[My Clorox story woke up the pen of Marti…]
If I had my way, each member of my family including my new daughter-in-love would carry a bottle of bleach as a hip bucket, stringing the handle through their belt buckles. While not biblical (and probably one of the greatest barriers to the expansion of the gospel of welcome), cleanliness is next to… Marti’s happiness.
And my happiness is supported by science. People are unconsciously fairer and more generous when they are in clean-smelling environments, according to a recently published study in Psychological Science entitled “The Smell of Virtue.”
Therefore when breaking out the bleach to sanitize things and stop the spread of disease and the children that create it, know that you are encouraging charitable giving and other acts of kindness with just a few spritzes of citrus-scented Windex or Clorox.
Now what wrong with that? Just about everything.
Like the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day, I can measure my holiness with the distance I keep from my family’s nasty, dirty hands that simply must smudge their grime into my freshly whitewashed walls. Like the scribes and Pharisees, I am looking for a Messiah who will bless me and overthrow those I deem contaminated.
You can probably imagine the impact to us well-washed when discovering that Jesus sometimes blesses the despicable instead of properly scrubbed me, causing me – an enthusiastic and supportive follower – to become hostile by serving just a couple tablespoons of bleach to create excruciating pain to whom it was foretold (Luke 4:16-30).
And if that wasn’t insulting enough, Jesus, far from keeping His distance from “those transgressors” actually seeks them out and fellowships with them, addressing the Law to the heart of things. This infuriates us sterilized scribes for taking time from our outward ritual and ceremony, and making us concentrate on our jealous reactions of interrogation (Luke 5:29-39).
After all, we have the corner on Christianity. Salvation was not just “of the clean,” brought to pass by God according to His promises to the clean, and through the only clean one—the Lord Jesus, but that salvation was primarily “for the clean.” If there are those among the great unwashed who wish to cash in on the benefits of salvation, they can become clean like us.
Yet, defilement, I am beginning to understand and as Jesus taught, is not a ceremonial thing, but a matter of the heart. Sin does not penetrate man from without. (There is no need to be Hazmat certified.) It begins in the heart and works outward.
Why do I feel like I am on a sinking boat with an empty bottle of bleach and a pair of scissors, cutting diagonally across the bottom for a handy tool to scoop out the water? I can’t bail fast enough. That’s because, during His last meal with the disciples, the Lord indicated to them, and to us today, what true cleanness is and how it is to be accomplished only by Him:
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet. And you are clean….”
(…to be continued.)
John Fischer The Catch 
You know, in all fairness to the Jews of Jesus’ day, a lot of Old Testament scripture is devoted to separating God’s people out from among the “unwashed” pagans around them. And even 2 Corinthians 6:17 says that we are to “Come out from among them and be separate…” Ceremonial washing was a big part of Jewish culture, and the word “holy” means to be separated or set apart. In the Old Testament, that was primarily a physical thing, but it also involved the heart. In our day, we talk about the heart, but we spend little time discussing ways to protect the heart, such as what we do with our minds.
I actually feel the Amish have at least half the picture: living as though they truly are a separate, “set apart” people – “a peculiar people,” as I Peter 2:9 puts it. Where I think the Amish blow it is by not taking their holiness to the world – by keeping it to themselves. If the Amish ever turned evangelical, we would really see something.
The rest of us, for the most part, are helplessly lost in our own addictions – our own love affairs with the things of this world. So we can spend our time out in the world, rubbing elbows with the unwashed masses. But what good does it do when all we bring to them is our own dirtiness? What the world needs is a fully washed people that are willing to get down into the mud with them – not to celebrate our mutual dirtiness, but to introduce them to SOAP – Jesus Christ, the true LifeBouy.
(this can be a bit long) While I read today’s Catch it caused a few chuckles and many tears of sorrow because of I seeing that Marti has come to believe and seemly been led astray by a company’s (Johnson & Johnson, I think is their name) marketing ploy of this: “…know that you are encouraging charitable giving and other acts of kindness with just a few spritzes of citrus-scented Windex or Clorox.”
Tto counter I’ll suggest the readers to consider asking themselves a few very simple questions:
*Have they (the J&J Co.) ever paid you to use any of their products?
*Have they ever won, or were awarded and sighted as being the World’s most Earth friendly corporations because of the environmentally friendly products by the Untied Nations? And this was long before this so-called “green” movement – it was awarded back in the mid nineteen seventies…
*Can you purchase any of their products @ a wholesale price – and not have to forced into buying a large quantities?
*Can those products be delivered to your doorstep – therefore saving you both time & gas money?
*Have they were been sighted as being the largest donator of both time (as in employees donated & giving of their own personal TIME) & money to children health causes, namely the Easter Seals?
*Are their products available in 82 different counties & territories?
* Have they ever helped a family to make more time & money for themselves, for say: to bring a Mother home to raise her children, as opposed to need to work outside of it?
*Have they ever helped a family man, or woman to reach complete and total financial freedom, so they can wake up in the morning when they feel like it, or no longer by an alarm clock and now be free to travel the World, or just stay home and help others?
*Have they ever helped anyone or a family create a living legacy of having (be it Chistian or not) to be able to transfer their wealth down to their children’s children? (As it says in Proverbs a Godly man, or person should? – Hopefully most will understand it takes money to feed, help and house people, also to build hospitals & libraries – Thier is nothing wrong with money OR having a lot of it – We NEED more Chirstians to be wealthy! So people like Pastor John & Marti would never again have to be concernred about lossing their house!)
Also have they (the J&J Co.) ever helped anyone fulfill Deuteronomy 8:18: “But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swear unto thy fathers, as it is this day” And for you that may get stuck because that is an O.T verse, well then plz consider this looking up this N.T. verse somewhere in Galatians I believe it may be the third chapter that relates to it, by saying we that are in Christ are ALSO partakers of the old covenant promises!
So in ending if anyone can answer those above questions and tell me why I should ever feel a need to stand back and read the promotion and use of any J&J products – I’d loved to read it…
PS of course Amway makes an Earth & All fabric bleach friendly and better, plus streak free window cleaner and much superior products then that of “Windex or Clorox” which also can be purchased @ a discounted or wholesale price saving a bunch of time and gas money by getting it delivered to their doorstep and even have the possibility of getting paid to purchase it – Love to know when the J&J company offers that and of course lastly when they’ll offer a way for a person such as me to build thier own Biz to be able to work my way off of disability income, just in-case some may wonder why I take it kind of personally when I am forced to read of promoting another company companies much less superior products LOL 🙂
I realize that some may consider this going a bit off topic, which I certainly will not be the 1st time here on the Catch blog, for going off topic, yet I certainly do not think / feel it is, very simply because I whole heartily believe in my Biz and the value it and the products can and do add to peoples lives. So to continue and for a few kicks and giggles I thought I’d quickly look up the properties of my company’s product of a disinfectant as Marti seems to enjoy using Clorox as:
Description: PURSUE® Disinfectant Cleaner
33.8 fl. oz. Item #: E3878, Kills viruses, fungi, and bacteria.
Usage Rate: 34 Use(s) per Bottle
Recommended use: 6 Use(s) per month
Retail Cost per use: $0.33 (or only 11 bucks per bottle – plz remember the company of Amway doesn’t believe in selling you the water you’ll need to use to cut the concentrated power of this product, plus that only adds weight to shipping, which isn’t being very environmentally friendly also)
Pursue Disinfectant Cleaner costs 51 percent less than Lysol All Purpose Cleaner*. So concentrated, that one 33.8 fl. oz. bottle of it equals the cleaning power of 7.2, 40 oz. bottles of Lysol. That’s why Pursue is a leading household disinfectant, recommended for sanitizing food contact surfaces without rinsing or wiping. Use in bathrooms, kitchens, and to disinfect floors. Kills 20 different types of viruses, fungi, and bacteria – including E. coli, Salmonellacholerasuis and S. Schottmuelleri, Shigella dysenteriae, and Staphylococcus aureus – which can cause gastroenteritis, food poisoning, diarrhea, nausea, cramps, and vomiting.
*Price comparisons do not include delivery charges.
Benefits of Pursue: (and I would enjoy seeing the list of the different types of viruses, fungi and bacteria Clorox is absolutely guaranteed to kill, or get your money back)
*Kills 20 different types of viruses, fungi, and bacteria (which can cause gastroenteritis, food poisoning, diarrhea, nausea, cramps, and vomiting) including: E. coli, Salmonella cholerasuis and S. schottmuelleri, Shigella dysenteriae, and Staphylococcus aureus
*Reduces the hazards of cross-contamination from surfaces
*Fast, easy, effective way to kill a wide variety of harmful microorganisms including germs that cause odors
*Comes in such a concentrated formula one bottle of Pursue is equal to 7.2, 40 fl. oz. bottles of Lysol All Purpose Cleaner to do the same disinfectant cleaning.
*Certified Kosher
Yesterday, I made a comment on John’s story about my Mom teaching me that Bleach is the best cleanser, which is true. Marti’s story woke me up to what else my mother taught me. My Mother, Ethel Barbara Garrabrant Parker, born January 16, 1919 and died April 17, 2009, was baptized and member of Oakwood Avenue Methodist Church in Elmira Heights, NY until she became a single parent and became a member of the First Church of the Nazarene in Waverly, NY. My Mom was 16 years old when her father died, but after graduating from The Thomas Edison High School in Elmira Heights, New York she attended Elmira Business Institute in Elmira, New York with Certificate in Secretearial and Bookkeeping. She worked during the beginning of World War II in a Remington Typewriter Plant in Elmira,.New York until she chose to join the United States Navy as a WAVE being trained as Baker until she was discharged due to my older brother being born. After my brother was born, she met and married my father, Harold H. Parker, who was a World War II United States Navy veteran in the Pacific Fleet. They worked as migrant farmers in the Southwest area of the United States as typical migrant farm workers families where my older sister was born in Los Angeles, California. When my mother discovered she was pregnant again, with me, my father went on one of his alcholic binges due to his addiction and dealing with what he lived during World War II aboard ship in the Pacific Ocean. My mother relocated back to where she grew up and worked as a caregiver for a woman with multiple sclerosis in Elmira, New York until I was born. After I was born, my mother, sister, and brother along with me lived with my Great Grandmother and Grandmother in South Waverly, Pennsylvannia until we moved to our own apartment with the assistance of the United States and New York States Governments programs. Through the years, my mother taught that “Cleanliness is Next to Godliness,” but she still met with and befriended people who may have not had the best hygiene or even manners due to their limited abitlies whether physical or mental. She was not afraid to get extra money to wash and iron other people’s clothes or to clean their bathrooms and other areas of the houses. She taught me that every person had worth, not only to society, but to God as people made fully in their imagie whether they were mentally slow, emotional limited, or physically limited. From this teachings by or deeds as well as her words, I learn to embrace people whether they were dirty or diseased because Jesus would. Yes, cleanliness is next to Godliness, but God calls us to embrace and live with people who may not fit our hygienic codes because God’s code is Love-Unconditional Love. Marti, keep cleaning with bleach, but trust God to work in and through others to see your love for them as the women at the homeless house or shelter you minster with. Have an experience, check out the L’Arche in Orange, CA? Shalom and Salaam!
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