Walk-on Wednesday - Clean Outside and In - Martin Wiles

Welcome to Walk-on Wednesday. By Hump Day, we are struggling, but we believe a good devotion can strengthen us to finish the week strong. 

The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger. Job 17:9 NLT

As a young boy, I wanted clean hands.

This trait was passed down to at least one of my grandsons. When he first attempted to eat with a fork and spoon, his awkwardness often took over, and he resorted to using his hands to retrieve what he couldn’t stab or scoop. Inevitably, this led to dirty hands. When he noticed the food clinging to his small fingers, a frown crept across his face, followed by an extended hand and a cry for help. Either my wife or I quickly came to the rescue. He wanted clean hands.

Job knew a great deal about clean hands, but his fair-weather friends didn’t. Job was the unfortunate recipient of Satan’s assaults with God’s permission. Instead of consoling him, his friends bombarded him with accusations. Evidently, he had sinned. His wife tired of the entire situation and encouraged him to curse God, die, and get it over with. Job, however, maintained that he had a clean spiritual heart and hands. He was not concealing sin or ignoring God.

Thoughts produce feelings, which in turn carry the power to evoke actions. Allowing God to control our hearts (thoughts and feelings) is the only way to assure our actions reflect association with him. Simply cleaning up the outside won’t change the inside.

Jesus repeatedly warned the religious leaders about only looking good on the outside. A whitewashed tomb still contains deteriorated bones. If we only clean up the outside—turn over a new leaf, without letting God transform our insides—our hands will continue to get dirty again. Much better is letting God renovate the inside first. Then the outside will remain clean because the inside is.

What on your inside needs washing?

Father, help our clean hands reflect our clean hearts.

Tweetable: Are you clean inside and out? 

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My Muddy Heart - Emily Marszalek

But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Psalms 86:15 NIV

My two dogs love to dig in the backyard.

In spite of dedicated attempts to deter the behavior and gentle scolding when I’ve caught them in the act, the habit persists.

One rainy day, they both entered the house with mud-caked faces, chests, legs, and paws. I attempted to clean them before they maneuvered throughout the house, but hundreds of muddy paw prints soon covered the kitchen and living room floors, requiring a thorough mopping. I was furious.

Losing my temper, I screamed while scrubbing the floors for the third time that week. “Can’t you two just obey for once? How many times do I have to tell you not to dig!?” Continuing to grumble while I scrubbed the muddy floors, God convicted me. I had not only lost my temper but also harbored an attitude of impatience, bitterness, and resentment.

I remembered how often I had been muddy myself. Like my sweet pups, I repeat the same mistakes. Yet, regardless of how many times I sin and muddy my heart, God never turns me away when I turn to Him in repentance. He always accepts me back and forgives me, washing away my sin so I can live clean. As the psalmist says, He is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” God’s grace meets me in my muck and washes me clean.

Although I often fail to extend God’s grace and patience to others, I trust His good work in me that continually shapes me to be more like Him.

Repenting of my anger and impatience that rainy afternoon as I continued to scrub my soiled floors, God’s grace cleansed my muddied heart. As I cuddled up with my now clean pups and enjoyed my clean floors and clean heart, I thanked God once again for His patience and grace.

Does your heart feel muddied? Come to God with a repentant heart and invite the deep cleansing only His grace can provide.

Tweetable: How do you clean up your muddy messes? 

Emily Marszalek enjoys the simple pleasures in life with her two Goldendoodles—Charlie and Lucy—and her fiancé Nick in the Pacific Northwest. Her writing has appeared in publications including Angels on Earth, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Listen to your Dreams, Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Blessings of Christmas, The Lutheran Digest, Refresh Bible Study Magazine, Christian Broadcasting Network, and Daily Inspired Life.

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Clean Hands, Clean Heart - Martin Wiles

Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight. Psalm 18:24 NKJV

My hands weren’t clean, but I imagined they were.

“Wash up for dinner” was a directive I rarely if ever heard while growing up. It wasn’t that my family was nasty. Far from it. Both of my parents were “clean freaks.” At least my mom. But for some reason, I wasn’t told to wash my hands before eating. Perhaps because they were never dirty in the first place. I had inherited my parents’ cleanliness gene. I didn’t like dirt or anything sticky on my hands. So I suppose my parents imagined my hands were clean all the time. No reason to tell me to wash them before eating. In their mind, I had already washed them for some other reason.

But my parents also believed a few germs would never hurt anyone. Germs would help build my immune system—which in fact was a correct philosophy on my parents’ part. If I wanted to play in the dirt or handle dirty things and then eat, that was perfectly acceptable. Or if I dropped food on the floor or on the ground and then put it in my mouth, that too was okay—within limits. My parents weren’t neglectful. Nor would they ever put me in a dangerous situation.

Overall, I was a clean child, so there was no need to overly worry about cleaning me up. The psalmist considered himself clean—even righteous. But he wasn’t self-righteous. God had taken care of his sin, declared him clean, and was now going to deliver him from his enemies’ tactics. The coming deliverance wasn’t based on anything the psalmist had done—or deserved. It was based solely on who God was.

My righteousness comes the same way as the psalmist’s did. I don’t brag about it because I didn’t do anything to deserve it. Nor is it based on anything I did or could do. Rather, my righteousness issues from what Christ did on Calvary’s cross and my request that the benefits be applied to my life. God declared me righteous because of what His sinless Son did.

God will deliver me in life and death because I’m righteous, but all the credit goes to Him. I can’t wash up; only He can clean me up.

If He hasn’t already, let God wash you and make you clean.  

Prayer: Father, thank You making us clean through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. 

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Mind the Chickens - Martin Wiles

Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. John 13:10 NLT

Sometimes, chickens leave behind more than eggs and meat.

My maternal grandmother had a dozen or so chickens wandering around her yard. At night, she enclosed them in a small pen, complete with a coop. There, they slept and laid eggs.

Being the country boys we were, my cousin and I stayed outside most of the time, romping through the woods, playing in the hog pens, and mulling around in the yard—the same yard the chickens scratched in. Since we didn’t always wear shoes during the summer months—and even if we did, our grandmother would warn us before we came onto her porch or into her house: “Check your feet (or shoes).”

Chickens, it appeared, left more than eggs, and my grandmother didn’t want it in her house or on her porch. When we discovered this unwanted material on our shoes, we paused to scrape them on the dirt or on a grassy patch. Doing so became such a habit that eventually our grandmother didn’t have to remind us as much.

In Jesus’ day, getting one’s feet dirty was a fact of life. If shoes were worn, they were open sandals, and open sandals don’t keep out dirt. And since the main form of travel was by foot, people’s feet stayed dirty. When entering a house, it was common for the owner—or his slave, to wash the guest’s feet. He didn’t, however, wash the entire person. If the person needed a full bath, they could tend to that.

Jesus’ meaning is deeper. The bath happens when I trust Christ as my Savior. God the Father takes the righteousness of His Son and applies it to my sin, making me pure and holy in position—although not in practice. But daily living is like walking in my grandmother’s yard. I’m subject to get my feet messy with unwanted things. The world is full of sinful influences and testy temptations.

The news isn’t all bad though. Jesus says I just need to wash my feet. Through the spiritual disciplines of praying, meditating on the Bible, and confessing, I scrape my feet across the dirt or on a grassy patch and remove what shouldn’t be there. Confession brings restoration, and knowing God’s Word keeps my lifestyle aligned with His principles.

Learn to mind what the chickens of this world leave behind.

Prayer: Father, give us insight and courage to avoid those things that dirty our feet and taint our souls. 

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Cleaning Fingerprints - Martin Wiles

Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean.” John 13:10 NLT

“Fingerprints all over the place.”

My oldest grandson called the dirty storm door to my attention as he and his younger brother stood looking over the back yard. Of course, he failed to mention both of them were the reason for the smudges. Since we keep them six days a week, keeping it clean was an exercise in futility I’d almost given up on. 

“Handprints are more like it” I snickered. 

“You need to clean it, Pop,” he said. 

A Type A personality like myself, he can’t stand dirt—or smudges. I walked by and left the door alone. Since we were moving in a couple of weeks, I had even more reason to ignore the grimy paw prints. When I decide to clean the door—probably just before we move, I won’t replace the entire door. I’ll just take out the window cleaner and clean the glass portion. 

Jesus proposed a similar scenario to His disciples. They didn’t need to wash all over—just their feet. They were totally cleansed when they believed in Him and decided to be His followers. Now they merely needed a daily sponge bath. 

At nine years of age, I decided to do what these early disciples did—trust Jesus as my Savior. Dad explained the gospel message of how Jesus died for my sins. I believed and invited Him into my life. In that moment, He cleansed me all over. Past, present, and future sins—of which there have been many, were washed away. The price Jesus paid on Calvary for humanity’s sins was applied to me. 

But what about the daily fingerprints that come from putting my hands where they don’t belong—like my grandchildren? They won’t send me to hell because Jesus’ blood has covered them. They will, however, interfere with my spiritual vision as the fingerprints on the door cloud the view of the backyard. 

Confession will clear away the smudges. My acknowledgment of my failures and sins is what Jesus referred to when He mentioned a daily foot washing. 

Make confession a daily practice. It’s good for the soul and will keep your feet clean—and remove the smudges from the doors, so interaction between the Savior and you can be open and clear. 

Prayer: Father, keep us free from sin smudges so we can hear You clearly when You speak. 

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Flashback Friday - Martin Wiles

Feeling Dirty

Five days had passed, and I couldn’t wait to slither into a nice hot shower.

Only once in my life have I been more than two days without bathing. But presently my daughter and I were on a five-day backpacking trip, and the only water available was for drinking and cooking-not washing. While we wiped down each evening, these “piggy baths” didn’t completely remove the dirt and sweat we accumulated from trudging over mountains. We felt more than a little dirty by the time we were through. Read more...

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