The general cleanliness of modern society has brought many benefits. Most beneficial has been the decrease in the diseases that used to kill people in droves. However, medical researchers are finding a negative side to our lack of dirt. A 17-year-old theory, called hygiene hypothesis, states that the greater cleanliness common in the modern world has failed to condition the body's ability to deal with irritants. As a result, the body overreacts to allergens such as pollen and this has caused soaring rates of allergies, asthma, and some forms of autoimmune diseases, such as Type I diabetes and arthritis. In the future, we may be taught to expose ourselves to a certain level of allergens in our youth so that we might handle them better as adults. In like manner, those who never deal with lesser problems in their lives will not know how to react when real problems come. Lamentations 3:27 states, "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth." Children need to learn to deal with responsibilities and problems while they are young so that they can handle them as adults. Psalm 55:19 tells us that those who "have no changes" tend to "fear not God." Troubles teach us to deal with trouble. The secular problem you are dealing with today may be preparing you to deal with an important spiritual challenge tomorrow. We must leave our training in the hands of a wise and benevolent God.
The Lord is clearly interested in beauty. Some form of the word is used 76 times in the Bible. We are told that God "hath made every thing beautiful in his time" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). He so highly exalts the proper concept of beauty that He often associates it with holiness (Psalm 29:2; 96:9; 110:3). Unfortunately, men tend to pervert beauty as they do all that they touch. God reminds us that outward "beauty is vain" (Proverbs 31:30) and human "beauty is a fading flower' (Isaiah 28:1). Men corrupt beauty and make the "beauty of a man" a focus for idolatry (Isaiah 44:13). Eventually, man's perverseness causes his "beauty to be abhorred" (Ezekiel 16:25). The very concept of what is beautiful is no longer recognizable.
Today's how-to, from www.wikihow.com provides in-depth information about a creative way to obtain stuff without spending any money. Are you interested? It is called "dumpster diving". No, I'm not kidding. Here are some tips and warnings for those of you who are chomping at the bit to take your first dive.
Note: What follows is an introduction I just wrote to a lesson on Mark 6:1-26 entitled "Changes in the Ministry of Christ." I thought it might be an encouragement to someone who is presently going through some great changes.
Alfred Edersheim wrote a major life of Christ called "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah." Edersheim's Jewish heritage gave him interesting insights into many of the beliefs and ways of life during the time of Christ. In his book (Vol.11, p.12), he wrote of the Jewish traditions concerning the defilement of hands and the accusation that Jesus did not keep these traditions (as recorded in Mark 7:1-9).
About two weeks ago (I cannot find the exact date), a construction worker was digging up a peat bog somewhere in Ireland for the purpose of creating commercial potting soil when he saw something in the bog. That something turned out to be an ancient selection of psalms in Latin that has been dated to around 800AD-1000AD. The discovery has been called a miracle find because of the unlikely chance that it would be preserved in a peat bog and the equally unlikely chance that it would be discovered.
