~PURITY~

Alright so some of you might have read Marie-Hélène 's last post on Jepthah's daughter: Intense purity. If you haven't read it, then you should before you continue to read this blog. When I first read that passage from her blog, I never knew what the references to the Bible were. Today I was reading my Bible. I was reading from Judges. I happened to be reading this same story that I read yesterday in Marie-Hélène's blog. I was so blown away by the fact that even though I had no idea where it was in the Bible , God showed me it again when I opened up my Bible. What amazes me it the purity in this young girl. It's crazy!

Judges 11:29-39

Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD : "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."

Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break."

"My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry."

"You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.


I think this has a lot to say about us today. This girl was willing to die a virgin. She did not complain she said “do to be just as you promised the Lord. WOW! Can you imagine yourself in that place? She mourned for 2 months because she knew there was no way she was ever going to be able to have children or ever to be married. She submitted to the promise her father made to the Lord. She became a pure sacrifice to God. I know in todays culture it's hard to walk that line of purity. The world has different view of what purity is then to what we (Christians) know what purity is. If you were this girl what would you have done? I know it is hard to think about. I believe that God is only going to continue to raise that bar of purity in all of us. What is purity mean to you? What purity means to you may not mean the same thing to me. What purity means to me may not be the same to you. Doesn't mean one is wrong or right it's that level of purity God has spoken into you or me. It also doesn't me no is better than the other. I want to live my life pure before God. I want him to be my First Love.

Ephesians 5:1-3

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people

I'll share with some personal stuff with you now.....

Some of you might know this but... Christian and I have made a commitment to pursue a relationship together. With that we have had to sit down and talk about purity. We spent a while praying about it and asking God where is the line in this relationship. We both left kissing was something we did not want in our relationship. I know some of you may be like what are they thinking? Or you might not compelelty understand WHY we chose to do this. That is ok. Our reasoning to this is because we want our relationship to be pleasing to God. We want him to be the center and HIM to consume us from every end and angle. Again this is what God spoke into my relationship with Christian. This might be different for you.


a book that I would really recommend to you is not even a hint..guarding your hearts

against lust. by Joshua Harris