Rebecca St. James and Junk

If any of you know Rebecca St. James or her music, you know she is extremely passionate about her faith. She's had a hard climb within the Christian music industry. But her impact on me as a student still remains. I remember going to her concert as a youth and one thing she said stuck in my mind. As she opened up the Scriptures on stage, (how many Christian bands do that now??) she encouraged the teens to "get the junk out" of their lives, and then they would be able to focus more clearly on following Christ. I had never heard it put that way before, in trying to be transformed to the image of Christ. Getting the junk out was such a graphic way of saying that the stuff that's in the way of your relatioship with Christ, is of no value, and it's junk and it needs to go!

Today I "got the junk out" of my office. It allowed that thought of the concert with Rebecca St. James to pop into my head, and Romans 12:1-2. which states,

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, [1] by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. [2] 2 Do not be conformed to this world, [3] but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect

I'm also reminded of those crazy reality tv shows that go into a person's home or room, and clean house. The host works with the owner to "get the junk out". How do they do it? They're encouraged to assign value to things. Pack rats have a problem with this. (Of which I confess, I am one, albeit a small pack rat, maybe a pack mouse?) So we put off assigning value to things which should have been dealt with along time ago. Instead, they just stay around, taking up valuable space and energy from our lives.

So in our lives, what is it that needs some value adjustment? We need to hold to things loosely. Christ should be the most valuable person in our lives. God's Word should our most valuable earthly possession. I'm also reminded of a place elsewhere that junk is spoken of:

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ --Philippians 3:8

So, anybody got any junk. 1-800-Got-Junk. Let's do some soul house cleaning.

Here's a current video of her, talking purity for teen girls, one of her passions in her ministry and music.