“Blessed are pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)
We’re talking about purity this week, but not the kind of purity that we usually think of. We’re not talking about pure eyes or pure thoughts or pure words; we’re talking about something much more significant to your happiness in life: PURITY OF HEART!
What is purity of heart and how do I attain it? Check out part 3 in our series HAPPY and find out for yourself.
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Reality checks – where would we be without them? We all get a little ahead of ourselves sometimes and need someone or something to bring us back down to earth. One such reality check happened to me during the summer after I finished 8th grade and was preparing for high school.
Up through that year, I had been playing football in my local town youth league. I loved playing football and not too toot my own horn, but I think I was pretty good (toot toot). There were three teams in each weight class – an “A” team and two “C” teams. The “A” team was comprised of the top 30-40 players in each weight class and the rest of the kids were divided equally amongst the two “C” teams.
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Recently, I was looking through the list of some of my most-viewed posts of all-time and much to my surprise, the post below appeared near the top of the list. Originally written back in 2012, it speaks to an issue we all need to be aware of: THE POWER OF LITTLE SINS.
They might be small, but they are deadly!
Read More"GOD WON'T HEAL WHAT YOU DON'T ADMIT."
It's Week 3 in Spiritual Sweat II and this week we're talking about HONESTY - not honesty of the mouth, but honesty of the heart. We need to be honest about our true spiritual condition because - as Jacob saw when he wrestled with God - that's the only way to see God and revive our hearts.
So get ready. This week's message was a bit of a tough one and it isn't for the spiritually faint of heart. But if you're looking for revival, it might be just what the doctor ordered.
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I hate being wrong. Of course no one enjoys it when they are mistaken, but some people tend to be more experienced at it than others and therefore better able to deal with it (wink wink).
Once upon a time, back when I was just a young lad in 4th grade, I learned a valuable lesson about self-deception. I learned that being “wrong” is bad; but what’s worse is being wrong and having everyone else realize it except you.
My 4th grade teacher had given us an assignment to create a large poster with all the creatures of the sea that we had just learned about in class. So I – being a studious young man from a young age – took great care to systematically go through the chapter and draw each animal that the textbook mentioned (we didn’t need to draw them all, but as you can see I was an overachiever from a young age).
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Giant mushrooms! Yep, that’s right. That’s what you see. That’s a real photo that I took yesterday of three giant mushrooms that are currently growing in my front yard and scaring my neighbors’ kids from coming near my property.
The strange thing is that:
a) I’ve been in this house for more than 3 years now and I’ve never before had a problem with mushrooms
b) Those mushrooms weren’t there at all last week.
c) I saw a little baby mushroom start to come up 2 days ago, but I have no idea how they got so big so fast!
Just so you get some perspective on exactly how large those mushrooms are, I took a picture of one of the mushrooms next to a standard 16 oz bottle of water and another picture next to my size 11 running shoes. WOW!
There’s a lesson to be learned here. The lesson is about the inherent danger of sin and the way sin grows in our lives. If you’re not careful, you may wake up one day and find yourself with a giant problem on your hands that came out of nowhere.
But I have never had a problem with that kind of big sin before.
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Integrity. What does it mean? How would you define it? More importantly, do you have it? Would those around you say that you are full of it?
Integrity is not an easy word to define. It’s one of those words that people define in different ways. But I define integrity as this: HONESTY. Integrity is living a life of honesty – a life where I am who I say I am, and my deeds are visibly in line with my words.
Integrity comes from the same root word as “integer” – meaning one, or not divided. A life of integrity is a life where you are one person, not many people. You’re the same person on Sunday mornings as you are on Monday mornings. You’re the same person in front of the spotlight as you are when no one’s looking. Integrity. One. Honesty.
As much as we demand honesty from others, there’s one person that we are willing to put up with some dishonesty from. There’s one person that deals with us dishonestly on a regular basis and we accept it and don’t say a word. Who? OURSELVES!
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Ok, it’s time for a confession. While I might be looked down upon for what I am about to confess, I will do so honorably and proudly and with no shame. I LOVE WATCHING PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING.
There I admitted it. Go ahead and judge me if you want, but let me just say this. When I grew up in the 80s and 90s, wrestling was a lot different than it is today. I am talking about the glory days of wrestling – back when you had the WWF, not the WWE; back when the good guys were good guys and everybody cheered for them because you knew they were always going to find a way to pull it out; and most importantly back when the fighting was real, not fake.
[I know, I know, I know. You think it’s all fake. Well, I agree that it might be choreographed, but I won’t go as far as fake. There is no way you can watch this video and tell me it’s fake. This is the infamous Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat vs Macho Man Randy Savage match from 1986. It still sends tingles up my spine.]
If you’ve ever watched wrestling, you know that the goal in any wrestling match is to either a) pin your opponent to the ground for 3 seconds, or b) to make your opponent submit/surrender.
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Do you know someone who is delusional? We all do, don’t we? I’ll bet that you know at least one person who thinks they’re funny, but they’re not. Or who thinks they can sing, but they can’t. Or someone who thinks they’re doing the right thing, but they clearly aren’t.
We all know someone who can’t see the reality of the situation at hand. Well, here’s my question to you based on just simple math. If every one of us knows someone who is delusional and who can’t see reality for what it is, then what are the chances that THAT PERSON IS ME?
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