for they will see God.
Today we celebrate those who have gone before with pure hearts. These are hearts which are ready for heaven.
These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb
For most of us, our hearts aren't ready for heaven. If we were to be transplanted from this moment to heaven we would be disappointed to find that heaven is not a couch with a remote control, it is not a really good massage, or an amazing piece of chocolate. It is worship. We see that the saints are pure. That is, they are not distracted. They will one thing. They worship with all that they are.
“Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
They have this focus because they are not distracted by attachments. On earth, neither riches nor earthly joys, nor worldly honors distract them. They have hearts that hunger and thirst for righteousness. At it's most basic level this thirst can only be for God himself. It directs all that they do. Because they are unattached to the world but in zealous pursuit of God he is able to make their hearts like his heart. Their own hearts are marked by mercy. The world sees something in the way that they make peace that is clearly supernatural. The world is compelled to admit about them what is true about us all, they are "called children of God." But this is true of us as well so why doesn't the world see it in us?
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
It just isn't as obvious to the world because we don't make ourselves pure as he is pure to the degree that the saints do.
Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,
as he is pure.
We are distracted by too many things. It isn't at all clear from our lives that we our children of God. Goodness that we show forth seems accidental. We aren't like the saints, where the goodness and light they show the world make it obvious that they have supernatural help.
So if we're distracted, let's focus, let's get some traction. We can't create this within ourselves but we don't have to. We're already sons and daughters. To purify ourselves means to let this reality mark our lives more and more. It means to purify ourselves is everything which is not true to this reality.
If we do this, nothing can stop us. Even persecution only adds to our blessedness.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
Let's seek the one thing that matters. Let's say with the psalmist, "Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face."
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