Blog Archives

Seeing God

6/27/2017

Do you truly want to see God? Do you want your children to see God?

PURITY is the Windex that allows us to see Him. Jesus says directly, “The pure in heart will see God.” Not “they might,” but “they will”! Purity guarantees that we will see God, and seeing God brings wholeness in human beings and in the world.

Why is it important to pursue purity, sexual and otherwise? To stop messy, unplanned pregnancies? To appear spiritual in our religious circles? To earn our purity ring or white wedding dress?

NO. Purity is not about what we do or don’t do. Or identity is not in our DOING, but in our BEING. Purity reflects a condition of the heart that we approach as we SURRENDER to God. Purity allows us to SEE GOD, and seeing God will change the world.

The heart condition of our nation and the planet is grave. Those of us who know Christ and say we serve Him can’t imagine why “these people” don’t recognize their sin. But it is HEARTS that need attention, just as OURS did and still do. When we can’t see God, we sin deeply. Our DOING is instructed by our BEING, our heart condition. Giving God access to our hearts is how we find purity, and how we see God. Seeing God, knowing His reality, changes EVERYTHING.

The world cannot see God. It sees only clouds when the heavens are shouting His glory. It sees only an interruption, not a fetus. It sees only religious embarrassment, not a hurting pregnant daughter and the new life she carries. It sees gratification and pleasure, not intimacy. It sees only the shame of divorce, not the opportunity to believe for a miracle and become an intercessor. It sees only loneliness, and not the silence that allows God to speak at any time. Is it any wonder that the world is such a mess? It can’t see God.

Oh.

I begin to consider how my own heart may be “of the world.” Sigh.

We desperately need pure hearts because we desperately need to see God—to see the heavens alive with His reality—to see the unborn as promises of hope to the world, even if their arrival seems untimely—to see those who fall (all of us) as precious and ripe for restoration—to believe in miracles and long for the company of the living God MORE than the attention and adulation of others.

Again, do you want to see God? Or do you just want your family to stay out of trouble sexually? Don’t give in to such limited thinking. Don’t allow a hyper-sexualized world to press you into a fearful, alarmist perspective on purity. Know what purity really is.
Pursue pure hearts, pursue spiritual sight. If we are able to see God, sin will be undressed for all its ugliness and lose its attractiveness. Stumblings will be seen as opportunities for grace and growth, not shame.

The Five Doors of the Heart are one way of opening the eyes of the heart to see God by closing the heart to things that distract. It is my belief that such a pursuit at any age will change the world. Why?

Because we will see God. And everything else will fall into place when our eyes are on Him.
Open your heart to Him, and see.

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Video: The Power of a Kiss Saved

6/2/2017

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Save the Kiss!

When the bride in this video was 6, she told her mom she wanted to save her kiss. My daughter said something different.

“Mom, all my girlfriends have boyfriends! I need a boyfriend!”

That announcement from my kindergarten gal began with a shock to my system and resulted in a story that inspired many other princesses to save their kisses.

Time after time I’ve reminded people that purity is about way more than saving a physical kiss. Many of us don’t manage it, and that doesn’t mean we’re damaged goods. But if we don’t set our sights on some standards like this, we’re likely to be dragged into the world’s way of approaching relationships — whatever happens, happens — and we often regret what comes to pass.

Charlie and Makenzee have two different stories. Makenzee told her mom she wanted to save her kiss when she was 6 and read The Princess and the Kiss. Charlie grew up in church, wandered, and returned to his commitment to Christ a few years before they married. When he met Makenzee, he knew he wanted a life with that kind of commitment, and he actually stopped her from kissing him when they became engaged, saying, “God forbid that something could happen and I could take the kiss you’ve saved so long for your husband.”

Would this not tell you that you were marrying the right man?? Check out his reaction to his bride in this video and you’ll know Makenzee’s commitment to purity paid off! But Charlie also says that the greater part of his awe was recognizing God’s great grace towards him personally after his wild hiatus from a faithful life.

Walter Wangerin talks about the difference between real love and “sham” (fake) love. He says that sham love wants to possess the beloved, but real love wants to set the beloved free and to protect them. Saving our first kiss isn’t the only model for real love; however, The Princess and the Kiss causes us all to consider what we will hold sacred and how we will set ourselves apart for someone to whom we would commit our whole life by making a covenant before God. Seems like pretty heavy material for a children’s book, but almost 500,000 readers love the story.

Whether they choose to save their physical kiss or set other standards that require restraint and patience—and whether they choose this when they’re 6 or 22 or 64—people do so out of a desire to protect their beloveds and to set themselves and their marriages apart for God. These people believe marriage is more than a religious ceremony and sex is more than a casual high, and we need more like them. Kara Brown of KB Studios brings this particular couple’s testimony to the screen in a beautiful way, and so I’m glad to share it here with our readers.

You can choose to save your “kiss,” too, no matter what’s transpired in the past. Look at Makenzee and Charlie. Men and women all over the world are doing it every day!

Please share this video in as many ways and as many times as possible so others can discover the rewards of this kind of waiting! Let’s draw more and more people to consider a more reverent and self-controlled approach to relationships, devoting themselves to the pursuit of life-long marriages!