I have to say, after Thursday at the seminary wives meeting, I came home so emotional! I told my husband that blessings showered upon me. I was overwhelmed with love and caring ladies. The Lord sent me blessed assurance that He is pleased with me! My heart was so full and the Lord, through my trials and suffering, has sent me deep and intimate friendships to cover me with prayers, words of affirmation, hugs, and their partnership.
The speaker spoke on purity. When I think of purity, I think of a supernatural spiritual purity that cannot be achieved by human efforts. The English word, purity, is defined as a state of being pure, the absence of impurity in a substance or the absence of vice in a human. Purity for a human is the state of being without any vice. When Jesus said in Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." He was saying, "Do you see, my child, how pure my heart is? Do you see I am doing nothing out of my own ambition? Are you able to see how impure you are as you observe how pure I am? Do you see how my pure heart does not have even the tiniest speck of ungodliness in it? Copy my purity. That is the quality of purity I desire for you, my beloved."
One thing, I believe, stops us from being pure even before our thoughts reach our minds, is motive. The purity of our desires comes from the purity of our motives, but the purity of our motive is something that stems right from the purity of our hearts. Proverbs 16:2 says "All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord." As we all struggle with this, my prayer for us, followers of Christ, is that we keep our motives, desires, and thoughts as pure as Christ's, so our actions, behaviors, and speech, become shining examples for our children, our legacy in the Lord. Read with me one of my favorite passages, Ephesians 4, right now to refresh on this legacy of purity our Lord Jesus Christ has instructed us to live.
Ephesians 4
English Standard Version (ESV)
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
and he gave gifts to men.”
(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, theevangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, forbuilding up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who isthe head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
- Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. - Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels, descending, bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. - Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. - Refrain:
- This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.
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