What have you seen today? What have you heard? Has it all been pure? Or has there been those things that are impure? It is nigh on impossible to escape impurity these days. We go to the shops, and it is there in front of us, through no fault of our own we see or hear impure things, but what do we do about it? Nothing. After all I hear you say it's not your fault, you didn't go looking for it, it was just there in front of you.

The trouble is that picture stays with us, and a bit later in the day, our mind starts thinking about it, and we have difficulty focusing on other things. Instead of thinking about the things of God, or about our work, our mind has gone of on an impure tangent. So what do we do about it?

Well here in Numbers 19 the Israelites faced a similar problem. An Israelite would be going about their normal duty only to come across a dead body. Suddenly they were impure through no fault of their own, what were they to do about it? Well God had prepared a solution here. The red heiffer was to be the substitute for their impurity. So what about us?

Well we need to come before God, and ask him to cleanse us. Come with me to John 13 and we will see the Lord in the upper room, washing the disciples feet. Peter complains at first that he is not worthy to have his feet washed by Jesus, and then misunderstanding what Jesus is doing, jumps to the other extreme asking to be washed entirely. However in verse 10 we read:
Jesus said to him, "The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean.
If we have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for our Salvation then we are like the one who has been bathed. Once saved always saved. However, just us the disciples' feet would have picked up dirt along the way, so do we, and so we need to come before the Lord and ask Him to cleanse us from the impurities we have picked up along the way.

Can I take this opportunity to recommend Phil Coulson's messages on Cleansing from daily defilement available on mp3 from here where he goes into more detail on this subject.

Please send any comments you have on this article to a.wood@assemblyyouth.net

Dare to be a Daniel Delivering God's message	Next month: How soon we forget.	Thought for the month Friends
	Wilderness Years
	Last month: Priestly Responsibilities.

All quotes are from the English Standard version of the Bible unless otherwise specified.