The pure in heart

I stopped at an intersection in town today, where there were teenagers holding up car wash signs. They were yelling and pointing at various drivers, "Hey, your car is dirty!"

How rude! Telling me my car is dirty!

And so it goes with the pride of the uncrucified heart...easily provoked at every slight. Now Jesus appears also at our intersections pointing at us, and crying out for our dirty hearts. The crisis comes upon us, and suddenly our secret hearts are made visible.

How dare He! I had my heart cleaned many years ago!

Yet, the fact of a dirty heart does not go away with having a theological understanding of purity or whitewashing with sacrificial works. When there is bitterness, envy, strife, it should be impossible for us to imagine our hearts are clean before God...even if we teach salvation to everyone we meet, and give everything we own to feed the poor.

Brethren, these are days when impurity is celebrated and legislated. Everyone does what is right according to their own arbitrary passions. Rancor and partisianship is the consensus. Yet are we different in character, or only in appearance? Those teens at the corner got me thinking...they were in a better position then I to see how dirty my car really was. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is not arbitrary in his judgements, but his vantage is perfect. Yet, am I unwilling to hear His perfect judgement about things He sees perfectly, even as I insist that others must be willing to hear my imperfect opinion about things I see imperfectly?

Two sad riddles: How our own articulate lips can tell lies even inwardly towards our own heart, and how good theology can sit so comfortably within an evil heart. So I ask the Lord, if it's not practicing right speech, and contending for sound doctrine...then what is a pure heart? Here is one possible conversation from scripture...

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven....

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin....Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow....Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

...whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment...

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation...

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Psalm 51, Matthew 5

Blessings brethren,

MC

1 Samuel 16:7 "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

We can clothe ourselves outwardly with the trappings of religion and fool men and gain their approval. But we will never fool God.

May we always seek the purity of heart that He approves of.

Thank you for sharing this Compton.

Danielle

my car is dirty!

In a way that reminds me of so many of my life experiences – when I finally become aware of yet another of my shortcomings, I also become aware of my hopeless inability to remove it.

I have been learning by experience that there is only one direction I can go during these moments of unhappy revelation – and that is to the Lord. My hope is in him. And I trust him to continue the renewing/reviving process.

Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through his word, to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle, or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. Eph. 5:25-27

That is love! And it is hope!
Praise be to God!

Diane

Diane!

How are you these days?

I thought I should at least clean up my car...But alas...no amount scrubbing will remove the fatal malady. Now, I am miserable about this… just when I was finally trying….

If you remember during your visit through Columbus, my own car was so broken down and unreliable that I had to get into another one....

(at the car rental.. a detail that doesn't fit our analogy very well.;-) )

I miss seeing your name around here, friend!

MC

(at the car rental.. a detail that doesn't fit our analogy very well.

I miss seeing your name around here, friend!

One of my adventures includes a summer musical drama, written by myself, with music by my husband. It is really a comtemporized version of the Prodigal Son (a daughter in this case – to be inclusive) that involves a cast of 26+ and others – from 5 to 45 yo, including experienced actors for the key roles. I am subtly getting the townsfolk to create their own sermon. One clever lady caught on and warned me that if I was going to mention God at the event, I’d have to include Bhudda, and other religions. I suggested to her that in no other segment of society do we make this requirement (ex: Try telling a Ford dealer that he should also promote Cryslers, Hondas, etc!) She accepted my reasoning and has come on board to offer her professional insights. … this has opened the door to lots of discussion. She seems to respect my position, especially after I pointed out some of the ways she herself seems to be a firm believer in propositional truth, firm moral standards, manners, etc - even though she had been trying to sway me towards relativism and universalism in the area of religion.

I’ll try to pop in once in a while.

Diane

Very timely! Thank you for the much needed conviction!

:-)

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin....Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow....Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

A word picture given to us so that we may be conformed into the image of His Son.

Thank you brother for your meditation. This is the substance of the bread of life.

God Bless
Jeff

Keep on planting those seeds "Roadsign." No wonder this thread caught your attention.

God Bless
Jeff