Pure heart

After one sermon on pure heart, I was troubled, really troubled with a question how can I keep my heart pure in this fallen world. Working full-time in a hospital, surrounded by gossip and a lot of pressure resulted in many ungodly thoughts and evenings spent with colleques where out of frustration too much alcohol was being consumed. How can I, Lord, keep my heart pure in the middle of this?? I really didn´t have a clue, so I thought, I will simply ask Him. After a short time of waiting for an answer I saw a clear picture. I saw a man entering a river of something that looked like magma, being completely immersed and melted in it. After a while a new person rised up. It looked like a metal statue and I was 100% sure the metal was bronze. The meaning of the picture was pretty straightforward: we have to come daily into God´s Presence, His burning Love, let ourselves be cleansed from all impurities and rise up as a new creation. It made sense and it worked! Just coming and spending more time with God, letting His Love to wash me over was soo purifying and refreshing! But at the same time I knew I was still missing something about the importance of bronze.

Answer to that question, came few years later, while sitting on the ground under a hot african sun, listening to a missionary, who started explaning the biblical meaning of bronze. Bronze is an alloy of two metals: copper (88%) and tin (12%), I love this ratio! Copper is known for its strength, good conductivity, resistance to corrosion and even antimicrobial effectiveness (historically it was use for wound-desinfektion and water purification). Tin is very soft, easily stretched, capable of being shaped, has relatively low toxicity. So together they create bronze, in which the good characteristics of both metals come together perfectly. Copper represents Jesus and tin stands for us, sinners, In the Old Testament everything inside the Tabernacle was made of gold, everything outside the Tabernacle of bronze. Bronze is where God´s judgement deals with sin – only when we are melted into the Person of Jesus, can we enter the holy Presence of God, only then our hearts stay clean and puse. And do you know what´s the best out of this? That there is no technology on earth, no way how could bronze be divided again into the original metals.

Romans 8:35, 38-39: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution of famine or nakedness or danger or sword? For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of god that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NIV)