"Will you to pick up your own dirty laundry?"

Have you ever been told to pick up your dirty laundry?
Well I am sure all of us have. Many times we spend
our day on menial things consumer our time. Martha
was with Mary & Jesus one day just taking care of the
business of things when she noticed Mary had sat down
from her duties to spend time with Jesus. Martha had
gotten upset because she felt that Mary was slacking
in her duties. Jesus had to tell Martha that Mary had
chosen the best thing.

When we get busy just to show ourselves busy
sometimes we need to re-evaluate things. I can get so
busy doing church sometimes I forget to actually
spend time with the only who actually gave me a
reason to go to church. I love Jesus & there are times
when I just need to spend time with Him. I know that
don’t mean for me just to forget or try to see if
someone else will take care of my duties but I do need
to spend time praying & reading His word.

Recently something else has come up in the church
that I feel needs to be addressed. Sometimes I feel
we have tried to put on our own righteousness. Just
like Martha we do things to look and act like we are
Holy. The Bible says that our righteousness is as
“filthy rags”.

Isa 64:6 - But we are all as an unclean
thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;
and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like
the wind, have taken us away.

Why then do some in church continue to fall back into
that spirit of trying to go back to rituals & traditions
of men? Jesus wants us to be Holy just as He is Holy.
How do we do that Church? By dressing up the outer
man or woman or by getting baptized with the Holy
Ghost & let Jesus clean us up from within? I do have a
certain way I present myself because what the Lord
has put in my heart but if I don’t have sound doctrine I
don’t preach it to others. What is sound doctrine you
may ask, just like I tell my young preachers Book,
Chapter & Verse and also out of the mouth of two or
three witnesses (bible that is).

We which have the sound doctrine of Jesus Name
baptism need not to water down the word or add to it
by that means. I can firmly stand & show Biblical
principles that Jesus has clearly stated (Heb. Chapter
6 talks of the doctrine of Christ). I don’t have to tell
some one how to dress but I will tell them to flee from
adultery, drunkenness & such.

2Co 12:21 - And lest, when I come again, my God will
humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many
which have sinned already, and have not repented of
the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness
which they have committed.

It really bothers me when people try to hide behind
their dress or appearance & think its ok to flirt or run
around with the opposite sex when they are married
to someone else. The Bible clearly states what sin is
we don’t have to make up a new sin just fulfill our
own righteousness.

I had someone tell me that my Assistant Pastor was
living in sin because he was clean shaven & wore a
beard. I can tell you that this man truly serves that
Lord with all his heart. The anointing that flows from
him is incredible. I too had grown a beard for the first
time in my life not because I had backslidden into sin
but really because I wanted to be more like Jesus. I
know Jesus wore a beard & I just felt like being more
Jewish.

Well I found out someone who I deeply cared about
became disappointed in me because of my beard so I
shaved it. The thing that really bothered me the most
was that it was brought up in front of a crowd as to be
put there as now I got rid of my sin. I almost felt like
Mary just waiting for the stones to fly. I respected my
elders and left it alone. The next thing you know I
have someone tell me not to wear my purple suit
because I am drawing attention away from the Lord.

There may be times in the bible when it tells you where
someone shaved their beard but no where in the bible
does it say if you grow a beard you are in sin! If that
were true Jesus wouldn’t have had one. You may ask
why I am bringing this out. Well for the same reason
Paul got on to Peter for being a respecter of persons.

I feel people need to hear the truth & teach the truth
not add their own personal convictions & tell people
that they are in sin when they don’t do they say. My
own father used to teach that way “Do as I say not as I
do…” It is that same as the Pharisees used to do.
They had the appearance down but inside they were
filled with sin.

Mt 23:27 - Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within
full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

It is really easy to point out sin upon someone else but
when it comes home to your own door it is something
we want to push under the rug. It is time for us to
trust in the Lord who baptizes us with His Holy Ghost
to teach us. His Holiness is what I want to follow. It
is time for us to judge ourselves & focus on real sin &
getting that out of our own lives.

"It is time for us to pick up own dirty laundry?"