Ever since babyhood, according to my late mother, I've loved my bath. I just enjoyed a nice, hot soak not a half hour ago. There's nothing like scrubbing the nastiness accumulated during the day from your body to reveal soft, seemingly new skin. I then coddle that freshly cleaned skin with lotions to try to extend the luxuriousness of the feeling. As I was bathing, I was thinking of the account of Naaman in the Bible (2 Kings 5). He was a man of great status, but he was unclean due to his leprous condition. He really wanted to be clean, but he first rebelled against Elisha's instructions go to dip seven times in the Jordan River. Surely that was too simple a solution. He was expecting a great show of pomp and circumstance, and anyway, the Jordan was such a muddy old river. He was complicating the answer Elisha, the man of God, gave him. He finally got over his hard-headedness and did what he was bidden and his skin was restored good as new!
"Clean" is such an exhilirating feeling. We can be squeaky clean on our exterior, but are our souls--our hearts and minds--clean as well? It's a simple matter, really, cleaning the soul of sin. All we have to do is ask God for it. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their outward appearance of cleanliness, because inside they were full of greed and self-indulgence (Mt. 23:25). Do you know someone who fits that description? Hopefully it's not yourself. Like I said though, you can do something about it. Those who receive His word are clean (Jno. 15:3). Only those who betray or reject Christ are unclean (Jno. 13: 10-11).
I can understand knee-jerk mistakes, normal human shortcomings, etc.; but what I cannot understand are people who seem to take pleasure in flagrantly disobeying God and neglecting their service to Him. Truly, some people do get pulled back into he filthiness of the world. God doesn't leave them. They leave Him. Nothing's scarier to me because 2 Peter 2: 19-22 says that their end is worse than their beginning; that to turn your back on your salvation puts you in a worse position than you were as an ignorant, yet unsaved person. There will be degrees of punishment for sinfulness (Mt. 13: 11-14); but those who were once saved will pay a greater price than those who never knew Him (Mt. 25: 16-28). At the very end in verse 22 it gives the disgusting description of a dog turning to consume it's own vomit and a pig back to wallowing in the mud. Ewwww!
The Bible says such people who fall away are like the seed that fell on the rock. They initially received it joyfully, but it took no root (Luk. 8:13). Hebrews 6:6 warns us against "crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace." (NIV)
If you haven't had your bath yet tonight, think on these things during that personal quiet time. Bring any need for personal correction to God in prayer in the privacy of the closet of your heart.
Love Ya (It's good to be back!),
God Bless!
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