Underwood Unplugged

To be honest, there are times when I dread "doing the chores" of house or yard keeping.

I do have my moments, however, when I become a neat freak. I can't stop cleaning up. Maybe you know the feeling or you get in the obsessive cleaning or fixing mode. You love products like "Krud Kutter" that just obliterate nasty stains and marks.

When you do a job, you want the job done right. Fixed. Clean. Finished.

Many people are like that when it comes to God. We want to be spiritually "clean" or righteous, so we get in the habit of doing things to look righteous. We set goals and boundaries that help us "be good" or avoid sin.

It's easy to point at the New Testament Pharisee (Matthew 15:1-20) and say that human rules and goals and traditions really cannot make me clean. It's easy to see legalism and empty rituals in somebody else's life.

Are there parts of my life that aren't clean? Absolutely, and I should be in "clean-up mode" to set those things straight. Like the Pharisee, I can look at my spiritual life, make a to-do list, and go on my self-righting attack.

Jesus challenged Pharisees then and now about what it means to be clean. If your heart is not clean, your actions are worthless. Everything starts within, trusting the forgiveness and righteousness of Jesus Christ for every day's action, word, and thought.

Your actions reveal what's in your heart. So if you want to go "Krud Kutter" for God in your life, you've got to start on the inside. What's going on in there?