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Heart

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8 in the Holy Bible’)

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall gaze at God !’

(The Heritage Bible)

These words of Jesus are some of my favorites. On the one hand I love them and on the other hand they are a constant source of a spiritual check in my own heart.

A pure heart!

A pure heart?

The natural person does not have a pure heart.

We may have religion or church or good morality or care for the environment or human rights or any of many things but the question I ask is ‘do you have a pure heart?’

You may witness and preach and pray and shout and praise God but ‘do you have a pure heart?’

It is possible to appear to be a Godly person. We may seem to have all the good works of a true Christian but ‘do you have a pure heart?’

Only God knows the true condition of your heart and my heart. That is why no one can properly judge a person. Jesus can because He knows what is in the heart. That is why we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

Then how can I have a pure heart?

Not one step of all the miles I have carried the cross has washed away one sin from my soul. The only hope of a clean and pure heart is by the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

As the song says, “what can wash away my sins, nothing but the Blood of Jesus’!

“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (I John 1:7 in the Holy Bible)

David the great king of Israel prayed to God.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God!’ (Psalms 51:10 in the Holy Bible)

You may ask Jesus to do that now.

Even as followers of Jesus we can have things come into us and we can let greed and envy and lust and hate and all kinds of evil into our heart. Oh, may the Blood of Jesus wash away and rid us of sin that our entire being may be pure and clean.

I love this verse:

“Jesus Christ’ to Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood , (Revelation 1:5 in the Holy Bible)

The Heritage Bible says ‘loosed us out of our sins’ .

Strong’s Greek — Hebrew Dictionary says that word translated ‘washed’ really means ‘loosed’!

It is like washing clothes. What does the laundry detergent do? It looses the dirt from the material and then the water washes it away.

Jesus looses the sin from your heart and washes it away! Glory.

Let’s look at the word a bit more because in order to have this pure heart we must have our heart cleansed.

Take a look at the meaning of this word.

luo 3089 denotes (a) “to loose, unbind, release,” (1) “loose (the shoes (b) “to loosen, break up, dismiss, dissolve, destroy”.

From Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words

This is what Jesus does to give us a pure heart. A pure heart is not based on our holy effort but on the Holy Blood of Jesus loosing us and washing away our sins and putting in us a new heart.

Later as we go more into these columns on the heart I will deal with the subject of a new heart.

My prayer and desire is to have a pure heart. Only Jesus can give it.

Before I close I want to take a moment to see what the reward of a pure heart is.

I would say it is a heart without guilt. A heart with nothing to cover and that is open and knowingly exposed to God.

However the true blessing is:

“To Gaze on God!’

“To See God!’

Yes, one day my eyes in my new resurrected body shall ‘gaze’ on God! I shall ‘gaze’ on Jesus! I shall see Him.

Beloved, now we are children of God;

And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him,

For we shall see Him as He is.

And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
(I John 3:2-3 in the Holy Bible)

Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him .
(Revelation 1:7 in the Holy Bible)

Have a blessed pure heart and know that you shall see and gaze on God.

Pilgrim followers of Jesus,

Arthur and Denise Blessitt

Luke 18:1