Hidden Images
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"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
--Matt. 5:8
Picture two large, clear glasses. One is filled with pure
water; no trace chemicals, no trace elements: just pure H2O. The other glass
is filled with deadly poison that appears almost clear. Now, what do you have
if you take one drop from the glass of water and drop it into the poison?
That's right, you have poison. BUT, what happens if you take one drop from
the poison jar and put it into the water? That's right, the water is now
POISON. No matter how much water you put into the poison, it will still be
poison, and no matter how few drops of poison you put in the water, it is
still poison. And you can't tell just by looking, can you?
These water glasses represent our hearts. Our hearts are filled with
poison (sin) before we ask God's Holy Spirit to come and live in our hearts
and before we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. Then,
Christ cleanses the poison from our hearts and we, as dutiful believers, keep
them squeaky clean, right? WRONG. We fall back into so many of our habits
put drops of poison right back into our hearts and think that we can keep
these little poisonous areas from showing. But just as even one drop of
poison in the water turns all of the water bad, so does even the littlest bit
of sin in our heart pollute and corrupt our whole heart. (Would you want to
drink a glass of water with "only a few drops" of poison in it? Do you think
God's desire is to associate with those who rationalize that they're okay
because the have "only a little sin" in their hearts?)
Sometimes we are (we think) very successful at hiding the poison in our
hearts from others. You can't tell just by looking, can you? But Jesus can
tell; if we have accepted Him and turned our lives over to Him, then He lives
in our hearts and tastes EVERY drop of the poison. The poison we hide in our
hearts in turn hurts God because the poison of humanity is what sent Jesus to
the cross. Every drop of sin we put back or allow into our hearts is another
hammer blow to the nails at Calvary, and every drop separates us from the God
who loves us so much that He let His Son drink the poison for us all. So ask
yourself: How many drops of poison do you have in your glass?