MONDAY, February 19
Reflect
One thing we can take away from this passage is that Jesus was not afraid to get His hands dirty. Jesus highlights for the Pharisees that as important as clean hands are, a clean heart is far more vital. So many of the practices of the religious leaders were focused on outward appearance, but they seemed to have left their hearts unexamined and untouched.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus references those who are “pure in heart” as blessed. Eugene Petersen, in his paraphrase “The Message” puts it this way, “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.”
I really like this way of putting it, because it reminds me that even though my salvation is assured, I still need to attend to the purity of my heart like I attend to the cleanliness of my hands. “Purity of heart” is an ongoing evaluation of the condition of my inner life and seeking out steps that God and I work on together to put it right.
How is your inner life? Is it congruent with the outer life?
Pastor Mike
Pray
- Pray for Pastor Lyle, for his family and his ministry.
- Pray for Eric Peters, Facility Manager; Andrea Tonn, Hospitality Coordinator; Custodians, Adit Gamble, Stan Goodnough and Anne King; Maintenance, Joe Richards.
- Pray for our Church Board members: Barbara Whidden, Bee Stiansen, Cam Klapstein, Darryl Sparling, Julie Leverette, Marvin Schneider, Matt Barker, Matt Chute, Mike Pedde, and Nick Mitchell.
- Pray for our office staff: Robin Radke and Naomi Voss; Bookkeeper Lynette Carlson.