in Arabic

Newsletter of June 2008

In Jesus name,
In our time, cleanliness is something required not only for health purposes, but also gives a touch of beauty for the things surrounding us.

When everything around us is clean, we are glad and feel comfortable. The Pharisees and Scribes asked Jesus in Matthew 15:2: Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.

Washing of hands as a religious obligation was one of the important issues in Israel at that time and it was taken from the laws of Moses in Exodus 2. All what is written in the Law was important and was a religious duty that the children of Israel had to observe, but the Lord Jesus Christ gave the right answer (He always gives the right answer), when He said: Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. Mat 15:17-20

Nowadays many are for the outward cleanliness and appearance, but they don’t care for the cleanliness of the heart. Jesus Christ said in Luke 6:45: A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

Let everyone of us check and examine our heart. If we find uncleanliness and bad things in our lives, then let us clean the heart and ask God with prayer and fasting to help us in this matter. Let us pray as David did, when he said in Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
And God will hear the prayer.

God be with you. es