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make mistakes or not see the issues. The fewer toxins there are lodged in the body, the clearer life will appear making it easier to prioritise or do the right thing.
WATER TO LIFT THE MOOD!
Studies have shown that drinking the recommended amount of water each day makes more sociable, cheerful and energetic people. The brain is made up of 79% fluid, and it follows that if we keep it at the right levels, it will function well and happily. It is worth a try on a bad day!
But what about the moral aspect of our lives, the sense of right and wrong. We often speak of something as being 'character forming'. The 'water programme' can be one of those as it teaches us routines and habits, and often goes against what we would instinctively prefer to do. But the very fact of acting according to reason, and not by what we fancy, quickly strengthens our characters. It teaches us to stop and be ready to say 'NO' when our appetite asks for something that we know is not the best. This takes effort, real effort sometimes, but the sense of control in life is very stabilising. |
BUT THERE IS MORE. Previous booklets have spoken about the damage that doing wrong things in life can cause. When we sense that we are doing those wrong things, we can admit them and confess them and make good where we can. But what about any guilt that lingers?
This is where WATER comes in again. Just as water washes away impurities in the blood and from the cells of our bodies, water washes away the guilt of our sins and truly give us a new start. This washing is called 'baptism'. When we go down into the water, it is a symbol that we want to wash away those things that we have already confessed to God and to any other people concerned. |
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As we are immersed in the water, it is as if they are all washed from us. When we come up out of the water, we can walk free, and make a new start to begin a new way of life in all respects. If we ask God to take into account everything that we have ever done, and if we have openly admitted and confessed everything we know about, for as far back as we can remember, He will forgive us and cleanse us. Then at baptism all is publicly and symbolically washed away. It is as if we never thought or said or did any of them. God washes them away from us, and others can see our new start.
This is a real new beginning. It is so much better than trying to forget the past by drawing a line under it, and then making new resolutions that the future will be different. This new start is very similar to the elimination process in previous booklets, when we got rid of the toxins. Water is what washes them away and, symbolically, our lives can be washed and made clean too - by baptism - to match our clean bodies.
It is not a magical act. Just as we have to keep eating and drinking the right things after our detoxification programme, so we have to keep living the new way of life after our baptism. Growth and restoration in all senses continues as long as we have life.
Deep down we all long for this new beginning. The Spirit of God pleads with each of us to make a new start. It does not matter who we are, or what we have done, or how bad our lives have been, God created us at the outset and he wants to recreate us. He wants to take us back to being the kind of people we were intended to be - without any dirty luggage; people that are clean - washed clean. |
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REFLECTION
Why do we continue making resolutions to be better? They always fail. It is because there is that in us which always wants to be better and to be clean. Instead, why not try a total way to a clean life - it works. Live in a clean way, with the gifts of nature as food and drink. Acknowledge your sin, admit it freely, confess it to God, and confess openly to those whom you have hurt, and then choose to turn from it and live a new kind of life. To do this means health and hope. |
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