It is one of the big health habits that has come into the forefront in healthy living in our modern day world. Cleansing!! Just mentioning it may gross some of you out, but in reality this cleansing process is a huge help for living a healthy life. Why? In the processes of our body the digestive system can sometimes get behind in purging completely the refuse that is left over from our body extracting all the important nutrients from that food. Poor diets and poor eating habits can cause the cleansing process to slow down and it can even cause health problems over a period of time. Our large intestine, also known as the colon, takes what is left after the small intestine has extracted the nutrients from our food to build new tissue and absorbs water from the waste before moving on in the process. If we don't eat our meals properly or eat the proper foods our whole system slows and retains elements that it shouldn't and the whole body is affected. Our health begins to deteriorate and problems occur that otherwise would not be there had we eaten properly. So the "cleansing" thing is a modern day attempt to help that process be all God intended for it to be. Good cleansing means Good health!!
Cleansing is something that is very important for us spiritually also. In 1 John 1:9 scripture says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Another word for cleanse that is used in the same scripture in other versions is the word purify. Purify means to get rid of all contaminants. For a long time I have always focused in on the forgiveness element of that verse, but the cleansing part of it actually ministers more to me than the other parts. Those who have a relationship with Jesus, or are forgiven of their sins, have forgiveness of sins and praise God it is because of what Jesus did on the cross. The second part of the verse deals with the living part of that experience. He cleanses us!!! I am going to try to relate the function of the body effectively to this verse, so hang on and don't tune me out and I believe we will all receive an effective word of encouragement and challenge to what it means to live an all out life for Jesus.
In our physical body there are certain problems that will occur when we don't promote a good cleansing from the food we eat. Some of the possible problems are listed below:
A. pain and discomfort
B. lower energy levels, fatigue, and exhaustion
C. constipation
D. gas
E. bloating
F. skin inflammation
G. weight gain
H. lower back pain
I. headaches
Each of these can be related to spiritual problems that occur when we don't promote the cleansing process for us spiritually. Let me explain..
A. A person who goes through their life and doesn't keep their confession up to date will start to suffer pain and discomfort in their daily walk. Things that should be so easy to do cause great pain in their life, like forgiving others, showing mercy, reading God's Word. The pain comes from the out of date daily lifestyle choices. Those choices have an effect on the overall walk of that person and can be painful spiritually. Even reading God's Word is painful because they feel so convicted by the life they are living. That is when satan, the accuser, adds his accusations to the mix to bring the believer even further from where God wants them to be.
B. Lower energy levels bein to kick in as well. The desire to meet with other believers at church is replaced with a TV attitude in life. I will just sit here and watch life go by and change the channel when it doesn't catch my interest. Our churches would be filled with people if those who are like this would just quit being so lazy.
C. Soon those who are not experiencing this cleansing will get to where nothing works in their spiritual life anymore and the backlog of unconfessed sins begins to build up and drag them down into depression and unhappiness. They become hateful and mean and make every excuse possible to keep from getting right with God.
D. If a believer thinks they are ok without admitting their sin and confessing it to God, they try to "act" like everything is ok, but their faith really stinks. In 2 Corinthians 2:14 Paul wrote, "But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of Him everywhere." Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 2:15 "For we are to be the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." Enough said!
E. Believe it or not, we can become self righteous and believe we are ok when we really are not ok. Look no further in scripture than Isaiah 64:6 to get God's perspective on this one where He says, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." Filthy Rags? You bet. We have no righteousness, except what we have through Jesus. We can become bloated in our attempt to puff ourselves up in the eyes of others and sometimes in the eyes of God. This is futile!!
F. The result of not getting right and staying right in our daily walk with God can have outward effects as well. I can tell when a person has an ongoing, fresh walk with God. You can hear it in their speech, see it in their countenance, and see it in the result of their life choices. They don't compromise their walk with God by giving into worldly pleasures and worldly desires. They don't choose "questionable" lifestyles filled with worldly looking choices. Why? Because it is an irritant to what God is establishing in their life in the area of spirituality. No compromise doesn't mean weakness. It can only mean true inner strength and completeness in Christ. Anything less doesn't look right on Christians. We now have Christians calling questionable things of the world good. This should not be!!
G. If we allow sin to develop a place in our life, then after a while we will gain weight...sin weight. Unconfessed sin is building a barrier between us and God and that barrier gets higher and higher and unhealthier and unhealthier. WE start to get FAT in our sin and we don't like what we see in the mirror, but we don't have enough motivation to get rid of it. Confess...
H. If I want to do heavy lifting as I get older and older I need to do exercise to keep in shape so when I call on those muscles they react and don't slip a disc. God is always stretching those who serve Him and through time if we don't keep ourselves in proper spiritual shape, when the times comes for the spiritual heavy lifting, we will pull something that wouldn't normally be a problem for us. The lower back is at the core of our body and our spiritual muscles are at the core of our faith. How good is your core? You are in for a lot of pain if you don't keep your spiritual muscles in shape for the heavy lifting times of your faith.
I. Finally, sometimes we get so far from God this whole "Christian" thing is a big headache. I just want to live my life without feeling bad for doing bad things. At this point a lot of Christians will throw up their hands and say "I'm outta here." The modern day church has had to deal with a lot of these people and it all goes back to a weak faith that was weakened through the years by a lack of cleansing. They are Christians who have given up and have found every excuse possible to stay in that condition. Confession is at the core of who we are as believers. In Romans 10:9,10 Paul wrote "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." The psalmist wrote in 32:5 "I acknowledge my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord", and You forgave the guilt of my sin." We all need to keep our confession of our sins updated and thus keep at bay the guilt of our sins, so that we will live the free, abundant life Jesus died to give us. C'mon fess up to it. You are a sinner and so am I. Remember the old Dr. Pepper commercial about being a pepper. We can't live that kind of life and expect the righteousness of God to be seen in our life. (I'm a sinner, he's a sinner, wouldn't you like to be a sinner too?) It's time to confess our sins to God and continue to experience the cleansing that only He can give. That's what I call A Beautiful Cleanse!
The Pilgrimage continues...
David Warren
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