30 Ways To Pray For People In Authority

I was preaching outside of Washington DC this past week and saw a pamphlet with the above title. After looking over it I realized I am doing much about those in authority such as fighting against bad legislation, trying to get good legislation passed, and trying to get bad people out of office and good people in. While all of that is good and necessary it is not what I am commanded to do in Scripture. I believe firmly that I am to be a part of the process but my greatest Scriptural admonition is to pray for those in authority. Let us not stop trying to win at the ballot box and certainly in the legislature but let's do what we are commanded to do and that is pray. Here is the pamphlet I saw written by Gary Bergel, former president of Intercessors for America.

30 Ways to Pray for People in Authority
by Gary Bergel

Scripture instructs us to pray for all in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-2), but how do we do that, exactly? Here are 30 ways to pray for our leaders-our judges,educators, police chiefs, school board members, military officers, elected officials. and others who serve our country by leading. By doing this, you are standing in the gap, intervening between God and those in authority.

1. That they be God fearing and recognize that they are accountable to Him for each decision and act (Prov 9:10)

2. That they be granted wisdom, knowledge, and understanding (Jas. 1:5)

3. That they be presented with the gospel and a living Christian witness (Rom 10:14)

4. That if unsaved, they be drawn to a saving encounter with Christ; if born-again, they be strengthened and encouraged in their faith (1 Tim 2:4, Eph 1:17-23)

5. That they recognize their own inadequacy and pray and seek the will of God (Prov 3:5-8, 1 Kings 11:9-13)

6. That they be convicted of sin, transgressions, and iniquity (Psa 51:17, John 8:9)

7. The they heed their conscience, confess their sins, and repent (Prov 28:13, Jas 4:8)

8. That they read the Bible and attend prayer meetings and Bible studies (Psa 119:11, Col 3:2)

9. That they value and regard the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Christ (Psa 19:7-11, John 8:31-32)

10. That they respect and honor their own parents if living (Eph 6:2-3)

11. That they respect authority and practice accountability (Rom 13:1-7)

12. That they be given Godly counsel and God-fearing advisers (Prov 24:6)

13. That they be honest and faithful to spouses and children (Mal 2:15-16)

14. That they be practicing members of local congregations (Heb 10:25)

15. They they desire purity and avoid debauchery, pornography, perversion, and drunkenness (1 Cor 6:9-20, Titus 2:12)

16. That they be timely, reliable, and dependable (Matt 21:28-31)

17. That they be honest in financial, tax and ethical matters (1 Cor 6:10, 1 Tim 6:6-10)

18. That they seek pastoral care and counsel when needed (Heb 13:7)

19. That they seek out and nurture Godly friendships (Psa 1:1-3

20. That they have thankful and teachable spirits (Rom 1:21)

21. That they be generous and have compassionate hearts for the poor and needy (Psa 112:9, 1 Kings 10:33-37)

22. That they redeem their time and know priorities (Eph 5:15-17)

23. That they desire honest, integrity, and loyalty (Psalm 26, Prov 11:3)

24. That they have courage to resist manipulation, pressure, and the fear of man (Prov 29:25, 2 Tim 1:7)

25. That they be shielded from occultism, New Age cults, false religions, and secret societies (Isa 1:29, 2:6)

26. That they be presented with Biblical world views and principles (Eph 3:10)

27. That they endeavor to restore the sanctity of life, families, divine order and morality in our nation (Eph 5:22-6:4)

28. That they would work to reverse the trends of humanism in our nation (1 Chron 12:32, Isa 59:19)

29. That they desire humility and meekness and be willing to serve and cooperate (John 13:14, Titus 3:1-2)

30. That they be prepared to give account to Almighty God (Heb 9:27)

Adapted from "Intercessors for America" newsletter

More Than A Motto

IN GOD WE TRUST

Psalms 33:12  Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD;

On every coin or bill printed or minted in the United States is the phrase “IN GOD WE TRUST”. 

Where and how did this phrase get on our currency?  It is a relatively new addition to the currency, added largely because of increased religious sentiment during the civil war.  Secretary of the treasury Salmon P. Chase received many appeals from devout person throughout the country, urging the United States recognize God on US coins.  From Treasury Department records, it appears the first such appeal came in letter dated November 13, 1861.  It was written to Secretary Chase by Rev. M. R. Watkinson, Minister of the Gospel from Ridleyville, PA.  Three years later, after several acts of congress, In God We Trust was minted on the 1864 two cent coin.  Another act of congress on March 3, 1865 allowed the motto place on all gold and silver coins.  On July 30, 1956 the President approved a Joint Resolution of the 84^th congress, declaring IN GOD WE TRUST the national motto of the US.  It first appeared on paper money on October 1, 1957.  By August 18, 1966 the motto was on all of our currency. 

Although the motto did not come into existence until just recently, the principle of IN GOD WE TRUST is what our nation was founded and built on.  Our founding fathers had a deep commitment to the things of God and to His Divine Providence in leading them.  Over the next 200 plus years, however, we have slowly but surely taken God and removed Him from public life.  We have taken God out of our classrooms, courtrooms, boardrooms, out of every walk of life.  We have become a nation as in the days of Noah where men live and die with no thought of God,  “Genesis 6:5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” 

By reading the letters, papers, and records of our founding fathers, it is plain to see their trust in God.  Here are a very few quotes of some of our founding fathers concerning their trust in God.

John Adams- SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; JUDGE; DIPLOMAT; ONE OF TWO SIGNERS OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.

The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.

Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. . . . What a Eutopia – what a Paradise would this region be!

I have examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world.

Samuel Adams- SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; “FATHER OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION”; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS

I [rely] upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.

The name of the Lord (says the Scripture) is a strong tower; thither the righteous flee and are safe [Proverbs 18:10]. Let us secure His favor and He will lead us through the journey of this life and at length receive us to a better.

I conceive we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world . . . that the confusions that are and have been among the nations may be overruled by the promoting and speedily bringing in the holy and happy period when the kingdoms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and the people willingly bow to the scepter of Him who is the Prince of Peace.

Elias Boudinot- PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; SIGNED THE PEACE TREATY TO END THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION; FIRST ATTORNEY ADMITTED TO THE U. S. SUPREME COURT BAR; FRAMER OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; DIRECTOR OF THE U. S. MINT

Let us enter on this important business under the idea that we are Christians on whom the eyes of the world are now turned… [L]et us earnestly call and beseech Him, for Christ’s sake, to preside in our councils. . . . We can only depend on the all powerful influence of the Spirit of God, Whose Divine aid and assistance it becomes us as a Christian people most devoutly to implore. Therefore I move that some minister of the Gospel be requested to attend this Congress every morning . . . in order to open the meeting with prayer.

John Hancock- SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; REVOLUTIONARY GENERAL; GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS

Sensible of the importance of Christian piety and virtue to the order and happiness of a state, I cannot but earnestly commend to you every measure for their support and encouragement.

Gouverneur Morris- REVOLUTIONARY OFFICER; MEMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; “PENMAN OF THE CONSTITUTION”; DIPLOMAT; U. S. SENATOR

There must be religion. When that ligament is torn, society is disjointed and its members perish… [T]he most important of all lessons is the denunciation of ruin to every state that rejects the precepts of religion.

Randolph of Roanoke- CONGRESSMAN UNDER PRESIDENTS JOHN ADAMS, THOMAS JEFFERSON, JAMES MADISON, JAMES MONROE, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, ANDREW JACKSON; U. S. SENATOR; DIPLOMAT

I have thrown myself, reeking with sin, on the mercy of God, through Jesus Christ His blessed Son and our (yes, my friend, our) precious Redeemer; and I have assurances as strong as that I now owe nothing to your rank that the debt is paid and now I love God – and with reason. I once hated him – and with reason, too, for I knew not Christ. The only cause why I should love God is His goodness and mercy to me through Christ.

Regardless of what any revisionist may write or say, our founding fathers understood that without God’s providential hand of guidance, there would be no America.  Our greatest hope is that America will again see our need to put our Trust in God!  In God We Trust needs to become more than just a motto!

Peace, Peace, Wonderful Peace!

Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matt. 5:9)

If you are like most people in the United States in the 21^st century, you are an extremely busy person. In fact, your life may be so busy that it borders on chaotic.

Perhaps you sit down sometimes, like I do, at the end of the day just before bed and say, “Wow. What a day. Is there any relief in sight?” In my case, with a family that includes four children and an ever-growing ministry, there often is no relief in sight.

We all go from one crisis or problem to another, and it is indeed chaotic to say the least. It reminds me of the television commercial from the 1980s where the frazzled woman screams, “Calgon, take me away!” The next scene portrays her soaking in a huge bubble bath, all her problems just a distant memory.

It seems that, amid all of the problems we face every day, very few of us really find peace. That state of being where we are right with God and right with our fellow man, and everything is on an even keel, appears to elude us. All we see are troubles and trials.

Let me clarify something here. All of us have troubles and trials; no one is immune from that. The difference is that some people are able to have peace in the midst of their troubles and trials.

There is no one reading this book who does not have some degree of difficulty, and most of you are likely to have a great deal of difficulty. But while many of you are searching for peace, some of you have found it.

Let’s look at the attributes of a peaceful person. Peace is not the absence of conflict. You might be thinking, “If I could just make all of my problems go away, I would be OK.” You will never be able to wish all of your troubles away. The Bible says in Job 14:1 that this life is “full of trouble.” There will be conflict as long as you live. You might think that’s depressing, but you can have victory along with your problems.

Look at II Tim. 3:1-7. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

That is an accurate description of the day in which we live, and if you think it’s going to get better you are mistaken. The fact of the matter is that we live in the last days, and as we get farther along in the last days we get farther from God’s creation.

Have you ever thought about that? What we are living in now is not God’s perfect plan for this age. This isn’t the way He created things. His original plan was for Adam and Eve in the garden, all alone, with obedient children and no in-laws. I trust you are laughing a little bit at that last statement, but God did create a perfect world. What happened? Adam and Eve willfully disobeyed God, and it all went downhill from there.

So God started with perfection, and He will end with perfection when we are living with Him forever, but in the meantime we must live with the consequences of man’s choices. That is what produced everything we see around us.

Adam and Eve had the choice to live in perfect harmony with God and never die. God did not design death, just as He did not design sin. He wanted them to have a wonderful time in the garden. But Adam thought he was smarter than God, and his sin brought the curse. We are left with the results of that curse.

So as long as we are stuck in this world between perfection and perfection, we will have troubles. Why? Because sin destroys everything it touches. It twists people’s thinking and causes them to do things God never intended them to do. If it’s bad now, what will it be like when our young children are grown? If we can’t escape conflict, we had better learn to deal with it, and that means teaching our children some principles for how to live.

Peace is not the absence of conflict, nor is it compromise with conflict. On one side you have the standard of God’s holiness and perfection, and on the other side is the world that is anything but holy. So the world tells the church crowd, “You are the problem. If you would be more like us and stop preaching against our sin, we would all get along.”

Thus, the church is asked to come over toward the world and compromise its position, It’s interesting that in a compromise situation, the one in the position of strength must always give up some of that strength and come down to where the other side is. What the church should be saying is, “Hey, world, we know there is conflict. Why don’t you, through the blood of Christ, come over and join with us?” But we usually choose to let the church be more like the world for the sake of getting along.

Too many of us do this every day with our children. A lot of you moms and dads have made a deal with the devil in the past few days, only in this case the devil is a four-year-old. We compromise for the sake of peace.

Another popular line of thinking is, “If I can make it through this week...” We don’t solve anything or fix the problem. We just want to survive the moment.

We’ve taken a few moments to consider what peace is not. So what is peace? Peace is the attitude or condition that comes when a person is right with God and right with man. There are a few dozen other definitions of peace, and I struggled to narrow it down, because there are several different levels of peace. The Bible speaks of national peace, spiritual peace and some other things, all of which give the impression of soundness.

When we talk about a sound idea or principle, we are usually saying that it is solid or complete. It gives the idea that you’ve got it together and you are whole. You’ve figured it out.

I know very few people who have it all figured out. You can probably think of more than one occasion in which you’ve seen someone and thought to yourself, “I wonder if he is as together as he appears to be.” There are many people who, underneath a very smooth and orderly presentation, have conflict galore in their lives. But there are some who actually live their lives at home the same way they do in public. Their outward portrayal is a true reflection of who they are.

Those are the people who have found peace. Things do not exacerbate them or get them riled up for no reason. Nothing inflates or deflates them. Through good times or bad times, they stay on a pretty even keel.

Most of us are not like that. We are either way up or way down, and we can’t seem to find that constant level that isn’t too high or too low.

There are more than 400 references in the Bible to peace. Rom. 12:18 says, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” Heb. 12:14 says, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” You cannot see God if you don’t have peace.

James 3:16-18 says, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” The opposite of peace is confusion, and the Word of God has answers for those who are confused.

Let’s look at the author of peace. According to I Cor. 14:33, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” The author of confusion is the devil, and the author of peace is God. If God is in the middle of something, there is a level of peace about it. Satan seeks to cause confusion, and it is evident in every aspect of our society.

Think about this for a moment. The predominant features of a rock concert are darkness, noise and smoke. The same is true for a battle zone. A church service should be the antithesis of that; it should be peaceful (although peaceful doesn’t mean dead). It should be encouraging, not confusing.

In the New Testament, God is described six times as the God of peace. Gideon built an altar to the Lord and in Judges 6:24 he called it “Jehovahshalom.” That means “God is peace.” One of the terms used to described Him in Isa. 9:6 is “Prince of Peace.”

John 14:27 says, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” He is the giver of peace.

But He also points out that the peace He gives is not like the peace the world gives. What is the difference? We equate peace with the absence of problems. Your job is steady, your marriage is stable, and your kids are OK. That is probably your definition of peace. You have a brief respite from trouble, and everything is good right now.

The world gives you a week like that every few months to keep you in the cycle. You have 30 days of hell, five days of peace, 30 more days of hell, and so on. Every once in a while Satan tells his demons to stop bothering you so you think it’s all going to get better.

I’ve watched marriages like this. A couple will fight like cats and dogs for six months, then they have a good week and think, “We’re fine, Preacher. We don’t need to change a thing.” Then they’re right back at each other’s throats.

Peace is not the absence of problems. Peace comes in knowing that, in spite of the problems, God is still on throne.

The world says, “I’ll give you a little break this week.” God says, “Whether you get a break or not, I’m still God and you’re still OK. I’ve got everything under control.”

There are several aspects to real peace. First, man cannot have peace without a right relationship with God. A lost person who thinks, “I don’t know where I’m going when I die,” is as far from peace as one can get.  The Bible says in Rom. 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I see lost people who sit in our church services, and you can tell by looking at them that they are not at peace. But because they are holding onto something, they would rather go through life in confusion and chaos than make peace with God. You will never have the peace of God until you make peace with God, and that only comes when you confess your need of a Saviour.

God’s peace is everlasting and unchanging, and it is directly related to your spiritual condition. His peace is completely unfazed by your circumstances.

Deut. 9:18-20 says, “And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also. And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.”

God is angry with Aaron, and His wrath is about to be poured out on Moses’ people. He is ready to level Israel to the ground and start over with Moses. But the last phrase of verse 19, where God hearkened unto Moses, gives a glimpse of how great He is.

Moses was in this instance a man with perfect peace – right with God, interceding for his people. God was ready to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, and Moses pled for Him to do otherwise. In the midst of so much confusion and chaos, there was a little bubble with only Moses and God.

Today there is the same kind of confusion and chaos all around us. God is still angry at the wicked every day, and His judgment will come sooner rather than later. But there is a group of people walking with God through all of this, and they have found peace.

It doesn’t matter what some Islamic terrorists do, or how high the price of gas goes. We still have God, and He has promised to meet our needs. When God gives you peace, these things are not going to bother you. He gives peace that is not changed by circumstances.

Since the beginning the devil has led an attack on peace. Our sinful nature is always battling for control. There are two voices you listen to – the one with the world’s view and the one with the Word of God. Every time you turn on your television you are exposed to the world’s view, whether it is a sporting event or some scientific program that talks about what supposedly happened billions and billions of years ago. They all think that this world is just one big accident.

Sometimes it seems like we are outnumbered, just a few people wanting to follow God against an entire world. But we have about 6,000 years of history behind us with the fingerprint of God on it. The people who would say that there is no God are dying as fast as they get here, and His Word just keeps on going.

The battle within us rages because, as Jer. 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” People tell me all the time, “Preacher, I am basically a good person. In my heart I really want to do good.” It’s a lie. Your heart is deceitful, and the person it deceives is you. People go to Hell because they think themselves to be better than they are. They think that they’re doing OK, and they’re better than most people they know, and that is what deceives them.

Pride keeps you from repentance, which keeps you from peace. If you have true peace, it’s because you realized that there are some thing you can’t handle and you need God to come into your life and take control.

II Cor. 5:18-20 says, “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

When I think about people I know who do not have peace, I see blatant areas of disobedience in their lives. The ones who have peace, on the other hand, seems to be trying their very best to do right. That is not a coincidence. There is a direct correlation between your obedience to the Word of God and your level of peace.

Walking with God is the first step toward attaining peace. There must be some time that you spend alone with Him if you are ever going to have peace. How can you know His will for your life if you are not engrossed in His Word and seeking Him in prayer?

Trying to win people to Christ is another step to find God’s peace. When you have the joy of leading someone to Christ and seeing that person find the thing that he or she needs more than anything else, something inside you is rekindled. Some of you were saved a long time ago, and that moment for your is far back in your memory, but every time you open the Bible and share the Gospel with someone else it is like you are seeing it for the first time again.

The ones who are the most at peace are those who stay in the saddle and keep working together for God. Those are the people who are steady no matter what kind of trouble comes along. There is a lot less depression in people who are busy. They are usually more content.

Let the Word of God dwell in you and be your foundation. Col. 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

Philosophy is always changing. Some of the philosophies of education I studied in the late 1980s, which were the “new” way of doing things at that time, have now gone by the wayside. Textbooks are rewritten every five years. Our television talk shows have gone through the same kinds of cycles.

When presidents, leaders, philosophers, gurus and educators come and go, the Bible stays the same. It has been relevant since the moment it was written. Men and women have been having trouble since the Garden of Eden. We’ve been having the same problems for centuries, and the Word of God has been fixing those problems that entire time.

Somewhere there is a lost person who has the same problems you have. The difference is that you can have peace through God if you are right with Him and living for Him.

Pure Hearts

“Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” (Matt. 5:8)

Most people in life consider themselves to be good people. You will occasionally find an exception to that rule, as you encounter someone who by his own admission is “born to lose” or just a bad guy. But most of us think we’re OK. Even in prison you will find a lot of folks who will tell you, “I’m not that bad.”

The way we come to this conclusion is by comparing ourselves to someone else. It’s always easy to find someone who is a little bit lower than you are, so no matter how low you are, you can usually say, “At least I’m not like So-and-so.”

As with the other Beatitudes we have studied, the phrase “pure in heart” in this verse means much more than one might think. Many would assume that it refers simply to being a good person, and some of us think that we are already there. But let’s look at it more closely in light of what the Bible says.

There are two main points to the explanation of this phrase, and the first point is to consider what it is not. Several places in the New Testament mention the religion of the Pharisees. A Pharisee was a religious leader whose life was impeccably clean and who did a great deal of good in the eyes of his fellow man. Many would assume such a person was pure in heart because there were no chinks in his armor.

But look at what Jesus said about the religion of the Pharisees in Matt. 23:27-28. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

I perform a lot of funerals, and many of them today take place at mausoleums. The walls inside these structures are beautiful and ornate, and the outside will contain fabulous carvings and other such things. You think about what a beautiful place it is on the outside, but no one ever wants to open the boxes behind the walls, because they all contain the remains of dead people.

This is how Jesus views the Pharisees and their religion according to these verses. They looked great as far as the outward appearance goes, but the inside was rotten and dead.

So we might think to ourselves, “Hey, I’m doing pretty good. I’ve got the right haircut, I’m wearing the right clothes. I don’t do things that are really bad. I guess I’m OK.” But being pure in heart is not like the Pharisee attitude that is concerned only with the outward appearance.

I grew up in church in the 1970s and 1980s when we all made a big deal out of how people looked, and it was very important that we had the right “standards” – the ladies’ dresses were the right length, the men wore manly clothes, etc. Now I certainly appreciate that and want to encourage some of that in my church today, but I think something was lost in translation. I remember all of the preaching about what we should wear, but I have trouble remembering why. There was a lot of emphasis on outward appearances back then, but I don’t recall much being said about letting God work from the inside out as opposed to man working from the outside in.

If you are just working from the outside in on some issue, especially a spiritual one, it will last only as long as the influence of the person who taught you that principle. But if God works on you from the inside out, it won’t matter what other people say or do.

We should encourage one another to look and act like Christians, but we have to be careful before we judge someone based solely on appearance, because we have all seen many examples of someone who looked right on the outside but was living wrong on the inside, and eventually the outside became a manifestation of what was really on the inside. Even teenagers and young people can get caught up in the outward appearance without having the right heart attitude.

I have seen photos of famous preachers looking just right, in a nice suit with perfect hair and Bible in hand, only to find out later that they were living in wickedness when those pictures were taken. Of course, in those situations the truth always comes out eventually.

If you let God get hold of your heart, no preacher or anyone else will ever have to get onto you about how you conduct yourself. There must be boundaries and guidelines about these things, but I would much rather let God show you how you should look and act. Then I can just stand back and say, “That is a work of God. Praise His name.”

Being pure in heart does not mean having the religion of the Pharisees, and it also does not refer to righteousness compared to others. Look at 2 Cor. 10:12. “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”

Everyone likes to point out that they are better than someone else. Often on visitation I will ask a person about going to Heaven, and the response is, “Oh, yes. I’m going to Heaven when I die.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’m a good person.”

“What makes you a good person?”

“Well, I’ve never killed anybody.”

You compare yourself to some notorious serial killer and decide that you’re OK. If could go out to the state prison and pick out 15,000 inmates for comparison, and since I’ve never spent any time in jail, I guess I’m fine. But the Bible never says that has anything to do with it.

Comparing your righteousness to that of others is a sliding scale, because no matter how far you slide you can always find someone who slid farther. The correct standard is God’s holiness. As I Pet. 1:16 says, “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” In comparison to God, all of us are found wanting.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard someone say, “Well, Preacher, I come to church most of the time. I give my money. I do this and that.” You can come to church every time the doors are open but it doesn’t make you a Christian. The same goes for baptism or any other work you do.

Some people won’t go to church because of the people who are there, and others go to church just so they can say they went. Either way, it’s a comparative type of religion that is far from what being pure in heart is all about.

Since we’ve seen what being pure in heart is not, then what is it? It is a heart that is purified by the blood of Christ and has purposed to live in such a way that pleases the Lord. I don’t live for Jesus so I can be born again; but because I am born again, I want to please God with my every action, word, thought and intent.

Look at I Pet. 1:18-23. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”

The first mark of being pure in heart is that you have been purified by the blood of Christ. As the song says, “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

Your sin is so awful, so terrible, so disgusting before God that He damned those in sin to an eternal Hell. But He loved us so much that, while He condemned us, He also made a way for you to be saved and escape that condemnation. His only son Jesus took your place and shed His blood, which was offered on the mercy seat in Heaven as atonement or a covering for your sin. The only hope you have of going to Heaven is that your sins have been covered by the blood of Christ.

You say, “Jesus died for everybody.” Yes, He did, but not everybody has appropriated the blood of Jesus for their sin. There is a movement in the world today that claims God is the Father of all. He is the Creator of all, but He is not the Father of all. You become someone’s child by birth or adoption, and when you are born again by the Spirit of God you are adopted into the family of God.

If you have not been born again, you are not a child of God. You were created by God, but you are a child of the Devil. As John 8:44 says, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” You must be born again or you will die in your sin and spend eternity in Hell, no matter how good a person you think you are.

Some people call it a “bloody” religion. It is the Bible’s plan for salvation. I didn’t invent it; I’m just reading what God said. According to xxxx, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.” All of the bulls and oxen and turtledoves and every other type of sacrifice offered in the Old Testament tabernacle and temple were symbols of a continual sacrifice for the sins of those people. But when Jesus Christ died on the cross He made a one-time sacrifice so that the men of this world could be made the sons of God.

After being purified by the blood of Christ, a pure heart seeks to live for God so as to be ready at any moment for your homegoing or His coming. Every thought, word and action should be filtered through the lens of what Christ would want you to do.

Now that we have seen the explanation of this Beatitude, let’s look at some examples.

Read Isa. 6:1-8. “In the year In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”

Isaiah said that after he saw the Lord and his sin was purged, he had a desire to do something for God. After seeing the Lord high and lifted up, the thought that consumed Isaiah was, “Lord, I’ll go!”

I am bothered by people who say that they have a love for God but they never have a volunteer spirit for God. They profess to know the Lord, but they just sit in service after service and you never see them do anything for the Lord. If you are truly born again and you want to please God, what are you doing with your life for Him?

Think about Daniel, who purposed in his heart that he would serve God in Babylon no matter what happened, regardless of whether it was popular or pleasing to man. He didn’t worry about the consequences; all that mattered to him was serving God.

As we consider someone like that and the time in which he lived, we need to look around at all we have in the United States of America in the 21^st century and ask ourselves why we don’t have more of a heart’s desire to live in a way that will please God.

There are numerous other examples from the Bible that we could cite. The Apostle Paul, after being gloriously converted on the road to Damascus, spent the rest of his life in service to the Lord knowing that it would be difficult. God told him it would be a tough road, but he went right along. He didn’t care about the cost because he had seen the Lord.

The problem with us today is that too many of us have never seen the Lord as He is, so we don’t really know who we are. We elevate ourselves to a place where we essentially run our own lives.

I read former NASCAR driver Darrell Waltrip’s testimony recently. He said that he was saved in 1983 but never fully surrendered his life to the Lord until years later. “I never gave God control of my life,” he said, “because Darrell Waltrip had plans and desires.”

A lot of us get saved but don’t really let the Lord have total control of our lives because we still see ourselves as being pretty good. We start comparing ourselves to other people and look at what we do and don’t do, and we think everything’s OK. But when you really get a glimpse of what God is, you will be stirred to do something for Him because you know you have to see Him again.

If a police officer with a flashing blue light above his car can make you tremble, or a black-robed judge can make you quiver, or someone who is considered a leader by the world’s standards can make you act differently – then the idea of standing before God someday and giving an account of your life should make you change the way you do everything. It will affect every decision you make.

Look at Rom. 8:28. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

What a wonderful verse. We’ve heard it so many times. But we always stop there. Read on in verses 29-30. “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

The latter verses tell us why verse 28 is true, because God is trying to make you a little bit more like Christ. We are to emulate Him, which is easier said than done.

When was the last time you gave yourself, knowing that you would be violated? Most of us cannot say that we have ever done that, because we only do that which we know is safe and comfortable. When Christ gave Himself, He did so knowing that He would be humiliated and spat upon.

There is a lot more to Christlikeness than putting on a suit and going to church. The cost of serving God is far greater than most of us are willing to pay. It’s about going out among people who don’t love you and loving them anyway; it’s giving of yourself to people even though you know they are taking advantage of you.

Those of us in the ministry seem to have an especially strong tendency to judge people, and they get beaten up on by the ones they least expect. I can’t worry about that. I have to do what I am supposed to do whether they beat up on me or not.

You think you are pure in heart because you are kind to your spouse and children. Millions of lost people can make that claim. A Christlike person will love a wife-beater and try to help him see Christ when many of us want to just throw him in jail and forget about his entire family.

A Christlike person will love Muslims and those who are against everything this country stands for. In my flesh, I have nothing good to say about Muslims. I saw the film “Letters from Iwo Jima” and explained to my son who watched it with me that the Japanese soldiers were not the glorious Samurai warriors they are portrayed to be in the movie. They committed unspeakable acts of atrocity toward our soldiers in World War II. But Christ loved them and still does, although many older Americans who remember that time still harbor hatred and resentment.

It is easy for us to love our friends. Jesus told us to love our enemies.

You may be familiar with Rom. 12:20, which says, “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” Many of us interpret that verse as a way to get vengeance on an enemy through kindness. But what the Lord actually means there is that it is a way to start a fire in the other person’s life, which is a good thing. You’re not making him suffer; you are caring for your enemy’s needs. We are commanded to leave the revenge up to God.

We can justify being nice to someone who was mean to us if it will ultimately cause suffering in that person’s life. But our flesh cannot accept the idea of being kind simply for the sake of being kind. “That’s just not fair,” we say.

Was it fair for Jesus to take all of our sins upon His sinless body, to be mocked and spat upon, yet say, “Father, forgive them”? Look at His attitude toward the two thieves who were crucified with him. Both of them railed on him at first, then one changed his tune toward the end. While He was dying, Jesus told him, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). That kind of forgiveness is near impossible for most of us.

This is where emulating Jesus gets hard. I can love you when you’re good to me, but when you’ve taken from me or humiliated me it gets much more difficult.

When Peter got cocky and announced that he had forgiven someone seven times, he was feeling pretty good about himself. Christ’s suggestion was “seventy times seven” (Matt. 18:22). What He meant was, “Forgive them as many times as it takes.”

I will be the first to admit that this is far from my nature. My wife can attest to this, as she has occasionally suggested calling someone who hasn’t been to church in a while, and my typical response is, “They know where we are. I’ve checked up on them long enough. They know what they should do.”

As we emulate Christ, we must elevate our own living. If I want to lose weight it will take much more than just saying that I want to lose weight. If that was all it took, I would be quite thin right now. But it takes more than that. I have to make a change.

The same goes for your Christian life. If you say you want to live for God, that’s not enough. You have to make changes in your behavior. You need to have a program and set a goal. If you want to be spiritual and more like Christ, you can talk about it all you want, but until you radically change your life you will never become what you say you want to be.

There are some obvious parameters that must be set. You can’t watch filth on television or hang out in bars and be pure in heart. There are plenty of other examples that I don’t have to list here. You have to purpose in your heart that you won’t allow certain things to enter your life if they can be a stumbling block for you.

You have to be in church. You’ve got to study your Bible and have a prayer life. You need to be accountable to someone. To be pure in heart, you can’t just wish it will happen. You’ll have to do some things to make it happen.

It is a continual process that requires you to evaluate. Think about your own Christian life. Where is your relationship with God compared to one year ago? If you can think of a time in your life when you were closer to Him than you are right now, that is not progress. The term we usually associate with this condition is “backslidden.”

That is why you must evaluate your life from time to time. Do you have a greater desire to love those who would hurt you than you did last year? Do you want to be more like Christ than you once were? You can look back on good things you have done in your life, but you must still be striving to live for Him. That is a journey that should not end until your life on this earth ends.

There are some evidences of a pure heart that we can readily identify. One of them is positional sanctification in Christ that never changes once you accept Him as your Saviour. Heb. 10:18 says, “…faithful that promised.”

Once you are saved, there is no need to get saved again. There is no additional covering; your sin is already covered. You are a new creature and you have eternal security, in the position of never again having to be judged for your sin.

There is also progressional sanctification. When you were saved, there was a lot about you that was not godly or holy and it didn’t just disappear. But you gained a new person inside you that said, “Don’t do that.” A battle began to rage within you.

Progressional sanctification means that you look at where you started and determine to grow in grace and add to your faith (having therefore these promises, Jude 20, 2 Pet 1:5, 2 Pet. 3:18). Naturally, you will hit a plateau here and there and encounter numerous hurdles in your Christian life. When you reach a hurdle you will either clear it or it will stop you and slow down your growth. How you respond will determine whether you remain a baby Christian or continue to grow in your relationship with God.

Most Christians clear the first few hurdles and then stay in the same place from then on. You don’t have what we would consider a wicked life, but you’re also not in the kind of deep relationship where you really see Him as He is. That’s because those later hurdles are much harder to cross, but they are the ones that will lead to exceptional growth in your Christian life and allow you to see things about Christ that you have never seen before. The older and more mature I get, the more I realize how little I know about the depths of God’s love and where I should be in relation to Him.

Are you pained by sin? Does it really bother you? Are you pursuing holiness as your goal and doing whatever it takes to get there? If you really want it, you will do what you have to do. Most of us will not do that.

Are you living a pure life? When we go to certain countries on mission trips, we tell people not to drink the water. We think our water in the U.S. is pretty good, and people from other countries might think it’s great because theirs is so bad.

If you see a bug in a glass of drinking water from your house, you probably would not drink it. But if that same water out of your tap were put under a microscope, you would see things in that water that might make you sick. We drink it because we don’t see it.

Now consider the purity of the Christian life. The farther you go with Christ, the more things start to show up. When you first get saved a lot of things are just black. But when you walk with Christ you see so many more things that just aren’t right. The farther you go, the more intense the microscope gets. If you have been saved for many years, the things that bother a new Christian should not bother you.

In closing the discussion of this Beatitude, look at the last part of the verse: “They shall see God.” I want to see that, but I’ll never see it until I take the necessary steps to be pure in heart. I can’t compare myself to other people. Christ alone is the standard I should be measuring myself against.