"The Holy Lint Roller"

When most people hear the words "Jack Russell" they immediately think "hyper dogs." And while that is in fact true, and I speak as one with much experience, Jack Russells have another trait that they are known for--shedding. I think the saying goes, "If you don't like dog hair on you and everything else you own, pick another breed." That's no joke, there is dog hair literally where no dog hair should ever be! Despite the tumble weed-like balls of dog hair that collect on my floor daily, I say, "You can't throw out the dog with the dog hair." Even better, my dogs shedding has taught me something about myself.

Sometimes I make a decent effort every day to brush my dogs outside and sweep the floors to prevent the hair build up inside my house. This goes on for a couple of days until I get too lazy, I mean busy, and the hair balls form. It makes me think about my walk with Christ and how I put forth great effort in doing the things that are beneficial to my relationship and walk with Him for a while, but then I start slacking off and allow the "hair" to collect all over the floor of my heart in the form of a bad attitude, complaining, gossiping, pride, and the like.

How many times do we go to church and "get right" with Jesus, asking him to clean the floors of our heart and then leave motivated for a day or two only to find ourselves too busy, I mean too lazy, to work at ridding ourselves of sin? Col 3:8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 1 Peter 2:1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. We all know these things we shouldn't do, but what about all of the things we should do? Sometimes the dust settles in our hearts more from the list of things we should do, but we continually put off or ignore.

James defined sin this way, 4:17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. The Lord taught Cain this lesson early in the Bible in Genesis 4:6-7 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." .

This is a subject I obviously think about often, and write about, not because I walk a defeated life, as Paul would say, "By no means!" Rather, I am encouraged and strengthened in my faith that although I still have a few stray hairs (maybe even tumble weed size) here and there, I serve Jesus, who like a lint roller, brushes over me so that my sins stick to him making me clean. Rom 7:24-25 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death ? 25 Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!

If that is not enough to spur you on towards godliness, consider that just as I chose my Jacks knowing I would have to put up with the endless shedding, God has chosen us knowing he would have to put up with our sinful nature until perfection comes. Rom 5:6-9 "6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!"


Mandy
Star of Hair (the real life drama series, not the broadway play)

Hand washing like a King

Talk to any woman about public restroom use and you will find out where there is a will there is a way to keep the germs away. Personally, the public bathroom is one of the most dreaded of places. And it's not unusual for most women to be highly skilled in public restroom use techniques passed on by mothers on how to get in and get out without actually touching anything. Most places even provide paper toilet seat covers to act as a germ shield and women who use them yet still do not sit on the seat. As I think about it, I'm not sure women take more caution in any other place than the public bathroom!

Just the other night I was watching 20/20 Fact or Fiction about germs, as apparently did many of my friends, and the next day we discussed the issue with enthusiasm. We discussed our own personal routines, such as using a foot to flush, or scrubbing our hands for 15 seconds, or using a papertowel to open the door. All this talk about the extensive careful measures we remember to take to avoid a germ made me think, can you imagine if we applied this much caution to avoid sin!!!

Why is it that we can watch a tv show about how to avoid the most germy places, and train ourselves to put them into practice, yet hear a sermon about how to avoid sin, and not apply the Word to our lives? Wouldn't it be much more beneficial for mothers to be teaching their children techniques to avoid sin?

Obviously we don't equate our supurb bathroom sanitation skills with godliness. James said, in Chapter 4:8 Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. If James' idea of washing your hands was just a physical act, I'd be a saint! Instead, the word of God teaches that clean hands are not those that avoid germs, rather hands that act as the hands of Jesus, doing the will of God.

Jesus said in Matt 23:25-26 "You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean." By our actions do we show that we are more afraid of a germ than of the Living God when we are more diligent to take every measure to avoid a germ, yet spend less time and effort to walk according to the Word? Both King David and Isaiah knew about hand washing. Look at the verses below:

Ps 24:3-6
3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false.
5 He will receive blessing from the LORD
and vindication from God his Savior.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, O God of Jacob.

Isaiah 1:16 - 17
Your hands are full of blood;
16 wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong, 17 learn to do right!
Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

Obviously I'm not advocating that people stop taking sanitary measures in public bathrooms or that because we are highly skilled at avoiding germs that we are in sin. Rather, I hope to spurn you onto godliness. Wouldn't it be neat if everytime we go to wash the "outside of the cup", we are reminded to thank Jesus for washing our scarlet sins as white as snow and to ask him to help us keep the "inside of the cup" clean?

July 2005 "Two Cracker "Jacks" and One "Firecracker" (from left to right) Samuel, Mandy, and Gracie

"Chew on this"

Not so long ago, while I was away for a couple of hours, my furry kids (Gracie and Samuel) turned my leather sofa into a very expensive rawhide chew. I was not a little upset, but this event only helped prepare me for when they chewed up the cushions of my outdoor swing. I am a firm believer that every instance in life is a chance for Jesus to teach me a spiritual lesson using a natural circumstance so I closely examined the situation.

I realized that my dogs aren’t concerned about my possessions, and obviously can’t appreciate a leather couch or an outdoor swing, because they didn’t have to do anything to get them. But to me, these things have value because I had to work for them. So, I patched up the fist-sized holes in my sofa with a needle and thread and took some precautions to protect my possessions from future Jack Russell “Terror” threats by using bitter “no chew spray”. Even though I could repair some of what my dogs marred, the damages were permanent.

Just when I thought the message was all about the dogs I found myself doing a little “chewing” myself, not on the furniture, but rather with my words to my friend. I was talking with a good friend when before I knew it I was giving her a “piece of my mind.” I thought she needed to hear what I had to say, but really I was out of line and just plain rude. Within minutes the Holy Spirit convicted me that I had just acted like my dogs!

How many times do we do this to each other? Just as my dogs had torn up their master’s possessions, I myself had “torn up” my Master’s possession--my friend. When we speak harshly to one another in order to make our opinions known we are basically tearing them down so that we might be “right.” However, we are not called to tear each other down, but only to build each other up. In Ephesians 4:29, it says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

I was reminded of one of my favorite stories about a father who instructed his son to hammer a nail into a fence post every time he was angry with someone. After the son calmed down, and maybe even realized he had said some things he shouldn’t have, the father instructed his son to pull each of the nails out of the fence post. In doing so, the son realized that each nail had left a hole in the fence post. The lesson—every time we speak a harsh word to another person, even if we apologize, we still leave a scar. Proverbs12:18 says, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

Right now the Heavenly Master is away and He is entrusting us with His possessions—each other. By the way we treat each other we show that we don’t appreciate each other like God does. His actions of sending His only Son to die for us, paying the highest price so that we might be called children of God, shows He has great value in His creation. John 3:17 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

When we start tearing each other down, the Master is the One who has to repair us and even then, like my leather sofa, we still carry the scars with us. In the book of James 3, it is said, “9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”

If you are tempted to tear someone apart with words, look to the Word of God, which is like bitter spray, hard to swallow at times but ultimately able to keep you from chewing on the Master’s possessions.