Hey everyone! I'm sorry that we haven't updated this in a while. Life just gets so busy sometimes, doesn't it? We had an awesome Bible Study last Saturday and the chapter talked about Purity. I just felt like I needed to share some of my notes from that onto a post here.
So here goes...
Whenever we think of 'purity' we think of (or at least I tend to) physical purity from relationships outside of marriage. Well, that's what purity is, but it's more than that. Purity has to do with the physical factors, but it is also mental and spiritual. And in our Bible Study, we started to talk about this. The world that we live in today is so perverse. It is incredibly wicked. Even since the beginning of time until now, there were only 3 people who were perfect. Adam, Eve and Jesus Christ. We know that Adam and Eve fell and there went our chance to have any 'perfectness' in our DNA. But we do know that because of the way that the Holy Spirit entered Mary, and allowed her to conceive, that Jesus' blood wasn't tainted by the sin that had been passed down the line over generations and generations. Jesus was perfect; that's that. He lived his whole life without sinning and ended up taking our sins upon Him on the cross so that we could have eternal life. Jesus is our role model. We are to be like Him. Matthew 5:48 says, "Be perfect, therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect..." Perfect? Yes, that is God's standard for us. But we CAN'T meet that standard. Romans 3:23 says that, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." and Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." God has provided a way for us to be holy. That is, accepting and receiving the fact that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, so that you can have eternal life with Him. Because God has shown us how to be holy, it grieves Him when we don't choose that way. Yes, we have a choice to do what's right; we have a choice to accept His forgiveness and change how we live. When we don't, it grieves the Holy Spirit; it grieves Him when we sin. The choice that we have to make has to do with John 1:9. It says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." It is absolutely important that we have His blood to cleanse us from our sins. This is not an option. Being holy comes with a choice. Another verse that was laid upon my heart was 1 John 2: 15-17. "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." Why does God say that we shouldn't love the world? Because it is just a lust. It's like fashions. They come and go, but they never stay the same. Because the world is such a blurr, coming and passing with its sinful desires, the Lord is calling us to be completely holy and set apart from the world. There is not one thing in the world that is holy. If you just think about it, Satan is the prince/ruler of this world. He hates God. So why would he ever allow anything 'good' or 'holy' or even 'of the Lord' to be in his kingdom? He wouldn't. We are the exceptions to that. We are the only light into this dark world; and he (Satan) is doing everything in his power to pull us away. And while he is doing that, we are called to be set apart, holy, blameless and pure children of God. Just a side note- when I was thinking about being blameless and pure.. it made me think of the verse that says, "do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God." Even complaining or arguing is sinful, and even that little sin is tearing us away from God's presence. That was a little thought that I had....
Purity is a part of holiness. If we are holy, then we will be pure. Matthew 5:8 comes to mind. This is from Jesus' teaching on the mount. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Being pure comes with such a blessing. We will SEE God. Others can see Him, but I think that it is something special. I think that we can notice Him in lots more of the world and what we are doing than the average Christian person. God is pure. When we are pure, we can start seeing things through His eyes. We can start becoming more like Him.
Purity comes with a choice as well. We have to choose to be pure. 2 Timothy 2:22 says, "Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." We are to FLEE, run away from, abandon the evil desires of youth. We can also choose who we associate with. We need to choose to be around those who "...call on the Lord out of a pure heart..", in other words, other believers who have the same pure mindset. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, "Bad company corrupts good morals." We all know this to be true. When we are around those who are pure, then it raises our standards. We can easily be pulled down into the world (aka influenced) but it's hard for us to influence others in a good way. This is why we need to strive for those things/relationships that will bring us up in the faith, pull us along in the right direction. As Christians, the Lord has a calling for each and every one of us. The question is, will we follow?
I hope that you guys were encouraged from reading this. I know that I was just thinking about it. May the Lord bless you, keep you, and make His face to shine upon you. :) Have a wonderful day in the Lord.
God bless,Mikaela :)
