In a recent telephone survey, 91 percent of the subjects claimed they always washed their hands after using public restrooms. But, when researchers observed people leaving public restrooms, only 83 percent actually did so.

Only 75 percent of men washed their hands compared to 90 percent of women, the observations revealed.

…While 83 percent said they washed their hands after using a home bathroom, 73 percent washed their hands after changing a diaper.

In contrast, low percentages of people wash their hands after petting a cat or dog (43 percent), after handling money (21 percent), after sneezing or coughing (32 percent).

...These results were released by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the SDA to highlight National Clean Hands Week, which runs from Sept. 18 through the 24.

Carey, Bjorn. American’s Dirty Secret Revealed
September 21, 2005. LiveScience.com

Comment: The Pharisees ceremonially washed their hands after visiting the market, just in case they may have come in contact with someone or something that would make them ceremonially unclean. They didn't realize that being clean or unclean was a spiritual matter that required repentance and reliance on God's cleansing.

Imagine if we had to bathe or wash our hands after every sin. We would have to spend our life in the bathroom. Thank God for the blessing of baptism, which flows over us every day and removes our guilt -- all because of the sacrifice of our Lord on Calvary.

For many Christians, the good news of the Gospel began with the words of St. John, or some other New Testament book. But for many of the most oppressed people of India, the Gospel often begins in Genesis, where they hear for the first time that they were created in the image of God.

…According to Hinduism, he said, God created man unequally. People are innately divided into four groups, called “castes.” The Brahmins, or priestly caste, represent the head of God; the Kshatriya, or warrior caste, represent the shoulders and arms of the Divine; the Vaishya, or business caste, represent God’s belly/thighs; while the Sudra, the “supportive workers serving the upper three castes,” represent the legs and feet.

The first three castes form 15 percent of the Hindu population. “They are pure, they have all rights within the Hindu caste system,” D’Souza said. “All religious, all economic, all spiritual rights.”

The servant caste makes up nearly 50 percent. “That is the worker class - the people behind India’s industrialization, the guys who pull the rickshaws, the guys who work in the fields, the farmers, etc.,” he said.

Outside the caste system - that is, the “outcastes” - are the Dalits. They are not even included in this picture of God, D’Souza said. Considered by Hinduism as unclean - they are known as “Untouchables” - the Dalits are not connected to God. They are less then (sic) human beings, even lower in status than animals, and they don’t have a soul. They are 25 percent of the population.

Vitagliano, Ed. Is Christ Visiting India’s Oppressed Untouchables?
October 2005. Agape Press

Comment: Christ is for both the outcast and the outcaste, the unclean and the untouchable.

An internist, a psychiatrist, a surgeon, and a pathologist went duck hunting. The internist got to shoot first.

A shape suddenly fluttered across the dawn sky. “Possible duck, possible goose, possible grosbeak, possible aphelacoma stelaris...” He didn’t get a shot off. The psychiatrist went next.

A duck flew across the morning horizon. The psychiatrist mused out loud...”I wonder how it feels to fly so free in the morning air...” He didn’t get a shot off. Next was the surgeon.

Something flew across the sky. BLAM BLAM BLAM -- he got three shots off quickly. In the ensuing shower of bloody feathers, he turned to the pathologist and said, “Hey, Harry, tell me what that thing was, will ya?”

Comment: Going through our life without studying God’s law is not making use of the Law as a rule. Good intentions may be nothing more than BLAM BLAM BLAM. Know what God wants you to be shooting for.

I was trying to nail plywood soffits under the eaves of a friend’s house as his father, an engineer, stood watching. I hit the nail about once every five swings.

“Attaboy, Fred,” he encouraged. “You’ve got it surrounded.”

Lewis, Fred.
September 21, 2006. Reader’s Digest’s Laugh Lines – Stupid Homeowner Tricks

Comment: Our misguided conscience doesn’t always hit the nail on the head… We need God’s direction.

When all else fails, follow the directions.

Anonymous

Comment: Finally, we are into a slightly different category! This is the 3rd use of God's Law - as a "rule" or "guide" for those who believe in Christ as their savior and are eager to produce fruits of thanks.

The above comment fits all too many Christians (including myself)- when all else fails, they try doing it God's way.