Join us sundays at 8:00 & 10:30 AM

Friday, August 20 Devotional from Pastor John Hartman

“Purity and Focus” 
Back in 1995, a Christian ministry was sweeping across college campuses that had students dealing with their sinful habits that they had let linger in their lives far too long. One of the students at Asbury College, a young man by the name of Brian, wrote this in “The Christian Reader.” He wrote, “I was a leader on campus. We invited students from Wheaton, Illinois to come and share. At first, I was praying for other people, but then I began to think about my own struggles. I stood in line for three hours with one of my best friends all the time thinking, ‘How can I get up here and admit I’m less than perfect?’ But I also realized that being on a Christian campus isn’t protection from the world. I have really struggled with lust. I found I wasn’t alone. It was an issue for a lot of others. Personally, I want the chain to be broken. I want that stuff out of my life. If it meant no magazines, or no television, I was willing to eliminate them. A number of us signed a paper stating our desire for purity, which we put in a box and placed on the altar. My deepest desire is to be pure in my heart and thoughts.”
I don’t know whatever happened to Brian. My guess is that it went one of two ways. Either that young man is a phony who is still playing games, or he is free because he decided to get real with God and actively pursue purity of the heart.
Jesus wants us to have a total focus on him, in a sense, -- a one track mind for God. This is the kind of heart he says is blessed. One in which we have an intense and singular focus on God. Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Not just a part of it But, with all of it! In other, words, with everything you are!
On Sunday, I continue my sermon series on, “The Bible You thought You Knew,” with the phrase “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”  We will be in person outside at 8:00 am on the FLC lawn (inside the sanctuary if it rains). If you attend at 8:00 am, you will be able to sit in your car and listen via the FM transmitter on 102.1. At 10:30 am, we will be in the sanctuary, while also broadcasting on Zoom, Facebook Live, and YouTube.   
Pastor John