Missing the Glorious

Matthew 5:8 (KJV) Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Imagine being on Mount Sinai with Moses as he talked face to face with God, receiving the Law and hearing the voice of the Almighty, but all you see are rocks and bushes. Imagine standing by Stephen as he was being stoned where he looked into the Heavens and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father but when you looked up all you saw was blue sky and clouds. How is it that two people can sit in the same service and one receives the fresh wind and fire of the Holy Spirit while the other receives nothing? One is blessed and the other is bored? Jesus draws back the curtain of this mystery when He shares the eternal truth, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

Those that believe they will work their way to Heaven where eventually they might see God and be awed by His splendor are missing the very thing that will get them there in the first place. We need God today! We need His touch now! Our lives are overwhelmed by the quicksand of sin and we would perish in the darkness as it swallows our hopes and dreams without Jesus. Jesus didn’t come to earth and die so that we could have future life but He endured the cross and triumphed over the grave so that we might have life (now) and that more abundantly.

All life emanates from God. To truly live we must see God and yet so many sit in church, listen to the sermons and sing the songs but have no vision, no life of God living in them. The difference between a corpse and a living person are obvious.

First, there is the heart beat. If Christ lives in us than our hearts will beat for Him. The life that is in us will spring forth from every heart beat shouting “He is Lord!”

Second, there is vision. Not the kind that we see with our eyes but the kind that looks at the world around us and knows we must make a difference. We see the fields, ripe and ready to harvest, and desire to be part of God’s great plan.

Finally, there is movement. The life within us cannot stay still. We cannot be quiet. We are drawn to work that lay before us. A corpse will remain motionless but those that are alive will stand, walk, and run in the power of their life.

What does all that have to do with being pure in heart? Moses was single minded in his pursuit of God, trusting that the power of God would not destroy but would bring life. Stephen was being stoned, yet he looked toward Heaven. In the midst of our trial we can either look at the stones or we can look to the Maker of Heaven and Earth. We can allow the stones to harden our heart or we can place our trust in the Chief Cornerstone. Sitting in the Church service we can worry about what tomorrow brings, what the neighbor said, or if God is even there. Or, we can love God with abandon, seek Him with all our heart, and know that He is God.