"Honestly Redeemed"

"He who hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully." (Psalms 24:4) In answer to the question, we have an answer given that many may not understand, nor do they adhere to the principles that are described within the answer. The question was about "who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in His holy place?"; and speaks to the fact that we fall way short of being able to ascend up to God, let alone stand in His presence. There is only one way that we can be made clean before God, and that is by the washing by the blood of Jesus Christ; but as far as the hands are concerned, they are much like the feet, and require constant washing and purification. It might not make much sense to somebody who does not believe that we need to be washed after having received total cleansing by His blood, but we do need to be made innocent from time to time; which for me is once or twice every single day: I ask for forgiveness when I get up in the morning, and when I go to bed each night! The word "clean" that is used here by David is a word that means free from guilt or innocent; if you have stepped in something, or have picked up something that was nasty, then you need to have your hands or your feet washed, plain and simple. The thing that makes this something that we are serious about, and something that must be paid attention to, is the following statement that David makes, which is, "and a pure heart"; because a heart that purely is surrendered to God will not want and nasty stuff on their feet or hands; especially when they are lifting their hands up to God. Jesus demonstrated this to His disciples as He washed their feet before having His last supper with them; besides being an act of servant hood, it was also to demonstrate that we need to cleanse our feet from time to time, and may even need help from one another in doing so. It might be hard to go to another brother or sister and ask for them to wash your feet, but taken to the literal meaning that is implied, I think asking them to actually wash my feet would be more pleasant. But seriously, if we are having a problem with sin, then we need to get help from someone that we can trust; and that brother or sister needs to have a servants heart in helping you. The problem that we seem to have with doing that is trusting our brother or sister to keep our sin to themselves; it's not that they are going to go around telling everyone that we have a problem, but that more times than not, they tell someone close; then it's the someone close that really spreads the news. This is probably the hardest thing for pastors and those in leadership within many of our churches; because they, being those that are in a leadership position, do not feel that they should be having to deal with such matters, let alone need to call out to another for help. WE ALL NEED EACH OTHER... "So after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." (John 13:12-17)