Starting a new week and a new day with a cup of Door County German Chocolate Cake Coffee. My weekend went too fast. It was busy to say the least, but very productive.
Last week I was listening to a commercial on the radio. It was announcing that people who lived in our county could bring all their hazardous waste to the Wisconsin State Fair Park and it would be disposed of properly and at no cost. "Free" goes with everything I own.
It doesn't take me too long to recognize a good deal when I hear one. Over the years we have accumulated some items like varnish, paint stripper, oil based paint, fertilizer, acid, and oil that needed to be disposed of. Most of the cans were just about empty and really should have been tossed long ago. By the time we filled the car all those "little bits" added up to a large amount of hazardous waste, that we did not even realize we had accumulated over the years. I always was going to get "around to it". I really put our home and my family in danger by saving "those little bits". Laziness set in. My wife would ask me when I was going to get rid of that junk and I would say "next ,month". I really did not make it a priority and I guess you could say I lied to her.
The Mrs. and I have made a vow to go through the house on an annual basis now and clean out the junk. All these "little bits" were either in the house or garage. Given a fire or an accidental spill that might have combined a couple of the chemicals we could have been in a real mess.
Our lives are like that. Slowly we compile sin and bad habits that alone on their own are bad enough, but when compounded by others, life can be an explosion waiting to happen.
2 Samuel 11
New King James Version (NKJV)
David, Bathsheba, and Uriah
11 It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. ( Not in the right place, laziness)
2 Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, ( Lust) and the woman was very beautiful to behold. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with ( Adultery ) her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”6 Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war prospered. 8 And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah departed from the king’s house, and a gift of food from the king followed him. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 So when they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”
11 And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”
12 Then David said to Uriah, “Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 Now when David called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk ( Deception ). And at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
14 In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.” 16 So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also ( murder)
18 Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war, 19 and charged the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling the matters of the war to the king, 20 if it happens that the king’s wrath rises, and he says to you: ‘Why did you approach so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth?[a] Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?’—then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”
22 So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent by him. 23 And the messenger said to David, “Surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field; then we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate. 24 The archers shot from the wall at your servants; and some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.”
25 Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab: ‘Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it.’ So encourage him.”
26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27 And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
David needed to get his life in order. The hazardous waste of laziness and lust that he let hang around, soon was out of control and spawned more sin. We need to take order of our lives and ask God to show us what needs to go before our lives are a mess that needs major clean up. In the past few years some major companies allowed for either oil to spill because of lack of diligence or short cuts. Not only did they pollute the Earth, their company names are now linked to failure. Besides the cost of the clean up they paid penalties. The costs were huge.
Getting rid of the sin in our life is free. It also keeps us from taking on more sin to cover our guilt.
Psalm 32:3-5
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"—and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Time for a spring clean up.
Have a great day.
Marty
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