Cross 

Words 

Monthly Newsletter of CI·OSS Ev. Lutheran Chm·ch 
	August 2010 	Volume 10, Issue S 

How can I be happy without doing 
anything dirty? 
"Blessed are the pure in heart. " 

Wash your hands. Wash your hands! So often we 
are reminded of the need to wash our hands. After 
using the restroom, before eating, after eating, 
before cooking, after cooking. It's so hard to keep 
them clean. 
And that's just our hands! Try keeping our hearts 
clean, and we have an impossible task! How hard it 
is to have perfectly pure motives! When I cut that 
little section of grass between my neighbors' house 
and mine, the good deed is spoiled with the self- 
serving intent that maybe he'll let me borrow his 
edger. I give some money for a worthy charitable 
cause, but only because I don't want to disappoint 
the sincere person asking. 
We may be able to hide our impure motives from 
others, but not from God. The Bible says, "The 
LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man 

Matthew 5:8 
looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD 
looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). We can't fool 
God. There is no covering false notions or hidden 
deception. God looks right through the outward act 
and inspects the inner motivation. He is looking for 
the pure in heart. 
What is the measure for that kind of inner 
purity? God holds us up to his perfect will and 
measures us against it. The conclusion is that all of 
us have sinned and fall short of the sinless standard 
that God has set for us. Under God's inspection, our 
hearts are not pure. 
What's the solution? Our hearts need to be washed. 
But how? We can't wash them on our own, so Jesus 
did it for us. The Bible says, "The blood of Jesus, 
[God's} Son, purifies usfrom all sin" (1 John 1:7). 
By his death for us, Jesus washed our hearts clean; 
he has cleansed us of sin's stain. Through him all 
our sins are forgiven and our hearts are now pure in 
God's sight. 
The forgiveness of sins and purity of heart that we 
have received freely from Jesus powerfully 
motivates us to stay away from anything dirty. 
We'll not want to dirty our hearts again with sinful 
things. Rather, we'll be happy to strive to live 
according to the pure way that God teaches and 
thereby indicate our great appreciation for the 
sacrifice that Jesus made to wash our hearts clean.