‘[…] the outer level of our spiritual life with God is impaired to the slightest degree, we must put everything else aside until we make it right. Remember that spiritual vision depends on our character— it is “the pure in heart ” who “see God.” God makes us pure by an act of His sovereign grace, but we still have something that we must carefully watch. It is through our bodily life coming in contact with other people and other points of view that we tend to become tarnished. Not only must our “inner sanctuary” be kept right with God, but also the “outer courts” must be brought into perfect harmony with the purity God gives us through His grace. Our spiritual vision and understanding is immediately blurred when our “outer court” is stained. If we want to maintain personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, it will mean refusing to do or even think certain things. And some things that are acceptable for others will become unacceptable for us.’ CHAMBERS
Proverbs
4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything
you do flows from it.”
Why would we think that if we walk through a mud
puddle that we won’t get muddy? In the
same way .. as we walk in this unholy world, we become stained from its
unholiness. We must be careful that we
don’t put this world and the people in it ahead of God. That somehow we must consider the world first
and then accommodate God somehow. If
that thinking creeps in, we have lost our spiritual vision.
The outer court that Chambers is referring to is
the outer court of the temple. We are a
temple. 1 Corinthians 6:19 “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of
the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not
your own;” You can think of the heart as
the Holy of Holies … where the Spirit inhabits.
As I type this I can hear sounds outside … they
are the sounds of Rara (rah rah) a Voodoo celebration that happens before
Easter … It reminds me that we are in a world that does not know God and one
that would prefer that we were not salt and light .. but would embrace darkness
instead. Guard your heart …. And bring
glory to God.
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
No comments:
Post a Comment