Skip to main content

Good Riddance


  Every so often you will hear about a person that is trapped under their possessions. Some hoarder whose house is full of junk that they become entrapped in when a pile overturns. It’s sad but not unexpected. If you keep all that junk it's going to end up hurting you.
  

It’s not just stuff however that can entangle us. Sin, temptation, bad company, poor habits can all be piled on until one day it comes crashing down to our ruin.

 …let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
Hebrews 12:1 

 So why don’t we clean house? Get rid of the junk. Castaway the sin. End the bad relationship. Change the way we act. Our lives can be so much better without a lot of the things we cling to. There is such a thing as addition by subtraction. Things can be better without certain persons. Life can have more meaning when we eliminate worries. Blessing can come in when sin isn’t blocking the door.

 It may mean some work and sacrifice. It could mean some tough choices. We may shed some tears and go thru some withdraw pains, but in the end, we will have a clean life, a fresh perceptive and can open the windows and let the light in.

  Good riddance is just a phrase but a principle we should adopt.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Until Midnight

    In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back.       I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...

The Mighty Gulf

  It is hard to get people on two sides of an issue to come together. Each has their own viewpoint, their perceptive, their own foibles, their own understanding.  To gain any common ground there must be something in common. Something or someone that can bridge the gulf between the two.   Could there be a greater gulf than there was between God and man? How could a holy perfect God find a way to connect to the fallen, imperfect mankind? How can one without temptation connect to those who are beset by it? How could limited mortal beings understand an omnipotent eternal God?   In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read, “ For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus .” The phrase mediator here describes a person that bridges the gap, a go-between. Jesus was one who could stand in both worlds. A perfect holy one who can understand our temptations, a man who would die yet live eternally, One who was God yet became flesh and dwelt among us. ...

You Are Not Getting Away With It

  It is hard to find a place in New York City to park unless you are a United Nations diplomat. They park wherever they want.   It’s not that they are allowed to but their diplomatic immunity keeps them from paying the cost. In one year alone the diplomats racked up 143,508 parking summonses, which would have cost them $15.8 million. Yet, because of the immunity, the punishments they incur are not enforced. So, they tend to park very badly   Solomon recognized this tendency. In Ecclesiastes 8:11he writes; “ Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil .” If we do not pay for our wrongs quickly, we tend to think they are OK.  This however is a terrible practice to have in our lives. In Romans 2:4-6, Paul warns us about the danger when we look at God’s tolerance and patience of our sin as acceptance. He warns it will make things worse for us in judgment since God wi...