As I stated in my review of Jerry Bridges’ book The Blessing Of Humility, reading through these thoughts slowly—Beatitude by Beatitude—would bring about the most life-changing impact. In that spirit, I will be sharing some noteworthy quotes one Beatitude at a time. Here are some quotes on blessed are the pure in heart (Matthew 5:8)…
“The word pure is used of clothing that has been washed, of grain from which all chaff has been removed, and of gold that has been refined until all impurities have been removed. A pure heart, then, is one from which all sinful desires have been removed. Positively it means to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37). It means to live all of my life to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).”
“Once we acknowledge God’s ownership of us, our responsibility becomes clear: Whatever we do must serve God’s purposes. And central among God’s purposes, as demonstrated throughout the Scriptures, is God’s glory.”
“To present our bodies (and our hearts also) is to recognize Christ as the ‘Owner’ of our lives [Romans 12:1]. It is the subjective, experiential response to the objective truth that we are His own possession.”
“Our minds can only be transformed as they are regularly exposed to the Word of God. This means we need to regularly read and study our Bibles and apply what we find there to our daily lives.”
“To be—or better, to seek to be—pure in heart produces humility in action as we become more God-focused in our daily lives.”
“To acknowledge how far short we fall from purity of heart will send us back to the first Beatitudes: to be poor in spirit and to mourn because our hearts are so often divided. That is humbling. But that honest humility should drive us back to the gospel, where we see ourselves united to the One Who had the only perfectly pure heart in all of history. This will motivate us and empower us to see what we can never fully attain: to be pure in heart.”
I have previously shared quotes on:
- blessed are the poor in spirit
- blessed are those who mourn
- blessed are the meek
- blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
- blessed are the merciful
Quotes on the next Beatitude will be posted soon. Stay tuned…
Craig T. Owens 
Light & Truth—The Lesser Epistles (book review)
July 12, 2016 — Craig T. OwensThe Lesser Epistles covers Galatians through Jude. Don’t be fooled by the word “lesser” in the title, as this only refers to the length of the biblical books, not the richness of the content, nor the weighty insights from Horatius Bonar!
For the most part, Bonar does not present a verse-by-verse commentary on the Scriptures, but more of an overall theme on select passages. Occasionally he passes over a rather large section of an epistle, and occasionally he slows down to go nearly word-by-word through a key passage. But in everything he writes, the gifting of the Holy Spirit’s insight is clearly evident.
As I have said about his previous books, they are not meant to be read in place of your Bible, but as a companion book side-by-side with your personal reading time. Truly a magnificent set of books!
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