Friday, February 13, 2009

A Clean heart and teacup



I have to admit...I have a slight obsession with tea cups, pots, just dishes in general. Tea cups embody all the things us girly girls love...they're delicate and pretty. My sister has a cup that has delicate yellow daisies on the outside and light green ivy trailing the side of the cup and spilling over into the saucer. My current favorite is a Royal Albert with bright pink roses and lace in the pattern. They always look so cute and foo foo when we get them together. An entire table of beautiful cups are gorgeous in a setting. The problem is that no matter how good looking they are on the outside..the cup is useless if it's dirty on the inside.

Sometimes I store my cups in the curio and I don't see them for months. When I bring them out they're dusty and need washing. I take a gentle hand washing and preparing them with vinegar and baking soda. After a quick soak my tea cups always shine so pretty and clean. You know we need to do the same daily with our lives...no matter how good we look on the outside...how put together our lives seem (and some of you look pretty together from here)...we still need to be washed with the forgiveness of Christ and daily rid our lives of sin. We can't just show up on Sunday and go through the motions and think we're clean.   Many Sunday school teachers, pastors and church folks are pretty on Sunday but their lives are just as dirty as an unused tea cup.  My cups aren't useful when they're dirty. The same is for a Christian...you're not useful for Christ if your life is dirty on the inside. Let's work on letting Jesus clean out the inside of our hearts.


Mark 7:4 When they (Pharisees) come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles...
Mark 7:20-23 He (Jesus) went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' "

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well written words of truth,
thank you for always encouraging me.
JSmooth

Lisa said...

Another great post to make me pause next time I see a teacup. And so true..

~Lisi P. said...

Always working on the inside. Took me a little while to get somewhat straight. Thank God we're a work in progress.