Perfectly Clean

From my prayer journal this morning:

 "Father, help me see Your holiness.  I have no concept of what that means, let alone how it is expressed.  Leviticus 11:44 says, "For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy; neither shall ye defile yourselves...."   Strong's Hebrew Dictionary - HOLY - #6918 Defined as: sacred - to be clean"

So all day I have pondered holiness.  I have considered what makes God holy.  I have thought that it is His complete absence of defilement,  His "ultra-cleanliness".  I have meditated on the possibility of me being holy.  Not possible, I am "über-dirty".  I decided that in my own power I cannot be holy, God will have to do it.  But I can follow His prescription,  "neither shall ye defile yourselves...."

So at my meal I refrained from defiling my stomach with an overload of food.  I did the dishes as "unto God", carefully making sure all semblance of defilement was removed.  I spoke to my husband with words of grace, preventing defilement in my tone and content.  But then I checked facebook and opened an ad about upcoming legislation.  In what seemed like a twinkling of my eye, I was defiled.  I did not expect it, but there it was creating a stain on my soul.  Another spot in an already tainted fabric.

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."  (Isaiah 1:18)  That promise brings relief and comfort.  God can clean this dirty soul.  "I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."  (Psalm 27:13)  I believe that in this land He will make me perfectly clean.

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Close as a toothbrush

"But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart..."  Deuteronomy 30:14

Inevitably if you live with others it happens.  In that drowsy morning when you stumble into the bathroom and start your morning hygiene; your cloudy eyes don't distinguish between the colors and your thick fingers cant discriminate the differences in shape; so you proceed and apply generous amounts of the dentifrice and begin the process.  How long does it take to realize you have made a mistake?  It is almost immediate!  "Oh, that is not my toothbrush!"

Unless it is brand new, the relationship with our toothbrush is intimate.  We can tell it apart from every other brush on the planet.  But that intimacy is because multiple times a day it touches parts that are not touched by other things.  The fork just briefly slides over the tongue.  The food is manipulated and sent on its way, but the brush, it goes everywhere.  It lingers and scours and seeks to touch every nook and cranny.

Jesus said that the word is close, intimate; even in our mouth and our heart.  What would happen if I let the word be in my mouth multiple times a day.  If it lingered and scoured my heart, searching out everything that offended?  If that happened, I would know immediately if the word I heard was foreign.  I would only have to taste it and know if it was the Lord's or not.  I would be saved from confusion and indecision. I would be protected from the confusion of the times.  "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."  Matthew 24:24, 25

Lets do it.  Lets purpose to have the word be as intimate as our toothbrushes are.  Then at the first touch of foreign thoughts we will spit them out and wash our mouths out with hot water.  Then we can remember the true words, and let them be our guide.