The Quest for Purity

Psalm 119:9 - "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word."

When I was in college I majored in pastoral ministries. One of the classes that all preacher boys, as they called us in the south, were required to take, was homiletics. This class taught us the art of preaching. I look back on some of the old videos that I have from that class and chuckle, as I see myself preaching with my fake southern accent. I was trying my best to be someone that I wasn't in the pulpit of my Liberty University classroom.

My first homiletics professor was Dr. Jerry Kroll. He gave me a "C" for the class. And, he also gave me a gift. Dr. Kroll required all of his students to memorize Scripture. I had excuses almost every week for why I couldn't memorize the verse. Eventually those excuses caught up with me. If I didn't memorize the remaining verses for that sememster I was going to fail the class. So, I memorized. And, Psalm 119:9 was one of them. At the time that I memorized this verse it was a chore. Today, it's a gift. I didn't realize it then, but the verses that Dr. Kroll had us memorizing were nuggets of gold that would sustain me many times throughout my adult life.

This verse tells us that if we want to live pure lives that we have to live according to the word of God. When I think about our world today, purity is one of the last words that comes to mind. It is hard to drive down the street without being continually bombarded with assaults to the mind. Turn on the radio or television and the barrage continues. Get into conversations at Starbucks and it continues still again. We are not going to find purity in the world. But, we will in the Word of God. In two days we'll take a look at verse 11, which corresponds directly with this verse. Until then, do your best to live according to the Word of God.

Dear God,

Help me to be a person of the Book, one who seeks to live my life in accordance with your priciples. Help me to never settle for Satan's lies. Help me to fervently seek you with all of my heart.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.