Morning Musings-Living & Enduring Word of God

Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...






"Purify yourselves," says Peter.  How can we accomplish that?  God asks us to be holy as He is holy and we do that by "purifying ourselves with the Word of Truth".  As we read and obey God's Word we purify ourselves therewith and become more holy.  

In recent history I was accused by one person of being "too holy"!  I was at first insulted but then after thinking about it, took it as a compliment and thanked God, that wow!  by God's grace, mercy and love, there is a difference and I've got some "stranger-ness" about me.  But I can only give that credit to God.  

Long ago, when traveling on a school bus to or fro high school, I was called a "holy roller" by some of the other student passengers.  At that time I had no idea what that meant.  This too, could be seen as being a stranger in this world as Peter alludes to in 1 Peter 1:17.   As we live more and more according to God's standards people will take note that we are different although a way back then I don't really recall specifically trying to obey God's word of truth but there must have been enough of it to provoke the remark even though made in mockery.  So we need to be prepared even to be ridiculed by those who do not follow and just thank the Lord for His encouragements, even in mockery form, that we are managing, with His help, to persevere in our Christian living to the point of noticeable purification and holiness.

As we overlap a bit from the Strangers blog entry, reread 1 Peter 1:17-25 in its entirety.  We will see that a result of purifying ourselves by obeying the truth is that we will develop sincere love for our brothers and sisters in Christ; even the challenging ones.  Sincere love.  Not out of duty saying, hey, she's my sister in Christ so I have the obligation to 'love' her but she's such a pain in the neck.  No, these can be overcome and the love of God who does not just love selected people, will help us to love as He loves, unconditionally and with sincerity and that, "deeply from the heart".  "By this all men will know you are Jesus's disciples (John 13:35).  God's Word is powerful and can manifest in our lives too as we submit to Him.  This is showing that faith in action we learned about in the book of James.

Chapter 2 of 1 Peter will show us another way to "purify ourselves" according to God's Word which stems out of sincere and deep love of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  It will really give you a big hit on the head, as so many of us need to be "purified" of this and I'm ashamed to say, my sons, that I'm very guilty and definitely need purifying in this area; I won't give it away yet though...til another day.

Even though our human body withers like grass; here today, gone tomorrow yet God has given us imperishable seed and His Word stands forever.  Our souls and spirits do not perish--we will be with Him some day even though our earthly bodies perish.  So when we are born again into God's family, we have that imperishable seed of eternal life--this in contrast to all withering and dying like grass or flowers.

Here's a beautiful couplet...It was God's Word that breathed creation into being; heaven and earth and sea, and all that in them are.  Think of the vastness

and scope of all that entailed!  C.S. Lewis in his Naria tales analogy really gives us a glimpse of it when Aslan is 'singing' Naria into being.  His description can really unfold the awesomeness for you*.  It is God's "living and enduring" word that makes us new creations in Christ; born again of imperishable seed we have eternal life in Christ.  Let us continue to purify ourselves with God's Word of truth til He comes.  "The word of the Lord stands forever" (vs 25); that's a lasting promise in which to put our faith, hope and trust.  Praise His holy Name!

Here is a link to a Hillsong song lyrics Purify My Heart (Refiner's Fire):

http://www.topchristianlyrics.com/2008/06/17/purify-my-heart-refiners-fire-chords-and-lyrics/ 

May you be blessed by the words and take them to heart.

*The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis, chapter 9; Copyright 1955; HarperCollins Publishers, NY

                                                                ~ERC  2016~