A Vessel of Purity
4-23-04

When Jesus was asked to identify the greatest commandment, He said it was to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30). God wants ALL of our love! He has no desire to share our love with any of the little "gods" of this world; "For the Lord your God is a jealous God" (Deuteronomy 4:24).

Giving God the fullness of our love requires that we live a very focused and holy life; "But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do" (1 Peter 1:15). Our love must be intently focused on the holy things of God rather than the corrupted things of this world. Any time we allow our love for God to mix with our love for the world, the worldly love initially dilutes and eventually completely overtakes any love for God.

James 3:11-12
"Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water."

Are we trying to walk on both sides of the fence? Do we maintain our "Godly" activities along side our "ungodly" activities? Do we praise God and discuss Biblical issues during certain portions of the week and then lust after the world during the other? If so, beware! The ungodly will soon overtake and totally consume the Godly - and we won't even be aware it's happening. If we're not careful, we will one day look at what consumes our attention and say, "How did I come to this place in my life? When did I leave God's path?"

The good news is we have been given the Holy Spirit as the Great Purifier. If we make the time to carefully listen, He will "guide us into all truth" (John 16:13). If we submit and are obedient to His leading, He will strain, sift, distill, and refine until all that remains is the fresh and the pure.

Purity does not come by separation from the world, it comes as our heart is wholly separated unto God. We have been planted amongst the weeds of the world and there we will remain until the day of the great harvest (Matthew 13:24-30). But while we must live and minister among the things of this world, and while we can certainly be thankful for some of God's worldly blessings and provisions, we must never give our worship to the things of this world: "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15).

Jesus has made us into a new vessel and asked that we be filled with what is pure and Holy. Let's stop mixing fresh and salty water, Godly and ungodly devotion. Let's commit every area of our life (without compromise!) to our Heavenly Father and glorify Him in all we do by maintaining a vessel of purity.

Have A Great Day!