Purified Perspective

In our last blog post, we left off talking about the importance of studying the Bible. We mentioned that all you have to do is ask for wisdom and believe you will receive it and it will be given to you. James 1:5-6 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. But I told you that I would offer some helpful tips as to how to start studying your Bible. In addition to asking God for understanding, there are many other useful tips you can use to help understand the Bible. 1.      Pray a.      I cannot stress the importance of praying enough. We want to understand the Word and know how to apply it to our lives; therefore, we ask the Holy Spirit to be with us to enlighten us as we read and study. 2.      Try us...

As I studied my Bible thinking about what I was going to write about today I was taken back to a time I was out with my family at the grocery store. My mom had to run in and get something and she left us in the car. As I looked out the window, I noticed the parking lot was freshly paved. It was so fresh that the lines for the parking spaces had not been painted yet. Then, I looked around at how crooked and out of line the cars were. These people who have been parking for years were scattered all across the parking lot all because they didn’t have any lines to follow. They had all managed to make it to the parking lot, they even managed to park, but clearly, they were still out of place. The parking lot was not functioning at its maximal capacity all because of the lack of lines.   As humans, we all kind of know our purpose. We think about what we want to be when we grow up from the time we are 5 years old. We think about where we want to live, who we want to seek a relationship...

Did you know that words have the power of life and death? As I sit here writing this blog, I am thinking about the weight that my words carry. Yet, Christians, including myself, are not always this mindful of the impact of our words. Just to prove my point, let me give you a few personal examples:   Negative Experience: I was in high school. I hadn’t had my driver’s license long and I decided that I was going to go to church. This was before I was really invested in my faith. As I walked in the door, alone, I just wanted to sit down. I was feeling a little overwhelmed and nervous. I remember looking for an empty spot and darting toward it. As I sat down, someone approached me and said, “you are in ________’s seat, would you mind moving up a row?” While this doesn’t seem like an unreasonable request or rude thing to say it really discouraged me for a while. I left that morning and didn’t go back to church the next Sunday. It seemed like something harmless for them to say, but ...

Our last blog post left off by explaining the definition of purity and how we can purify ourselves. As a reminder, purified means “having had contaminants removed; cleansed.” I then explained how you can only become pure through the forgiveness that can only be achieved through Jesus. This sounds so simple when you put it that way. However, some of us struggle to let go of the times in the past when we were not pure and wonder if we can truly be forgiven if we can’t even forgive ourselves. Others may think that they have so many imperfections and flaws that they cannot truly become pure and forgiven. If this is you, I am happy to say that I have some great news for you! You are NEVER too far from God’s reach.  Have you ever heard the story of the Prodigal Son? I am sure many of you have; however, I am going to explain it briefly here because I feel like it shows the love of the Father so well. The scripture for this story can be found in Luke 15:11-32. I encourage you to read thr...

My name is Caitlyn Beck, and I am offering you a front-row seat to my journey of developing a pure heart, spirit, and mind through my Lord and savior. This blog will highlight the previous trials and tribulations I have faced and how I am working to overcome them. I hope to share my testimony so that others can avoid going down similar pathways that I have in the past. When I decided to start this blog, I contemplated the name for what seemed like forever. I read scripture after scripture, looked at existing blogs, asked for opinions from others, and prayed about it a lot. Finally, it hit me like a ton of bricks. My name, Caitlyn, means pure. As you may know, the Bible has many examples where we see the meaning of a person’s name come to life. We see the importance of names when Abram becomes Abraham (the father of many nations).  We see it again when Jacob (meaning deceiver) becomes Israel (meaning God’s people). There are many more examples of the meaning and importance of names ...