Keep Jesus Front & Center, and Out Of Your Spiritual Closet

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.‘ (Psalm 51:10)

Keeping in line with Passion or Holy Week; similar to the days prior to Christmas, this week up through Easter Sunday is a time when many CINOs (Christians-In-Name-Only) turn on their best behavior. The only two times they may come to church is Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and Easter. The other 363 days of the year life focuses on secular pursuits, without a glance toward Jesus.

It’s much like Sunday mornings for those who are ‘6-and-a-Half Day Heathenists‘; entering church on their best behavior, and keeping up the appearance of piety until the service ends and in leaving the parking lot, change back into their secular self and put Jesus back into the Spiritual closet until next Sunday. They fall into a habit of coming to church as a necessity to keep up appearances and not so much to worship Jesus. It may even be a secular need to show up in church, to show others a moral standing that may only be a facade.

It is not always nefarious or a purposeful show for those who fall into these two similar categories. They fall into a routine, perhaps work or even family takes their focus off on Jesus and bad habits begin to form. Jesus becomes secondary and perhaps even tertiary in their lives, their relationship with Him taken for granted and then neglected. On Sundays or the holidays a spark may ignite, but the secular stuff that blankets their lives quickly smothers the spark out.

Some wonder where Jesus is in their lives when troubles occur – He is always where we place Him in our lives. If He is in the forefront of our lives in an active relationship, we know He is present to help us. If we have stuffed Him into the back of our spiritual closet, His ability to bless us may be occluded by all the secular stuff, most of all ‘self’, piled in front of His presence.

For these folks in these categories, we who are Faithful must remind those who have fallen into this trap to clear the obstacles and bring Jesus out. It happens even to those who we consider our Biblical heroes, like David.

Psalm 51 was written by David after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan on David’s affair of Bathsheba.  David was God’s chosen one to be Israel’s King, and he was righteous in the Lord’s eyes.  However, like dirt on a pool deck, David had the sin of lust and envy cover his righteousness and thus he fell into temptation, committed adultery with Bathsheba (knocking her up), murdered her husband Uriah, then lied of the true purpose of marrying her. 

David had the blinders on and God in his closet, until Nathan pointed out David’s sins to him.  David knew then what he needed was a Spiritual scrubbing and it is Psalm 51:10 that he asks God to clean him up and reset his walk to live righteously.

Do you need to go to church, read your Bible regularly, or pray often to keep your Salvation?  No, you don’t.  However, if you don’t perform these things, how do you expect your Spirit to remain clean and not covered over with the filth of your sins?  Like your pool deck, there is upkeep necessary to keep your Spirit clean. Had David perhaps been more in tune with God on a regular basis – prayer and devotion – he may have avoided the ‘Bathsheba’ trap and averted his eyes or closed the drapes when he first saw her bathing naked. 

It was a time in David’s life (even for a righteous king) where he took his relationship with God for granted, and simply believed God would bless him no matter what he did.  God in this case did not (the baby died soon after birth) and David and Bathsheba both had to live with their sorrow and guilt.

We all need to stay in the Word, continuously pray, and fellowship with other Christians (in church, in Life Groups, or in some form of fellowship) to keep ourselves clean and sharp.  Like taking a bath (inside a room with the door shut and windows closed, unlike Bathsheba) staying in the Word, praying, and in fellowship with others helps to scrub our sinful temptations away, and also allows us to stay clean and away from such filth. 

You won’t want to get all washed up, only to immediately jump into a mud pit – you’ll want avoid the mud as much as possible.  If you do fall into temptation, it’s important to jump back into Jesus’ arms so He can wash you up.  As the old hymn states, ‘who can wash away our sins; nothing but the Blood of Jesus!’