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If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness 1 John 1:9 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Friday, April 10, 2026
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Ritual uncleanliness Bible Verse: Galatians 5:19-21 "You know perfectly well what I mean when I speak of indulging the “desires of the flesh”: things like sexual immorality, impurity of mind, sensuality, worship of false gods, witchcraft, hatred, quarrelling, jealousy, bad temper, rivalry, factionalism, carousing, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like that. [26 None of us should be ambitious for our own reputation, or seek our own glory, or indulge our vanity; such motives just make us jealous of one another.] As I have told you before, those who indulge the desires of the flesh will never inherit God’s kingdom. Verbatim Bible 19 Now, evident is the works of the flesh, which is fornication, uncleanness (or impurity), indecent conduct, 20 idolatry, making potions (or sorcery), hostilities, rivalry (or strife), jealousy, angry outbursts, selfish ambition, factionalism, dogma, 21 envyings, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things, which I forewarn to you just as I forewarned that those the such things practicing kingdom of god not will inherit. " Message:
Ritual uncleanliness, which required ritual purification before one could make an offering in the Temple, was enormously important to the Hebrews. Many acts might render one unclean. These were not necessarily sinful, and some of them seem quite odd today. Touching a certain dead animal, for example, or having sexual relations; even menstruation would be followed by a ritual bath.
The word Paul uses for uncleanliness or impurity, although Greek, is a “Semiticism” — a Greek word used in the New Testament to translate a concept not known to the Greeks, but peculiar in some way to the Jews. We do the same thing in English with Hebrew and Greek words from the Bible. Some of them, like “Sabbath” or “evangelist,” are simply taken from the original language, while others, like “grace” or “justify,” add a specific meaning to an existing English word.
Purity of the mind (or purity of the heart, as in Proverbs 20:9) takes the Hebrew concept of ritual purification and applies it to human thought. Cleanliness used in relation to our thoughts might be considered a general metaphor — having an evil thought being compared to getting dirt on our body — but in the Bible it is a more specific metaphor, comparing thoughts of evil to ritual impurity. Such a thought is not just “bad”, but specifically “impure” in the Jewish sense of making us unfit to appear before God to make an offering. Christ reiterated this idea:
Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. (Matthew 5:23-24)
Moses Ten Commandments
The Law of Moses did not generally make one's inner life a subject of concern. It was primarily an external code. Do not steal, do not practice superstitious acts, do not murder. There are exceptions — most notably, the commandment against coveting. Also, later writers (such as Solomon in Proverbs 20:9) often touched on the idea of the sinful heart. But in Matthew 5, Christ makes purity of heart a major concern; he tells us that anger is tantamount to murder, and intentional lust is tantamount to adultery. He brings to full force the budding Hebrew concept, that one's inner life might make one unfit to appear before God, whether or not there is an external action as a result.
Thoughts do influence and determine our action. But our thoughts also develop into and influence our general character. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” But the opposite is also true: What is in our heart generally influences what treasure we accumulate. A person who surfs the internet for sites like Only Fans (a soft-porn site) or Town and Country or People must, inevitably, develop certain values that are immoral: lust, greed, vanity, the signal values these sites promote. Do we look at photos of beautiful naked people? Do we envy rich people who go to expensive parties, or admire “celebrities”?
Well, yes, to some degree most of us do. But when we do, our minds are made unclean and need purification. Thus we find yet another specific purpose of prayer: to make right our hearts within us, that we may love God and set aside our sinful love of the world. And we must purify our mind before we make an offering to God, an unusual instance of Christ updating a ritual rule from the Law of Moses.
Meditation : Prayer : Let me not forget my prayers as I go out into the world. Holy Spirit, be with me, and let me praise you and remember you in my every action and thought, for the entire day long. In Christ’s name I ask this, Amen. |
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