Cleanliness is next to Godliness… NOT!

I have searched and searched my Bible but it just isn’t there.  Sometimes I tell people that “verse” is found in Hezekiah 2:12.  Hezekiah, like David, was a great king but not a namesake for an Old Testament book.

But what does the Bible say about cleanliness?  Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but much increase comes by the strength of an ox. (Proverbs 14:4 NKJV)

This is an exciting verse.  To stay clean, don’t have oxen.  What could be better?  With no oxen, the barn will smell good too.  But how much labor would get done?  They are called beasts of burden for a reason.

This is like Christianity.  If we don’t deal with the poor, the orphaned, the crazies, then life is much neater.  Cleaner.  Smells better.  The poor remind us of our blessings.  The orphaned, while cute, do eventually enter adolescence.  And we know teens try the most saintly of parents.  And the crazies.  Who to expect?  Not normal.  Not neat.  And kind of smelly.

But then where is the strength of our faith?  James says faith without works is dead (2:17).  Do we want to carry the load? Do we want to spread the WORD no matter the cost?  I do.

LORD, help us to step out of our nice, clean bubbles and do true religion.  Help us “to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.”  It might be messy but then YOU are the one who cleans us up.