"Obey my laws and live by my decrees. I am your God. Keep my decrees and laws: The person who obeys them lives by them. I am God." (18:5)
In yesterday's reading He spoke about an unclean home, "If the fungus breaks out again in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house has been scraped and plastered, the priest is to come and conduct an examination; if the fungus has spread, it is a malignant fungus. The house is unclean. The house has to be demolished—its stones, wood, and plaster are to be removed to the garbage dump outside the city." (14"43-47)
My heart.
It is where He lives and how often has a fungus been introduced that I allowed to take over. To cause an uncleanliness in my heart? What I put into my heart is what I become.
Until I die, there will always be a fight against the "fungus". Of serving Him or serving "self". He has promised me that there isn't one temptation that I will encounter that He hasn't provided a route of escape.
And still - there are times - when I will stay right there and submit to the temptation.
And the fungus will be introduced, again.
Each winter during our down time, I have the goal of reorganizing and purging our home of items that we no longer use. That have been sitting in drawers, shelves, etc., gathering dust and taking up space. Some of these items I discard because they are no longer any use to us, but some I find I have held onto because I was getting my worth from them. Some items were only here because of sentimental reasons or as a way of being a part of a relationship or person. I go into this purging thinking that one day I will be gone and I do not want Curt and the kids to be consumed with sorting through all the stuff. I want them to be able to focus on Him, each other. I try to rid my home of the "fungus" that is sitting unseen on a shelf. There have been too many families, that I have been a part of or seen, torn apart because of the "stuff" a person left and how they left it. I try to remember that Christ lives here and to give Him access to every square inch of our homes. The physical and the spiritual.
I have learned that even though you cut off the green mold on cheese, you aren't cutting off the roots that have went deeper than the line of mold. Temptations that we chose to fall victim to are so like that. The roots will grow deep, unseen, throughout your heart, penetrating into your mind, your life, your body language, consuming all of you.
Unless your heart is covered in His blood. Covered in and through with His grace and mercy.
It is the "penicillin" so to speak, that saves you.
Sometimes there are "stones" in my heart that will have to be removed. They are "stones" that I allowed self, or others, to put there. They are "stones" of lies. But God doesn't leave my heart with unfinished walls. He fortifies them, rebuilds them up with His Stones of Truth.
It is in the rebuilding process, using His stones, that I see my heart becoming more than just a house with Him, but a home. And there is a difference. My home In Him - with Him as the center, creates my life as Him as the center. It is transforming me to reflect Him more and more. To escape from the temptations - the fungus - the mold.
It has Christ as the Cornerstone.
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