FIVE QUESTIONS

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob.

Psalm 24:3-6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Four questions: (1) What does God require of us?, (2) How do we receive God’s blessings?, (3) How might we be vindicated from our sins?, and (4) How do we get close to Him?

These are questions all believers should ponder regularly.

We can look for answers in any number of places. We could ask someone we trust who is a believer to get their take on it. We could try and answer the questions based on our own intellect and beliefs. Or we could just go to the best source of truth available and look into the Word of God where we find the Will of God revealed fully.

Indeed, God has invested an entire book to answer the questions we have about Him and life. In fact, His Holy Word is life’s instruction manual for you and me, ever ready to guide, convict and instruct. There is no book like it.

So let’s look at this amazing book, the Bible, that ever springs to life and feeds our spirits and souls every day when we read it. Let’s look at it, specifically in the 24th Psalm, and see one place where we can find all the answers to the questions above. Look at these four verses:

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob.

Now, let’s look at each of the four questions:

1. What does God require of us?

The scriptures here are clear. If we want to have a relationship with God and fully receive all His love and guidance, we have to have clean hands and pure hearts. God despises sin, the very sin that makes you and me dirty and impure. We can’t hope to have full relations with God if we choose to hold onto sinful behavior. We have to make a choice. Either we pursue God and His righteousness, modeling the life of His Son Jesus, the only One who ever lived perfectly, or we choose to reject God and His ways, pursuing our own desires instead, trusting and worshipping worldly idols while swearing to false gods.

God requires us to be clean and pure, to allow our sins to be washed away by the precious shed blood of Jesus, so we might be presentable, cleansed and purified before the God of all righteousness. Then, and only then, will we be at the place where God requires us to be and ready to fully receive His love and guidance, ready to receive His richest blessings.

Yes, as you can see, the answer to question 1 brings us to the answer to question 2: How do we receive God’s blessings?

It all starts with clean hands and pure hearts. We must be at our best to receive the best gifts from God. And His gifts are priceless and eternal.

Many people look at God’s blessings in a material sense and I believe doing that subtracts from full experiencing His riches. For God’s blessings aren’t so much about things as they are about eternal values that bring us peace and hope, eternal values like grace and mercy and love. These eternal values were on full display when God gave His only Son Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, as a living sacrifice for us so that we might not perish but have life eternal, a life where we’ll all have perfectly clean hands and pure hearts because sin will be no more.

God’s word is clear. If you want to receive God’s blessings, you have to have clean hands and a pure heart. By following the life of Jesus by modeling your life after His, you can always find yourself in a place presentable to God, in the place He requires you to be.

Yes, Jesus leads us to the place where God wants us to be, the place where we can receive His blessings. He also plays the key role in the answer to question 3: How might we be vindicated from our sins?

First, some bad news. We all have sinned and no matter how hard we try to have clean hands and pure hearts, we have all fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and thus stand deserving of His wrath. Not a great place to be.  

But there is good news. For God so loved us that He gave us His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). God did not wish for us to perish from our sins and so He sacrificed His Son Jesus in our place. Instead of you and I being nailed to the cross of Calvary, Jesus was nailed there, the final sacrifice for atonement of sins, a perfect sacrifice because Jesus was perfect. And His perfect blood was shed to wash our imperfections away, making us as white as snow.

Jesus set us free from the penalty of sin through His death and resurrection. He justified us (or made us just-as-if-I-had-never-sinned) and is the only way we can be vindicated before God. He is also the only way we can be with God for eternity and thus the answer to question 4: How do we get close to Him?

Jesus told us, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) No one can get to God the Father except by way of Jesus. The path to ascending the mountain of God and standing in His holy place runs through Jesus. Believe and trust in Him, and You will find your way to God. Choose to not believe and trust in Him and you will never enter God’s kingdom, death will be the end of you, and you can experience God’s wrath.

In the final translation, there are four questions here but only really two choices to make.

You can accept Jesus as your personal Savior and allow Him to give you clean hands and a pure heart.

or

You can reject Jesus and choose the world and its desires instead, opting for sin over righteousness.

One way leads to life eternal (accepting Jesus). The other leads to death and damnation through God’s wrath (rejecting Jesus). There is no middle ground.

With this, which way will you pick?

That is really the fifth question here. And the one that matters the most.     

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com