FROM THE PASTOR'S PORCH: Blessed are the Pure in Heart!!

[Lynn D. Walker]

Please visit us at COWBOY COUNTRY CHURCH

FROM THE PASTOR'S PORCH: Blessed are the Pure in Heart

   Last Sunday morning I woke up still tired and not feeling very well.  My old back was hurting and I just wanted to go back to bed.  But as the Pastor of COWBOY COUNTRY CHURCH, I thought it best that I shake it off and get my self around and get ready for Church.  When I get like that is when I really, really need to Worship the Lord.  There is something about Praising God and being Thankful that always Lifts me up and Strengthens me.  “There are things that happen in the presence of God that do not happen anywhere else.” ~Michael Blankenship.  So I took me a good blistering hot shower and started getting ready for Church. Now we all have a vision of how we want to look, right?  So next, I pick out my favorite red shirt, a fresh pair of starched jeans, put on my new boots, and my black hat and now I'm ready to head to Church.

     I'm looking pretty snazzy as far as my outward appearance for right now, but I have a problem.  You see I'm one of those people that if I eat or drink or work or do anything, I'm gonna get some of it on me. Sure enough, when I get to church and start greeting folks, one of the ladies say, “Preacher, what's that white stuff on the front of your pretty red shirt??”  OH, NO....TOOTH PASTE!!!  So I run to the restroom for a wet towel to remove the spot that has ruined the Purity of my personal vision of how I should look to other people.

   This is an example of having a vision of physical Purity about our outer being and how we look to others, but what is really important is our Spiritual Purity and how we look to God.  Now Purity is not innocence; it is much more than that.  “Purity is the result of a continual Spiritual harmony with God.” ~Oswald Chambers.  Thank God that our “inner” Purity is taken care of when God makes us Pure by an act of His sovereign Grace, and no one can touch that.  But we have to grow in our “outer” Purity with God.  Our life with God may be in right standing and our inner Purity unblemished, but every once in a while our outer life can get spotted or stained; we get a little tooth paste splattered on us now and again!!  God intentionally doesn't protect us from this possibility because this is the way we recognize the need to maintain our spiritual vision through personal purity.  If the “outer” level of our spiritual life with God is impaired or stained in any way, we must drop everything we are doing and immediately clean it up and make it right!!  We must always remember that our Spiritual Vision depends on our character.  You see we don't have to worry about God seeing us. God sees us no matter what condition we are in; clean or dirty.  What we must be concerned with is are we going to see God??    The moral to the story is:  stay clean the best you can, but if you do get a little something  in your life that doesn't belong there, clean it up!!  We must always remember Matthew 5:8 and that it is “the pure in heart” who will “see God”.   And next Sunday, I'm gonna try to remember to brush my teeth BEFORE I put my shirt on!!  ~Walker