Spiritual Hygiene



hygiene is GOOD!

I'm assuming that you, like most of the world, believe in personal hygiene right?! Washing your hands, taking showers, brushing your teeth, the whole parade. I mean, could you imagine living in a world that DIDN'T care about hygiene? Gross! Well, let me tell you a TRUE story, directly from the Bible, that gives us a deeper meaning behind personal hygiene, but most importantly, spiritual hygiene.

Matthew 15:1
Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem saying,

Pause for a minute. Let's get our facts straight. Scribes were the authors or writers in Bible times. The scribes would copy scripture (the Old Testament) onto scrolls. Pharisees, on the other hand, were people who stuck to the old law of Moses and followed those laws to a "T". Both very religious groups of men. Correct? Correct. Now let's move on to verse 2.

Matthew 15:2
Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread.



the disciples didn't do this

Now the Pharisees and scribes are calling out Jesus' disciples. The disciples did not follow the customs of Moses, or any of the elders from the Old Testament, because they did not wash their hands before eating. The Pharisees and scribes didn't like that. Washing your hands before a meal was the proper, religious, law abiding thing to do. Just like nowadays it is the proper thing to do to take a shower or bath. Except washing hands also had a religious tie to it! Not obeying that law, was looked down upon, and scorned. Moving on to verse 3.

Matthew 15:3
But he (Jesus) answered and said unto them (the scribes and Pharisees), Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your traditions?



Oooohhh OUCH! The Pharisees and scribes always tried to ask Jesus questions to see if they could throw them off, but Jesus would answer their questions, and in return asked them questions he knew they could not answer. This time, Jesus was telling the scribes and Pharisees this: Why do you guys overstep and break the commandments of God by your traditions? The scribes and Pharisees had their own traditions that went against God's law! But because they thought they were so religious, it was alright for them to make their traditions just as important as God's.

Now you might be wondering, Hannah! where is this post going?! I'm just Bout there! Jesus went on to say this:

Matthew 15:8-9
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips: but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

their knowledge consumed them

The Pharisees and scribes were very religious men. They copied scripture, they were religious leaders, they knew the law from back to front and front to back. But they lacked something. Their heads were so full of knowledge that they didn't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. They didn't even reconigze him as their Messiah. They thought they knew everything about God but they missed one vital, necessary part: God's Son. And as the Son stood right in front of them, their knowledge blinded them. They honored God with their lips, but they worshipped him in vain, because their doctrine was the commandments of men, not of God.

The next verses will get to the heart of what I'm trying to say.

Matthew 15:10-11, 18-20
And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear and understand: not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man.

I know you're saying, "WOAH! HANNAH! That's a lot to process!" Actually, it's pretty simple! I'll show you.

Jesus called the scribes and Pharisees, AND the multitude of people around him and told them to listen up, to hear, to make sure they understood what he was about to say. And what he said was this; they washed their hands back then before a meal because they didn't want anything unclean accidently entering their body. What Jesus said was whatever you put into your mouth does not defile a man. (The definition of defile according to Webster's is "to make filthy".) But the things that we think, and the things that come out of our mouth do defile us. Because of our sinful nature, our thoughts are full of lies, adulterous and murderous thoughts. We lie, we take God's name in vain, we make fun of people. The things that defile us, or make us filthy spiritually, don't come from eating something weird because we didn't wash our hands, they come from what we say and think. Jesus wanted the multitude, the scribes and Pharisees, and his disciples to know that it didn't matter if the disciples didn't wash their hands before a meal, what mattered was the sin nature of man.

So when we are washing our hands, or taking a shower, I want all of us to remember this Bible story, this life lesson. Not only should we keep ourselves clean, but we should keep the inside of us clean. If our inside is dirty and filthy, than we should clean it. Make it new and clean. Just think of it like this, if the outside of a glass was clean and fingerprint free and sparkling, but inside the glass there was spoiled milk, would anyone use that glass? No. The outside of us can't just be the only thing that's clean. We need to make sure that spiritually we are clean as well. Say kind words, do nice things, think good thoughts. And most importantly, open your eyes, wipe the dirt out of them, and see Jesus.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. That whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have EVERLASTING LIFE. 

Is the Internet Really as Evil as Everyone Says?

 So for me this has always been a particularly personal question. I think it’s because my generation is known for worshipping this thing called “The Internet”, or maybe it’s because I spend a lot of time on the Internet. Consequently, when people say the Internet is evil, they are effectively judging how I spend my time. Don’t get me wrong. I’m fine with that, as long as they’re right. But one slight problem: They aren’t.

As in the Automobile is the Internet, ya get it huh huh huh??

 Maybe I’m being defensive. Honestly, I probably am. But hear me out on this one. What happens when you drink too much water? If you answered “Nothing! You can never drink too much water!” I’m afraid you’re mistaken. When you drink too much water, you develop some degree of hyponatremia, or dilution of the blood caused by overhydration. You’re probably saying “Oh, please. How many people actually have this problem?” Well, a 2005 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that close to one sixth of marathon runners will develop some degree of hyponatremia. The very thing that keeps you alive can kill you in large quantities. Now I am in no way claiming the internet is as important as water; that would be a rather ignorant assertion. So what am I saying?

Well, as you all know, I use to debate in High-school. I learned anything from me how important a tiny definition can be to how to spot the inherency in an argument. But one lesson will always stand out for me. There I was, in a Parliamentary round. I was writing a doodle on my flowpad (Legal Pad) when something clicked. In turn, I got up and gave one of the best speeches I have ever given. My partner (Adam Densmore) asked me where I got the inspiration to construct such a well-crafted argument. I dropped my flowpad, and the doodle on my flowpad said it all: A little guy standing on a teeter-totter holding a pole. On one end of the pole, there was a weight that said “War”. On the other end was a weight that said: Peace. From that point on, I approached every argument with this idea of balance.

I just found this picture amazing. Nuff said.

 But what does this have to do with anything? “I thought you were talking about the Internet and how it’s not evil.”  Hold on, I’m getting there. This idea of balance is important, because the Internet isn’t inherently evil. In fact, barring any religious and civil right movements, it was probably the best thing that happened to humanity. It has made information available at the click of the button (Remember information is power). But it’s a two sided coin. On the other side, it has ruined people’s lives-- Either because they didn’t respect the Internet’s extreme power, or they let the Internet consume their lives. Just like anything, if we don’t treat it with the right level of respect, or we become addicted it will ruin our lives.

 What a jumble of thoughts. What does this all mean? Well, I guess the point I’m trying to make is that the Internet isn’t what’s evil; rather, it’s our culture. Think about it! If we spent a healthy amount of time on the Internet, we wouldn’t have the problems we currently do. If we are careful with our information, we won’t have these issues. In the end, we should try to fix the problem by patching holes, not by destroying the ship.

You Suck! (And by the way, Jesus)

You suck.

No, seriously, you do.

But before you all start running to me with pitchforks and torches yelling to kill me as a monster that destroys good human’s self esteem, let me explain myself.

My good friend Colton wrote a post a while back about how each and every one of us is awesome. We were created perfectly. Each of us is an individual person that has specific traits that makes us really pretty darn awesome. This can pull us up out of our own self flagellations (big word for ya Gabe) and make us see ourselves for what we really are: a creation of an almighty God who knew what he was doing.

Mr. Awesome is right, but I’m going to talk about the flip side of that equation.

When we were created, we were perfect. The first two humans were put in a perfect garden in a perfect world with some perfect animals and perfect plants and everything was just peachy. But something came into that perfection that threw things out of whack and made us all into messed up jerks that can’t do a good thing to save our lives. Yeah, the perfection is still there, but there’s a wrench in the plans and now we are stuck. We have SIN in our lives, and there is nothing, no, nothing, we can do to stop it.

Since those first two humans let sin in, we’ve been stuck. We sin, and then we come up with a way to stop sinning, but it doesn’t work, so we make excuses for why it isn’t wrong, but when that messes up and doesn’t work either, we try to fix it again. It doesn’t work. Yeah, something is very obviously wrong with us humans. No matter how hard we try, we cannot achieve perfection, and that brings me back to the first point I made: you suck, and so do I.

But thank goodness we aren’t stuck there. Even though we suck, and we consistently screw things up and cause loads of problems for everyone else in the world, there is a solution. And we didn’t have anything to do with it. We didn’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, and we by golly can’t do anything to get it for ourselves.

Jesus Christ, the son of God, came to save us, and when he did, we no longer had to worry that we would die because we suck. No, now we were saved, and there wasn’t anything we did for it. We were stuck down in the deep dark pit of sin and suckishness and then light broke through, and a hand reached out, and pulled us out into the light.

Throughout our failures, are foolishness, and our vanity, a just and mighty God who should shun us, who should throw us out into the darkness and leave us for everything we have done, has instead shown us grace, wonderful awesome grace, covering us in righteousness and pulling us out of the muck.

So take heart. Nothing you can do can save you.

But everything he does will.