Episode 9 – The BE-Attitudes: Living Your Best Life Part 7: Do You Want To See God?

Kimberly Faith: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your host Kimberly Faith and my dad, John McLarty. We seek to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love. 

Welcome to the 9th podcast, and it is the continuation of the beatitudes living your best life series. And this is part 7. Do you want to see God? And I’m joined today by my father, John McLarty, this morning.

John McLarty: Great to be here, Kim. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: I always enjoy these.

Kimberly Faith: This has been a lot of fun. And, you know,  I kind of kicked around my head the idea of, you know, having the Kimberly Faith and Johnny Mac show or something.

John McLarty: Well, I don’t know about that.

Kimberly Faith: Well, you know, we got to have a little humor here. John Mac or Big Mac.

John McLarty: I like truth and love.

Kimberly Faith: Okay. So in the last beatitude, you know, we talked about the miracle of mercy, giving and receiving of mercy and how that places us directly in the center of God’s miracles. And, now as born again believers, we don’t want to miss even one of those opportunities. And so the more that we enter into those miracles, though, the more we also have this other benefit and that is we get to see God. We get to see God’s working in his hand and everything we’re doing.

And what’s neat about that is that the influence of his presence does something to us. And Jesus brings this up in this next beatitude where he says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God,  in Matthew 5:8. And so the more we’re drawn into his presence, the more we experience the goodness of his presence and the more we actually get to see him. And so we’re going to talk about this next cycle, which is the connection between purity of heart and seeing God. What are your initial thoughts about that, dad?

John McLarty: I think this idea of blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God, like, so many of the beatitudes, they have double meanings. So to me, the first meaning I see in this is literally salvation. We have to be pure in heart to see God, and we can only be pure by being born again. Only God can give us that born again pure heart. And then we see God, and we will be with God forever.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Then there’s always an application for the Christian life. So as we strive to let that pure heart, that born again pure heart live through us, we see God, more of who he is and in this life. And it’s not just this wait till heaven to see God.

Kimberly Faith:  Right.

John McLarty:  It’s to see him every day in action. Feel his presence and see him work in our lives and others.

Kimberly Faith: You know, you do a lot of teaching of the basic bible concepts. And one of the things we’re using is the word, heart. And if you’re trying to explain this in the context that we know we have a body, soul, and spirit, at least the scripture teaches that, where does the heart fit into that?

John McLarty: I’d say the heart is the nature of the soul. So you talk about a good hearted person, you’re not talking about their beating heart. You’re talking about their nature. So we’re all sinners. That’s how we’re, you know, condemned to live eternity without God.

And we have a sinful heart. But when we’re born again, we have a pure heart. We have the nature of Christ living within us. It’s born again. It’s a new creature. However, it’s still housed in this body of flesh

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Which is not pure

Kimberly Faith  Right.

John McLarty:  It still has that evil, selfish nature. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: And that’s the conflict of the Christian. You have this pure heart still in this old body that is just as sinful as ever. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: So the challenge here is to, there’s  literally a verse here. It says, in Ephesians chapter 4 and 22, and it’s Paul’s advising the Ephesians and all Christians, put off the former lifestyle of the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, in this key verse 24, and that you put on the new man, which is after God created in righteousness and true holiness. So we can let that new man be covered up, or we can let the new man, the new pure hearted person, become who controls our life.

Kimberly Faith: Right

John McLarty:  And it’s a decision we make 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: And the process that we go through.

Kimberly Faith: Right. So when we’re talking about in the context of becoming more pure in heart so we can see God, it’s I think what you’re saying is the purity of our inner man, our soul, and our spirit are established the day we are born again.

John McLarty: Exactly.

Kimberly Faith: And it’s, but it’s kind of like, you can take a white garment and it can be sullied by dirt. Right? And it can be covered up so that you never even know it’s white, and it can be buried underneath grub. Right? Dirt, filth.

Right? And so this idea is that people need to be able to see the purity of what Jesus has given us, and the only way they’re going to see that is if we’re transforming ourselves day by day in our outward behavior, outward, what people actually see.

John McLarty: That’s perfect. When people see us, do they see this new person?

Kimberly Faith:  Right. 

John McLarty: That’s loving, full of mercy, just like we talked about in the last podcast, forgiving, full of graciousness, caring for others.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And we, you know, we talk about this, a lot in our devotionals, but, you know, the difference that just the stark contrast between the fruits of the spirit and the works of the flesh, you know, when you think about the fruits of the spirit being love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, meekness. Right? All things that people want to experience. And then in Galatians 5, it talks about the works of the flesh.

You know, all these sexual sins. Right? And then we have lewdness, idolatry, which is worshiping anything but God, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, ascensions, heresies, envy, murders. All these things that actually, if you just look around, just watch television, you know, that these are the things that dominate our culture, and you don’t see God in those things. And I think that, you know, one of the questions that I thought when I first read this verse was, well, does anyone really want to see God?

And, you know, I talk to people, like, they have a really bad impression of God.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: You know, Christians, unfortunately, have given God a bad name. And I say that convicting myself. You know?

John McLarty: Through self righteousness. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: Selfishness. Just continuing in the flesh.

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: Hypocrisy.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I mean, sometimes, you know, we as Christians, if we are not living with a pure heart, with the heart Jesus lived with, we’re going to  give God a bad name, and nobody’s going to want him. But when we live in purity of heart, then  all the goodness that God has for us comes out. You know, I think about, of course, you know, I’m a grandma. Well, you’re a great grandpa.

So, you know, I don’t know which is better. I can’t be you. So I don’t know.

John McLarty: I think just being great is better.

Kimberly Faith: But, you know, it’s so interesting to see, you know, her name is Claire. And, I’ll never forget when she was over here at your house, and there’s this person that came over. And, Claire just, you know, she’s just so pure. Right? She just smiles at everybody and you just want to get into her little world.

Right? Because her purity is just so refreshing. And here’s this person here who doesn’t believe in God. He’s, you know, a self confessed atheist. Claire and I are singing our little special song together.

You know, our love, love, love, love, love. And she’s like, love, love, love. And he’s dancing around

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: Singing, love, love, love. He’s trying to get in on the action because that purity just draws you in. And when I was studying this beatitude, what I kept thinking about is everybody wants to experience that purity, that, you know, of a newborn child, their laugh. And that’s because we were created with the knowledge that this exists, that God in this purity and in this love and in this peace giving, and all the good things that we desire, that it does exist, but we look for it in all the wrong places. And even as Christians, you know, we manifest it in all the wrong ways.

And God’s saying, hey. I’m giving you the opportunity to experience my presence if you will just be more like I’ve instructed you to be, this pure in heart.

John McLarty: And that’s really perfect because pure in heart is letting the God within us shine out.  Not as a result of our own reformation, but rejuvenation. Being born again. Letting that show forth does not manifest itself in self righteousness. Because God is love.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty:  So when we’re letting people see that born again nature, they’re going to see God, which is love.

Kimberly Faith: And that’s what they’re seeing.

John McLarty: And that’s attractive to people.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. That’s what they’re seeing in a child. You say the word rejuvenation. That’s an interesting word because when we’re born, we have the presence of God. And at some point, when that child decides to sin willfully against God, that presence is gone until they’re reconciled through salvation.

So what people are being attracted to in the innocence of a child is the presence of God.

John McLarty: Correct.

Kimberly Faith: And so that’s telling about what we truly desire is that purity. What God created in  us. Romans 1 talks about how we are created with the knowledge. God put the knowledge of himself in us, so we are naturally attracted to that purity because that’s who he is. It’s not the sullied impression we get from maybe, a pastor who did us wrong or maybe a person who is our neighbor, who claims to be a Christian, who shot our dog or whatever. Right? Whatever poor experience we’ve had. 

But it’s just purity. You know? I want to kind of segue for just a minute into this.

For some people might be thinking, well, the Bible says, you know, and God said in Exodus to Moses, you can’t see my face,  for no man can see me and live. Right? Well, it’s true. We, you know, that’s what the Bible says, and I believe if you think about what happened in Exodus when Moses was up on the mountain receiving the commandments of God and was with God. Right?

He was in the presence of God. And he came down and the people were frightened because the presence of God had left a glow about him. 

John McLarty: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: You know, it is hard for the sinful  people of this world, including you and I, before we were born again, to desire to see something we don’t understand , so it’s overwhelming to us. You know?

We’re like, I mean, I know the first time I heard that I was a sinner, I shrank from that. The thought that  there was a righteous being out there,  somebody that was going to call me into accountability for my sins. I was like a cockroach running for the dark, you know, the dark crack

John McLarty: I was very offended by the idea that I was being called a sinner.

Kimberly Faith: Right. But Jesus, you know, Jesus said, well, let me just back up. 1st John 3:2 says, we beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we will know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And, you know, I’m thinking about that, thinking, you know, do I really want to see God as who he is?

Well, when I think about the fruits of God’s spirit, yes, that I do. When I think about all the beauty of creation, the beauty of creation reflects a creator. So, yes, I want to  see him for who he is.

John McLarty:  Exactly.

Kimberly Faith: But I only want to do that because I have a piece of him in me. You know?

John McLarty:  Right. 

Kimberly Faith: If I did not have that belonging in him, then I would be frightened of him as it should be.  Because I know God has planted the knowledge of who he is in me. Therefore, I also know that if I’m not reconciled to him, that there’s judgment.

You know? And that’s frightening, as it should be. So when we think about the fact that we are going to someday, all of us are going to stand before God according to God’s word. But Jesus says in John 14:21, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. We can see God here on earth when we bring ourselves in line with his word and love him. We obey him out of love.

John McLarty: That’s really profound. That’s the purity of lifestyle. So the purity of heart’s already there in the born again nature, but as we live for God and obey him, just you know, and his commandments aren’t grievous.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: You know? But they actually bring us joy as we’ve been talking about. They’re merciful. They’re full of joy. They’re compassionate, meekness. But as we live that life, he manifests himself to us and we feel that. We can actually feel his presence.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But we can’t do that just by living unrighteously, just like God’s not there.And it’s very interesting. When people see us, if they see the love of God, by this all men know you’re my disciples, that you love one another. That’s what attracts people.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. It’s a purity.

John McLarty: It’s a purity. But if all we are is self righteous, people aren’t attracted to that. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: But on the same hand, we can’t just be stumbling around, say, drunk 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: And to grab somebody and say, oh, let me tell you about Jesus. That’s hypocrisy.

Kimberly Faith:  Right.

John McLarty:  But if we’re living for him and serving him, then the love for others comes out and they see that. And it’s genuine. It’s not fake.

Kimberly Faith: Right. I mean, think about it. A drunken person has a certain aspect of joy, but it’s not a joy that anybody else enjoys. It’s their own; they’re lost in their own self. Right?

Their own reality. The difference is that when we choose to follow God’s commands and we choose to live in this purity of heart that Jesus is talking about, the big difference is it’s not about us. It’s about the fruits of God’s spirit, which by the way fulfill the law. Love is the fulfillment of the law. So to live selflessly isn’t about being self righteous.

It’s about doing the things that fulfill the law. You know, Jesus said the two great commandments were to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, which are the first four of the old testament commandments. And the second is to love your neighbor as yourself, which are the last 6 of the 10 commandments. Right? How you treat others.

And Jesus said on all this, hang all the law and the prophets. And if you look at the fruits of the spirit, which we’ve talked about out of Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, all those, it says, against such there is no law. So when we talk about living in obedience to God, which is to love God and love your neighbor, we’re talking about fulfilling the only law, the only law that allows us to live free from the law.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: You know? Because we’re doing it out of love. We’re doing it because we want to. And the bottom line is, we’ve talked about this crazy Bob Dylan song where you’re going to  serve somebody.

John McLarty: Serve somebody, right.

Kimberly Faith: You know?  And people try to  choose their own laws. And those laws, you can I think, our friend, brother Mitch, he always says people try to use the buffet option, right?  and choose, I want to obey this law of god, but not this one? I think this law is better. I think I’ll make up this law. And that means we’re serving a god of our own making.

That’s idolatry. Or you can choose, you know what, God? You’re smarter than I am. I trust you. You died for me.

You love me more than I love myself. I’m going to choose your way because your thoughts are higher than my thoughts. Your ways are way above my ways. And then suddenly, we find that we’re free. Purity, you know, Claire, she smiles freely at even the most crazy person that maybe has, you know, harmful intent towards her because she has a purity of heart.

Jesus died for his enemies. Suddenly, we’re free to live in love towards even those who hate us, going back to mercy and all the things we’ve talked about. Right? Living God’s way gives us that purity of heart so that when we look at  even our enemy, we see a person who needs Jesus. We see them the way God sees them, and they see a picture of Jesus, which is amazing that we get to represent.

John McLarty: Yeah. Which and just to kind of reiterate a little bit. So letting that born again person come out, who God made pure, God made righteous. 

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty:  But by letting that person out, then others can see  Jesus in our lives and feel his presence, and then others can see Jesus in us. So we see God and others can see Jesus through us.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And then another aspect of that, of being pure in heart, is we see others the way Jesus sees others. So, you know, it’s like you can give people a clean slate. Even the people who have wronged you, you don’t have to look at them through the filter of those wrongs.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: You look at them through the filter of grace. It goes back to the last beatitude, which is, that cycle of mercy. That great awakening of mercy allows you to just give it away because you see people with a pure heart, the heart of Jesus. He’s the only pure heart. Right?

And we get to see through the filter of God’s spirit instead of our flesh, which is corrupt.

John McLarty: And it’s so important. There is this terribly wrong impression of God. He’s a loving God. He’s a magnificent creator.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And, we have an opportunity as Christians to reflect him.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. You know, I’m glad you brought that up because I don’t know about you, but I’ll bet you that 95% of the people I talk to who ask me, I want your peace. How can you have so much peace and seem to be so anxiety free in this crazy world we’re living in? You know, especially with, you know, all the things that are going on right now in our country and well, the whole world, really. And, you know, when I bring up Jesus or God with them, it’s almost like I see the window of their soul. The shutters come down.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And they want it, it’s like they’re closing down. And you can see it visibly, and I’ll stop and I’ll say, wait a minute. Why? Well, they’ll say, well, I had a priest and he did this and, you know, he wouldn’t marry me and my wife because we didn’t have enough money. They didn’t give enough tithe.

Or, you know, I went to this church and the preacher, you know, said this and it offended me. Or the preacher kicked my kid out of Sunday school because,  you know, just there’s a litany of things, and you’ve heard them all. And I always ask the person. I said, look. What if all I knew about you was what your enemies told me about you?

What do you think I would think? And would you want me to think about you that way? 

John McLarty: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: And, you know, it’s like the light goes on. Like, you know, I said, you have allowed your image of God to be, to be given to you by the enemies, his enemies.

And why don’t, you know, do you think you might be missing out on who he really is? Because I said, I had one guy that was in my office and he was so glad that we’d met, and he was so glad I could represent him and all this. And, so I started talking about the lord, and he,  I could see that shutter come down. You know? And I used this example with him.

I said, well, if all you had seen about me was bad, you know, bad Google reviews or whatever, you would have never been in here happy that we’d met. Right? You would have missed out according to your words. And he was like, well, you’re right. I said, listen.

You need to know what God says about himself, not judge him based on all the wrong things that people have done or said in his name.  You know, like the  Spanish inquisition.  Are we going to judge God by that?

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And he was like, well, what does God say about himself? Oh, I’m so glad you asked. You know?

John McLarty: Yeah. That’s so true. When people use those examples to me, I usually go back to, well, have you studied Jesus? Rather than judging Jesus and God by all of us 

Kimberly Faith: Sinners.

John McLarty:  Flawed humans.

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: Go study the life of Jesus. Come back to me and find fault in him. Go to his word. 

Kimberly Faith: Excellent.

John McLarty: Study Jesus and find fault in him. And then, we find Jesus in the word. He’s revealed in his word.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: He’s revealed in our hearts once we’ve been born again.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But this made me think of the verse here in John chapter 15. And Jesus is saying, now you are clean through the word, which I have spoken unto you. So we’re cleansed by the word. And so we’re purifying our own life through the word.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And then ourselves, we go and learn more about Jesus, but then we can point others to the Jesus of the word. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: Rather than the  Jesus like you aptly described that the world wants to portray. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: Here’s Jesus, and he led the inquisition?  I mean, how crazy is that?

Kimberly Faith: Right. Yeah. And it’s the enemy’s plan. You know, since the garden, the enemy has been plotting on how to separate God from his, his creation and his people and the people he created to have a relationship with him. That’s his great plot.

You know? That’s why he told Eve, you know, oh, well, if you eat the fruit and disobey God, you’ll be like God. You won’t need him anymore. And I, going back to what you said though, that the verse and you know, the word does, in that verse, Jesus is saying, the word purifies us. And the very beginning of this podcast, you made the observation, an excellent observation that this is a twofold beatitude.

It’s one for salvation and one for purifying our life after we’re saved, which brings me back to John chapter 1, where the Bible says in the beginning was the word, which is Jesus. And the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him. Right?

So we know this is talking about Jesus. He is the embodiment of the word of God. And then it says the word became flesh and dwell among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. The word, even if we just read about the life of Jesus, right, we would have this picture of a person who just served, Didn’t have a house, didn’t have a donkey.

He didn’t have money. He had to, you know, get his money to give to Caesar, his taxes from the fish. Right? He didn’t have anything, but he changed the whole world. And what a perspective, what a game changer for us that we can assimilate the word, the pure word of God into our life in every aspect of our life.

And what that does, it’s like we have this window, and we’re cleaning all the dirt off the window so people get to see this wonderful soul that’s been born again and the real picture of who Jesus is. And the word is like Windex cleaning off our window. You know?

John McLarty: And that really calls up this next follow-up verse after Jesus says you’ll be clean through the word. He says, abide in me, and I in you. So that’s what you were talking about. Follow him.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: The branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. And it says, I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me, you can do nothing. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: So we experience that, and then people can see that fruit and those fruits, the spirit you talked about.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Love, hope, joy, gentleness. And how can someone find fault in that? They’re experiencing too much love from Christians

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Too much love from God.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And, you know, we look at the First Corinthians 13, verse. The definition of what God said, the word says love is, you know, all the ways that First Corinthians 13 describes love. It’s not proud. It’s not puffed up.

It vaunted not itself. It doesn’t think any evil.  I mean, who doesn’t want to  be around that person? Right?

And then, you know, the way that God’s word says that love is the fulfilling of the law. So if we’re allowing the Windex of God’s word to clean our window so that when people meet us, they meet love.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: They meet joy. They meet peace. They meet a person who’s compassionate. Then they’re going to say, wow. How are you this way? Where do you get this from? What is your,  what is the well you’re drawing from? And it’s not self righteousness. We say, oh, honey. It’s not me. It is Jesus.

John McLarty: It is.

Kimberly Faith: Because it’s true.

John McLarty: Just a quick personal experience. In the last couple of years, I’ve been reading a lot of the writings of Paul. And just, it’s the word. So it’s penetrating straight into my soul and working  out, you know, through my flesh. And I’ve always read Paul before with just the idea of his doctrine and how it fits in bible teachings.

But I was reading it so much that it began to speak in a different way, his love for the brethren. And that began to personally affect me.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Like in your interactions.

John McLarty: In my interactions in the church, just appreciating the brethren. You know, we’re so focused on the lost world. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: People that need Jesus. But Paul had such a focus also on the appreciation of the brethren.

Kimberly Faith: We were taking it for granted maybe. 

John McLarty: Yeah. And so we started producing through discipleship and made these fruits . Just to appreciate the brethren and show them that. Right. And then that’s really very meaningful, very fulfilling. It’s like sharing that with others in the church.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And it’s kind of like being in a unit in the army. You know? I mean, you have to continually be strengthening that unit. Otherwise, your effectiveness on the battlefield is going to wax and wane.

Right? And so while you have to be always moving forward out on the battlefield, you also have to be rejuvenating, building that camaraderie, feeding each other, you know,, taking your part of the mission and even turning it internal as much as external. You know, going back to the fruits of the spirit, one of the fruits of the spirit, one of the things I thought about is going back to Claire. You know, I love to  talk about Claire. 

John McLarty: And I do too.

Kimberly Faith: It is a great subject. But the more that we are using the word to clean our window, right, so that what people are seeing is more of Jesus and less of us, then the more that they’re attracted to Jesus, not to us, but to Jesus. And that applies, you know, in every aspect of our life, how we do business, how we dress, how we talk, what we talk about, what we are excited about. You know, if we’re kind of like working, I’m working for the Lord. You know?

I’ve got to go to church. Well, I had to help my neighbor. 

John McLarty: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: If that’s our attitude, that attitude tells people more about our Christianity than anything else. But if we’re like, my goodness. You won’t believe what I learned today in God’s word. Did you know that I can have the fruit of God’s spirit flowing out of me, and I don’t have to try to produce it myself?

John McLarty: The Joy of the Lord is our strength.

Kimberly Faith:  Right. Right. And people are like, what? What does that even mean? And then you have a conversation. Right? That’s Jesus. It’s interesting that in the great commission, Jesus said, go ye therefore and make disciples.

To me, it’s interesting he said that before he said anything about evangelism. You know? About half of the people that I have been able to lead to salvation in Christ have been people that   led in a bible study before they got saved because of that friendship, that relationship, we would have dinner together. We would do these things. That’s what Jesus did.

John McLarty:  Reaching  people where they were.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And when you share a meal with somebody, when you take the time to bring somebody in your home and teach them, they get to observe up close and personal what’s in your heart. And if it’s pure, they want it.

John McLarty: And if it’s not pure, you can’t fake it.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. You can’t fake the fruit of the spirit. Absolutely. And so when we allow people to see God in us, that means we’re seeing God because we can’t fake seeing God. It’s impossible. It’s impossible. God is real. He is the most real. The real thing in this universe is God.

John McLarty: That’s exciting. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: And it starts with becoming pure in heart through salvation, but then letting that express itself in our life.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly.

John McLarty: This necessarily means putting aside the flesh

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Which is day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.

Kimberly Faith: Absolutely. Because it’s a constant battle. It’s a constant battle. So you bring up the word warfare and this leads us to our next beatitude, which is, blessed are the peacemakers. Alright?

John McLarty: Very good.

Kimberly Faith: So we’re going to, you know, we’ve talked about being pure in heart and that when we are pure in heart, that enables people to see, enables us to see God, but it also enables others to see God. And it transforms us into something. And this is why I think that the genius behind the way Jesus laid out these beatitudes just blows my mind. It blows my mind. But we are pure in heart.

We do something. We can become something that even the greatest armies in the history of the world have never been able to do, and that is to be a peacemaker. The greatest, mightiest armies on the face of the earth do not have the power to become the kind of peacemaker that we do, that Jesus says we can become. And that’s what we’re going to  talk about next time. And I just challenge you to think about, do you know how to become the most powerful peacemaker on the face of the earth?

And so we’re going to end this podcast with that question. And I thank dad, thank you for, again, joining us in this series.

John McLarty: It’s always great to be here, Kim. The word of God is amazing.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And we’ll look forward to answering this next question in the next podcast. We hope you all will join us. 

You have been listening to the truth in love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith, and my dad, John Mac. To discover more answers to the big questions in life, visit us at gofaithstrong.com.