Purification of the heart

* Luís Alberto Alves

Christ always seeks to purify our heart by taking from Him everything that is contrary to His command. Someone embittered will never have peace. Because he always goes in search of revenge. It is never satiated. It is no wonder that the Lord emphasizes that "the clean of heart shall see God."

The glory of the second house means renewal. A life devoid of all the evils accumulated in the time of first home. There we did not know the mercy of God. Everything was at the base of the eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. It hit. We were a well of wickedness and Christ overtook us.

The process of getting to this second home is difficult. It requires resignation. Sometimes we do not want to throw away the garbage accumulated inside us. Out of selfishness we think only of our own interests, leaving the neighbor aside, when Jesus asked us to love him. In the second house, the Christian is a clay vessel shaped to serve the Lord.

Our joy is to stand in the presence of God. Even the pleasures of this world lose their charm. Through spiritual eyes we visualize that everything there is fleeting. Just like the pleasure aroused by drugs, intense at first, and quickly dissipated, plunging the dependent into a prison to seek more and more the poison that will kill him later.

When we come to the second house, it is a great joy to preach the Gospel to the ungodly, to speak of what Jesus Christ can do in one's life, to praise; Leaving aside the songs of the world, many of them encouraging prostitution, deceit, rebellion, intrigue and perversion, and even God's remoteness.

At this stage our peace does not depend on drugs, drinks, or even momentary situations, such as being present at a party, sometimes solitary in the crowd, or becoming a hostage to consumerism. In the second house, Jesus Christ continues to walk beside us, guiding and pouring out His peace.

Several Christians still remain in the glory of the first house, hostage to the traps that the devil put in the way. They did not trust the Lord to continue walking until they reached the second house. By having this genuine encounter with God, trusting him fully, in the certainty that his best will be with us, we become dwellers of the second house.

* Luís Alberto Alves is a pastor