DE-CLUTTERING BY DE WORD

Hello clutter free friends and neighbors. I am a clutterer... to the chagrin of Brenda. I tend to collect...books...albums... Mad Magazines...mementos from days gone by. The cause and effect of my tendency to collect is clutter. At times...as I sit in my office...where I study, prepare Bible Studies, pray, listen to music, get ready for the Ruminator Sunday School Class (as Brenda chants the mantra..."Rodney...it's 8:10... you need to get into the shower....class is at 9:00.")...and I look around and I am OVERWHELMED by the clutter. As you can see in one of the zeniths of clutter...it...ain't...pretty!!

It is usually at this point...where I can't stand it any longer... that I "clean up." It's like when you work hard...sweat... keep working hard...keep sweating. You start to stink...from all of your hard work...but you can't smell yourself...BUT...then you get to a point where you begin to smell your self...and you realize...MAN...I STINK. At that point...you takes a shower...soap up...rub-a-dub dub, and you can feel the stink (or for those who really stink....STANK)...peeling off of you...and down the drain. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh REFRESHING.

Sometimes I am like that with my SPIRITUAL LIFE. My life gets cluttered with talk radio, controversies, cares of this world, anxiety, worry, tension...and I enter into the ultimate STANK. I become entangled with "every encumbrance and THE SIN which so easily entangles us..." (Hebrews 12:1) My life is so cluttered...that I open the door to temptation, sin, and the flesh...and I find myself being being tempted to be drawn away from who I really am. NOTE: The purpose of temptation is not necessarily designed to pull you INTO something...but to DRAW YOU AWAY...from who you really are). I open the door of opportunity for the flesh in my life...
and walk in...(1) sin in general (2) the personal tripping up sin in my life. At this point...I need a DE-CLUTTERING!!!
NOTE: I have noticed a correlation of my cluttered spiritual life...and my cluttered office...and my cluttered car. In my car...AKA...THE ROLLING SANCTUARY...I tend to eat on the run...through my trash over into the passenger side...have grass and mud on the floor from getting in and out at patients house...and the clutter of paperwork that builds up in my back and front seat like a PAPER TIDAL WAVE...and I don't have a surfboard....YIKES...WIPEOUT!!!!

I have found that I can DE-CLUTTER...when I get back to THE WORD OF GOD.

"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success." (Joshua 1:8). For me to PROSPER (have enough to meet my needs...and overflow to help others) and to have SUCCESS (accomplishing the purposes of God in my life)...I need a WORD FROM GOD...I need THE WORD OF GOD.

"The grass withers...the flower fades...BUT...the WORD OF GOD...shall STAND FOREVER." (Isaiah 40:8). In MY crazy, mixed up world...I need STABILITY. While the world shifts and changes...with economic upheaval...with political turbulence...with the sands of shifting world events...I need to be on something solid in my life.

"Therefore every one who hears these words of Mine (the Word from the lips of THE Word)...and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the ROCK. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against the house... (the clutter of life)...and yet DID NOT FALL...for it had been FOUNDED UPON THE ROCK. And every one who hears these words of Mine and does NOT ACT UPON THEM, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and IT FELL...and GREAT WAS ITS FALL."
(Matthew 7:24-27)

Are you having rain descending in your life...are the floods breaking against the walls of your life (those things that you have put up to protect yourself)...are the winds of life blowing and whirling and tearing up your life...are the combination of all of these things BURSTING against your edifice? Well...THAT'S LIFE...whether you are a Christian or not [Matthew 5:45]. What determines if your house stands or falls...or becomes de-cluttered...is dependant on what you do. You (1) Build on a good foundation [of the Word] (2) hear (the Word] (3) act [upon the Word].

What does this have to do with the clutter in my life? I have found that when I press into the Word of God...the clutter clears. Stuff still happens...but I am able to focus...on the Word...faith came come... and I can stand against the storms in my life. When my life is cluttered...I am open to the storms...fear...etc.


In Genesis...where the Spirit of God was hovering/sweeping of a world that was without form...void... chaotic...and God SPOKE...WORDS...and brought ORDER into CHAOS...so God speaks into my life... and brings DE-CLUTTERING into my CLUTTER. (Genesis 1)

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY...NO REALLY...FINALLY

The Word is full of references to the Word. Psalm 19...Psalm 119...John 1:1-14...Hebrews 4:12...II Timothy 3:16,17...just to name a few.

"How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Thy Word. Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." (Psalm 119:9,11)

"How can a young man NOT keep his way pure? By NOT keeping it according to Thy Word." Thy Word have I NOT HID IN MY HEART...that I MIGHT SIN AGAINST THEE." (Psalm 119:9,11 The Cause and Effect Version)

"All Scripture is inspired (God-Breathed) by God and profitable (beneficial) for teaching, reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness (for de-cluttering in Rodney's life)...that the man of God may be adequate...EQUIPPED for every good work." (II Timothy 3:16-17)

Well...get you a concordance...and look up the Word of God...and see how beneficial THE WORD can be for DE-CLUTTERING...and bringing ORDER into your life.

Love and DE-CLUTTERED KISSES
Rodney "No Sand Foundation" Boyd

Chaos and Clutter

Hello neat freaks...how's your clutter? Oh you may say..."Rodo...I'm a neat freak...I have no chaos and clutter in my life." Hmmmmm...maybe...on the outside...but how is the inside of your life? For me personally...when my outside is cluttered....usually I have chaos and clutter on the inside...BUT sometimes... when everything looks cool, calm, collected...with no chaos and clutter...I'm a wreck on the inside. Notice the first collage. This is a picture of my office. It is a "HOT MESS". Be sure to click on the collage to get the full blown effect of my clutter.

Over the last 37 years of marriage and prior to that 4 years of courtship...I have gone from watching manly movies...to watching the Home and Garden network... the Style channel...the Cooking Network...thanks to Brenda. Give the woman control of the T.V. channel...and she controls the world. I have found that I enjoy watching shows about first time home buyers...cake designers... fashion interventions and the like. Forgive me John Wayne...for I have sinned. One show that we watch is a show called CLEAN HOUSE. This show is where they find messy, cluttered homes...do a yard sale...and revamp the house. Nicey Nash, Trish Shure, Mark Brunette, and the "Go to guy" (can't remember his name)...come in and deal with all of the "mayhem and foolishness" of the clutter...with some psuedo-pop-psychology about why the people live in a mess.

A couple of years ago...a missionary to Guatemala...came and spoke to our church. Kirk Devenny is always a powerful voice in a chaotic world. During prayer time...Kirk prayed for me and Brenda...and spoke a prophetic word...for us to clear out the CLUTTER IN OUR LIVES. He was speaking of the physical clutter and the spiritual clutter in our lives.

We recently had a yard sale...where we cleared out our shed...of clutter. We would literally open the door to the shed...and you were met with STUFF. It was a modern Fibber and McGee closet where Fibber would open the door each show (on their radio show)...and you would hear the clutter from the closet fall all around and on him...burying him under the clutter. NOTE: I love old time radio.

Well...that was our shed. On my vacation...after a couple of days in Chattanooga...we spent it...in the hot, humid days clearing out the clutter and then selling the clutter. We even had a a pile of trash to be taken away to the dump...that people were buying out of...YIKES. One man's trash...really is another man's treasure.

The thing about CLUTTER that turns into CHAOS...it does not happen overnight. I don't wake up one morning...and say...I think I will incapacitate my life with clutter. I think I will hoard things to the point of chaos. It is a progressive ignoring of my mess...that one day overtakes me like THE BLOB (the movie with Steve McQueen and Anita Courset/Helen Crump). It starts out small and then overtakes...until it consumes you. What to do...what to do?


It all starts with a CHOICE. God does not violate our will...our volition...our free choices. He will allow us to have CLUTTER and CHAOS in our life if we want it. He will allow us to succumb to temptation...sin...and walk in the flesh if we desire it. That's not His heartbeat for us...it is not His will for us...BUT...we have the gift of CHOICE.

"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you LIFE and DEATH...the BLESSING and the CURSE. So CHOOSE LIFE in order that you may LIVE... you and your descendants." (Deuteronomy 30:19) NOTE: Choose order or choose chaos... choose clutter...or choose room.

"Now, therefore...fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, CHOOSE for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living...BUT as for me and my house...WE WILL SERVE THE LORD." (Joshua 24:14,15)

I find myself serving the god of CLUTTER. Not just my junk...but CLUTTERING my mind with everything from the world, fear, doubt, unbelief, negativity, the "I Can't" mentality.

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY...

What to do...what to do? I'm glad you asked...I have got to clear the CLUTTER OF MY MIND. I need to RENEW MY MIND....I need to quit CONFORMING to the mold of the world mindset...and be TRANSFORMED in the RENEWING MY MIND. (Romans 12:1,2) I need to develop a new MINDSET...that will give me life and peace versus death. (Romans 8:5-8) I need to do like Bob Dylan...I've got to CHANGE MY WAY OF THINKING...FIND MYSELF A BRAND NEW SET OF RULES. (Bob Dylan Slow Train Coming). I not only have to change my thinking...I've got to change my speaking...and change my doing. I need restraint so I can be free.

UNRESTRAINED THOUGHT (what I think)...produces in UNRESTRAINED WORDS (what I say)...resulting in UNRESTRAINED ACTIONS (what I do). Also...like the people on the show CLEAN HOUSE needs help...so do I. I need the HELPER...THE PARACLETOS... THE ONE CALLED ALONG SIDE TO HELP...the HOLY SPIRIT to HELP in this DECLUTTERING OF MY physical...and my spiritual life.

Love and Uncluttered Kisses
Rodney "Clutter...What Clutter" Boyd