Pure for Sure!

Revivals come and revivals go. Go? Why go? Why don’t they stay back? When we dig out the ashes of bygone revivals, we always find sin at the bottom. Revival fires frighten Satan. He catches hold of one holy person here and another holy person there and tells them, “It’s ok to taste a little sin. Surely it is not going to put out this mighty revival.” And poof, poof, poof, go  off  brightly  burning  candles  and  suddenly  darkness  engulfs  the  place  where  once brilliance reigned supreme.

The image of Christianity is at stake. There is no glaring difference between others and Christians. They tell lies and we tell lies. They murder and we murder. They hit the headlines and so do we. If this situation has to change, each of us must roll up our sleeves and fight the filth in us. Unless there is REVIVAL IN PERSONAL PURITY revival is not going to show up its head.

“Let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy” (Rev 22:11b). We may be holy; but we need to be holier still. If you are holy, maintain your holiness at any cost. If we keep looking at others, judging, and critizing them, our inner man will keep shrinking. We need to forget about others and look into ourselves if we are keen on a revival of personal purity. It is true that we struggle a little and try a bit, but do we battle to the point of shedding our blood? (Heb 12:4). We need to constantly strive for greater holiness. Let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that  so easily entangles (Heb

12:1).

Young people must learn to push hard against the sin that pushes hard against them. Many choose to follow their   hormones instead of  following God’s design for sex and marriage. Keep a sharp lookout for sin approaching you from a distance (2 Tim 2:22). Don’t think you cannot be pure for sure. When I was your age, battling sexual temptations, I used to think that it was impossible to be pure in youth hood. But God helped me. Please read my testimony booklet, THE UGLY DUCKLING and escape the stealthy killer. It is a continuous battle till death.

I watched in the TV news on 13 Jan 2016, a Chinese tourist in Thailand viewing a snake. She said it was so sweet and kissed it. The snake sprang from the man’s hand and bit her nose. Before they could release her from the vicious attack, her nose was gone. Today there are many who have lost their noses. Just like when a crocodile gets hold of a foot, it drags the person into murky waters, what seems like an innocent game with sin, will drag you deep to the depths of hell. Beware. Satan knows the right bait for each of us. If you refuse to learn righteousness through grace, God will resort to punishment. Two strong words youth must learn are, ‘Yes’ and ‘No.’ ‘Yes’ to God and ‘No’ to evil buddies.

Reading Isaiah 64:5-8, we find the confession of the prophet: “We continued to sin ... All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” Then he switches over to singular and laments: “There is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You” (v7). In other words, he weeps that there is no one longing for personal revival.

Then Isaiah tells God: “We are the clay, You are the potter” (v8) He commits himself in

God’s hands to be moulded. Do you know what it means to be moulded? The potter stamps

on the clay and removes and stones. The clay whimpers, “Please, enough.” But the potter does a thorough job. Then the potter puts the clay to the wheel. “My head spins. Leave me alone. Take me from the wheel,” shouts the clay. But the potter waits till the clay takes shape. Now it has taken the shape of a pot but not yet fit for use. The potter places the pot in fire. The pot writhes in agony. This is the purifying process before God can use us. Yes, it is a horrifying process, but without it we cannot be Pure for Sure.

When we lose our purity, our life and ministry begin to count down. But we must always remember: Failures are not fatal. Failure may be deeply humiliating but you can always start all over again. Aaron was chided by Moses for causing the people to sin. But later he became the high priest.

We think of David as a saint. But in Psalm 119:25 he confesses, “My soul clings to the dust; revive me according your word.” So does our soul. We need to detach ourselves from the dust we are clinging to, before revival showers drench us.

We need to stand before four persons to prove our purity —

1. Before God : Job tells God boldly: “You know I am not guilty” (Job 10:7). Do we have the courage and authenticity to stand before God and make that statement? Whenever we go into God’s presence we should have the confidence to repeat these words. God certified that Job was blameless (Job 1:8). Let us sweat to get that certificate from God.

2. Before Men : God had something more to say about Job — he was upright. That is, in the eyes of people he always did right, not most of the time. When people talk ill of us, we confront them and bark, “You don’t talk about me.” Instead, we should behave in such a way that we don’t give place to anyone to talk ill of us. A thousand eyes are watching us, to catch us, even as they wanted  to, Daniel.  Let us always  do what is right,  so that people have nothing to backbite us.

3. Before Us : Just get out of yourself and look at yourself. Are you satisfied with your holiness? That requires being honest to yourself. How we cheat ourselves by consoling our hearts with blatant lies! Shakespeare said: “We can’t really be true to anyone else unless we are first true to ourselves.” Who is at loss if we deceive ourselves?

The former President of the United States Mr. George Washington said: “Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.”  There is no softer pillow than a clear conscience.

The apostle John warns us thus: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not IN us” (1 Jn 1:8). Truth should be INSIDE us. Practice speaking the truth to yourself. Confront yourself honestly and deal with yourself straightforwardly.

For almost a year David was lying to himself, after his sin of adultery and murder. May be he told himself, “I am not as bad as others. As a king I can enjoy certain privileges. Actually “I” did not kill Uriah.” All the while he knew he was in the wrong. But when he was made to face his sin, he wrote: “You desire truth in the INWARD parts” (Psa 51:6). He learnt to speak the truth to himself.  Unless and until we learn this, we will not progress in our personal purity.

“Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God” (1 Jn

3:21).  Live  in  peace  with  your  heart.  Job  lived  by that  principle.  “I  will  maintain  my innocence and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live,” says he (Job 27:6). He was not only confident of the present but also of his future purity. Pure for Sure indeed! So much was his determination.  His three friends stopped  arguing with Job