Purity in Heart

   Purity starts with the heart. There's a reason why when we are asked to pray "the prayer" to accept Christ that we are asked to "ask Christ into our heart." If you have ever heard of the salvation bracelet, you know the first color is black. Black represents our sin. We are all sinners. We all need to be cleansed.

   Psalm 51:10 says, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." How do we get this clean heart? Do we try to stop sinning? Well, that's a start. But we cannot cleanse ourselves. It's like when something sticky gets on the floor. We try to clean it with just water and soap, but it doesn't work. Sometimes we need something stronger, like goo be gone to clean it. 

   Jesus' blood is our sin be gone. When we accept him in our heart and ask him to forgive our sins, he does it. We are clean. We are white as snow. We are pure! Does that mean we should keep sinning? No, Romans 6:1-2 says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" That's where purity in the heart comes in. We are to grow in God. We are to try to follow him. That means we are to try to stop sinning.

   Matthew 5:8 says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." I don't know about you, but I want to see God. I want my heart to be pure. I want my motives and desires to be God's motives and desires. I want his will to be done. We should all, as Christians, be at the point where we want to reflect God's glory so much so that he is seen in us. That when people look at us, they don't see us so much as they see God. Not in an idol like way but like in a, "you needed water, and I gave it to you, but it was God giving it to you through me." We don't deserve the glory. He does.

   So, are you pure in heart? How can you follow God each day? How are you reflecting His glory?

https://youtu.be/x_z2hgTWgxk

Purity is About More Than Sex

   Normally when someone thinks of purity, they automatically think of sexual purity. In other words, not having sex before marriage. But purity is about more than not having sex. 

   The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines pure as "free from dust, dirt, or taint." That doesn't mention sex at all. But it does relate to sex. Yet, to be pure, we need to be righteous. We need to be clean. We are free from dust, dirt, or taint. This means we are free from sin.

   James 4:8 says, "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." Ooo, a phrase that hits hard for me in this passage is "cleanse your hands." If you have ever worked with kids, you know many of them don't know how to wash their hands. It's nasty. Their hands have dirt, grime, and germs all over them. They need help to clean them.

   We also need help to clean our hands from sin. We try to be righteous and follow God, but we fall short. That's why Jesus died: to cleanse us from our sin. We need to draw near to him. We need to learn about him. We need to try to stop sinning, so our hearts stay clean and pure.

   See, purity applies to all areas of life. Are we pure in our actions, our words, our relationships? In our hearts? Some of us act pure and holier-than-thou in our lives. That's not helping the kingdom. We need to be authentic with others. We cannot continue to praise Jesus on Sunday but go on sinning the rest of the week. The double life isn't helping you. It isn't helping spread the Gospel. It isn't helping anything. Purity happens every day, every minute, every second. Purity is a choice.

   So, are you living a double life? Are you practicing purity? How can you open a conversation on purity today?

https://youtu.be/XjbbLxgLPpE

A Conversation on Purity

   "Our goal is to not kiss until we are engaged." Once I said that to my friends their shocked faces surfaced. They already knew my relationship with Nate was not going to be a typical one, at least in the way the world thinks as typical. We both knew we wanted to stay pure till marriage. In fact, since I was in high school, I have worn a purity ring every day (other than when I played soccer, you do not want to jam your finger with a ring on, trust me).

   Thus, Nate and I made a choice to set our boundary at holding one another close. Why there? Does the Bible say anything against kissing before marriage? No, but neither does it say anything about dating. In Bible times, many marriages were arranged. Some may have married for love but many times the couples wouldn't spend any alone time before the wedding.

   Here is what the Bible says in Hebrews 13:4 "Let the marriage bed be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous." The marriage bed is to be held in honor. What does that mean? That means if you do anything with someone else and you aren't married, you aren't honoring the marriage bed. Each time you have sex with someone not only are you creating an invisible emotional bond with them, but you are also possibly sleeping with someone else's significant other.

   Now you may be asking, what does that have to do with kissing? Well, unless you are like a friend of mine from college who used to think that when her parents kissed it made a baby, not much. But God created us to be relational beings. He created sex as something good, in a marriage between a man and a woman.

   But 1 Corinthians 10:13 reminds us of something that has to do with kissing. It says, "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." When you are physically attracted, or in love, to someone your bodies will want to do what God created them to do. There's only one boundary between kissing and sex and that further physical touch. To not be tempted, Nate and I decided to put in a barrier, so we don't go further.

   We are sort of doing what Eve did in the garden. She said they could not eat the fruit or touch it or they would due. God never said they couldn't touch the fruit. She put in this barrier so she would not fall into temptation and sin. And you can see how well that worked out. 

   Will some people think we are strange? Yes, but that's no different than how we are viewed other days. We are set apart. We are in the world but not of it. This doesn't make us any better than others. It just means we are trying to live a different life to reflect God's glory.

   So, are you staying pure in your relationship? What temptation do you face? How can you reflect God's glory today?

https://youtu.be/xdI-cIXqkww

Are You a Character?

 One thing I enjoy doing is acting. It doesn’t have to be in a play, though I have done that. Many times, if you see me teach, you will see me act like other people, use accents, quote movies, and more. I’m not going to lie; I enjoy pretending to be someone else even if it just for a short time. You know, you can get caught up in acting like another character. 

But the word character has more than one meaning. There are characters like a book or movie characters. Then there is character like what you do when no one is watching. There are times I will pretend to be someone else when I am by myself for my own entertainment. But most of the time I am with someone else who I am trying to get to laugh, or I am just in the mood to act like someone else.

Now there is no problem with pretending to be someone or something else. In fact, I encourage my students to do that because it sparks their creativity and helps them grow cognitively. The problem occurs when we pretend to be someone, we are not all the time. Or when we choose not to have character when no one is watching.

Proverbs 10:9 says, “whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.” Part of having character is being honest. It is being real and authentic. It is choosing to do the right thing even when no one is watching. If we don’t do those things not only are we sinning, but we are not being who God made us to be. God created us and loves us. He made us unique and special. If we pretend to be someone we are not then we are going against our creator. That’s why we must choose integrity, authenticity, and character.

So, are you choosing to have character each day? How can you be yourself with others and rest in who God made you to be?

https://youtu.be/UkX628cAtO4?si=8QLJknJLmzWeU4QB

How Do You Worship?

    I have worshipped God in many places. Technically in all you do, you can worship. But I am talking about worship in a community and singing. Though worship should be between you and God, it sometimes feels like you are being judged during worship. If you look around during worship you may see some people raising their arms, crying, dancing, etc. Sometimes people are not focused on the song, instead they are focused on what others are doing. 

   Worship should be something sacred. You should not feel judged for how you worship, and you should not judge others as you should be focused on the Lord. Yet, judgement will happen. In 2 Samuel 6:14-22 we see David dancing in front of the Ark of the Lord in a priestly garment. The king of Israel is worshiping the Lord for all to see by dancing. Now, either that is something that is looked down upon or the king was a bad dancer ;) Whatever the case, Michal, his wife, judges him. She says he shamed himself. David replies, “I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes!”

   David didn’t care how he was judged. He just cared about praising the Lord. There are times where I will sway or dance during worship. The only time I never felt judged about how I worshiped was at Breakout Church. One of the first things the pastor said was worship how you feel led. I sat and drank in the words that God was speaking to me during that worship. It was amazing to see, hear, and feel the worship there. There are people dancing, yelling, speaking in tongues, pacing, flagging, and much more. They do whatever they feel led to do and there is freedom in that. I would love to see us stop judging others so much and focus more on connecting with the Lord. God gives us different gifts and personalities for a reason. So why don’t we praise him for that and all that he has done for us?

https://youtu.be/BhJ3ZIxbD0Y?si=Z7wFBSRNHkgvfiuR