Down and Dirty

When creating something from motorcycle or car part, the biggest hassle is cleaning the dirt, rust and grime off so it will look nice. But what if you are doing a project with your grandchildren (8,6,and 4) and it necessitates buying new materials? The answer, put it all in a container full of dirt and water (commonly called mud), give them each a wire brush and have them clean the nuts and bolts as best as they can. It sounds counter intuitive to buy new, get them dirty just so you can clean them. But what good art project requires little effort on the part of the artist, yet not too hard that they give up and go play with Lincoln Logs.

I was thinking about this in regards to our relationship with God. In the beginning man was created good. God knew, from the foundations of the world, that The Son would die for the sins of mankind. So, when God pronounced his creation good He knew that it would descend into the dirt and mire of the consequences of man’s rebellion. Therefore, he had a plan to clean it all up, and through faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection we become new creations, our sins are forgiven, and we are reconciled to God. However, our flesh, that part of us that leans toward sin, won’t be totally irraticated until Jesus returns. So, we were given the Holy Spirit to work in us to want and to will to do God’s good pleasure (that’s called sanctification). This is the interesting part.

Even though the Spirit works in us, we are still responsible to “work out” our salvation. The end product is God’s work, but He gives us each wire brushes to scrape away the grime and muck of our lives. We really can’t do it on our own, but it is important for us to work at it in order to appreciate both the process and the results. From our perspective we are to “be”, to “live”, to “walk”, to “work”, and to persevere. Our strength is in the Spirit as we walk in obedience to God’s Word. So, grab your wire brush and spend some time cleaning. I’m just saying.