Purity Rocks

I've been seriously following Christ now for over 18 years. Before that, those other untold number of years, I believed in Christ, but wasn't always intentional about the following or serving part. So along the way I've discovered some things that are making more and more sense. One of them is the Torah, the Law of Moses, the instruction manual for living.

Years ago, when I'd read from these first 5 books of the Bible, I'd get bored quickly and wonder why I was even wasting my time. I thought that these concepts and scriptures were long past their usefulness and it was the New Testament that deserved my undivided attention. But then I'd read things there that didn't make sense, were hard to understand, with references to practices long past. So I'd try again to understand some of these concepts and when I looked carefully at these "old" scriptures I discovered something, they were filled with rich traditions and insights that allowed me to "see" more completely what Jesus was talking about. It all started to make sense, the Bible, which I trusted was the inspired word of God, worked together as a whole to tell the story of God's Good News!

In Seminary I learned to love the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), especially the Torah, because it was here that the core of Jesus' teaching was found. And what I have taught since is that if you want to know the whole story of Jesus and understand the beginnings of and the concepts of the Church today, study the Hebrew Scriptures. And one of the most important lessons of the Torah is the lesson of purity.

It's amazing to me the detail that was given for the life-practices of early Israel. Nothing was missed. Acceptable behaviors were codified and expected among the people and priests. And the reason for all of these behaviors and laws was purity. God was seeking purity for His people, not because God demanded it, but because it is what is best on a variety of levels.

Even the utensils, the lamps, tables and everything used in the Tabernacle (including the underwear of the Priests) were to be pure, consecrated, set apart, holy. Because this is what God is, who God is, holy. To be pure is to honor God in the very highest manner, to use excellently made candleholders, to use the best oil in the lamps, the best cloth for wall hangings, the purest gemstones for jewelry.(used for the priest according to God's plan, not just that the priest should wear expensive stuff!) Everything possible was to be pure and everything else was to be purified. And that includes us.

While the law helps to make a pure people, what God actually wants is our hearts to be pure. And that only happens when everything we do is pure also. You've no doubt heard the phrase, "garbage in, garbage out." It's meaning is simple, whatever quality you put in to anything is the quality that comes out. It's true in computing. If you put bad data in a computer, you'll get bad data out. It's also true of our minds, put in bad stuff, out comes bad stuff. And the same is true with the heart. Allow for impure thoughts, actions, behaviors and the heart remains impure. And the more we allow the impurity to reside within us, the further we find ourselves away from the very heart of God, because there is no impurity there. And the impurity of our heart cannot co-exist with the purity of God!

What does this mean for us? Simple,
The more we watch our language,
The more we protect our eyes,
The more we guard our hearts,
The more carefully we choose our behaviors,
The purer we become...

...and the closer we get to God!

Purity isn't a boring life, because I've discoverd that a life with God is never dull! Rather, a pure life is filled with wonders and the miracles of God. A pure life gets me a life with God. And that's more satisfying that anything else I can imagine or experience! So from that perspective...

...Purity Rocks!

Peace ><>
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