Why do I need to wash?
Why do I need to get baptized?

Why do I need to go the river and wash 7 times?

I can't see where that will do me any good.

I don't see any dirt on me.

I don't need to be baptized to go to heaven do I?

Why should I be baptized and/or join the church?

Key Verse: 2Kin. 5:13
"And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, [if] the prophet had bid thee [do some] great thing, wouldest thou not have done [it]? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?"

Did you know --
In 1842 the first bathtub was denounced as a "luxurious and democratic vanity."

Boston made it unlawful to bathe, except on doctor's prescription.

In 1843 Philadelphia made bathing illegal between November 1 and March 15.
 

    How tragic most Christians have adopted a similar schedule of  spiritual cleansing.
 

We would rather put up with the stench of our unconfessed sins than come clean before God!

The disease is caused from tiny germs too small for the human eye to detect, but the results are devastating.

An incurable diseases like Aids is this disease called
                                          S. oul
                                          I.  ncapacitating
                                          N.umbness
                                                                   or S.I.N.

Soul Leprosy is a disease that we all have and need cured of.

Leprosy is a disease that was incurable and untreatable.

It deadens the nerve endings in the extremities and works it's way  up your limbs until the patient had lost use of his limbs.

Sin is a dreadful disease that gradually creeps up your life until it's completely got you.

But you don't realize that you are held tight in its grasp.

Rom. 6:23
"For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

From the one who knew of the cure to one in need.

The captured slave girl loved the man,  Naaman and sent him to get the cure.
 

Sometimes we need a referral.

Can you see the love in the slave girl's heart.

        She knew the God of Love.

        She pointed her master to Jesus.

Faith to believe the Word of the Lord and wash in the River that the Preacher spoke of.

Faith to believe that we will do it God's way and not someone else's or our own.

Faith to wash in the cleansing fountain.
 

The fountain of the Blood of the Lamb is source of our cleansing.

        We have to believe in the power of salvation through the Lord.

        We must want to be made whole.
 

Man doesn't like to admit that his sinfulness and rebellion are at the heart of the problems of society.

He's much more comfortable discussing imperfections, weaknesses, mistakes, and errors in judgment.
 

        We have become so politically correct that we no longer call sin,  sin.

Now, a shoplifter is called an alternative shopper.

Those who chose not to follow God's plan for humanity and live lives that
are in agreement to His word are called those who have Alternate Life styles.
 

 These terms are socially acceptable, and almost everyone identifies  with them.
 

But an outright acknowledgment of guilt before a holy God, a 100-percent acceptance of responsibility for
wrong- doing, runs against the grain.

 Yet this kind of honesty is the first step to the freedom from sin and guilt that God longs to give us and has
 provided in the death of Christ

The washing isn't the cleansing of the soul but the Faith in the Lord of all creation that has the power
to clean us from the sin that destroys our lives.

Washing is the joining of ourselves to the Lord of all creation that cleanses us from all of our sin.

    A hermit was guided by an angel into woods, where he saw an old man cutting down boughs to make up a bundle.
When it was large, he tied it up, and attempted to lift it on his shoulder, and carry it away; but, finding it very heavy,
he laid it down again, cut more wood, and heaped it on; and then tried again to carry it off.  This he repeated several times; always adding something to the load, after trying in vain to raise it from the ground.   In the meantime, the hermit, astonished at the old man's folly, desired the angel to explain what this meant.
"You behold," he said, "in the foolish old man an exact representation of those, who, being made aware of the burden of their sins, resolve to repent, but soon grow weary, and, instead of lessening their burden, increase it every day.  At each trial, they find the task heavier than before; and so put it off a little longer, in the vain hope that they will by and by be more able to accomplish it.  So they go on adding to their burden till it grows too heavy to be borne; and then, in despair of God's mercy, and with their sins unrepented of, they lie down and die. Turn again, my son, and behold the end of the old man whom you saw heaping up a load of boughs."
    The hermit looked, and watched him attempting to remove the pile in vain , which now had accumulated far beyond his strength to raise. His feeble limbs tottered over their burden; the poor remains of his strength were fast ebbing away; the darkness of death was gathering around him; and, after a convulsive and impotent attempt to lift the pile, he fell down and expired.

                Have you ?
                        Will you?
                                Trust in God for the cure for your