The Back Shed

Sitting in church recently I was challenged regarding the condition, specifically the tidiness, of my “house”. Now if you are like me there is nothing more satisfying than a nice clean, tidy house where there is a place for everything and everything is in its place. This is most important especially when visitors are coming.

I would go further to suggest that the tidiness of  your house on any given day will probably reflect the extent to which you may or may not know any expected visitors. For example if you were expecting a visit from someone you barely knew then the place would probably be cleaned from top to bottom in order to make a good impression.

If your guest was an infrequent visitor, then a cursory tidy of the lounge-room may suffice. If, however, your visitor was a good friend then you would probably be comfortable sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee with the dishes piled high in the drainer.

The exception to this tidiness and order however may be the back shed. Here, if visitors were coming you could simply open the door and throw things in, in the hope that they will not want to take a look inside.

Everyone has a “back shed” in their lives. Everyone has a place where all their sin - envy, anger, jealousy, bad thoughts about someone, lustful thoughts etc, lurk.

As Christians we know from God’s word that Jesus died on the cross to take away the sin of the world. That means all sin - past, present, and future. God knows the exact state of your back shed, even the corners which you have forgotten to clean for a long, long time.

God’s word also says that once we come to know Him through His Son Jesus Christ that all our sin is forgiven and our salvation is secure. Having accepted Him however we should not become complacent. This means we should not continue to live in our old, worldly ways simply awaiting our eternal reward.

Yes, as Christians our sins are forgiven, whether we ask God for them to be or not. But God wants to hear us confess our sins, to “clean out the back shed”.

He wants us to humbly come before Him and express our sinfulness. He also wants our repentance, our desire to want to bring about change and stop committing the same sins over and over; to try and keep the back shed as neat and tidy as the rest of the house.

“When was the last time you told your wife (husband) that you love her (him)?”

“But she (he) knows I do.” I hear you say.

Sound familiar? It’s just not quite the same is it?

God may know you love Him, He certainly knows you are a sinner. But to come before Him and openly confess your love for Him, along with your sins, brings Him great joy.

What about your back shed?

If Jesus was to knock on your door to pay a visit, would you be too embarrassed and ashamed to show Him inside?

 

Ray Dousset

05Jan10