Strip Down To Run Effectively For The Crown!

(Getting rid of Spiritual Clutter and placing ourselves for effective Christ-glorifying work!)

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 KJV

WE NEED TO BE CAREFUL LEST WE ALLOW THE SIMPLE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST TO BECOME SMOTHERED UNDER A VIRTUAL AVALANCHE OF THEOLOGICAL OVERLOAD

A house remains new and empty for just a little while. In our natural lives we accumulate stuff over a period of time. We pack them in every available room, until we are so jam packed that things become squished together. Every nook and cranny becomes so stuffed, that we do not even remember what we have stacked away. The longer we have lived in a house the more we accumulate stuff in it.

Storage capacity on computers in this day and age has moved from the lowly Kilobytes era to Terabytes and beyond...So much storage! And correspondingly we can accumulate so much junk that we have system slowdown and overload! Junk mail rules over our inboxes. We lose our files somewhere in all that accumulated stuff on our computer hard drives.

Our spiritual life is no different. We accumulate stuff...spiritual junk...some good stuff and much bad. We squish them together until we can hardly distinguish the good...from the bad...from the outright ugly!

We become storehouses for so much spiritual buzzwords, religious jargon, theological terminology that our lives become a virtual stockpile, of often trivial, and many times dangerous stuff, taking up vital space, interacting and either amplifying or else nullifying each other!

Information overload, garbage overflow, junk pileup results in serious obstruction of our view and divert our course from our eternal goal. It's rather difficult to travel, much less run an efficient course when we're encumbered with junk and overloaded with useless fluff.

We become like Bunyan's Pilgrim, only we have exchanged the original burden for a bigger, ever increasing and more cumbersome burden, so that at the end of a wearisome day, instead of enjoying the sleep He gives to you His beloved, we pass the night with ceaseless groaning under self inflicted loads.

SPIRITUAL CLUTTER DOES NOT OCCUR SUDDENLY, BUT RESULTS THROUGH A GRADUAL PROCESS OF ACCUMULATION, OF SEEMINGLY HARMLESS BITS AND PIECES WHICH EVENTUALLY RESULT IN OVERLOAD, OBSTRUCTION AND OBFUSCATION OF THE SIMPLE SPIRITUAL TRUTHS!

We can become burdened down by man made rules, rituals, and religion.

We can become burdened down by our own tendency to unconsciously accumulate things that are many times not edifying or profitable.

We can become burdened down by the enemy who is also usually behind all the subtle efforts to deceive and tie us up

We keep piling on the burdens and become wearily weighed down, while all the time Messiah is saying "Come unto me all ye that labour are heavy laden and I will give you rest" We have been literally forcing ourselves to keep a stiff upper lip, and to grin and bear it. We have manfully struggled on, and cajoled, forced or enticed others to do the same. But we need to live the words of that old Sunday School chorus?

Roll away roll away roll away...every burden of my heart rolled away!

There comes a time when we need to do inventory, stocktaking and an examination or reexamination of ourselves, to identify those burdens and junk in order to roll them all away! What's hindering us from receiving from God? Sometimes like Bartimaeus we have to cast away that which may hinder our expedient approach to the Lord, irrespective of how relevant it may have seemed!

Paul declared that he only wanted to know one thing amongst the Corinthians, i.e. Jesus Christ and Him crucified! He refused to allow fancy talk and human wisdom to corrupt the simplicity of the gospel. He declared:

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:1-2

Compare the rich young ruler and the rich fool with Paul’s response: But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, (Philippians 3:7-8 KJV) Paul was willing to let go in order to grab hold! Our reluctance to let go can result in defeat at the brink of victory! Ask the Israelites!