Blessed Are The Pure In Heart

I, for one, want to see God someday. But is it even possible to truly be pure in heart? Can anyone consistently hold to this high standard? What exactly does Jesus mean in His sixth beatitude, “Blessed are the pure in heart”?

The Greek word for “pure” in Matthew 5:8 is katharos. It means to be “clean, blameless, unstained from guilt.” Interestingly, the word can refer specifically to that which is purified by fire or by pruning.

Got Questions does a great job summarizing this important topic. You may read it here: Blessed Are the Pure In Heart.

What does it mean to bless God?

(Photo and quote by Jacqueline Cooper.)

How has God blessed you? I’m sure many of you would agree that God is a loving, gracious Father. That His love and forgiveness alone is more than we deserve. If we are in Christ, God has poured blessing upon blessing into our lives. He even turns our messes into something beautiful if we let Him.

I love the The Message translation of Ephesians 1:3: How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.”

Did you know that it is possible to bless God? Some may argue: Because God is altogether perfect and lacks nothing, He doesn’t need our blessings. Though I agree that we don’t add to God’s character, or somehow strengthen Him through our blessings, I do believe that our attitudes, words, and actions can bring joy to his heart and a smile to His face. When we bless, praise and acknowledge God, we are fulfilling His original purpose of creating us.

What if we make it our priority to daily bless God in 2019? For He truly deserves it! You may read more on this topic here: What Does It Mean to Bless God? And for all of you scholarly readers, you might enjoy John Piper’s thesis: What Does It Mean to Bless God? 

How Can I Know God’s Will for My Life?

Do you ever struggle with knowing what God’s will is? What does the Bible say about knowing God’s will?

At its most basic, the will of God is to repent of our sin and trust in Christ. If we have not taken that first step, then we have not yet accepted God’s will,” (gotquestions.org).

To read more about knowing God’s will, the following post from Got Questions does a great job summarizing what the Bible teaches on this topic. You may find this post here: How Can I Know God’s Will for My Life?  Have a wonderful week!

 

Significance of the Lampstand in the Bible

“A talent of pure gold is to be used for the lampstand and all these accessories.” -Exodus 25:39

I hope you are enjoying summer. The months seem to fly by faster and faster. . . . Continuing our study in Exodus, we come to another significant piece of tabernacle furniture: the lampstand.

The candlestick was hammered from about seventy-five pounds of gold. Although the lampstand is laced with symbolism, it primarily points to Jesus Christ.

“Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning. In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.” -Exodus 27:20-21

Without the lampstand, the priests couldn’t carry out their ministries in the Holy Place for lack of light. Warren Wiersbe (Be Delivered) observes: “God wants us to offer Him intelligent worship, not ignorant worship (John 4:19-24; Acts 17:22-31; Rom. 1:18:25), and to do that, we need the light of the Word of God to guide us (Ps. 119:105, 130; Prov. 6:23). . . Prayer is enlightened by the Word (John 15:7), and the Word is opened up to us as we pray (Ps. 119:18; Eph. 1:15-23). Both the study of the Word and the exercise of prayer must be energized by the Holy Spirit, who is symbolized by oil (the lampstand, Zech. 4:1-7) and fire (the altar, Acts 2:3-4).

For more on the lampstand’s symbolism, I found the following post from gotquestions.org both interesting and informative. Writing of light, may you enjoy the rest of your summer as daylight lingers longer.

What is the Significance of the Lampstand?