The Clutter Fix Book Review

This is a book about cleaning.

You’re probably saying to yourself right now “John, of course it’s a book on cleaning, it says so right on the front cover.”

I normally don’t read any sort of cleaning and organizing book because I don’t have any interest in them.

Que the fire meme that says I’m Fine. You probably know what I’m talking about. In reality, we probably aren’t fine, unless we’re Mr. Rogers. Sure, we all know how to clean, but how often do any of really do a deep clean?

So that’s why I picked this book up. Not only does it go by room by room, Shannon Acheson gives detailed insight in the best ways we can go about reorganizing the house. It may be simple things, but by the end of the day, it’s something that everyone can be proud of (unless you’re a parent, which I am not, you know that there’s a lot more cleaning involved). Even if you have to do it again and again, things will be even easier the next time. You’ll have clutter down to nothing. What I like about the book are the sections that you personally can fill in yourself about each area of the house.

But wait, there’s more. What if, instead of applying this to your house, you applied it to yourself?

Deep thought.

Everything Can be Yours…

A few days ago, BabylonBee released this article about Joel Osteen leading Kanye West to the top of Lakewood church to tempt him with all the kingdom’s of the earth.

If you don’t know what BabylonBee is, it’s a Christian satire site like The Onion. In this article, Joel Osteen, who pastors one of the biggest megachurches in America, entices Kanye West, who released an album earlier this year titled Jesus Is King, to have everything on this earth if Kanye worships him.

Joel shows Kanye everything that he owns in hopes of enticing him to a life better than he has. The first time that I read this article, I laughed out loud, and I still do, because it’s funny. Earlier this week there was a report about Kanye actually going to Lakewood.

This article is based on Matthew 4:1-11, where Jesus goes into the desert for 40 days and Satan tries to tempt Him (Why is he even trying? Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t work). Satan tempts Jesus 3 times (If the first one didn’t work, did he think a second or third would really work?)

The first time that Satan tempts Jesus in the desert was telling Him to turn a stone into bread. I mean, if you were in the desert,you’d be hungry right? Jesus was like, “not today Satan, bread isn’t everything, but the word of God is.” Jesus 1 – Satan 0.

The second time that Jesus gets tempted in the desert by Satan is when he tells Jesus to throw Himself off the rock because angels will catch Him. Jesus simply replied “Hey Satan, don’t test me.” Jesus 2 – Satan 0

Now the third time (This is going to end badly for Satan, but the guy keeps trying), Satan took Jesus to a really high mountain and showed Him everything. Satan told Jesus that everything could be his if He only worshipped him. Jesus simply told Satan to get away from Him, because it was written: “To worship the Lord your God only.” Satan just left after that. Jesus 3 – Satan 0

Check and mate. Jesus wins.

The key phrase in this passage – “It is written,” is because it’s actually written in the Bible. To fight off the attacks of the enemy, Christians need to have the word of God in them, to defend themselves from whatever comes against them. Attacks are going to happen, and we might not know when and where they will be coming from. Christians always need to be ready to defend their faith, and also why they believe what they believe. There’s a word for that, and it’s called Apologetics. It’s the “religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse.” (Got that quick definition from Wikipedia boys and girls, but don’t use that site for academic papers!). There needs to be a stand made, not just with passages from the Bible, but something much deeper than that.

Don’t Change For Anyone

Jesus never said to anyone that we as Christians would have an easy life (Matthew 7:13-14). We would have a life that is hard, because a lot of the times it would be living a life that is going against the crowds. It could be the fact that our friends are doing something really cool that we want to join in and participate, but it might not line up with what Jesus would want us to do.

That’s the problem with the world today. A lot of the times people would try and change things to try and get away with doing what they would want to and not what Jesus would really want them to do. They might say something about how Jesus wants us to tell people the Good News, but they actually just want to go to a party with all of their friends and sort of talk about Jesus.

Changing things to fit the world’s view can help to a certain extent. Christians need to be in th world, but not of the world. We have a different home, and people need to know about it. Things that Christ said aren’t supposed to be changed so that the world likes them, although people take this too far. The prosperity gospel is something that goes along the lines of this. It twists scripture around to mean something that scripture did not originally intend for it to mean. If we buy this, or do a certain thing, then God will richly bless us!

We don’t need to buy anything for God to richly bless us. We need to live our lives according to Hiss word, and if people think that we are weird, then we just need to keep doing exactly what we are supposed to do. There might be some that do not want anything to do with us. There might also be some that question why we are doing what we are doing, and tht is when we can start getting into really great conversations.

The world thinks that we need to bend things that Christ has said to be in fellowship with everyone, but the simple truth of the matter is that we do not need to do that at all. We just need to present Christ to the people how He truly was and people will come about. God will work on their hearts, we just have to love them.

One of my favourite lines comes from a movie called Field of Dreams. In it, Kevin Costner’s character is called to build a baseball diamond. The line from the movie is “If you build it, they will come.” What we need to start is build relationships with others. They can stay in communication with us, or they don’t. Christ works in mystery ways. We need to stay true to His sayings. They might not be easy to follow, but it’s not about the sprint, it’s about the marathon.

We don’t need to cage baby Jesus

In all honesty, the nativity scene should be left the way it is, because thst’s what happened. Although, there is a church that, when setting up their nativity scene, they put Baby Jesus in a cage. And there was also a wall involved.

Even though the article is from last December, I think it can still hit home today, just shy of a month later. The Catholic church in Dedham, Massachusetts set up their nativity scene, but with some surprise and very unexpected elements. There was a cage, a fence and a wall. The church used their nativity scene to protest the treatment of immigrants at the U.S.- Mexico border.

I know people were mad about this, but was this a really great way to protest what Donald Trump was doing? Personally, I do not think this was a great idea. Why I am saying that they should not have used the nativity scene to protest everything immigration going on at the time is to ask ourselves a question – What would Jesus do?

Yes, that age old question that was really popularized in the 90s when everyone wore the WWJD bracelets, wondering how many of those people were being serious when the asked the question. Seriously though, would Jesus set up a nativity scene of Himself as a baby and put that part in a cage, while fencing off the wisemen and dropping a wall behind the whole thing? My answer (not sure how everyone else will feel about this when they read it) is no. I do not think that Jesus would ever do/want a protest about anything at all involving the nativity scene that announces the birth of Christ Himself.

Jesus came to the world, and He came as flesh (John 1:14) and to live amongst the people that He came to rescue, as a human, as one of them. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 10 verse 14, the New International Version worlds the verse this way. “”Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

The sword that Christ is talking about is not a physical sword, because things would get really messy, and really crazy, fast. Some people thought that Christ was talking physical, but he was not doing that. He was talking spiritually. Everyone thought that when the Messiah came, He would physically bring everything back to the way it was and wipe out everything in opposition.

That was not the way that Jesus worked (sorry everyone!). Christ came to this world to dispel darkness and evil once and for all. John 12:46 say that, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” When God made the Garden of Eden, everything was God. There were animals, water, trees, and even people (with everything else that there was). Then there was Satan, the devil, who came disguised as a snake and convinced Eve to eat something she wasn’t supposed to do, but she did, and got Adam to eat it too. That’s when everything became crazy and sin entered the world and things became dark.

Christ came to the world to bring everything back to the way it was, to the orginal, master plan that God had set forth. He came so that the darkness would be destroyed and the Kingdom of Heaven would be talked about and made known. He wanted people not to have to worry about sacrificing an animal every five minutes, so He died on the cross for us.

Jesus came to bring everyone together, not tear everyone apart. It does not seem like this was in good taste, there might have been better ways to have protested this. One thing’s for sure. Baby Jesus would not be caged up, He’s be the one breaking the cage.

Did Jesus Fail at His Job

This article came up on my newsfeed I believe, and asked the question if Jesus failed at His job and whathe was supposed to be doing. The article is about a Christian apologist and the questions that he was asked by a friend of his.

I definitely have read this good article, but I don’t think that Jesus failed at His job and what He was supposed to do. He knew exactly what was supposed to happen and accomplished it. Jesus was the word made into physical flesh that came to this world. He came to save people and radically change things. He spoke in parables to the people, performed miracles, and spoke greatly about the Kingdom of God. He also told His disciples to go thoughout the world and make disciples (The Great Comission).

Jesus knew exacly what He was doing. God sent His Son, as flesh to the world, to tae away the sins of the world from from was done in the garden. Sin entered when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the fruit that they weren’t supposed to. It was the one thing that they were to stay away from, but they were tempted by Satan, who came in the form of a snake. That is the original sin that Jesus came to take away from the world and to bring them back to God.

It was all part of the master plan, and Jesus succeeded in what He was supposed to do. It was all to bring people back to God. Jesus started something when He came to earth, and it’s continuing effects are today. People are moved for Christ and want to change the world. Disciples are made in His name and are going out to tell the world what Jesus has done.

Homeless Jesus

I came across this article today about a homeless Jesus statue. The article is from 2014, but I don’t remember reading it until now. The article is about a church that created a statue of Jesus sleeping on a park bench.

The statue was created as a visual representation of Matthew 25:40, which says, ““And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’” The article further says that people have gotten made when they’ve seen this and someone called the cops because they thought that it was a real person.

It says in the Bible that we should be helping others out and going to where they are, instead of them coming to us. Jesus got Zaccheus, who was a tax collector, out of a tree, and went to his house and hung out with him. People were shocked by this as they are shocked by seeing this statue. People need to realize that this statue represents what Jesus would have actually done. He didn’t stay in the temple all of the time. He went to where they people are – in their houses, in the communities. He healed the sick and taught things that people thought were wild, but they were true. Jesus didn’t just walk by people, He stopped and talked with them.

How many times, even in a single day do we walk by the homeless and not even look in their direction? We gowith the flow of the crowd and focus on what we need to do and simply ignore everything else. It’s what is called tunnel vision, where we keep our eyes focused on what’s in front of us, not looking around to see what else is there. I’ll admit I’m guilty of this as well. I do look at them, but sometimes I walk right by them and not say anything. I’m too busy because I need to get to where I’m going. Did this ever stop Jesus? Not at all. If we think of what was popularized back in the 90s “What Would Jesus do?” (I’m not saying we need to go out and buy one of the bracelets), we might start to see things a little differently. Who knows what would happen if we stopped and actually talked to the people that we pass by on the sidewalks every single day. We never know how many amazing opportunities that we have missed and how our lives might have changed. We might not think of WWJD, but we might even think, what if?

Wanna Taco about Jesus?

I picked up this shirt at the convention that I was at in Nashville, TN a few weeks ago. I’ve actually seen it before but this was the chance for me to actually get it. It’s a conversation starter and that’s exactly why I got it.

The verse on the bottom of the shirt, Mark 16:15, says that we need to go int the world and preach the gospel to everyone. And why not do it with a taco? It’ll get people talking for sure, because they might ask what tacos have to do with Jesus.

Tacos are fun, and I think that’s why it was picked for the shirt, and the rest of the shirt is just a play on words. It’s fun, showing that Christians do have a sense of humour and we aren’t serious all of the time. We can have fun like everyone else.

We can disagree but still like each other.

I came across this meme today, and I started to think how true this is of society today.

It says “A new command I give you, love one another.”
“But what if they don’t agree with us on a disputable matter that we think should be an essential doctrine?

“Let’s try this one more time”

It seems like this is the way that the world is going today, people disagree on the smallest things, and since they don’t think the same on the matter, then they can’t be friends.

That’s not what Jesus is saying here, and He’s saying the exact opposite. People make things harder than what they actually are. I’ve heard many times traveling to the States not to talk about two things – religion and politics. We don’t want to offend people, so we just don’t talk about certain things, and that’s part of the problem that we face in society today.

We don’t talk about certain things or do somethings, so no one gets offended and we can hang out with each other. Jesus was saying, love each other, even if you disagree on things. You can still be friends with that person. Jesus wants to love others even if we don’t agree with everything that they do.
We can still get along if there’s disagreement.

Jesus is Literally Everywhere

I mean, He is literally everywhere. I was in Dollarama, and they have candles with pictures of Jesus on them, as well as other religious symbols/figures. This one in particular shows Jesus carrying a sheep and being a shepard, which is what it says in the Bible. Isaiah 40:11 – “Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.”
It’s a nice picture, but I think this is in the Catholic tradition, just the style of things seems to be there. Jesus is our shepard, knowing the right things that we should be doing, but seeing a Jesus candle on the shelf, I start to wonder what Jesus would think about his picture being plastered everywhere. It’s almost like the cross necklaces that people weear just because everyone has one. It almost seems like a fad, but in reality, it’s not. Everyone wants to do it, have a Jesus candle, or have other representations of Christ. Thing is, I think Jesus just wants your heart and to live for him. He doesn’t care about all of the times that we share all of those “Share if you’re a Christian” posts on Facebook.

Jesus, Us, and The TARDIS.

I like Doctor Who.

For those of you who don’t what Doctor Who it, it’s a BBC show that’s been on the air since the 60s, minus the brief pause in the show when the only thing for years was the movie and then the reboot in 2005. It’s a show about The Doctor, someone from a race of aliens known as Time Lords, who has come to Earth (starting to get an idea where this is going?), inside of a time machine called the TARDIS (Time And Relative Demension In Space). Lots of battling bad guys and enemies and the whatnot. He always has one or two people on the adventure (sounding familiar?)

Anyways, you’re probably wondering where Jesus comes into all of this. Don’t worry, I’m coming to it. I found the clip online from the episode that I watched, perfectly explaining this very thing. Here’s the link to it on Youtube – Martha Enters The Tardis.

Here’s a bit more context for the clip. Martha works at a hospital which was transported up to the moon and the Doctor had to save them from a race of enemy aliens. Back on Earth, Martha is with family and relatives, but there are problems and stress, and things going on which she doesn’t really like. Meanwhile off in the distance, the Doctor is watching.

The Doctor offers Martha the chance of a lifetime – to go on an adventure in the TARDIS (Even coming back right after they left!). That’s when Martha starts giving excuses about why she can’t go (It’s all staring to sound familiar).

Matthew 8:18-22 talk about this very thing. “¹⁸ Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. ¹⁹ And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” ²⁰ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” ²¹ Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” ²² And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead” (ESV).

That’s the problem with us and society today. We get so busy with everything, and we need this and that and stay on social media all of the time to stay up to date with people.

The thing is though, Jesus known all of that already. He knows our hurts and our pains, yet He still wants us n our broken state to come on the greatest adventure. Like Martha entering the TARDIS for the first time and seeing that “it’s bigger on the inside.”

Jesus just wants our yes. The adventure that we go with Him will be bigger than we could ever think possible.