Pure in Heart
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Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Leader: This is the word of the Lord.
All: Praise be to God.
Richard Beck - At root, purity is a food-attribution system, a suite of psychological processes that help us make judgments about whether or not it is safe or healthy to eat something.
Richard Beck - The judgment appears to be "once contaminated, always contaminated." The implication here is that contamination - a loss of purity - is a catastrophic judgment creating a state that cannot be rehabilitated. The foodstuff is, as we say, ruined. And if ruined it's only fit for the trash.
Matthew 5:8 (Paraphrase) -
“Blessed are those who possess a single-hearted devotion to God, for they will see him.”
Deuteronomy 30:6 -
The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
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Each Sunday we come together we offer an open invitation into the way of Jesus. An invitation to enter into sacred rhythms - to draw near to God through singing, giving, learning, and praying.
As a community that desires renewal in Des Moines as it is in Heaven, we recognize that we cannot offer what we ourselves do not have. We cannot lead where we ourselves have not been led; in turn, these questions aim at reflection. Reflecting on God’s word and making space for his leadership.
After watching or listening consider the following discussion questions as a large group or in groups of three to four:
What stood out from the teaching?
In the Hebrew Bible, heart describes the driving force of your entire life - mind, will, and emotion. How do we use the word heart in our culture and is there a difference between how we use it and how they heard it in the first century? What difference does it make as we interpret and apply our passage?
How can the church be apart of cultivate holiness with the shame of purity culture?
In a world that requires us to spend most of our day dividing our attention, how can we focus on God with a single-hearted devotion?