HELP! I Need Hand & Heart Sanitizer

I was talking to my sis-in-law last night. They are in the professional, large-buildings (mostly banks) cleaning business with over a hundred employees working for them. Bless their hearts. They are also an “essential” business on the front lines. Because sanitizing standards are amped up, their employees are working double and triple the hours to get their jobs done as banks are requiring sanitizing three times a day.

She also told me about how God had given her the wisdom, even before the pandemic hit us here in the U.S., to order large quantities of toilet paper and disinfectant for their buildings. Wonder why I didn’t get that memo from God? I know He must be amused at us – panicking over not enough T.P., disinfectant and hand sanitizers. Among the items my cousins needed as I shopped for them yesterday, were disinfectant wipes and napkins. Nowhere to be found. I chuckled with another shopper as we viewed the paper goods aisle with no toilet paper, paper towels, or napkins. But, rest assured, if you want an Easter basket full of goodies for your kiddos, just go to the paper goods aisle and you’ll find plenty there!

I was needing hand sanitizer myself. I've had one tiny bottle that I've used faithfully when going outside my home. I’ve shopped online and store after store, but none is available. But, what a difference Spring-cleaning makes. I’ve been on a mission to get cabinets and closets cleaned out – endeavoring to make my “retreat” a successful venture of getting things done that I’ve put off as long as I could. In that quest, lo and behold, you can see in the picture here – a larger hand sanitizer bottle and several little ones. Up from the grave they arose! Hallelujah!

I know I'm wordy. I said all this to get to the point of today’s blog. See that big bottle. It is left over from an ACTS retreat that I served on a couple of years ago. We printed the labels for the hand sanitizers to be placed on our tables. The label included our retreat theme scripture: “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.” Psalm 24:3-4. And St. Teresa of Calcutta’s quote: “A clean heart can see God, can speak to God, and can see the love of God in others.”

Yes, we are doing our best to have clean hands in these times. I wear gloves when I go to the grocery store and use hand sanitizer after. It’s an absolute must for us. But even more critical are those words on the bottle. "Clean hands and pure hearts." Those are the hands and hearts who know better than to only think about the purity of our external selves. Far greater – in the light of eternity – and in the light of letting our lights shine brighter than ever before, is what is in us that might "soil" the relationship we have with God. We do our best to keep our hands and hearts pure and clean because we want to please our Father so much. I’m thinking that we may need to apply some of His Holy sanitizer to our hearts that removes the bitterness, strife, anger, resentment, worry, fear. God's holy sanitizer cleans all those things away when we pray along with King David: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me!” Psalm 51:10

Clean hands. Pure heart. Dear Lord, please apply your Holy sanitizer to my life – inside and out, today!

It's Clean-Up, Clean-Out, Clean-In Time!

This may be TMI (too much information) on my personal life, but I had a major clean-out (literally, blow-out) two days ago when I went through a colonoscopy prep for the next day’s colonoscopy. I had put it off longer than I should have. It seemed like such a big deal to me, but when I had my annual check-up with my doctor this year, she was adamant about the prevention of colon cancer and how this procedure can detect and take care of any future issues. Besides – a good CLEAN-OUT is good anyhow because we know that having colon cancer screening is supposed to begin at age 50. I slightly missed that year. 😉Honestly the whole process from the prep day to the end of the procedure the next day was far less of a horror story than I thought it would be. To those of you who will be undergoing this procedure for the first time, take heart! The dread is ten times worse than the prep or the procedure will be.

CLEAN is my word of the day: washed, scrubbed, cleansed, pure, clear, fresh, virtuous, good, upright, honest, sober

About this time of year, many of us start to think about “Spring Cleaning”. We accumulate so much clutter (you know those little corners where we stack up mail, flyers and magazines), that we start getting weary from just walking by that corner. We need to CLEAN-UP! Then there’s the closets full of winter wear – boots, coats, gloves, hats – squeezed in so tight you couldn’t get another item in it. We need to CLEAN-OUT! Then there’s the attic that bears our seasonal decorations, old furniture, hunting equipment, years and years of boxes of tax records and more building materials than you could shake a stick at! Okay, I just described our attic just after my Sweetheart graduated to heaven. When I climbed those stairs and looked in the attic, I hollered “RONALD WUERCH, how could you leave without CLEANING OUT this mess?” LOL!

I was on a CLEAN-OUT binge years ago when I realized there were some TV shows that I recorded that weren't so optimistic and peace-building, so I removed them -- those shows that contained immorality, violence, crude language, etc. I'm so glad I did. I even removed those political talk shows that just went on and on in negativity. Proverbs 23:7 says "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." I sure didn't want to be thinking those thoughts.

Most importantly in this CLEANING mission, is my utmost desire to CLEAN-IN. In Galatians 5, St. Paul reminds us of those things that need to be cleaned out of our hearts: hatred, anger, fighting, jealousy, gossiping, complaining, criticizing, selfishness, etc.

Bottom line…..it’s clean up, clean out and clean in time for those of us who sincerely desire that the bandwagon we are on is the one that brings immeasurable blessings, peace and joy.

You know how a fresh, clean house feels? Shouldn't we desire that fresh, clean house feel, inside AND out? It comes by asking the Master House Cleaner (Holy Spirit) to come more than once a month to clean. We want Him to show up every day to remind us ....Psalm 24:3,4 "Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has CLEAN hands and a pure heart"

Clean Hands and a Pure Heart

We’ve all found little finger prints on our glass doors or windows or walls. No sooner do we get those glass doors cleaned, than a little one comes along and puts his hands all over the door again. Little chocolate, play dough or muddy hands had left their imprint. The evidence was real. We recognized those finger prints. They were placed there by some little person that we loved.

Those were the times when those little ones had no idea of what those little finger prints could do. It took some repetitive correcting and maturing for them to finally learn to use a napkin or washcloth to wipe away the evidence.

Now, that we’re all grown up -- we know better. We do pretty well with keeping our hands clean. Today, even grocery or big box stores, provide antibacterial wipes to clean off that grocery cart before you use it. And, many of us carry little bottles of hand sanitizer. But, really – I’m not talking about those little dirty hands.

Psalm 24:3, 4 says “Who may climb the mountain of the Lord and enter where He lives? Who may stand before the Lord? ONLY THOSE WITH CLEAN HANDS AND PURE HEARTS, who do not practice dishonesty and lying.”

Clean hands. Pure hearts. How can we clean up our hearts? There are many ways: medications, self-help books, therapy, counseling, and mental affirmations. Of course all those ways help our physical and mental thoughts, but when we let God use His super-powerful cleaning system do the work in us, then we’ll show up with those “clean hands and pure hearts”.

Clean hands and pure hearts. Those are the hands and hearts who know better than to allow the stains and dirtiness of the world – lying, dishonesty, cheating, envying, complaining, and deceiving – to “mess up” our relationship with God. We do our best to keep our hands and hearts pure and clean, because the rewards for being God’s good kids are so great. We get to sit at the “adult” table where the benefits are so many. He finds pleasure in His kids when they desire to please Him.

My prayer is from Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me!” Clean hands. Pure heart. Sounds like someone had a good “cleansing” shower!

It's Clean-Up, Clean-Out, Clean-In Time!

About this time of year, many of us start to think about “Spring Cleaning”. We accumulate so much clutter (you know those little corners where we stack up mail, flyers and magazines), that we start getting weary from just walking by that corner. We need to CLEAN-UP! Then there’s the closets full of winter wear – boots, coats, gloves, hats – squeezed in so tight you couldn’t get another item in it. We need to CLEAN-OUT! Then there’s the attic that bears our seasonal decorations, old furniture, hunting equipment, years and years of boxes of tax records and more building materials than you could shake a stick at! Okay, I just described our attic just after my Sweetheart graduated to heaven. When I climbed those stairs and looked in the attic, I hollered “RONALD WUERCH, how could you leave without CLEANING OUT this mess?” LOL!

Yesterday, I began another type of “clean-out” mission. With all the negativity in the media, it seems many of my nearly 3,500 Facebook friends have gravitated to join them. I'm not referring to the occasional words of disappointment because their guy didn’t make the White House cut, but there are those who have become outright obscene and indecent with their language and with the images they post. While I won’t de-friend them (I want my light to shine brightly just in case they pass my way), I’m cleaning out by “unfollowing” them. You know the saying “Garbage in – garbage out”? In order to protect my peace (which is my most treasured possession), garbage has to go out!

Last year I turned a new leaf in my cleaning out processes. I realized how much time I was spending going through my emails each day. Valuable time being consumed by ads and even, in my effort to consume as much "Good News" as possible each day, I had devotions and motivations "overload" coming in daily. It wasn't just the emails that consumed precious time, but often the ads were so enticing, it made me want to go to that store for their sale or go shopping on their website. So, more precious time was given to "wants" not "needs" in my life. So, I purged and cleaned out.

I was on a CLEAN-OUT binge when I realized there were even some TV shows that I recorded that weren't so optimistic and peace-building, so I removed them -- those shows that contained immorality, violence, crude language, etc. I'm so glad I did. I even removed those political talk shows that just went on and on in negativity. Proverbs 23:7 says "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." I sure didn't want to be thinking those thoughts.

I know this may sound like my goal in life is to be in the next "Miss Goody 2 Shoes" Contest. That is so not my intent. My intent is to be a fully devoted follower of Christ and in order to do and be that, it means my choices must align with His desires and best wishes for me. "What Would Jesus Do?" provides the benchmark for me. You may be thinking “That is way too far to the extreme!” I am simply telling you my “measure of rule”.

Most importantly in this CLEANING MISSION, is my utmost desire to CLEAN-IN. I am doing a house cleaning on the inside, too. In Galatians 5, St. Paul reminds us of those things that need to be cleaned out of our hearts: hatred, fighting, jealousy, anger, gossiping, complaining, criticizing, idolatry, selfishness, etc.

Bottom line…..it’s clean up, clean out and clean in time for those of us who sincerely desire that the bandwagon we are on is the one that brings immeasurable blessings, peace and joy. You know how a fresh, clean house feels? Don’t you want that fresh, clean house feel, inside AND out? It comes by starting Spring Cleaning and requiring that the House Cleaner (Holy Spirit) comes more than once a week to clean. We want Him to show up every day to remind us ....Psalm 24:3,4 "Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart....."