More Than Just Cleaning House

May 29

(Luke 11:24-28 NIV) ““When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' {25} When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. {26} Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first." {27} As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you." {28} He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.””

(Ephesians 5:18 NIV) “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”

(Ephesians 6:17 NIV) “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

When we come to Christ for the forgiveness of our sin, we must do more than just clean house. We must do more than just unload our sin on Jesus. We must do more than just change a few things in our lives. We must do more than just detoxify and sober up. We can’t just clean out the old junk that filled our life and expect our house to remain clean. Cleaning house is good, but if we want it to stay clean, we must fill our house back up with something better. If we don’t, we will very likely return to our old ways and end up worse off than we were before. The wise Christian will fill their house with God’s Spirit and God’s word. As we fill ourselves with the word of God, and as the Spirit testifies to its truth, we must then take steps to obey what we hear… because in the end, Christianity is more about being filled than being emptied. We must do more than just clean house. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day