that was built for the One true God, but were used in false worship. So, in essence, the King called for the House to be cleaned and emptied of everything that brought offense to God. One by one, the articles were brought out into the courtyard, into the light of day.
They were gathered up together and burned....
Destroyed....
Done away with....
And that is what is required of us today if we want to move forward into this new life we have found in Christ.
We confess all our secrets...
We bring them out under the light of Christ's forgiveness and give them to Him.
No more secrets...
No more hidden things in our heart...
We allow Him to take each one of them...
Now the one thing that we might not realize or even have thought about, is the simple fact that if we are emptying ourselves of secrets, then God is going to fill that emptiness with all manner of good things. Things like peace....mercy....grace...things we can actually use to help us move away from our old lifestyle.
Sound like a good deal to me.
Have you cleaned house recently?
Might consider it.
God on you...
mbb
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