{"id":19156,"date":"2014-04-18T00:20:10","date_gmt":"2014-04-18T04:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=19156"},"modified":"2014-04-17T23:02:57","modified_gmt":"2014-04-18T03:02:57","slug":"pure-like-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/04\/18\/pure-like-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Pure Like Children Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We have now entered the season of Lent. \u00a0For many Christians, Lent is taken as a time of preparation for the celebration of Easter where God miraculously redeemed mankind by resurrecting His Son from the dead. It is also a time to consider what Jesus said and did; and how we should be living in light of His Words. \u00a0\u271e \u2665<\/p>\n

During this season, here on the\u00a0Seeking Him<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0devotional blog, we have chosen to focus our devotionals on Jesus\u2019 instructions and admonition communicated in Matthew chapter 5\u2014the Beatitudes. \u00a0Jesus said, \u201cBlessed are\u2026\u201d and He went on to give instruction as to how to be \u201cblessed<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0To be \u2018blessed\u2019 is to \u2018be happy, or to be envied.\u2019 \u00a0 Truly for the Christian, we ARE blessed\u2014oh, how very blessed we are! \u00a0Those who observe our lives should clearly be able to tell that we ARE blessed\u2014and that we KNOW it! \u271e \u2665<\/p>\n

Please consider Jesus\u2019 instructions along with us. \u00a0We pray that our words will encourage you and spur you on to be prepare your hearts for the joyous celebration of His Resurrection! \u00a0\u271e \u2665<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew 5:8\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Purity is \u201cthe condition or quality of being free from anything that debases, contaminates, pollutes,\u201d etc. \u00a0That is why childhood is called the \u201cage of innocence.\u201d \u00a0Nothing has come into children\u2019s hearts to make them impure. \u00a0They do not know the evils of this world unless it has touched them in some way. \u00a0They have no worries unless they just happen to have seen or felt evil at a young age. \u00a0I see this looking at my two young children every day\u2014especially yesterday.<\/p>\n

I got a free day off from work yesterday due to a threat on campus. \u00a0I was two minutes away from daycare when I got the call that the university was closed. \u00a0I turned around, and my daughter and I went home. \u00a0I spent the morning with her (even thought I slept for about 30 minutes of it). \u00a0(Hey…I was not about to let an opportunity for a nap slip by when I was sleepy.) \u00a0Later that afternoon, she took a nap while I was cleaning her room and her brother\u2019s room. \u00a0I checked in on her, and I watched her sleep. \u00a0I wondered where the time had gone and where my \u2018age of innocence\u2019 had gone. \u00a0Due to the innocence she has, she is not contaminated yet, except by sin. \u00a0She is too young to realize what the true meaning of Easter is…though she can now tell you that Jesus died on the Cross.<\/p>\n

When we do not know God, we are impure. \u00a0When we reach the age where we can understand who Jesus is and what He did for us, we have become contaminated by the world. \u00a0We are being taught its ideals through peers and the outside world. Yet, we reach a level of purity again when we decide to accept God\u2019s gift of eternal life. \u00a0When we accept Jesus, we feel His Presence in our hearts, and we see His daily works in our lives. \u00a0We become blessed to be pure through the Blood of Jesus Christ again, and we can see Him every day by looking for His signs through nature and the blessings that He gives us when we need them.<\/p>\n

God loves us. \u00a0We are His creation. \u00a0We are His children, and He is our Father. \u00a0We see God every day when we observe what He does and spend time with Him. Our hearts and spirit become less polluted by the world and cleaner by the spirit working inside of our hearts. \u00a0We become more like children of God and less like children of the world.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0*<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear God, thank You for cleaning our hearts and making us pure in the spirit. The pollution of this world is great, but Your love for us is greater and infinite. You are our Father, and we are Your children. You clean our spirits and make us whole. In Jesus name, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  We have now entered the season of Lent. \u00a0For many Christians, Lent is taken as a time of preparation for the celebration of Easter where God miraculously redeemed mankind by resurrecting His Son from the dead. It is also a time to consider what Jesus said and did; and how we should be living […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[127,6118,3367,1287,425,6119,5784,3211,662,6067,3174],"class_list":["post-19156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-beatitudes","tag-children-are-pure","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-gods-children","tag-jesus-speaking","tag-laura-pattillo","tag-matthew-58","tag-pure-in-heart","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4YY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19157,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19156\/revisions\/19157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}