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                    ||                       How beautiful on the mountains
                    ||                       are the feet of those ... who
                    ||                       proclaim salvation, who say to
                                             Zion, "Your God reigns!"
          Pastor RALPH & GENE ANN WOOD                  --Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)
          E-mail:  randg.wood@encode.com
          FRESH MANNA, 10/02/1998 ....................... 2 CORINTHIANS 7:1
          {7:1} Therefore having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse
          ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting
          holiness in [the] fear of God.   --2 CORINTHIANS 7:1 (RLW)
             This is the climax and conclusion of the great exhortations
          given in 2 CORINTHIANS 6:14-7:1--  "Do not become unequally yoked
          with unbelievers", "Therefore come forth out of their midst and
          be separate", "Do not touch anything unclean".
             How this applies in our moral and spiritual lives is shown in
          an old joke I heard long ago.  It would seem that two men were
          working at cleaning out a septic tank.  They had dug out the sod,
          and set it aside, to put back in place when they were finished.
          They dug up the soil that covered the lid.  By this time, one of
          the men had got warm, and had taken off his jacket, slinging it
          over his shoulder.  As they wrestled the lid of the tank out of
          place, the jacket fell off his shoulder, into the sewage below.
             Taking a stick, he fished around in the filth, and brought up
          his jacket.  His companion exclaimed, "Why did you do that, it's
          ruined, you won't want to use it again!"  "True", he replied,
          "but you see, my lunch is in the pocket."
             Now our question to you is this:-- "If this gentleman offered
          to share one of those sandwiches with you, would you accept it?".
          I asked this during our worship service last Sunday, and everyone
          agreed they wouldn't want any part of that lunch.  And not just
          because it would be polluted on the outside, but because it would
          be polluted on the inside as well.  In MARK 7:14-23, Jesus gives
          us several examples of the sorts of things that pollute -us-- not
          just on the outside, but on the inside as well.  Other Scriptures
          give other examples; of physical, moral and spiritual defilement.
             Belonging to Jesus, being temples of God, adopted as His sons
          and daughters; of course, we want God to dwell with us, as He has
          so wonderfully, graciously promised He'll do.  How urgently then,
          do we want to cleanse ourselves of pollution He cannot tolerate!
          But, if we wouldn't want God to find us unclean, neither would we
          want people around us, who know what we're like, what we say, and
          what we do- to turn away from Jesus, because they see -we- are
          defiled!  So, let us indeed keep up continual efforts to perfect
          holiness unto the Lord, just as He says!  Amen!   --RLW
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