{"id":6275,"date":"2020-04-20T17:58:53","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T07:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6275"},"modified":"2020-04-20T17:59:58","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T07:59:58","slug":"the-pure-in-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/the-pure-in-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pure in Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Beatitudes Series Part 5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Marc Bastawrous<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

While serving in\nSunday School a few years ago, one of my fellow servants thought of the clever\nidea to create a \u201cQuestion Chest\u201d for the kids. Basically, it was a home-made treasure\nbox of sorts, where the kids would leave pieces of paper with questions on them\nanonymously for the servants to answer in the next lesson. During my week to\nanswer questions, I pulled this out of the chest:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy should I believe in God, if I can\u2019t see<\/strong> Him?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question broke me. Partly because I felt for my Sunday school kid who was going through a period of doubt, but mostly because I had no answer. I mustered up a half-hearted response, but I purposed in my heart that I wouldn\u2019t let the year go past without offering a solution to this child\u2019s problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few months\ndown the track, I was attending a revival for St Mary\u2019s feast and the topic of\nthe evening was purity<\/em>, with the theme verse coming from Matthew 5:8\nwhich says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBlessed are the pure in heart<\/em>, For they shall see<\/strong> God.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know in those Tom & Jerry cartoons when Tom gets a great idea for catching Jerry and a lightbulb hovers above his head. Well, I had one of those “lightbulb” moments. \ud83d\udca1 The answer has been there all along. If I wish to see God, I must be pure in heart. One of the most precious promises in the Bible and it\u2019s been right under our noses this whole time. I couldn\u2019t wait to tell my Sunday school kid, but before I did, I had to dig a little deeper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Exodus 33:11,\nit says this of the Prophet Moses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man\nspeaks to his friend.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why was Moses of all people allowed to see\nGod? It\u2019s simple. Because while Moses, was spending time in the presence of\nGod, waiting to receive instruction, what were the Israelites doing at the\nbottom of the mountain? Worshipping idols, corrupting themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is why King David said in psalm 24:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
\nOr who may stand in His holy place?
\nHe who has clean hands and a pure heart,
\nWho has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
\nNor sworn deceitfully.
\nHe shall receive blessing from the Lord,
\nAnd righteousness from the God of his salvation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one who is pure in heart, can stand in\nthe Presence of God and see His face. There is no other condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God emphasised this condition in Exodus 25\nand 34 as well \u2013 which we sing about in our midnight praises. In these 2\nchapters, Moses describes Gods instructions for the construction of the\ntabernacle and in them He says that they had to make things out of pure gold,\nin fact, the word pure in just one of these chapters is repeated 11 times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It makes you wonder, why does God care\nabout it so much? I can\u2019t imagine God to care about whether the gold is made\nout of 10 carets or 24 carets and He doesn\u2019t really. What He is trying to say\nis that His presence is only available in a place of purity. Purity is a\nnecessary component to accessing God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most taken-out-of-context verses\ncomes from James 4:8. It reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDraw\nnear to God and He will draw near to you\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the part we often forget is the\nremainder of that verse which reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts<\/strong>, you double-minded.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we can even contemplate drawing near to God,\nour hearts must first be pure. Which is why the final thing the priest prays in\nthe Fraction right before communion is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPurify our souls, bodies\nand spirits. Purify our hearts, eyes, minds, thoughts, understanding and\nintentions. So that with a pure heart and an unashamed face we may dare with\nboldness to say unto You\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nthere! I finally had my answer. You can see God \u2013 but before you can even think\nabout coming near Him, you had to be pure in heart. And just as I was about to\noffer this answer to my Sunday school class, I ran into another problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ndiscovered that in the Old Testament, seeing God was a problematic idea, to say\nthe least. It was in fact considered to be life-threatening<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While on Mount Sinai, the Lord says to\nMoses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\ncannot see <\/strong>My face; for no man shall see<\/strong> Me,\nand live. (Ex 33:20)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, what God chose to do, was He\nappeared to people in the Old Testament in very filtered ways: in a fire, a\ncloud and even a whirlwind in the book of Job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So then, what does Jesus mean when He says:\n\u201cthey shall see God\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word \u201csee\u201d here doesn\u2019t actually mean\nto see with your eyes, but rather, loosely translated, it means, \u201cto possess<\/em><\/strong>\u201d.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequently, when Christ says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blessed are the pure in heart<\/em>, For they shall see<\/strong> God<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What He really means to say is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blessed are the pure in heart<\/em>, For they shall possess<\/strong> God<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It means that if I am pure, then I can\npossess God, He belongs to me. It\u2019s a ridiculous thing to imagine but God is\ntelling us that it\u2019s possible. That if my heart is pure, then He will be my\npossession, God will belong to me and I to Him.<\/em> How beautiful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What God is describing here is the ideal relationship between a Bridegroom and his Bride. That they belong to each other. St Paul speaks of this relationship in 1 Cor 7:4 where he says,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wife does not have authority over her own body,\nbut the husband does. And\nlikewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the\nwife does.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the relationship God wants to have\nwith me, this intimacy, this closeness. That He would allow Himself to belong\nto me. And do you know just how much God wants to belong to me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Isaiah 49:16 we read,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does He mean by using this picture of\n\u201cinscribing\u201d me<\/em> in the palm of His hands? Well, in that time, people\nwould own slaves. In order to ensure that others knew who these slaves belonged<\/em>\nto, the masters would engrave their names<\/em> on the hands of these slaves.\nWhat God therefore is essentially saying is, \u201cI will be your Servant, and I\nwill belong <\/em>to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sentiment echoed in the Christological\nHymn found in Philippians 2 that says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\nthis mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the\nform of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made\nHimself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant<\/strong>, and coming\nin the likeness of men. (Ph 2:5-7)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If all this wasn\u2019t clear enough already,\nGod makes sure the message is loud and clear in the book of Ezekiel. When\ntalking about those who belong<\/em> to His people, He says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It shall be, in regard to their inheritance, that I am their inheritance. You shall\ngive them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession<\/strong>. (Ez 44:28)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

God is telling me, that He is my possession<\/em>.\nHow precious is it that He makes Himself my possession, my belonging?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us then conclude by understanding once\nand for all what it means to have a pure heart so that I can share in this\nintimate relationship with God. Simply put, to have a pure heart is to devote\nmyself to Him. To dedicate every facet of my being to Him. My soul, body and\nspirit. And when I do that, only then will I see Him, only then will my name be\n\u201cinscribed\u201d in His hands as a symbol that He will forever belong<\/em> to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the word \u201cinscribed\u201d that God uses in Isaiah is even more powerful in that, it means literally, \u201cto engrave with nails\u201d. He belongs to me, when He gives me His body on the Cross. To be pure in heart is to give Him mine in the same way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Beatitudes Series Part 5 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God By Marc Bastawrous While serving in Sunday School a few years ago, one of my fellow servants thought of the clever idea to create a \u201cQuestion Chest\u201d for the kids. Basically, it was a home-made treasure box of sorts, … Continue reading “The Pure in Heart”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[212,26,52,296,31],"class_list":["post-6275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-beatitudes","tag-jesus","tag-purity","tag-seeing-god","tag-seeing-the-lord"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6275"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6279,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6275\/revisions\/6279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}