Mark 7: 14-23
Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile."
When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, "Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) "But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile."
Dawg's Thought:
Today's prayer intention - for healing for those suffering with cancer.
First of all, I apologize for the infrequency lately. I have been out of town a lot and between that and catching up on things, keeping up with this ministry has been tough.
The main reason I have been out of town is because my fiancé's father was in a car accident. After we found out about the accident, we drove up to see him in the hospital.
The one thing about the hospital is that you see hand sanitizer everywhere. Of course, with good reason: there are probably a lot of germs that are going around. After all, you don't want to get sick.
Yet, getting sick doesn't cause you to willfully do bad things. Being sick is not a sin, and it doesn't give you the license to sin. What it does is it makes you feel physically worse.
So, in order to avoid getting sick, I have watched people sanitize their hands constantly. After all, why get sick when you can avoid it? Although you may have to go out of your way to get to the sanitizer, or you may already carry some around, it is worth it not to be sick.
I wonder if it is also worth it, then, to do the things that you should do in order to make sure that we avoid sin. We take precautions not to get sick, but how often do we work with Our Lord to make sure that we don't put ourselves spiritually in danger? I know a friend who has been juicing recently. When I remember him from back in the day, he didn't eat "clean" so to go from that to strictly juicing is a great sacrifice. Yet, it was an adjustment that he made in order to prolong his life.
When I asked him about this, he told me that a doctor recommended that he do this. We know that there is a Divine Physician that we can turn to for healing and maintenance. It is often the maintenance part that is hard, but also the part that keeps us from falling into being "unwell".
May the Lord lead us to His ways of forgiveness and maintenance. Take care and God Bless.
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