Heart Washing

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

-  Matthew 5:8

Does anyone else find this verse a little intimidating?  When something is pure, it has no contamination; it is completely one thing, without anything else mixed in.  The word "pure" is an absolute; being almost pure is like being a little pregnant or slightly dead.  To me, being pure in heart implies that I'm supposed to be perfect.  With apologies to Ivory Soap, 99.9% pure just isn't good enough.  I could never hope to achieve real purity.

However, if we look a little closer, we find something a little more reasonable.  The word translated "pure" comes from a root meaning "to cleanse."  If we go with that translation, we have a different ball game.  To be completely pure in heart is a hopeless cause, but to be clean in heart is a different matter.  When something has become impure, purifying it can be a difficult process.  If something is no longer clean, it usually just needs a good scrubbing.

That is where we all find ourselves on a regular basis.  We start out with good motives, but we fall short.  We lose our tempers, our patience, our good sense, or some combination of the above, and we do or say something that we shouldn't have done or said.  We go along minding our own business when we are assaulted by an image that provokes thoughts we have no business thinking.  All the little failures collect, like little stains on our clothes, until we end up with spiritual BO.  We need a good scrubbing.

God, in His mercy, is waiting with the soap.  "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  (1 John 1:9)  The God who demands that we have clean hearts is the Father who made a way to cleanse them.  All we have to do is to admit that we got dirty, and ask Him to wash us.

When we do, Jesus said that we will see God.  God wants to show Himself to us, but our impure hearts cloud our spiritual vision.  When we surrender to God's grace and allow Him to cleanse our hearts, we will be able to see His presence again.  Have you seen God lately?  If not, maybe it's time to take a good, honest look at yourself and see if your heart needs to be sent to the cross for a cleaning.

Are You Hungry?

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.


Matt 5:6 (NKJV)

I have a confession to make: When I read this verse this morning, my initial response was to put down my Bible and go putter in the kitchen. I didn't really want to deal with the issue of righteousness, let alone consider whether I hungered and thirsted for it. I'd rather get the dishwasher going than consider the call to righteousness issued by Him in whom there is no darkness at all.

Why does the concept of righteousness make us so uncomfortable? After all, the word simply means living in right relationship, with God and with those around us. That shouldn't be so troubling. Isn't life easier when we are not in conflict with people? Doesn't having a clear conscience feel good? Why do we have a problem with righteousness?

The Sunday School answer is that righteousness makes us uncomfortable because we are sinful, but that seems a little too easy and pat to be very helpful. Perhaps the real answer is that, deep down, we understand just how difficult it is to keep ourselves right with other people, and that being right with a Holy God is an even higher standard. We understand just how much selfishness we would have to destroy and just how much pride we would have to swallow, and we understand the enormity of the task.

The sad truth is that for most of us, righteousness is not at the top of our list of priorities. The average person maintains a sufficient level of righteousness to feel good about self, but is not willing to do the hard work of dying to self in order to be truly righteous by God's standards. The average person hungers and thirsts not for righteousness, but for the easy path. After all, nobody's perfect, right?

It would be easy to walk away, comforted by that thought, and go on living in spiritual mediocrity, if not for the promise at the end of the verse: "... for they shall be filled." Jesus said that those who are willing to embrace the impossible task, to give in to their longing for God's holiness, would be given what they crave. They will be given the righteousness that they so yearn for. We cannot achieve righteousness in our own strength or by our own diligence; that is why Jesus died in our place. However, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will persistently seek God's truth and God's presence. They will ruthlessly destroy their own pride and be brutally honest with themselves about their own sin. They will constantly shove themselves out of the way, so that the Holy Spirit can have room to work within them. They will never achieve righteousness, but they will receive the growing righteousness that God builds into us over time as we surrender more and more each day to His grace, until they are filled with Him.

The average person wants nothing to do with such a painful, laborious process. So the key question is, are you and I going to be average, or are we hungry?

Learning to Mourn

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."
Matthew 5:4

Why did Jesus include this verse in the Beatitudes? Most of the Beatitudes are about character traits or attitudes; mourning is a response to circumstances. It doesn't seem to fit. What is it about mourning that qualifies us for blessing?

People mourn because they have lost something that they can't get back. It may be a relationship, a pet, a job, or a family heirloom. Whatever it is, it's gone, beyond recovery, and the loss hurts.

So if we're all supposed to mourn, what have we all lost? The list could go on and on. Everyone, at one time or another, has lost loved ones, friendships, and opportunities. We have lost hopes, dreams, dignity, and illusions. Each of us, somewhere along the way, has lost our innocence.

The problem is that we have lost so many things in this fallen world that we hardly feel the loss anymore. We lost our innocence so long ago that we've gotten used to its absence. After all, one can't mourn forever. Maybe we should try. Maybe we should take more seriously the admonition of James: "Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom." (James 4:8-9)

The bottom line is that our sin does not bother us very much. If it did, we would stop. Oh, we feel bad and wish we would do better, but we typically manage to get over it and go on about our business without any radical changes. There is little weeping, and no lamentation. We no longer mourn.

Because we no longer mourn, we no longer receive comfort. That's the blessing for those who mourn. Mourning leads to brokeness, which drives true repentance. God responds to repentance with grace, mercy, and forgiveness. All of our sin can be forgiven. Our lost innocence can be restored. We can be washed clean and made right, better than we ever were before.

But first we must learn to mourn.

Poor in Spirit

Today I started reading the Sermon on the Mount, that's where we'll be for a while. Today's verse is Matthew 5:3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

"Poor in spirit" sounds like a bad thing. It sounds, perhaps, like a minor medical condition - a good reason to take vitamins, maybe. Nobody wants to be poor in anything, whether it's in spirit or in our bank account.

So why are the poor in spirit, the spiritually impoverished, blessed? Jesus said, "...for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The truth is that we are all, in fact, spiritually poor. We children of the King of Glory have all sold away our royal titles, our inheritance, even our basic dignity, for an empty promise that gives us nothing in return. We have been conned out of everything that was ours and left spiritually destitute.

The problem is that we don't want to admit our spiritual poverty. We want to pretend that we've got it all covered and don't need help. We are like a poor, starving, homeless man by the side of the road who is offered a meal by a kind stranger, but refuses because he doesn't want to take charity. A certain amount of self-respect is a good thing, but there comes a point where pride must yield to reality, unless one enjoys eating from trash cans.

The reality is that we are spiritually destitute. We have no merit, no virtue, no goodness that comes anywhere close to balancing our sin and gaining us fellowship with the Father, in this life or in eternity. We have no redeeming qualities, so our only hope is to admit our sin, throw away our pride, and ask for the amazing charity of God's grace, which was poured out for us through the blood of His Son so that He could redeem us. If we will only admit that we have been swindled and left poor in spirit, the righteous Judge will rule in our favor and restore our stolen inheritance. Then ours will be the kingdom of heaven.

New Name, New Direction

Obviously, I haven't kept up with my blog. There a lot of reasons, none of which are terribly relevant at the moment. I just let it slide.

However, this morning I was journaling after reading my Bible for the first time in a while. I realized that I ought to blog my thoughts on my daily Bible readings. Not only would it allow me to share with, well, whoever is reading this thing, but it would also force me to think more deeply about the Scriptures I'm reading, which is always a good thing.

So there it is: a new name for the blog, and a new theme. Hope you like it.