A Pure Heart

Hi guys!

I finally remembered to post this time... Anyway...

Quite recently, my dad bought a magazine from the "Rock" Bookstore (@Suntec) and I was flipping through it the last week. This magazine is actually the NC (new century) version of the New Testament! What makes it even better is that it has slips of notes here and there for verse applications! This note struck me (kind of)... Here it goes.

Mark 7:20-22

In a nutshell, the notes reads that during Jesus' time, the spiritual leaders were concerned about outward stuff, such as sitting away from the unclean people while eating, do not eat with unclean hands etc. and they (spiritual leaders... I suppose its the Pharisees) get very jumpy when people does something wrong outwardly. Jesus mentioned the verse from Isaiah 29:13 to tell the Pharisees off. Actually, come to think about it, the only time when Jesus gets "rude" is when he talks to the Pharisees. (Cannot remember where but Jesus called them "a brood of vipers" once.)

In verse 20, Jesus mentioned that what comes out from within determines if a person is clean or unclean. Going on to verse 21-22, Jesus gives some examples about unclean things from within (Greed, murder, adultery etc.)

Personally, I think that these verses talks about how we need to have a pure heart. God forgives sins... almost every sin except denying that Jesus is our personal Lord and Saviour. A pure heart (to my opinion) is that you do not fill it with sinful thoughts, instead fill it with God's word.

I admit I don't have a pure heart... Most of the time the devil plants thoughts into my head and I entertain them. You know sometimes when you sin, you want to hide from God? I know I do. Sometimes when I know that I am sinning, but yet I let the devil coax me into doing it. After that, I am usually filled with guilt and I always run from God, thinking that He will be pissed with me and yell the crap out of me. But that is not what God is like. When we sin, we should RUN TO HIM INSTEAD OF RUNNING AWAY FROM HIM!!! When we run to God and tell him about it, He will help us out. Still, sometimes it is difficult, esp. when the devil planted the seed of that particular sin in your head and it grew into a sucking tree already.

I think the best way to conquer the devil is to pray and keep seeking God whenever the devil tries to plant the seed of sin in your head.

That is all I gotta say so far...

In God's grace,
Yong Quan