Using God's Light to Achieve and Maintain Purity

 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. 

Cleanse your hands, you sinners; 

and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” 

(James 4:8 NKJV)

    Drawing near to God means drawing closer to the very source of Light that illuminates all that we think and do (John 3:19-21). Many “Christians” seem content to imagine themselves on the outer edges of the Light; content to acknowledge God, pray to Him when they’re desperate, and attend weekly church services, but they don’t prefer to draw closer to Him, to dig deeper into His Word so they can learn to obey Him better. I say “imagine” because quite often they are not on the outer edges of the Light, but rather on the outer edges of the darkness, satisfying their desire to live like the world while fooling themselves in thinking they are followers of Christ (consider 1 John 2:9, Romans 12:2).

    God wants us to joy in His marvelous Light (Psalm 36:9)! He wants us to draw near to Him in His Light and allow it to show us our faults and errors so we can remove/change them and thus purify ourselves just as He is pure (1 John 3:3)!

    Sinners who have chosen to draw near to God must ‘cleanse their hands’ – meaning wash their hands of their past deeds; turn away from them and no longer seek the ways they used to follow (Luke 9:62, Hebrews 10:36-39; 11:24-26).  When we are buried with Christ (in baptism) we rise as a new person, a person who is to walk in “newness of life” (Romans 6:1-14), a person created according to God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:20-24), who seeks to do only God’s will and no longer our own.

    Christians, those who have already been baptized for the remission of their sins, also have a command in this James passage – we, who can still be double-minded, must purify our hearts!

    What does it mean to be double-minded?

    Well, it can mean that we say all the right things and appears to be a faithful follower to those on the outside but inside our home or inside our own mind we are fuming, angry, vindictive, judgmental, hateful and hating. It can mean we bless God and moments later curse men (these things out not to be, James 3:9-10). It can mean we follow God but allow fear to override our faith, letting anxieties take over (God can help, please take your fears to Him, Philippians 4:6-8). It can mean we pray for something but then doubt whether God will even provide (consider James 1:2-8).

    Do you see yourself in any of these scenarios? I know I have found myself among them at times! It is vital to draw near to God and allow His light to shine on us and in us so that we can see the shadowy areas that need to be removed!

    Let us do all that we can to work daily at purifying our hearts, so we can be sincere and true in all that we think and do!

You can do it! So can I!!

 

Purifying Ourselves By Thinking on Pure Things

“…whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, 

whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, 

whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report. 

If there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy

 – meditate on these things.”  (Philippians 4:8 NKJV)

    How can we purify ourselves? By meditating – purposely thinking on – pure things!

    What is pure to think on?

    Consider these verses for your answer:

“The words of the LORD are pure words, 

like silver tired in the furnace of earth, 

purified seven times.” (Psalm 12:6 NKJV)

 

“Every word of God is pure; 

He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.” 

(Proverbs 30:5 NKJV)

 

 “The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; 

the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes…” 

(Psalm 19:8 NKJV)

 

“Your word is very pure; therefore 

Your servant loves it.” (Psalm 119:140 NKJV)

    Fill your mind with God’s Word, His Truth; recall it to your mind and think on it through the day. Keep it at the forefront of your thoughts so much so that it becomes a guide and help to you, alerting you to things that are impure by comparison, allowing you to steer clear and avoid pitfalls.

    Train yourself to recognize and stop negative thinking and replace those thoughts with God’s pure Word. Memorize bible verses that you can recite to help you gain control of your thoughts and avoid temptation.

Here are some examples of helpful verses to memorize:

“Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, 

faith, love, peace with those who call on 

the Lord out of a pure heart.” (2 Timothy 2:22 NKJV)

. . . . . 

 

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, 

so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him 

and established in the faith, as you have been taught, 

abounding in it with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6-7 NKJV)

. . . . . 

 

“See then that you walk carefully, not as fools but as wise, 

redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 

Therefore do not be unwise, but understand 

what the will of the Lord is.”  

(Ephesians 5:15-17 NKJV) 

. . . . . 

  

“Do not be overcome by evil, 

but overcome evil with good.” 

(Romans 12:21 NKJV)

~ Please add more verses that are helpful in your comment below! ~

    If you truly want to purify yourself you must turn to God and seek His purity, His Truth, found in His Word, the Bible!! Read it daily, meditate on it always so you can obey it in its purity!!

You can do it! So can I!!

 

Blessed are the Pure in Heart

 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” 

(Matthew 5:8 NKJV)

    The scripture we looked at last week – 1 John 3:1-3 – stated that because we have hope as God’s children to see Him as He is, we work at purifying ourselves because God is pure.

    Here in Matthew, we have an excerpt from one of Jesus’ first sermons stating the same thing – those who are pure in heart will be blessed because they will see God.

    Let’s look at what “pure in heart” actually means.

    Pure in heart does not mean having clean and healthy arteries in the bodily organ that pumps our blood. The biblical heart is our mind, the fountain of our thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, purposes, and endeavours. It is the ‘inner man’ that we work daily to purify and keep from evil influence; the “new man” that was “created according to God in true righteousness and holiness’ (Ephesians 4:20-24) when we were baptized into Christ (Romans 6:1-13).     

    Keeping our heart pure means that we keep ourselves, our very thoughts, from corrupt desires, we do our utmost to avoid sin and sinful thoughts. We live clean, innocent, upright lives by serving God with utter sincerity, singleness of heart; making our loyalty and faithfulness to God our #1 priority. It means we wholly devote ourselves to obeying Him.

“Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God 

with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”” 

(Matthew 22:37 NKJV) 

    Take an honest look at what you look at (or do) each day because it all stores up in your heart. That crude, unwholesome humour you chuckle at online (and then even share for others to read), those posts with coarse language and/or swearing, those posts that encourage you to hold on to anger and resentment by justifying it according to man’s wisdom. What about those “friends” who love nothing more than gossiping and backbiting, or the books/movies/TV shows full of filthy language, adultery, and fornication? The list, unfortunately, can go on and on. Maybe it is necessary to truly visualize Jesus sitting right beside us while we scroll/post online, watch TV, and have a conversation – would we still make the same choices we’ve been making? God does see/hear everything we do/say, so let’s do all we can to scrub our hearts clean of bad influences!

    It will be worth every effort to read, study, and apply God’s Word to our lives each day! To have the blessed hope of one day being admitted into God’s presence in heaven, to be privileged to see our beloved Father and Creator should motivate us to try harder and do more to purify our hearts and keep our hearts pure each moment we are blessed with!!

You can do it! So can I!!

“Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? 

Or who may stand in His holy place? 

He who has clean hands and a pure heart, 

who has not lifted his soul up to an idol, not sworn deceitfully. 

He shall receive blessing from the LORD, 

and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” 

 (Psalm 24: 3-5 NKJV)   

 

 

 

Purifying Ourselves

     We, as Christians, represent Jesus (as His followers), represent God (as His children), and represent Christ’s church (as members of it). We may be ‘the only Bible the careless world will read’ (excerpt from hymn by Annie Johnson Flint), we need to speak and behave in such a way that people can see God through us (this includes what we post and share online, even jokingly) and see the well-anchored hope we have in Jesus! We need to determine daily to do all we can to help others believe in the goodness of God, so that they too will seek Him! We can only do that when we keep our priorities straight and work at purifying ourselves!

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as He is. And whoever has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.”   (1 John 3:1-3 NKJV)

    I would like you to take time today to think on the meaning of “purifies” and “pure.”

Purifies - the Greek word ‘hagnizo’ (Strong’s G48) means to make clean, set apart morally, to cleanse from defilement.

    This is our daily responsibility: to be careful what our eyes see, what our ears hear, what our mouths speak, what our hands do, where our feet go (consider Psalm 1 and 2 Timothy 2:22); to keep ourselves pure from evil/sinful influence!

Pure – the Greek word ‘hagnos’ (Strong’s G53, from ‘hagios’ (G40) which you will remember means ‘holy’) means clean, perfect, properly pure (to the core), pure inside and out, holy because uncontaminated (undefiled from sin), without spoliation even within (even down to the center of one’s being); not mixed with guilt or anything condemnable, pure from every fault.  

    This is what God is. It is what we work toward because we are His children! We work toward this kind of purity because we desire to be like Him and to see Him as He is!  As God’s children, as Christians, we have this hope, so, we too have this responsibility!

    As the Lord wills, let’s dig into this study and learn how to purify ourselves just as He is pure!!

You can do it! So can I!!

Do Your Roots Help or Hinder?

    Our family loves going out for hikes and during these outings I have come across roots that tripped me and also those that helped me safely climb up steep slopes. It was from one very knobbly-rooted path that my youngest daughter thought about the importance of roots - and whether our roots help others find God or if they the hinder them from walking the narrow way.

    Weather and general treading can erode soil and expose roots. In life, our daily treading (our conduct, the choices we make) and the storms of life can expose our roots as well (consider 1 Peter 1:3-9). Are your exposed roots helping or hindering?

"...the good works of some are clearly evident, 

and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden."

(1 Timothy 5:25 NKJV)

    When people see your conduct - in good time and bad - will they know that you are rooted in Christ? When they hear your words - in good times and bad - will they know that you are rooted in love and Truth?  When they hear you talk about fellow members of the congregation - in good times and bad - will they come to understand that you feel yourself rooted together with them?

    We are here to help one another (Galatians 6:9-10, 1 John 3:16-23)! We are here to help others come to know God (Matthew 5:16, 1 Peter 2:9-12) and share in the blessings found only in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-14)! 

    Root deeply into the solid foundation of the Truth so that your example leads others to the narrow path and helps those on that path gain better footing as they tread the way that leads to Life (Matthew 7:13-14)!  

 

     

    

       

Rooted in Christ - Together

"As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, 

so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him 

and established in the faith, as you have been taught,

 abounding in it with thanksgiving." 

(Colossians 2:6-7 NKJV)

 

    To walk in Christ, to conform to His image (Romans 8:29), and reverently imitate Him (1 Corinthians 11:1) means that we are obedient to all of  God's commands and instructions as we follow Jesus' example of obedience (1 Peter 2:21-24, John 15:10-14). 

 

    To know Christ's example and learn God's commands we must be established in the faith (Romans 10:17), have firm roots in the Truth (John 14:6) allowing the Truth to transform us (Romans 12:1-2, ) and build us up (Ephesians 4:15-16, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 3:18)!

 

    Think of all the blessings that can come when we are 'rooted and built up in Christ' TOGETHER! 

 

    For one thing, as stated in an earlier post, we all flee the same things and we all pursue the same things (2 Timothy 2:22)! That in itself is a wonderful help and blessing - to know that you're not alone and have others around you who are striving toward the same goal! 

 

    What are some other blessings that come from being rooted in Christ together?

 

    Among our brethren we can find examples of faithfulness, integrity, courage, honesty, humility, brotherly love, respect shown to elders, patience, forgiveness, diligence, and 'get-back-up-and-keep-trying-ness,' but our roots are also bound together with those who are inconsistent, weak, frail, and full of fret. Just as we gain strength from those stronger (longer in the faith) than us, so too can the weak and frail benefit from our example (Romans 6:1-2; 15:1-2) as we show love, compassion, and care for them, encouraging them to trust more in God and rely wholly on His goodness!! 

 

    Together we can encourage one another, edify one another, and help one another become established in the faith! Not just established in the faith but to ABOUND in it - FLOURISH IN IT! - when we are thankful for all the blessings we have in Christ and in being part of His church!

 

    Think on all the blessings you have through your brethren - those who helped you, encouraged you;  those who have caused you to dig deeper and put your love and faith into action - think on them all, thank God for them for helping you stay rooted and for giving you more opportunity to be built up better and stronger!  

 

    Being rooted in Christ together is a wonderful, wonderful blessing!

 

 

      

 

     

Rooted in Love - Together

 "...that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, 

being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend 

with all the saints what is width and length and depth and height - 

to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may 

be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19 NKJV)

 

    Paul's prayer for Christians was that they be rooted and grounded in love so that they, with their brethren, may comprehend the full extent of Christ's love.

    Have you ever been surprised at someone's capacity to love? Maybe you have received a kindness from a sister in Christ, or been shown mercy and sincere forgiveness when you have wronged a sister or brother and gone to them to make it right, or maybe you have felt the congregation envelop you with love and care when you have repented of and confessed sin, or when you asked for their prayers, or when you have gone through a great hardship?

 

    Each of these occasions - and so many others - help us comprehend Christ's love for us. When we love our brethren as we ought we will help them better understand Jesus' love for them.   

 

    Now, we all know that is so much easier to love those who love us or are loving toward us, but what about those among our brethren who are not that way? 

 

    Consider 1 John 4:10-11 for a moment: "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." Just as God loved us before we learned to love Him, we also need to love our brethren even if or when they do not love us. Sincere love of our brethren is shown when we love as God loves: caring for and considering those who have not yet fully comprehended His love (Matthew 5:43-48). 

    What a gift the church is! The congregation in which we are members grants us abundant opportunities to learn love, to teach love, and to grow in love toward each other and especially toward Christ and God (Ephesians 4:15-16)!  Let us all be so rooted and grounded in love that everything we say and do will help each other better understand Christ's love and together we can better represent God's love to the world around us, so that more may come to know the love of God and discover the joys of being rooted and grounded in Him (1 John 4:7-9)! 

 

You can do it! So can I!! 

 

 

 

 

 

Rooted in the Truth - Together

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, 

and whose hope is in the LORD.

For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, 

which spreads its roots by the river..."

(Jeremiah 17:7-8a NKJV)  

    Last month I was trying to decide on a month-long topic of study for my Facebook group (G.R.O.W.) and my youngest daughter suggested a topic that she felt was pertinent - having firm and established roots.

 

    At the time I couldn't foresee building a month-long series of articles/lessons from that topic, but it has never left my mind and so I have decided that we'll delve into it here and see where it takes us!

 

    Click on the video below (it's only 35 seconds long) and watch what happens when the wind blows against the trees. Take note of the ground at the base of the trees.

 

    

    How does that happen? The trees are all rooted in the earth - together. Their roots are intertwined into the same foundation and they help each other stay rooted when the winds rise up against them.

    If we are firmly rooted in God's Word alongside those of like precious faith then our roots will be bound together in His Truth! Just like the trees, we can help each other weather the storms that will arise in this life; we will help each other hang on!

  

    We are here to help each other (Ephesians 4:29-31, 1 Thessalonians 5:11); to remind each other of Christ's love for us (Ephesians 3:17-19, Romans 8:31-39). We are all seeking the same goal so we flee the same things and we pursue the same things (2 Timothy 2:22) - together! We do all we can to help each other overcome (James 5:19-20), by exhorting and encouraging each other DAILY so that none become hard and brittle through the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:12-15)!

 

    You are needed! By keeping your roots firmly planted in the Truth you can help a brother or sister in Christ stay rooted. Your staying power, your consistency, and your example can edify others to keep trying, to keep going, and to keep growing!

 

"Therefore, my beloved brethren,

be steadfast, immovable, 

always abounding in the work of the Lord,

knowing your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

(1 Corinthians 15:58 NKJV)

 

You can do it! So can I!!

 

 

     

 

    

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

     

 

 

 

    

 What we have learned in our study, “Building Faith and Confidence”:

• We can have confidence that we know God when we wholly obey His commandments (1 John 2:3)
  
• Surrender wholly to God because of what you already know of Him (His power, love, faithfulness, etc.) AND so you can learn MORE of Him (Psalm 46:10)
• When we abide in Christ – being part of His body, the church (Romans 6:3-4, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Galatians 3:26-29, John 3:5-7) – we can have confidence before Him when He comes again (1 John 2:28)
• Having faith like the mustard seed, which is willing to die (to self) in order to live, develop, and grow in stature (John 12:24-26) will, with determined tenacity, help us to remove great obstacles in life (doubts, fears, anger, etc.) and strengthen our confidence in God. (Luke 17:5)
• Fearing God, giving Him His due reverence and thinking on His awesome power and ability, gives us confidence in all that He can do. He truly does become a refuge for those who trust wholly in Him (Proverbs 10:26)!
• Faith continues to develop as we continue to serve God. We will be given many opportunities in life in which we will need to choose between doing what is pleasing to God or what is pleasing to ourselves – one results in eternal joy, the other only offers a fleeting feeling of happiness (Luke 17:7-10).

“Therefore do not cast away your confidence, 

which has great reward. For you have need 

of endurance, so that after you have done 

the will of God, you may receive the promise… 

…we are not of those who draw back to destruction, 

but ofthose who believe to the saving of the soul.” 

 (Hebrews 10:35-36, 39 NKJV)

Keep turning to God, keep seeking His instruction from the Bible, and keep humbly obeying it with determination each day! Surrender to God’s wisdom and discover the absolute beauty of His way! Keep choosing God and you will soon realize both your faith and your confidence are growing! Keep on keeping on!!

You can do it! So can I!!

 

Increase Your Faith By Serving God

    Do you want your faith to increase? You simply need to keep serving God!

    In Jesus’ response to the apostles asking for increase of faith (Luke 17:5-10), we find that a small amount of real faith would put them on the right path, but it is dedicated service toward God –  active and tenacious – that will increase and strengthen our faith.

    Many of us would desire an immediate gift of faith that would not allow doubt or uncertainty – a strong, secure faith that would not fail us, but Jesus said that that kind of faith is only developed through continued service – always choosing to put God’s requirements and commands ahead of our own (Luke 17:7-10).

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, 

by the mercies of God, that you present 

your bodies a living sacrifice,holy, 

acceptable to God, which is 

your reasonable service.” 

(Romans 12:1 NKJV)

    Along life’s journey we will have opportunities to grow our faith, through active times of raising children, through sacrifice of our own desires, ideas, and expectations, and through patient submission because of age, illness, or other long-term stresses, if in these we choose God and His holy ways, having a complete trust in Him, loving Him, obeying Him, and being fully confident of His promises, happily saying, “Whatever you need me to do, I will do it”, then with each opportunity our faith will increase.

    As I wrote in an earlier post, how can you have faith in God’s promise of peace if you never give over your worries (Philippians 4:6-8)? How can you have faith in His care if you never cast your cares upon Him (1 Peter 5:6-7)? With each opportunity to do things HIS way, our faith has opportunity to grow.

    We love and obey God willingly, eager to serve Him to the uttermost because we know what He has done for us (John 3:16-17, Romans 5:8-9), we see what He continues to do for us (Psalm 68:19, Psalm 103:1-5, Ephesians 1:3-14; 2:1-10), and we believe that what He has promised He will do for us (Hebrews 11:6, 1 Peter 1:3-9, 1 John 2:25)!

    In the end, we will only be able to say, “We are unprofitable servants, we have done what was our duty to do”, knowing we would never, even if we lived for a million years, we would never be able to repay God for what He has done for us!

    The joy we feel in trusting God’s grace is part of what propels us in our active, willing duty! So keep trusting, keep choosing God and HIS way, and keep serving – it is worth EVERY effort!!

“Let your waist be girded 

and your lamps burning; 

and you yourselves be like men 

who wait for their master, 

when he will return from the wedding, 

that when he comes and knocks 

they may open to him immediately. 

Blessed are those servants 

whom the master, when he comes, 

will find watching…” 

(Luke 12:35-37a NKJV)

You can do it! So can I!!

Building Confidence and Finding Refuge

 “In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence, 

and His children have a place of refuge.” 

(Proverbs 10:26 NKJV)

    Why is there strong confidence in the fear of the Lord? How does this fear supply a place of refuge?

    When we truly and properly fear the Lord, reverencing and respecting Him, we will take Him at His word and obey His word; what He has told us to do, we will do.  When we live in this way we can have strong confidence, just as Paul had in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, we can have a hope of rest, and reward for doing what was our duty to do.

    When we live in fear of Him, remaining zealous in our admiration of His magnificence, God grants us refuge during the trials of life. Through humble obedience of God’s commands we will kept from wayward living, but there will still be trials of temptation and sin, health, age, and loss and in all these we have refuge through prayer! Knowing of God’s greatness, that He is BIGGER than anything we may ever face encourages us to boldly approach God’s throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16, 1 John 5:14-15)! We also receive a vital refuge in the form of protection from the devil and his schemes (Ephesians 6:10-18, Proverbs 14:27)! And when our lives are finished here we have the final refuge of life eternal, when we may rest from our labours (1 Peter 1:3-9)!

    Do you want a stronger confidence? Do you desire a place of refuge? 

    Find both these blessings by fearing the Lord and keeping His commandments – for this is our all (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)!!

“The fear of the LORD leads to life 

and he who has it shall abide in satisfaction…” 

 (Proverbs 19:23 NKJV)