Keep a Spiritual Shovel Handy!
Sandy Westra
S: Deut. 23:14 "For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you."
O: This passage hit me kind of funny to be found in the Bible--the verses before this refer to the mundane issue of designating places outside of the camp to relieve yourself, and being sure to have something with you to dig with--always cover it up! Vs 14 goes so far as to say if God saw such things lying around, he might turn away from the people...pretty serious stuff.
A: I think this passage can be read with a deeper spiritual application, too. I see two forces at work here--God and us--to facilitate God's unleashing his full power on our behalf. Vs 14 says God makes the first move to come into "our camp" because it is his desire to help us. Our job, then, is to create an environment where God is pleased to stick around. He is offended by our "crap" (pardon the French!). Even after we've been washed clean by Jesus' blood, we need to daily strive to keep our "spiritual grounds" as neat and tidy as we can. Our hearts should be an attractive environment for the Holy Spirit to reside.
It awes me that what I do or harbor in my heart might have an effect of facilitating or hindering God's action in my life. I need to keep a spiritual shovel handy at all times!
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