Hey kids, there is a subtle point we shouldn’t miss. PODCAST!!!Ĭlick here to take about 15 minutes and listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post! A Word for Our Kids That is, anyone who really wants God more than he or she wants anything else. In other words, we were wrong in the beginning. Why the God of Jacob? Because Jacob was the one who sought the Lord’s blessing and simply would not let go no matter how much it hurt and how much it cost him until he got it (see Genesis 32:22-32). The one who seeks the face of the God of Jacob. Who can ascend the Holy Hill? The one who resists the devil and draws near to the Lord. In other words, even the clean hands and pure heart are not made that way by our own strength, but are made so by the strength and grace of God as we resist the devil and draw near to the Lord. If we humble ourselves before God, He will exalt us ( James 4:10). Rather, this person is blessed with “righteousness from the God of his salvation” ( Psalm 24:5). After all, who can say, “I have made my heart pure I am clean from my sin?” ( Proverbs 20:9). The person of Psalm 24:4 is not the sinlessly perfect person who has brought his/her own righteousness to lay out before God. But here is a fantastic principle we need to grasp. We don’t become friends with the world or with false gods. And the pure heart actually means to be single-minded, which, of course, means our mind doesn’t go after other masters. It is part of humbling ourselves before God. This is part of submitting ourselves to God and resisting the devil. But, contextually, this was part of drawing near to God so He will draw near to us. In James 4:8, James says sinners need to cleanse their hands and purify their hearts. Perhaps the most pointed allusion to this passage is often overlooked by commentators and search engines (maybe because the Greek words aren’t the same as those in the LXX for Psalm 24:4). While this statement demonstrates prayer with uplifted hands was a norm for Christians in the New Testament, his main emphasis is those uplifted hands were supposed to be clean. Paul makes this same point in 1 Timothy 2:8 when he points out men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger and quarreling. God doesn’t listen to the worship offered by those with defiled hands. Isaiah seems to have these same principles in mind in the context of Isaiah 59:3. 4) Honest though, considering the list, this is probably more about not profaning God’s name (see Leviticus 19:12). This one is mostly about our relationship with God. This list, however, seems to give the other side. Almost every bit of that qualification list had to do with the worshipers relationship with others. A similar question was asked in Psalm 15. Surely, not just anyone can make their way into His presence. The God who “dwells” on this hill owns everything because He created it all. But we are still left with the question of who actually gets to climb it. We’ve decide there really is a hill to climb. We’ve decided to lay down our tools for building our own personal hill.
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