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Quite a chapter!! Here are my thoughts on thinking what is pure:
This chapter was so good - it was a real blessing and encouragement. The authors examples of the gold mine and John Newton were very good and so many things can be taken from them. It spoke to me about how the Israelites were now in the Promised Land and they had the temple set according to Gods design. They had begun to do what the law had required for them to be pure (right) with God yet their hearts were not pure. God started to teach them what they needed to do to cleanse their hearts. To do things with their whole heart. So often I can do the physical things that are before me but where are my thoughts. Are they pure thoughts? Before reading this book I hadn't even considered that my thoughts were wrong. Now I can ask if my thoughts are what God would want or what
self would want. The section on faith was also very good. The verse from Rom 10:17 has spoken to me for a long time "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." The word is Jesus because it says in John 1:1 that "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." He speaks to us and we hear and do what he wants us to do. When we do that our faith is stronger. I like the sentence(pg64) that says "without some stabilizing faith in those things we would live in a state of paralyzed indecision and fear about every detail of life. When I feel like I am in a
paralyzed indecision and/or have fear than I know my faith at that moment is not stable. Then I know to pray for the Lord to give me ears to hear what He has for me to do. I also like "Humility is pure." The Lord has made us who we are for a
purpose and has put in us something that makes us a part of the whole body. Very thankful that God fills in and makes us more than we are so that we can minister to others. The quote by Oswald Chambers is also good, "There is a difference between innocence and purity. Innocence is the characteristic of a child: Purity is the characteristic of a man or woman who knows what the tendencies and temptations to go wrong are and who has overcome them."
Blessings,
Cathy
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I was intrigued by the example of the gold mines in its
relation to pure thoughts. Purity isn’t an easy process, yet I tend to see
things as if they should just be pure not in light of them needing to be
purified. When God allows blasting to take place in a part of my life and a
whole truck load of hopes and dreams trucked off, my thoughts usually turn
toward the impure. I question His love, His motives, His faithfulness, His
care, because here all this stuff is happening and He isn’t stopping it, and
yet the purity comes when we allow Him to take all that stuff in our lives and
refine it and remove all that is just dirt and get to what is actually the
gold. Gaining this perspective helps me to filter my thoughts for those that
are pure, in the recognition that what He is doing is for good, as He has
promised.
Given
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