Anything clogged is not good
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Faith Fitness
Bro. Sam Kaufman
We’re attempting to prepare our house to put on the market for a move we’re about to make.
All I can say is one word: Clutter. How did we accumulate so much seemingly meaningless stuff?
I recall years ago when I could pack all my belongings into a single vehicle and be on my merry way. That’s not happening this time.
A wife and four kids later, and we require U-Haul’s largest truck – I believe the 16-footer. It was that way when we moved to Alexander City, as well.
I’ll never forget the deadline we faced. We came off 459 onto 280 and had to be in Alexander City in about an hour to meet with the Realtor.
It was about 4 p.m., and I was driving the large U-Haul with trailer transporting our Hyundai Elantra. I had to do some jockeying and maneuvering in rush hour traffic. In reality, that was perhaps the best-ever trip down that stretch because I was all over the roadway and other drivers were keenly aware of it.
In other words, they made room.
Anyhow, back to the cluttered home. I also had to do some plumbing work in our home, which was likely a first. Anything clogged is not good.
It could be a sink. It could be someone’s arteries.
Plaque – not the kind you hang on a wall – is not good for arteries.
Medical personnel typically tell people with clogged arteries that their blood is flowing at a certain percent. In other words, a 40% blockage means only 60% blood flow is occurring because of plaque buildup.
As Christians, we can’t afford to have a beaver dam slowing up the flow of God’s Spirit in our lives.
What we allow in – if it is not of the Lord – can drain our spirituality. The Bible tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. We are not to defile the temple with worldliness and ungodliness.
If that’s the case, and we do ingest junk, we’re rendered ineffective spiritually.
We’ve got to keep the vessel clean and pure.
The same goes with our houses. If we allow ungodly things into our homes, we jeopardize ourselves and our families.
Nehemiah was doing a great work of the Lord in rebuilding the wall. Because of that, Nehemiah had a nemesis.
His main opposition came from Tobiah and Sanballat. The Book of Nehemiah states, “…that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God forever.”
That commandment was largely because of those peoples’ treatment of the Jewish nation.
At any rate, Tobiah was an Ammonite, but – just like the devil – he weaseled his way into an alliance with a Jewish priest who had some oversight of the temple.
Nehemiah 13:4 states, “And before this, Eliashib the priest, having oversight of the chamber of the house of our God, was allied unto Tobiah.”
This alliance led to Eliashib preparing Tobiah a great chamber in God’s house wherein previously they laid the meat offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of corn, the new wine, and the oil, which was commanded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters; and the offerings of the priest.
In other words, this chamber that served a purpose for God’s work was now being occupied by an enemy of God.
Nehemiah was not at Jerusalem when these shenanigans occurred.
Fast forward to Jesus’ time on earth. Jesus made His triumphal entry to Jerusalem.
He discovered the temple operation was not being conducted properly. There were things in the temple that should not have been there. Jesus’ anger was kindled when he found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting.
Jesus made a scourge of small cords and drove what was wrong out of the temple and poured out the changers’ money and overthrew the tables. It must have been quite a sight.
Jesus said to them that sold doves in John 2:16 to, “Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise.”
It was to a house of prayer!
Jesus’ disciples remembered that it was written, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.”
The Lord had a zeal to clean out the house of wrongdoing and put in what was right.
Nehemiah had a similar zeal when he made his way back to Jerusalem. That same righteous indignation burned within when he discovered Tobiah the Ammonite had been given a place in the chamber.
The scriptures read, “And I came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah, in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. And it grieved me sore: therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber.”
It grieved Nehemiah sore, and he threw out all Tobiah’s stuff. That’s not all. Nehemiah then commanded the chambers to be thoroughly cleansed. After that, he brought again the vessels of the house of God, with the meat offering and the frankincense into their rightful place.
Sam Kaufman pastors The Church of God at 405 13th Ave. N in Alex City. Contact him at 432 266-0154.