Purity

There was a brief time about 4 or 5 years back when I went to "early morning prayer" every day for 40 days. This was a feat accomplished by friends pushing each other towards a goal. My friend Matt and I wanted to get there every single day no matter if it killed us. Those times in prayer were so amazingly powerful, sometimes I feel as if I've imagined them. We were on the front lines of battle, waging war against an unseen enemy. God was by our side and he was directing our words and thoughts. During that time we played music as a way of directing the flow of things. Often the songs coincided with the things we were praying about. Sometimes the words in the songs inspired us to new heights of intimacy with God.

It was during one of those songs a man cried out "Purity oh God!" That line struck our hearts to the core. We knew that we were standing on holy ground and that only the "pure in heart shall see God".  We confessed aloud the contents of our hearts. Asking God to cleanse us from impure thoughts, impure words, impure ways. We wrestled with the sins of our city, knowing that Boston needs Jesus. We were set alight, ablaze and all our impurities were slaked off in the fire of God's presence.

God is holy. Jesus makes us holy but we can't just stay there and not live out that holy life. We must be holy and to be holy means to do holy.

Today's "My Utmost for His Highest" is a good guide http://utmost.org/ toward that direction.

Remember, it's not how far you've gone down the path, it's what direction you're going. God is always calling us to turn his way.

Simplicity

This is a good place to start. I remember this chapter (in Celebration of Discipline). Sell stuff and remove the things that are unnecessary from your life. My goal then is to make a list of the things in my house that I can sell or give away, and then start doing it, all the month of April. Here are the verses from the chapter: Eccles. 7:29 Lev 25:23 Ps 62:10 Prov 11:28 Luke 16:13 Luke 6:20, 24 Matt 6:21, 19 Matt 19:16-22 Luke 12:15 Luke 12:33 Luke 12:16-21 Matt 13:45, 46 Luke 6:30 1 Tim 6:9 1 Tim 3:3, 8 Heb 13:5 James 4:1, 2 Eph 5:5 1 Cor 5:11 1 Tim 6:17-19 Phil 4:12 Deut 8:7-9 Deut 8:17 Matt 6:25-33 Psalm 24:1 Luke 6:35 Matt 5:37

Google is everywhere!

This is delightful, blogspot.com is now blogger.com. Blogger.com is part of google. It couldn't get much better. Although it is a little funny that google is turning into the mold of the internet. You close the door and wait long enough and you come back and it's covered in google!

I'm excited though. This makes my new day resolution to restart my blog that much easier. My plan is to use this blog as a morning study spot. I'll get up in the morning, before the baby is awake, before Kelly is up and type out my thoughts on what I'm studying. In the process I'll move closer to where I'd like to be mentally. Clear and free. Disciplined and obedient.