cleaning house

so i'm taking a break from cleaning this nasty house. it was too the point that there were enough crumbs on the counter to make a meal. the dirty clothes mutated to life and had a battle of the stenches. the socks created a line of defense against the pants and some tragically didn't make it, which is why sometimes you only find the last brave one.
as i was vacuuming the ground up potato chips, dried pizza and cereal crumbs off the carpet, the phrase "cleanliness is next to godliness" kept coming to my mind. to be honest, i hate that phrase. i'm not a clean freak, everything in it's place kind of person. my philosophy in life is the bigger mess you make the more fun you have. often my living room is transformed into a fort with sheets drapped over chairs, pillows stacked to the ceiling and toys surrounding the perimeter, ready for the attack. sometimes it stays like that overnight because the battle was not won.
as the vacuum sucked up the potato chip and i heard it crunch in the belt, i began to understand the phrase. we can't be Godly with dust from our past, filth from current sin, and crumbs from guilt in our lives. i remembered several times in scripture where God talked about cleaning our hearts especially before we approach Him. How often times do i invite Him to hang out in a filthy house? Come on in and sit down but move the papers off the couch. Don't mind the pizza boxes on the floor; just step over them. Oh, that picture? just blow the dust off and i'll tell you about it. i don't treat my guest like that and the Father of all deserves much more. hebrews 10 promises that if we clean our hearts from all sin and guilt then we will be able to draw near to Him. i concluded that the only way to godliness is to clean. God deserves a clean seat.
i peered into the window of my heart's house and i decided that there is alot of cleaning that needs to be done. i know that my house is never going to be spotless, but i can work on keeping it tidy. i'm still amazed at a God who wants to hang out in my house, when often i want to condemned it for it's filth.
now, back to cleaning both houses........