Holiness - what does it mean - Part II

Last time, we looked at Webster's definition of holiness. My favorite definition was #2, which said: spiritually perfect or pure, untainted by evil or sin, sinless, saintly.

OK. We know that we are never going to be "perfect" without sin on this planet. But I believe we can be "saintly." I believe we can be "spiritually" pure, and and I believe we can allow the Lord to help us to become "untainted" by evil or sin.

In Matthew, Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." This has been a prayer of mine since I was a child. I can remember studying the beatitudes in a Bible study in a church across the street from our elementary school. I read that, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" and I decided that I wanted to be able to "see" God.

There was a time, though, in my late 20s and early 30s that I "tainted" myself by watching a few movies I shouldn't have. At that time, it was all the rage to say "I can handle it. I'm mature." But what this does is taint us. I had to come to a point where I said, "Lord, forgive me and cleanse my mind." And He has.

Many of us don't realize that what we watch, what we read, what we listen to - affects us in our spirits as well as our minds. My former pastor used to say it this way: "If you don't think Jesus would be comfortable watching what you're watching, then don't YOU watch it either." He said he was convicted by his statements. He had to be careful not to watch "R" rated action-adventure films because of the violence.

I heard a story one time. A pastor called up a prophetic friend of his. The pastor had walked by his 8-year old son's bedroom one day and saw his son talking apparently, to NO ONE. He later asked his son who he was talking to. His son said, "The angel." His father saw no angel. He asked his prophetic friend about it. The friend said, "Next time you see him talking with "no one" ask him why you can't see the angel."

So he did. A while later, he walked by his son's bedroom and saw him talking with "no one." He said, "Son, are you talking with that angel of yours?" "Yes," his son replied. "Could you ask the angel why I can't see him?" "Sure," his son said.

The pastor waited until his son asked and received an answer. Just a few seconds later, his son said, "I have the answer." The pastor said, "Well..." "Uh Dad, he says you can't see him because you've seen too much evil."

Yikes!!! We don't "see" into the realm of the supernatural because we've seen too much evil. The Bible says we are to be transformed by the REWEWING of our MINDS. But I also think there's an element of spiritual renewal as well. We need to keep ourselves "pure in heart" so that WE can see God.