Cleanse America

My brother-in-law, Paul, started a program (for lack of a better word) to help Americans cleanse their bodies and introduce them to eating raw. No, I don’t mean raw sushi or raw beef.  I mean raw vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts and leafy greens. 

Starting on April 9^th we began a 10 day cleanse which involved only eating raw food. This is not simply vegetarian.  Vegetarians may eat only vegetables, but they often eat them steamed or cooked. Eating raw means nothing is heated over 105 degrees. Nothing we ate was heated at all.

I did this at the request of my beautiful wife. She wanted to join Cleanse America to support her brother and to incorporate more healthy foods into our diet.  In preparation for this, I used Daniel 1:8-20 to be my motivation. In this passage of Scripture, Daniel requests that he and his friends be allowed to eat only “pulse” and drink water for 10 days. I think “pulse” is raw fruits and vegetables.  At the end of 10 days Daniel and his friends were wiser and healthier looking than the others who had eaten of the finest foods the king had to offer. I wanted to see if at the end of 10 days of eating raw I would be healthier and smarter like Daniel… ok, maybe just healthier.

For Cleanse America some drank raw food juice only. My wife and I chose to eat raw foods instead. I like to chew too much.  With juicing you get way more nutrients, however, with eating you get more fiber. Combined with this raw food cleanse, I have been training to run a half marathon…at least the distance of a half marathon.

When I started Cleanse America, I weighed in at 164 LBS.  When it was all said and done, I weighed in at 155 LBS. The last time I weighed that I was a 17 year old senior in High school playing basketball and running track…that was twenty-one years ago.  Today, I am in the best shape of my life.

Through this whole experience I have learned much about the food we eat.  Yes, eating raw foods is absolutely better for you. Yes, I believe there is a link between the diseases many Americans have and the types of processed foods they eat.  While eating right and getting adequate exercise is a good thing, I think many people focus all their attention on their physical bodies and forget about or ignore their souls.

As a Christian my body is the temple of the Living God. I should take care of it, but I should not worship it. This life is short in comparison to all eternity. What profit would it be if a person ate a perfectly healthy diet, exercised his entire life and lived to be a hundred and twenty years old, but neglected his soul?

No matter how physically healthy and fit a person may be it will not change the condition of his soul.  What is the human soul? In a sense the human soul is who you are. Every human has a soul and every human is born into this world with a soul that is diseased, sick, unhealthy, and tainted by sin. 

Romans 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 

Ecclesiastes 7:20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.

The Bible even says that a man’s soul, spiritually speaking, is dead.  What does that mean? That means when it comes to the things of God, a man has no power to do anything to please Him. He can’t obey God’s commands, honor Him, or do one thing that is right. The Bible says in Jeremiah17:9 that his heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” A man doesn’t even know what evil he is capable of.

Even when he does things that would appear to be good, he does it for the wrong motive. His intent is not to glorify God, rather it is for some other reason. Therefore if the heart is wrong then the motive is wrong. If the motive is wrong, then no matter how wonderful the act, it is still evil.

This is the condition of every person born into this world.  The Bible tells us in Romans 6:23 that the payment for sin is eternal spiritual death. This will be carried out by suffering torment in a real place called the Lake of Fire. This is where the full wrath of God abides. That is why Jesus Christ told Nicodemas, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). 

The wages of sin is death, however, there is hope. As long as a person is living on this earth, there is hope. His only hope is to cry out to God for mercy, understand and agree with God that he is a sinner and that his sins are against God, turn from his sins and believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for his sins and that His death on the cross of Calvary was sufficient to please God.

1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Romans 10:9-10

  9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

10  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

While being healthy and taking care of your body and is a good thing, if you are doing it for any other reason than to bring glory and honor to God the Father and His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, then it is sinful and no longer a good thing.

It is good for the body to be cleansed from all the toxins we take in from our food.  It’s better for the soul to be cleansed from sin and be in right standing before God. I would like to see Americans be physically cleansed. However, I more so want to see Americans be spiritually cleansed. May God have mercy on our nation.