Purifying Ourselves

    God is pure and we should be doing all that is necessary to purify ourselves (1 John 3:1-3) and keeping ourselves pure. Jesus died to purify us (Titus 2:13-14), we must give ourselves to the daily effort of maintaining our purity (consider Romans 12:1-2) We need to be always watchful of the influences we allow into our lives (Psalm 1, 1 Corinthians 15:33, Ephesians 5:15-17, 2 Timothy 2:22) because only those who are pure in heart will be blessed with seeing God (Matthew 5:8).

    How do we purify ourselves and maintain our purity?

• By meditating on pure things (Philippians 4:8). God’s Word is pure (Psalm 12:6; 19:8, Proverbs 30:5). Determine to sit and read the bible throughout the day and/or memorize bible verses to think on as you go about your day.
• By drawing near to God, which will help us not be double-minded (anxious, doubting, fearful, etc. Consider Philippians 4:6-8 and James 1:2-8).
• By keeping our thoughts and words pure (Proverbs 15:26, Titus 1:15-16). Pure words are pleasant and do much good.
• By keeping busy with good works (James 1:27, Proverbs 20:9, Titus 3:8); helping us stay unspotted from the world.

    We must strive for a pure heart and mind so that we can wholly obey God’s command to love our brethren fervently (1 Peter 1:22). Pure heart --> pure motives --> sincere care --> fervent love. In doing so we can reach our full potential and help our brethren do the same!

    When we purify our hearts and minds, we are showing God that we value what He has granted us: the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38, 1 John 1:9), the opportunity to be called His children, the hope of seeing Him as He is in eternity (1 John 3:1-3, Matthew 5:8), plus SO much more (Psalm 40:5, 68:19, 139:17-18)! Our daily determination to be pure lets God know that we honour His purity and perfection (Psalm 119:101-102)! We are saying that what He has done is greatly appreciated, what He has instructed is founded in love and true wisdom, and what He provides for our success is simply immeasurable!    

    In a world that is constantly promoting and celebrating impurity, how much more so should we, as God’s own children, be promoting and celebrating His purity and His instruction in purity through praise and humble obedience (1 Peter 2:9, James 1:25)? How else will the world know of the path different than the one they are stumbling along? How else will our lamp shine to light the way that leads to true freedom, peace, and joy?

    It is worth every effort to purify your heart and mind! God is worthy of your continued diligence in this pursuit!! He has provided all we need, let’s do our part and promote purity by living pure and faithful lives before Him!!

You can do it! So can I!!

 

Loving One Another With A Pure Heart

 “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth 

through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, 

love one another fervently with a pure heart…”  

(1 Peter 1:22 NKJV)

    It is God who purifies our souls from all uncleanness when we obey the Truth by being baptized (Acts 2:38; 22:16) and then as Christians, when we stumble, we can pray to God, confess our sin, and He will cleanse us (our souls) from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-10).

    Having a pure heart is OUR responsibility! We must determine daily to maintain the garden of our heart: tilling the hardened areas, making them tender and receptive to the Truth, clearing the stones of offense, pulling out the thorns of distraction (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23), and carefully tending the seed of Truth (Luke 8:11), nurturing it through obedience (James 1:25), continued study (Acts 17:11), and prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17); allowing it to purify our hearts. And just as actual plants purify our air, giving us a better quality of life, so too will God’s holy Word!!

    When we are baptized, not only do we have our souls purified by God but we also become part of the body of Christ, we are now members of His body with all others who have obeyed the Truth (1Corinthians 12:12-14, Acts 2:47, Ephesians 1:22-23, 4:15-16)! We have brethren! Brethren who flee the same things we flee, who pursue the same things we pursue – consider 2 Timothy 2:22 – and our need to have a pure heart not only benefits us but will benefit them as well!

    God commands us to sincerely love our brethren, without selfish motives or hypocrisy (consider 1 John 3:17-19) and this can only be accomplished with the next command “love one another fervently with a pure heart.” It is only when we work to keep our heart pure that we can be sincere in our love and sincerity in our love will lead to fervency - loving to our full potential! – doing all we can to help, encourage, guide, and benefit our brothers and sisters in Christ!

    If God has purified your soul, do all that is necessary to purify your heart and to keep it pure! Discover the better quality of life that God’s Word provides when we let it take firm root in our heart as we hear and obey it!  Love your brethren with a love so sincere that it will motivate you to keep your heart pure, in doing this you may just encourage your brethren to do the same! We are all in this together and it is only with pure hearts that we can reach our full potential!!

You can do it! So can I!!     

  

Keeping Yourself Unspotted From the World

“Pure and undefiled religion before God 

and the Father is this: to visit orphans 

and widows in their trouble, and to keep 

oneself unspotted from the world.”  

(James 1:27 NKJV)

    When we purify our heart and continue to purify it, our actions will reflect that purity. As we set our mind on things above instead of on things of the earth, even this will be revealed through the choices we make.

“Even a child is known by his deeds, 

whether what he does is pure and right.” 

(Proverbs 20:9 NKJV)

    Jesus taught that they who meet the needs of those in need are the blessed of His Father and when He comes to gather His own they will be welcomed into the kingdom prepared for them (Matthew 25:31-46). Does this remind you of one of the beatitudes we have studied? “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8)

    One of the purest ways to feel purpose and fulfillment in this life is to help others who need our help. In Jesus’ time these helps did not exist except by the hands of caring individuals who looked with loving eyes and generous hearts to the needs of those around them. Consider the behavior of the very first Christians in Acts – they saw the need among their brethren and either shared or sold their possessions and land so that needs were met, resulting in them having all things in common (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-37).

    Jesus wants us to take care of those who have no help – women without husbands, children without parents – those who are vulnerable to evil schemes concocted by immoral people, those who need love, guidance, reassurance, and/or provision to carry on through life. He wants us to have hearts that are loving, willing to share, and always watchful of any dangers lurking about those we are helping. Pure hearts can allow us to accomplish this. Pure attitudes and pure love for God and our fellow man will help us to obey this command!

    Do all you can to keep yourself unspotted from the world so that you can see those in need and help them with pure intent and sincere care!

You can do it! So can I!!

 

Keeping Our Minds and Thoughts Pure

“The thoughts of the wicked 

are an abomination to the LORD, 

but the words of the pure are pleasant.” 

 (Proverbs 15:26 NKJV)

    Have you ever been in a conversation with a couple of people and you’re telling them of some happening in your life that is completely proper and one person hears it for what it is and the other hears it and because of their coarse thoughts twists your innocent words into innuendo and double entendre, which they mention to your embarrassment, leaving you dumbfounded, aghast at the very thought, and tripping over your tongue to be sure to proclaim that you meant no such thing?

“To the pure all things are pure, 

but to those who are defiled and unbelieving 

nothing is pure, but even their mind 

and conscience is defiled.”  

(Titus 1:15 NKJV)  

    Maybe at times we, ourselves, have allowed our “sense of humour” to become impure, coarse, and defiled; thinking we can simply laugh it off with “I was just joking” (please consider Proverbs 26:18-19). When we allow ourselves to behave like that, to think and speak like that we exemplify what is written in Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.”

    When we allow impurities to dwell in our hearts/minds because we find them “naughty” (a.k.a. “a guilty pleasure”) we are allowing a form of childish rebellion take hold in our minds, we think that “no one will ever know, so it’s okay,” as though you are keeping a secret from the people around you, but Matthew 12:33-37 declares that what you think in your heart will come out, the bad fruit we are developing will become obvious because the longer we harbor impure thoughts the more comfortable we become with them and the more natural it will be for us to let them come out in our speech.

    Can you understand then, the difficulty you would have in trying to teach someone the Truth and tell them of the need to submit to Jesus and His commands, if you have spent much of your previous conversations with them laughing about impure things and twisting words into innuendo? You have disqualified yourself from every good work and God saved us from our sins and created us in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared beforehand so that we may continue in them (Ephesians 2:1-10)!

    Let’s be brutally honest with ourselves. Let’s look carefully at our hearts and take note of where our minds go when we listen. Take the time to truly scrutinize what you watch, what you listen to, what you read. If you find yourself guilty of impurity confess your shortcoming to God (1 John 1:9)! Do all you can to cleanse your life of every evil influence and fill your mind instead with God’s pure and holy word each and every day, so that our words will be pleasant in their purity and we can do the good that God created us to do!!

You can do it! So can I!!