New heart, Pure heart!

Consider this passage of Scripture. Hebrews 12:14" Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Sounds very important does it not? The fact is that we are not today producing saints. We are making converts to an effete type of Christianity that bears little resemblance to that of the New Testament! The average so-called Bible Christian in our times is but a wretched parody of true sainthood. Yet we put millions of dollars behind movements to perpetuate this degenerate form of religion and attack the man who dares to challenge the wisdom of it. Clearly we must begin to produce better Christians. We must insist on New Testament sainthood for ourselves and for our converts, nothing less; and we must lead them into a state of heart purity, fiery love, separation from the world and poured-out devotion to the Person of Christ. Only in this way can the low level of spirituality be raised again to where it should be in the light of the Scriptures and of Eternal values. “It is well to remember that a new heart is one thing and a pure heart is another. They are not synonymous. Any man can have a new heart which loves God and yet not possess a pure heart from which self, man-fear, love of praise and other like things are banished.”Tozer A new heart is given when a sinner repents and believes in the Death, burial and Resurrection of Christ Jesus. A pure heart is produced when the new heart rids itself of self. Purity of heart comes from denying the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Purity comes from taking up your cross and following Jesus. We need this type of Christian today. A new heart that is not only converted to Christ but is sold out as well. Christian’s like Paul the Apostle, Peter, John, James, Barnabas, Timothy, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, Charles Finney, D.L.Moody etc. One of my pastor friend’s was weeping over today’s Christianity. His conclusion; Where is Holiness and who sets the standard for us to live by? Have we become content with living just to get by from day to day? Here's something to chew on. "Most church members live so far below the standards, you would have to backslide to be in fellowship. We are so subnormal that if we were to become normal, people would think we were abnormal." Listen to a holy saint of old; “Php 3:8-11 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. We need new hearts yes, but we need pure hearts more!