I just finished installing a central dust collection system in my workshop. I have had the vacuum machine for some time now, but I finally figured out what type of hose and pipe fixtures that I needed, ordered them, and installed the system. Now, I have a vacuum line going to each piece of machinery in my shop.
Currently, I am working on building several adirondack chairs. Each chair contains 25 pieces of wood that need to be cut and sanded on multiple machines to prepare them for painting and assembly. In the past, just a few hours of similar work would have covered my entire workspace in a thick layer of sawdust, and I, personally, would resemble someone who had flopped in flour. Not to mention the health issues breathing sawdust can cause.
But now, 95%+ of the sawdust is removed and contained in the dust collector. What a difference it has made! Woodworking has become so much more pleasant now that most of the mess is removed and contained even as I work. And not only is the work experience more enjoyable, I save so much time not having to shop vac tools… benches… the floor… walls… the ceiling… not kidding… the ceiling! Sawdust causes such a mess and it is the unwanted by-product of whatever is being created.
I am grateful for my new dust collection system and now I wonder why it took me so long to install it. And my dust collection system reminds me of something else… me. I ponder all of the unwanted by-products of my life. Selfishness, a sometimes unloving heart, deceit, lust and unwholesome thoughts, pride, anger, gossip and contempt… you know… those unwanted by-products of the old sinful nature.
While I rejoice that my old nature has been nailed to the cross by Christ and I am a new creation in Him, I also know that I will wrestle with my fallen nature until God’s promises are fully fulfilled in Heaven one day. That is why I am so grateful for the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. He is the spiritual equivalent of an old sinful nature dust collector. He desires to filter those unwholesome things from our lives as He molds us into who He desires for us to be — someone like Christ.
And sometimes I ponder… why do I wait so long sometimes to allow Him to filter some of those things from my life? I can oftentimes relate to the Apostle Paul when he wrote: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Romans 7:15, 19-20 NIV
For the believer in Christ, the battle of the old sinful nature of our lives is a daily surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit. Fancy theologians call that Progressive Sanctification. It simply means that the process of becoming holy is an ongoing experience in our life as we learn more and more who God desires for us to be. As we allow Him to work, the Holy Spirit removes the unwanted by-product of the sinful attitudes of our hearts.
So, the Holy Spirit supplies the power to remove those sinful traits… I just have to hook Him up and plug Him in… uh… maybe that sounds a bit too flippant… how about, I simply need to surrender my will to His desires for my life… yeah… better.
“All to Jesus I surrender. Make me Saviour wholly Thine. Let me feel the Holy Spirit, truly know that Thou art mine. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Thee my blessed Savior. I surrender all.”
Leave a Reply