Bin It

[0:00] The 3rd of August. Bennett. For Christ's sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

[0:13] Philippians 3, 8. Popular in social media for a time was a Japanese lady who encouraged people to declutter and get rid of things in the house, wardrobe bookcases and so on.

[0:25] The charity shops became full, and if something was not useful, then Bennett. No doubt the decluttering guru was quite right in some ways.

[0:36] Certainly when it comes to thinking of what is really important in our lives, we have to keep a careful check to make sure we have our priorities right, and we may well have to bin things that can be spiritually bad or useless for us.

[0:51] The Apostle Paul had a massive clear-out of stuff from his heart and life. When he was converted. All the things he had been proud of before, his religious zeal, his pride, his strict law-keeping, even his family connections with Judaism, he threw them all out as worthless things, because they had been keeping him from trusting in Jesus.

[1:13] The Lord Jesus Christ became the center of his life, his most precious possession. And he no longer put value on the inferior stuff of his former self-centered and proud rule-packed religion.

[1:27] A personal trust in the living Christ was worth everything, even if along with it would come suffering and even death itself. Is your faith in Jesus as real as that?

[1:42] And a prayer. Dear Lord, please help me to trust you only and completely. Amen.