When Cleaning Solutions Can Kill
Cleaning products are supposed to make things clean and germ free, right? But did you know that cleaning products can actually be the vehicle for spreading soil and germs? Sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? How can cleaning products make things soiled or contaminated?
Well, consider what recently happened with a high-end line of cleaning products, sold under the name The Laundress, which recently had to recall nearly 8 million units of products, including laundry detergents, stain removers, and surface cleaners, because they potentially were infected with dangerous bacteria with really long, hard to pronounce names — like Burkolderia Cepacia Complex, Klebsiella Aerogenes and Pseudomonas.
Safety regulators said consumers should "immediately stop" using all referenced products and immediately return them for refund.
Or considered another similar incident just months prior when the Clorox company — the King of Clean, right?! — had to recall a variety of Pine Sol cleaning products because of the risk of bacteria.
In both cases, the very products designed and marketed to clean our filth, and thus keep us healthier, were actually spreading germs that could kill us.
Can you say irony?
Sadly, there is a spiritual parallel taking place in human hearts every minute of every day, as we make our feeble attempts to wash ourselves, purge ourselves of the stain of sin.
We attempt to scrub our soiled souls with the detergent made of our own human efforts, good works, and well intentions. We try to wash away past and present sin with the stain remover of pious acts or legalistic mandates. Yet for all our effort, we are simply injecting more sin, more soil, more contamination into the mix. And just like those contaminated cleaning products, our own self-righteous efforts can (and will!) kill us.
Scripture is clear — ALL our righteous deeds are like smelly, filthy rags in the nostrils of the Lord (Isaiah 64:6). The more we try to clean ourselves, the filthier we become.
There is only One cleaning solution fit to remove the stain of our soiled souls, and that is the cleansing power of the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Himself.
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. … If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7,9 ESV).
Comparing Ourselves To Others
A couple purchased a home in upper Maine from two elderly sisters. With winter approaching, the wife was concerned about the house’s lack of insulation.
“If they could live here all those years, so can we!” her husband confidently declared.
One night, the temperature plunged to below zero, and they awoke to find interior walls covered with frost. The husband called the sisters to ask how they had kept the house warm. After a rather brief conversation, he hung up.
“For the past 30 years,” he muttered, “they’ve gone to Florida for the winter.”
When we compare ourselves to others, it's easy to develop a false sense of self-assurance.
"For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise" (2 Corinthians 10:12).
A Wolf In Shepherd’s Clothing
PennLive reports:
A Pennsylvania drug rehab founder and CEO is accused of selling heroin and fentanyl to the addicts the facility was designed to heal.
Federal officials say 65-year-old David Francis was dealing those deadly drugs to clients and throughout McKees Rocks, a borough near Pittsburgh.
The Next Step Foundation that Francis operated is listed as providing recovery housing to drug addicts and alcoholics.
Instead of providing the housing, education, support and services to help them recover from addiction, as the organization's mission states, federal agents say Francis was acting as their drug dealer.
Federal authorities on Friday raided his home and the rehab facility amid charging him with intention to distribute fentanyl. His detention hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in federal court.
A person who bought drugs from him in May died of a fentanyl overdose, investigators said.
Federal officials began investigating in July after multiple overdoses were reported in McKees Rocks and nearby Ingram.
Lost and desperate people look to the Church for hope. Sadly, rather than ministering grace, many in this industry actually stoke the sin nature with a regiment of shame-based legalism and works righteousness, proving that the only thing worse than a wolf in sheep’s clothing is a wolf in shepherd’s clothing.
Pastors are supposed to help those who struggle with their addiction to religious pride, which keeps them from humbling seeking God’s grace. Ironically, many in the Church actually encourage this addictive behavior.
The Church is here to save mankind, not to put him on an even more addictive and hopeless path. These clergy act more like this rehab founder than the healers God has called them to be.
"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:4-5).