Spring cleaning

P 3421 Get rid of that!  

/ DVH

To begin with today, I need to explain an Aussie word that can have entirely another meaning in other countries – otherwise someone’s hair might turn grey and fall out. “Piffing – primarily functions as the present participle of the Australian slang verb “piff”. It means throwing, hurling, or discarding something vigorously or carelessly.”I need to explain this word because I am planning to use it, and its other meaning is not a good one! 

There are things in our lives that we find are extremely difficult to discard. I’m not going to name anything, because I think that’s for all of us as individuals to go away and figure out for ourselves. But I pray this prayer regularly and I have seen extraordinary answers to it: “Dear Lord is there anything in our house that You don’t like? Please help me find it.” Amen. After I prayed that prayer I have found lots of things the Lord didn’t like, and I did not know they were there! I chucked them out.

Just like we do spring cleaning in our homes, we need to do regular spiritual cleaning. Let’s assess if and why we think we need something or other so badly, and why that habit or action is so hard to discard. Hence my use of the word PIFF. Which can be also translated as “chuck.” (I thought it was a bit much to put piff in the title, someone might take offence!)

There are things we do, or that we treasure, or even stuff that is laying about somewhere in a cupboard hidden, that the Lord may not like. And without being too obsessed about it, you and the Lord can have a great time, finding and removing such items. I have. Once I found something yucky I didn’t know we had and the Lord helped me locate it supernaturally. Doing such an ordinary thing with Him, helped me to learn how to listen, and it improved my faith at the same time!  When I am in doubt, by the way, I chuck it out anyway, or I prayerfully choose to stop doing it.

Moving on to two stories from the past: As a child, my son happened to be incredibly untidy – he has since grown out of that. I’ve heard stories about untidy kids who pile everything they don’t care about on their beds and the mother has to go rummaging about to find the washing etc. Not in his case. He chucked everything… and I mean everything … the things that he didn’t want, or want to be seen … under his bed. Eventually, the bed grew lumpy from the crowded floor under it. It didn’t bother him, but it sure did bother me because I had to clean it up just for hygiene’s sake. 

I got so grumpy. If that poor kid could have run away to avoid these not-so-happy situations, I think he would have, but it seems he liked us all too much. I became very sick of tidying up underneath his bed, so one day I threatened him with a smack for every item I found. 1st lesson learned … never promise something you can’t possibly deliver! Hmmm. Before someone thinks of me as a child beater, back in the ark it used to be legal to smack your kid. Read the book! Any-way, when I got to item 110!!! I fell about laughing. I would have had to beat that kid to death to make good on my threat. He was laughing, probably from relief, and a fairly good time was had by all.

Until the next cleanup. I want to add that our son wasn’t being naughty, he just had better things to do in his little boy-world than clean up his room. I was talking to his paternal grandfather about this situation. He was a fun person, and this particular day he volunteered to oversee the clean-up. The kitchen was a distance from our son’s bedroom and yet I could hear them both laughing uproariously from the kitchen sink. I snuck up to see what all the fun was about.

There was Grandpa, sitting on the floor with the boy, picking up things from a huge pile on the floor and asking him if he thought he still needed it. If the answer was yes, it went on a pile on the right, if it was no … then Grandpa said: “Piff it!” loudly and chucked it over his shoulder. Of course the piff it pile was loads bigger than the keep pile simply because the kid wanted to see Grandpa chuck the thing over his shoulder! I crept away lest I spoil such a happy memory for them both. 

I realised that this is what the Lord wants me to tell you, today. When we get rid of the things that are clogging up our relationship with Him, we are making room for other more important things He wants to give us. In my son’s case it was a lovely memory he made with his Grandfather. God enables us to leave behind any weeping and wailing over loss, because the One Who loves us best knows what is best for us. Whether it is some habit that controls us, or something, or someone we feel we cannot live without. 

Many times in my Christian walk since then I have culled our DVDs, books, music etc. among other things, and these times have become precious memories of how much God loves me. So … piff it, or chuck it , or just plain get rid of it – it doesn’t matter. If He doesn’t like it, then gone is good! Bye 👋.  

P 3085 Dust? … Anyone?

/ DVH

“The first one, (Adam) made from dust, has a race of people just like him, who are also made from dust. The One sent from heaven has a race of heavenly people who are just like Him. Once we carried the likeness of the man of dust, but now let us carry the likeness of the Man of heaven.” 1 Corinthians 15:48-49 TPT. (Just keep reading I do have a point!)

I have had dust on the brain recently, what with spring cleaning, and finding cobwebs in my own life in unexpected places. Then hubby found this verse in his daily readings and we both had a good laugh. Laughter really is good for all of us, especially if we can laugh at ourselves. So we hit a joy bubble together and laughed way out beyond the reality of whatever was supposedly funny and … felt much better.

Apparently people much smarter than I am, suggest that if you are struggling with depression or anxiety, watching a marathon of movies that you know can make you laugh can help. They suggested the Three Stooges – which made me doubt the accuracy of their prescription … mainly because I don’t find the Three Stooges even remotely funny. I’m not into physical gags. I find people having pianos dropped on their heads hard to watch!

Back to today’s verse, because inheriting and sorting out other people’s old things has been part of my day for weary weeks now. My take on what these verses are saying goes like this: If you want Adam for an ancestor more dust awaits you. Ya might want to think about that! You could definitely need one of those dust-buster gizmos they sell for $59.99 on TV. On a good TV advertising day you can get two for the price of one. My question is — why not sell ONE for thirty bucks and be done with it? ps maybe you need two because the one you start with will kark it and then, the other one will come in handy? Or you can always give the extra one to your mother-in-law. I’m allowed to tell M-I-L jokes – I ARE one. Splendid! Now there’s Christmas sorted. I am so-oo-oo helpful!

Did you read the next line in that scripture? I underlined it so it would stand out! “The One sent from heaven has a race of heavenly people who are just like Him.”  I underlined that bit because it serves my point. I know HEAPS of people who aren’t like Him and sadly, they dusty-up the church in this world all over the place. At the same time they also obscure other people’s view of what Jesus actually looks like! I’ve been in a dust storm – you can’t see a thing! Dust, BTW, in the Lord’s hands can be useful stuff – Jesus once wrote in it and saved a woman’s life. 

Meanwhile our churches need some of those dust-busters because we’ve forgotten where we came from — we are dust-free simply because of what HE did. Before we met Jesus we used to be Pig-pen … see picture above. But now we have been bought back from that dirty dusty scenario to live in the freedom and light that surrounds our Saviour, Jesus. Our job is to carry around His likeness wherever we go. No more cloudy nasty dust for us – it only makes people allergic to us! But that kind of cleanliness and clarity won’t fall on us – we will have to choose it. 

I have included this next testimony purely because it was not me that suffered through it. My hubby was on the phone for an hour and a half yesterday to Centrelink  – listening to truly awful music … who picks that stuff and where do they live? I want to disconnect their CD player right away – I may even jump on it! … An-y-wa-y he rang Centrelink to tell them that they had paid my mother her pension, and as she is no longer with us, he wanted to ask them, how could we give back those extra $$s? 

When hubby finally did get to speak to someone – hours later! The guy at the other end of the phone was gobsmacked by our honesty. Apparently nobody wants to give money back anymore, they usually have to chase after a person if the extra cash wasn’t theirs in the first place.. No wonder the government has no spare money for poor people to buy bread and milk! And now comes the kingdom of God angle…

… this young man then explained the money was actually legally ours. Colour me astonished! I can’t be bothered here explaining why here, because it isn’t worth the space, but no bill collectors will be knock knock knocking on our door. Praise the Lord!

I wanted to use this illustration to show the difference between dusty people and heavenly people — it’s the way they live and act. Dusty people attract dirt, cobwebs, spiders, and other nasty creepy critters… BUT … the people who choose to live in His light, attract other people who are out there looking for the light! Let’s go! Let’s live this life we have been given, carrying the light of heaven wherever we go. 

How do we do that? Easy peasy. Live in His love. I am not good at it, yet …I freely admit that. But when I get done and dusted, (teehee) I get up again – that’s the secret! We will all get it wrong … and then we repent, and repair relationships, and deliberately go back to our precious Saviour and let Him further transform our lives with His redemptive love. We will end up thanking Him all over again for saving us from the never-ending dust piles of this life…as we choose to carry the light of His love and forgiveness out into this world. Bye. 👋

P 3080 Spring cleaning time!

/ DVH

Spiritually speaking, God’s people need a good spring clean out, regularly. This means we deliberately choose to get rid of any stuff the Lord doesn’t like, and let His love clean and shine up any dirty windows on the inside of us. We can even accumulate things around us that we have been tolerating. This prayer is invaluable:“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24. 

Here’s an interesting scripture from the book of Acts 19:19-20.“A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.“ 

The Word of God increased in power as the Lord’s people made it their business to get rid of anything that they had in their homes that elevated or attracted satan. I too, believe we can be spiritually hindered, unless we deliberately take our love for Jesus seriously, and we cherish His presence over anything else. When we make Him King over everything, His power increases in us and around us. Here’s another interesting story from Acts to think on.

“About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.” Acts 19:23-27. 

Further on in this story, a riot starts and nobody can stop it!. What I wanted to mentioned here is that God always has someone waiting in the wings. This time it was a man of wisdom. He was a man most people would overlook — a city clerk! But he stands up and speaks his piece and the riots stop and everyone goes home. You must never ever ever think your job is minor. God has people in all kinds of places, people we may not even recognise, but they are pivotal to His plan – He is Wisdom personified, and He does not advertise what He is going to do next.

The verses above show us how our enemy’s traps work. Some ‘iffy’ or doubtful things can become established in people’s lives when they are careless. Greed reared its ugly head too! Demetrius the unofficial leader, pitched a fit because his profit margin was going to go down!  There are times when accommodating stuff the Lord does not like, will interfere with our walk with the Lord. It becomes too easy to rationalise away the effects of compromise. I think it is good to occasionally go right through our houses and pray over what we have.

Every single time I have done this I have had a personal breakthrough, it is like spring cleaning my heart. We all know that the devil is not worth bothering about, but his agendas can cloud our walk with Jesus. We belong to Him so everything we have is His. So if the Lord doesn’t like something, then it is good to spiritually spring clean and get rid of it. That includes books, DVDs, Cds, video games – any doubtful items given to us by someone else that we have kept so we won’t hurt their feelings. Or stuff we thought – that will be OK, God won’t mind – but we didn’t ask Him.

My motivation is to make people aware that satan is sneaky – he will infiltrate our houses with his rubbish. Seemingly harmless stuff that just feels a bit “off.” I can’t tell you what might offend the Lord at your house, I can only suggest you and He go through your home together and let Him lead you through this process. At the same time I do not mean we should all go on a witch hunt. We all accumulate junk, all I am saying is that it is valuable to check with Jesus about the things we have collected, accidentally or not. Obviously this is something that needs prayer. I personally have this policy, ‘when in doubt, chuck it out.”

As we walk with Him, day by day, our main aim is to do more than just give Him lip service. The bible clearly says that this was one reason why the Lord was angry with Israel. Their repentance did not go beyond their mouths and that lassez faire attitude was totally their choice. They said YES to God and then went away did NO! Father God wants our hearts to be wholly His, and this is why we live our lives undergoing transformation. His desire is for us to go from strength to strength and glory to glory. That won’t happen by itself. It happens as we value Him above everything else.

The place to begin is revealed by our responses to difficulties, when our attitude is wrong, it will colour our tolerance levels. Ask Him to search your heart and show you any wicked way within you, then repent and do something about it. We need to do some spring cleaning. Repentance without fruit is like that fig tree story – it holds lots of promise but there is nothing substantial on it.  Bye. 👋