Purity, week 2.

Fascination is represented by sight. We don’t readily choose to see that which is uninteresting to us, and with most things if we see them enough we end up fascinated. (Like, people and tv. Not school. Not very many people get fascinated by school any more.)

So like, if you’re watching this tv show, and it’s not very interesting but you have to watch it every week, eventually you will get drawn into it. The plot, the characters, the dialogue. Etc. You’ll want to know what happens next, you’ll want to see if so and so is still there next week, whatever.

This is fascination.

And it is a dangerous thing.

You see, what we’re fascinated with reflects upon us. Just like my previous example of you talking with your friends. You don’t just hear their words; you see their attitudes. And you unknowingly copy them.

You see a movie and suddenly you want to be that person, the dude who can fly and shoot laser beams out of his eyes, or the chick with the horse and not a care in the world. This is sight and sound, reflected in you.

So…. What if what you’re seeing isn’t pure? And you must remember here my definition of pure: clean and right.

Do you know how important your eyes are?

Like, say you see this guy at the store. And he has the most gorgeous eyes ever, and the kind of flippy hair, and whatever else.

And you never talked to him. You don’t even hear him talk cause he’s busy staring blankly at the milk trying to figure out what he’s doing.

You’re more likely than not to think about him at least a few times for the rest of the day, and you’ll remember him whenever you go to the store. You might even hope to see him. You imagine saying hi to him, or running in to him, or helping him figure out what the heck he’s getting.

That is fascination. Even without the imagining talking. And it started by sight.

Or guys. You see that video game or skateboard or whatever. (I’m avoiding saying chick cause I don’t want to describe a chick from a guy’s p.o.v.) And it’s new, it’s awesome. So you plan to get it, you plan to invite your friends over to play whatever game, and then getting achievements on it, and wondering if gameplay is as awesome as it’s supposed to be or if the graphics are super lame and the controls suck.

That is fascination.

Or you play said game too long and then you end up wandering around seeing everything from the perspective of that game. (The top of those stairs would be a great place for an ambush. If I cut that grass, would rupees come out? […. The grass one has happened to me…])

That is fascination.

And as humans doing what we do best, we reflect what we’re fascinated with. We reflect mannerisms. We act upon our thoughts.

So what happens if we get fascinated by God?

What happens if we protect our eyes from things that are wrong and look instead to uncreated light?

(You: well that’s just plain ridiculous. Are you suggesting I go blind? And last I checked no one can see God.)

Well, you see there’s this thing, called the Bible. And there’s this person I may have mentioned called the Holy Spirit. And he knows everything about the Bible. And everything about God.

So if you take your bible, meditate on it, and then ask the HS about it, you will eventually get some answers.

(Eventually. Sounds like it’ll take too long. But I guess I could try it once or twice and see…)

Something I’ve heard a lot recently is, don’t just try it for a week then give up.

Is it hurting you to do this? No. It’s not. Is it a waste of time? Well that depends. If hanging out with your friends and watching soap operas and crime shows and checking facebook once an hour is a pressing thing and can’t be set aside, then yes it is a waste of time. But if you’re more interested in learning about eternity and things beautiful beyond belief then this is what you want to do.

Look at it this way. You will die. Your friends will die. You will not have a tv when you are dead. Or a phone. Or a computer.

You will just have you, and your life in eternity. If you want your life in eternity to be awesome then you should do this. Even if you die and there is no eternity you may as well take some time every day and do this. It seriously isn’t hurting you.

If you have to believe something why not this?

Don’t say why, but rather why not.

So tell me, why not get fascinated by living love (God.) and ask Him what he thinks bout you and life?

Why not live like there’s an eternity where you’ll want to be a friend of God when he comes as a judge?

Matthew 6:22-24:

22 "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot trust in and serve both God and other things.

Proverbs 20:6-12:

6 Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, But who can find a faithful man? ] 7 The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him. 8 A king who sits on the throne of judgment Scatters all evil with his eyes. 9 Who can say, “I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin”? 10 Diverse weights and diverse measures, They are both alike, an abomination to the LORD. 11 Even a child is known by his deeds, Whether what he does is pure and right. 12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The LORD has made them both.

Proverbs 30:12-13:

12 There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet is not washed from its filthiness. 13 There is a generation—oh, how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up.

~Silver

Purity, week 1.

I don’t know how you feel about the Bible, but to me it’s pretty important. I mean, even if you don’t believe all the stuff in there you must admit a lot of it is true. I personally believe all of it is true.

Now, one of the things in the bible is this thing called purity. Forever ago, that meant keeping your speech clean, keeping your eyes from seeing… things… And waiting till marriage to do so much as hold hands. It meant having a standard. 

Over the years all that’s declined. (You: Thanks, captain obvious. I hadn’t noticed.) You’re quite welcome, private sarcasm.

Now purity basically just means no sex before you’re married. Some people still hold a standard of no kissing till then but the people that do that are fewer and fewer.

When did we lose the speech and seeing part of purity? Since when could we say whatever the carp we wanted about anything and be fine?

Since when did purity just pertain to sex, for that matter?

You’re probably rolling your eyes at me right now, but I am being perfectly serious. When did we trade our innocence for recklessness? Why did we trade our innocence for recklessness? What happened to self discipline and talking about stuff that actually matters?

Where the carp are our standards?

Now, I know I can’t bring them all back, and I know I can’t discuss (rant at…) all of them right now. So I’m picking one a week for as long as that lasts. Maybe the next 3 weeks? I dunno.

So right now I’ll just go with an over view, how all of them as a group are related, and then speech.

You see, I know plenty of guys who claim not to even think about, or even so much as look at, girls in a sexual way. Thing is, these same guys speak loosely, making jokes in that line of thought. As much as people like to deny it, they really do think about things they talk about. And joke about. Since joking is talking. Even if the thoughts are in the back of their heads.

I mean come on guys, we’re all human. If you know how you very basically work, you know how everyone very basically works. There are no exceptions. That’s where discipline comes in. You can’t claim to be disciplined in one area when you’re obviously not in the others.

And where people’s speech goes, their thought life follows.

And where their thoughts go, their actions follow. 

But speech has to come from somewhere. You don’t just start talking a certain way. When you’re a baby, you learn to talk from your parents. You talk like they talk. If you hang out with other little baby friends you pick up stuff from them. Why are three year olds always running around saying “No”? Because three year olds get told “No” a lot.

Then when kids get older they start learning to talk from things like tv. If they watch sesame street they might learn something. If they're watching Hannah Montana, chances are they’re gonna learn how to get an attitude with anyone who disagrees.

We, humans, learn from what we hear and what we see. We start as clean slates. We start as pure, happy little screaming babies. Tiny unexposed souls in tiny unexposed bodies. Life is scary. Everything is big. And as soon as we’re born we learn what life is from what’s going on. We don’t know anything. So if out world around us is bad and hates us, we will learn life is bad and we will hate ourselves.

Everyone knows this. And I’m starting to get off track.

The point is, what we see is what we do. And what we hear is what we say. And what we do and say we eventually have to think about even if we don’t notice our thoughts. And what we think about we tend to notice and see and then eventually even look for.

So let’s say you’re hanging out with a group of friends, and they don’t really care. They hate their families. They down-talk anyone and anything that bothers them in the slightest.

No matter how much you may love your other friends and your family, the more you hang out with this particular group the more you will become like them. Meaning, if you’re hanging out with them every day you will eventually see your family and other friends they way they see their families and other people. And you’ll start talking about it.

That is not pure.

(You: Wait but I thought purity was just like… Kissing and stuff. Right?)

No. Pure comes from the Latin purus, which means clean. Not chaste. Clean. Cussing is not clean, which is why it’s fun to do. Insulting other people is not clean. It’s dirty. It makes other people’s opinions of who you’re talking about dirty.

True purity does not soil how people are seen. True purity is clean. Clean is not dirt. So dirtying a reputation is obviously bad.

Now do you understand why not to gossip? It’s not just so you don’t hurt people. Gossip means dirt is pouring out in your words. Meaning that you are dirty. Making you a terrible, dirty person.

Purity does not talk about others behind their backs. Purity does not destroy people.

To be pure, to discipline yourself into being pure, start with your speech. Watch what you say. Don’t say stuff to other people just for shock factor or just for fun; your words will always be remembered by someone. Weigh your words as though they are your single most important accomplishment.

If your friends, who are your most prominent influences, hold no standards in their speech, mayhap you need a different group. Or to make a group commitment to watch your speech.

(Note: I will NEVER tell you to drop your friends. I am NOT telling you to abandon them or to tell them they suck or to just stop talking to them. If you feel like you need to do that then grace to you…)

If your family, also a prominent influence, holds no standards… Try talking to them, and if that doesn’t work I still haven’t figured it out. Pray for them I guess.

Controlling your speech is the hardest discipline to matter, but also one of the most important.

Trust me guys, you want to learn self discipline and/or follow the bible? Start with your words.

~ Silver

James 3:1-15 (New King James Version)

1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in words, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. 3 We put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. 4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.