Create a pure bible in my heart. Heart: Christian teaching

Let us dwell on the main provisions of the Christian teaching about heart, in the form as it is set forth in the Bible and patristic writings, somewhat repeating and continuing what we said earlier / Ch. 2: Zenko. 2002, pp. 239-258 /.

BIBLICAL TEACHING ABOUT THE HEART

Let's start with biblical teaching about the heart. In general, in the Russian translation of the Bible, the word heart occurs 591 times in the Old Testament and 155 times in the New Testament (plus more than 150 words derived from it). Perhaps some cases of the Old Testament use of the word “heart” do not fully correspond to our modern context, but the remaining cases will testify to the centrality of the concept of the heart in both the New and Old Testaments.

It is the heart that is in the first place in the commandment of love for God: "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength" (). Jesus Christ himself will confirm this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind” () (see also:;).

One should strive towards God with the heart: “I seek You with all my heart” (); “In my heart I have hidden your word, so that I may not sin against you” (); "I will flow in the way of Thy commandments, when Thou will enlarge my heart" (). Such dominance of the heart even leads to its opposition to the mind: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your understanding" (Prov. 3, 5).

But the heart is dominant not only in good, but also in bad: "Evil thoughts, murder, adultery, theft, perjury, blasphemy come from the heart: this defiles a person" (); "From within, from the human heart, come forth evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murder" ().

In the Old Testament, sayings about the heart repeatedly have negative meaning: "the heart of this people has hardened" (); “This people draws near to Me with their mouths, and honors Me with their tongue, but their heart is far from Me” () (Jesus Christ refers to this Old Testament place:;); “And they did not cry out to Me with their hearts, when they cried out on their couches” (); “Turn to God in the depths of your heart, from which you have receded far” (); “They gave birth to false words from the heart” (); "The thoughts of their hearts were evil" (); "The heart of the sons of men is filled with evil" (); "The human heart is deceitful above all else and extremely depraved" ().

Therefore, God and the prophets call for cleansing and renewal hearts: "wash away the evil from your heart" (); "Cast away from yourself all your sins, which you have sinned, and create for yourself a new heart and a new spirit" (); “Rend your hearts, and not your clothes, and turn to the Lord your God” (); “He who has innocent hands and a pure heart ... he will receive a blessing from the Lord” (); "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" ().

And you need to ask God, first of all, for admonition and cleansing of the heart: "incline my heart to Thy revelations, and not to selfishness" (); "Create a clean heart in me, God" (); "Grant, then, to Thy servant a rational heart" (). And God hears these prayers and gives "another heart" (), which is especially fully revealed in the New Testament.

The New Testament also continually asserts that the heart is an organ for perception of the mountain world:

- “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (), - they will see God with their purified heart and in their heart;

- "the morning star will rise in your hearts" ();

- "the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit ..." ();

- “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, illuminated our hearts ...” ();

- God "gave the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts" ();

- “God sent into your hearts the Spirit of His Son, crying:“ Abba, Father! ”” ();

- "Christ dwell in your hearts" ().

The heart, due to its special importance, is associated with the very different phenomena:

– thought: "Thought abides and moves in the heart, and the word is on the tongue and lips, however they are not separated and not a single moment are deprived of each other" / christ .:. 1900, p. 37 /;

- conscience: "If our heart does not condemn us, then we have boldness towards God" ();

– By the spirit: “And as you are sons, God has sent His Son Spirit into your hearts, crying:“ Abba, Father! ”” ();

– by faith: “Have the faith of God, for truly I say to you, if anyone says to this mountain: rise and plunge into the sea, and do not doubt in his heart, but believe that it will come true according to his words, it will be to him that he says (); “For if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (); double-minded people of little faith need to correct and strengthen their hearts ().

But even in the heart there can be good and evil. And then: “a good man brings out good from the good treasure of his heart, and an evil man takes out evil from the evil treasure of his heart ...” (). There is nothing worse than a hardened and hypocritical heart: "For the heart of these people is hardened, and they can hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes, so that they do not see with their eyes, and do not hear with their ears, and do not understand in their hearts, and do not turn, so that I heal them." (); “These people draw near to Me with their lips, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (). The eyes of the sons of the curse are full of covetousness and incessant sin, "their hearts are accustomed to covetousness" ().

Bitterness () and lust () enter an evil heart. But the unrepentant heart is guilty of itself: "according to your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you yourself collect anger for the day of anger and the revelation of righteous judgment from God" (). A spirit of malice can penetrate into an evil heart, as during the Last Supper the devil "put in the heart of Judas Iscariot of Simon to betray Him" ​​().

Therefore, by all means it is necessary to cleanse heart and sanctify in their hearts the Lord God (). And the first and most important commandment of both the Old and New Testaments is: "love the Lord your God with all your heart ..." (; compare:;).

HOLY TEACHING ABOUT THE HEART

All these provisions of the biblical teaching about the heart were continued and developed by subsequent Christian ascetics, ascetics, theologians.

According to patristic tradition, it is necessary watch over and keep heart:

- “As long as the heart abides in goodness, until then God abides in it, until then it serves as the source of life; because good comes from him. But as soon as it deviates from God and does iniquity, it becomes a source of death, because evil proceeds from it. The heart is God's abode, therefore it needs protection, so that evil does not enter into it, and God does not withdraw from it "/ Christ .:. T. 4. 1995, p. 349-350 /;

- “At every hour and every moment, we will guard our heart with every kind of safeguarding from thoughts fogging the spiritual mirror, in which Jesus Christ alone should be stamped and painted with light ... We will constantly seek the Kingdom of Heaven inside the heart” / Christ .: Philotheus of Sinai. 1900, p. 412 /;

- "To watch over the heart means to have a sober mind and pure from thought, leading to abuse" / Christ .: Barsanuphius the Great, John. 1995, p. 67 /;

- “Arrange a barrier at the entrance of the heart and put a strict guard on it. Anyone suitable - a thought, a feeling, a desire - ask: your own or someone else's. Drive strangers without pity - and be relentless "/ christ .:. 1995, p. 442 /.

At the same time, the heart is necessary and to cleanse:

- “God only requires of us, that our heart be cleansed through attention” / christ .:. T. 2. 1993, p. 191 /;

- “He who wants to see the Lord within himself makes an effort to cleanse his heart by unceasing remembrance of God” / Christ .:. 1993, p. 38 /;

- “You see that a vessel filled with nothing else can hold. So there is a human heart, which is like a vessel. When it is filled with the love of this world and the care of worldly things, it does not contain the Word of God in itself ... "/ Christ .:. T. 4.1836, p.94-95 /;

- “Enter your heart with attention and examine carefully what thoughts, what dispositions and passions it is especially occupied with and what passion dominates it most and tyrannizes in it; then against this passion, first of all, raise your weapon and try to fight it. It is on this that you focus all your attention and care, with the only exception that when, meanwhile, some other passion rises by chance, then you should immediately deal with it and drive it away, and then again turn your weapon against your main passion, which incessantly shows its presence and power. ... For, as in any struggle, so in our invisible one, one should oppose that which by its very deeds is struggling at the present moment "/ christ .:. 1991, pp. 66-67 /;

- “Look more often into your heart, descend into the depths of it (deep in the heart of a person); bring to the clarity of consciousness everything that is bad in him, and note in sighs of regret or in bitter tears of repentance every evil lurking in the depths of the heart ... to see God ... Almost all the sacraments, or all the grace of the Spirit inherent in the sacraments, are directed towards the purification of the heart: baptism is the bath of the heart or the sacraments of a person; the sacrament of chrismation - affirms the purity of the heart, given by the grace of God in baptism; repentance is the second bath of the heart after baptism; communion unites a Christian through a purified heart with the most pure Christ ... ”/ Ch. 2:. 1900, p. 103-104 /.

The saint singled out two ways to purify the heart - action and contemplation. He wrote: “they begin together, in truly walking, and go hand in hand; but at the beginning the deed goes ahead, and then it outstrips its contemplation, in the end it completely absorbs it "/ christ .:. 1995, p. 441 /.

The heart is cleansed with prayers: “In prayer, strike right into the sinful heart, into its particular glaring, annoying shortcomings, squeeze them out of it; do not spare yourself; shed tears for them: they will come out with tears. And if you spare your heart, you will not touch it: all the rubbish will remain so, and there is no benefit to you from prayer ”/ Ch. 2:. 1900, p. 109 /. The fruit of the arduous work of struggle, purification and preservation is a pure heart.

In a pure heart it looks and dwells God himself:

- “A person who has purified his heart will not only understand the properties of God's creations, but, having passed the entire ladder thereof, will see, if possible, God himself” / Christ .:. 1835, p. 263 /;

- “For those who have established themselves in sobriety or are trying to establish themselves in it, a pure heart becomes the mental sky, with its own sun, moon and stars, and is the repository of an incapable God” / Christ .: Philotheus of Sinai. 1900, p. 414 /;

- “Enter yourself, abide in your heart; for there is God. He does not leave you, but you leave Him "/ christ .:. T. 4. 1995, p. 349 /; “This is wonderful, my brethren; very revealing and inexpressible for the dolny. Inaccessible to every mind enters the heart and dwells in it; The secret one from the fire-transparent is found in the heart. The earth cannot bear His feet; but a pure heart carries Him within itself. Heaven is not enough for His span, but His heart is His abode. He encompasses the sky with His handful, and one span of space is His dwelling place ”/ ibid, p.350 /.

PURE HEART

Let's list some properties pure heart:

- ugliness: “The heart is pure, which always presenting memory to God as formless and ugly, ready to be the only impressions from Him grieves, in which He usually delights in manifesting Himself to her” / Christ .: Callistus and Ignatius Ksanfopouly. 1900, p. 385 /;

- dispassion: a pure heart of one who not only is not disturbed and burdensome with any passion, but also does not even think about anything bad or worldly ... ”/ Christ .:. Creations. T. 2. 1993, p. 562 /;

- compassion and mercy: “this is purity of heart, so that, seeing sinners, or the weak, have compassion for them and be merciful” / Christ .:. 1998, p. 114 /;

- positivity: “When someone sees all people as good, and no one seems to him unclean and defiled, then he is truly pure in heart” / Christ .:. 1993, p. 97 /.

Cleansing the heart is a whole spiritual and at the same time moral and psychological program associated with cleansing the whole person. It is extremely important to cleanse and preserve the senses, which we will discuss in the next chapter. Preservation of the mind is no less important, for “who does not heed himself and does not keep his mind, he cannot become pure in heart in order to be able to see God” / Christ .:. T. 2.13993, p. 187 /. It is also necessary to purify and keep attention (sobriety), memory (repentance), will (humility), etc.

A cleansed heart, like a newborn baby, needs to be nurtured and educated. About this Bp. wrote: "To form a heart means to cultivate in it a taste for things holy, Divine, spiritual, so that, turning among them, it would feel as if in its element, find in that sweetness, bliss, it would be indifferent to everything else ..." / Christ .:. 1908, p. 238 /.

Purification of the heart, its observation, storage and education constitute the central part of ascetic work - a special science of sciences and art of arts. In addition, they also constitute a special culture - culture of the heart: “The search for the Word within is at the same time the Culture of the Heart, the greatest and only in the world unceasing sacred rite, brought into the world by the Logos-Christ Himself for those who seek Him within themselves. The Inner Word, like a seed, must germinate, must grow and bear fruit. In the wild and uncultivated land of the heart, it does not germinate and lies in vain, like a treasure buried in the ground of the heart, although it manifests its hidden activity. The processing, fertilization and irrigation of the cherries of the heart is the task of genuine religious life in the Word ... The culture of the heart leaves no room in it for chaos and the dark abyss of the heart, pulling out thorns and thistles, scorching the mud of passions and thoughts with fire, and irrigating the field of the heart with tears of purification and tenderness "/ Posov. T. 1.1965, p. 266 /.

HEART PROPERTIES

What is the heart in its essence and what are its main properties?

In the heart is presented centrality of a human being, both body and soul (heart - as "middle"):

- wrote about the heart: “Learning from God, we proceed from two positions: that there is a leading principle in the soul and that a certain abode is assigned to it in the body” /. 2004, p. 64 /;

- “The heart embraces in itself and holds in its power the inner feelings. It is the root, and if the root is holy, then the branches are holy, that is, if the heart is brought to purity, then it is clear that all feelings are also purified ”/ christ .:. 1993, p. 24 /;

- “For the human heart is like a sentry weight and a ship's steering wheel. Lighten or make the weight heavier, the movement of all hour wheels will immediately change and the hands of the clock will cease to be correct time indicators. Move the rudder to the right or left, the movement of the ship will immediately change, and it will leave the direction that it was holding before. So, when the heart is in turmoil, everything inside ours comes into disorder, and the mind itself loses the righteousness of its reasoning. That is why it is necessary to pacify the heart as soon as possible, as soon as it becomes confused by something, internal or external, whether during prayer or at any other time "/ Christ .:. 1991, pp. 263-264 /;

- “The heart is the center of life in general - physical, spiritual and mental. It is the center first of all, the center in all senses "/ Vysheslavtsev. 1925, p. 80 /;

- “In the heart are reflected by their activity all the forces of the human being in all their degrees” / christ .:. 1890, p.304 /. That is, in the heart there are spiritual, emotional and animal-sensual feelings / ibid /;

- “The heart is sovereign and regal in the whole bodily articulation. And when grace takes possession of the pastures of the heart, then it reigns over all members and thoughts "/ Christ .:. 1998, p. 120 /; therefore, the purified heart is the "dominant organ" and the "throne of grace" / Christ .: Callistus and Ignatius Xanfopoules. 1900, p. 367 /.

An important soteriological proposition follows from the centrality of the heart: “none of us can have an empty heart, but ... everyone has one of two things in his heart: either the grace of the Holy Spirit through faith and good deeds, or the evil devil for unbelief, neglect of the commandments of God and doing evil deeds "/ christ .:. T. 2.13993, p. 337 /.

One of the widespread in the West and at the same time not supported or substantiated in any way is the identification of heart manifestations with emotions, feelings... But the biblical heart is not just a feeling or emotion:

- whenever both the biblical authors and St. the fathers never talked about the heart, they always meant "the inner personality of a person," I "in his innermost depths" / Christ .: Meyendorf. Byzantine theology. 2001, p. 125 /; in any case, ““ heart ”never denotes only one, emotional, aspect of a person, as it will sometimes happen in the West” / ibid /;

- “Feeling is only one side of the human soul, aimed at perceiving mainly external sensations. What is called the heart in the Bible is something deeper than one feeling "/ Ivanov. 1997, p.21 /.

The heart is no less correlated with by will: “This heart is the beginning and the root of all our deeds. Whatever we do inside and outside of us, we do with our heart - either good or evil "/ christ .:. T. 4.1836, p. 215 /. Scripture ascribes to the heart and those functions that in psychological science are considered to belong mind/. 1994, p.30 /. Thus, the heart not only experiences and feels, but also thinks and makes decisions (there is an organ of will), love emanates from it, conscience is placed in it / Vysheslavtsev. 1925, p. 79 /.

The heart is integrity, it contains everything:

- “The heart itself is a small vessel; but there are serpents, there are lions, there are poisonous beasts, there are all the treasures of vice, there are rough and obstinate paths, there are abysses; but there is also God, there are Angels, there is life and the kingdom, there is light and the Apostles, there are treasures of grace, there is everything ”/ Christ .:. 1998, p. 280 /;

- “There is some kind of limitless depth in the heart; there are also feast rooms, and bedchambers, and doors, and vestibules, and many services, and exits; there is a working temple of deeds of truth and untruth; there is death there, there is also life ”/ ibid, p.126 /;

- "St. our fathers, hearing the Lord say that evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, thief, perjury, blasphemy, and that this is the essence of defiling a person () comes from the heart, - hearing also that elsewhere in the Gospel we are commanded to cleanse the inner glass, let the external be purely (), - they left any other spiritual work and began to ascend completely in this one work, that is, in keeping the heart ... "/ Christ .:. T. 2.13993, p. 186 /.

The heart is deeper and more ontological than the head consciousness and is incomprehensible to it. To denote this quality of the heart, it is sometimes compared with the subconscious: “The depth and intimacy of heart processes is the reason that these processes are subconscious and therefore inaccessible to scientific research. The relationship of the heart to the head is the same as the subconscious mind with the consciousness. The subconscious is broader than consciousness, gives it material, and to the same extent is a "lining and foundation" for consciousness, in which the heart is for the head. The heart subconscious does not fit into the head consciousness and only fragments of the subconscious reach consciousness, and then with constant control of the head mind "/ Pozov. T. 1, 1965, p. 174-175 /.

HEART AND COMMUNICATION OF GOD

The heart has a lot to do with communion with God:

- "On your way through the fulfillment of the commandments in your heart, seek the Lord" / Christ .:. 1900, p. 182 /; “The true sanctuary, even before the future life, is a heart without thoughts, influenced by the Spirit” / ibid, p.181 /;

- the heart is "God's spiritual altar" / christ .:. 1993, p. 62 /;

“No matter how doubtful it may be for unbelievers, we affirm that with the heart it is possible to perceive quite definite suggestions directly as the words of God. But this is not only the lot of the saints. And I, like many others, have experienced this more than once with great strength and deep emotional excitement ”/. 1994, p. 27 /.

- “Revelation is addressed not only to the human mind and not only to feeling. It is addressed to what in the biblical language is called the heart, that is, to that which constitutes the innermost essence of man, from which, as the Gospel says, both reason and feeling and will emanate "/ Ivanov. 1997, p.21 /; thus, “it is necessary to recognize the heart as the main organ of religious experience” / Vysheslavtsev. 1925, p. 81 /.

Moreover, the heart is directly related to both death and the resurrection of a person: “That heavenly fire of the Divine, which Christians still now, in this age, receive within themselves, in their hearts, acting within their hearts, when the body collapses, will begin to act from outside , and again joins the members, brings about the resurrection of the destroyed members "/ christ .:. 1998, p.83 /.

HEART AND PRAYER

The connection of the heart with prayer, for the whole mystery of Christianity is in prayer, and the mystery of being a Christian is in the ability to pray. Prayer is divided into verbal prayer, prayer of the mind and prayer of the heart (spiritual, inner). The first is the simplest, but also the most superficial, and the essence of a heartfelt prayer is to enter the heart and cry out to God from there: “Gather your mind in your heart, and from there, with a mental cry, call for the help of the Lord Jesus, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!"/ Christ:. Guidance to the silent. 1900, p. 216 /; "The name Jesus-Christ must always rotate in the space of our hearts ..." / Christ .:. 1890, p. 33 /.

Correct prayer(for there is prayer and wrong, delightful) is connected with the heart: “prayer that is alien to charm is warmth with prayer to Jesus, who casts fire into the earth of our hearts, - warmth that burns passion, like thorns, instills joy and silence into the soul, and does not come from with the gum and not by the side, or from above, but emanating in the heart, like a source of water from the life-giving Spirit "/ christ:. Guidance to the silent. 1900, p. 225 /. A special prayer warms up in the heart heat: “Spiritual warmth in the heart is the fruit of a feeling for God and everything Divine. Its origin is contemporary to the conversion to God in repentance. During the penitential labors over the purification of the heart, it intensifies more and more and from interrupted or at times visiting the heart gradually passes into a continuous one, until it finally becomes a state of the heart. When St. advised in one place: try to always be in a feeling for God and the Divine, then I understood this warmth. Any object that delights the heart and warms it; therefore there are many warmths of the heart. Spiritual warmth is generated from the impact on the heart of spiritual objects, which happens in the order of spiritual life. Its distinctive feature is the detachment from all created things and the fettering of attention by God and everything Divine. Along this line, it is as far away from the warmth of the soul and body as heaven is from earth "/ christ .:. 1991, pp. 240-241 /. And further: “Spiritual warmth in its true form is the fruit of the presence of grace in the heart. When grace visits, the heart is warm, and when it departs, it is cold. Grace departs, and when a person himself goes outside to inappropriate things. And then this departure is and is called punitive. But sometimes grace itself departs in the form of advancing the spiritual prosperity of God's servants. And then this departure is and is called educational ”/ ibid, p.243-244 /.

And correct Mystic also associated with the heart. According to the Orthodox theologian, Pavel Florensky: “The correct development of all organs, under the leadership of the one with which the human personality is primarily associated, that is, the chest, is such a normal mysticism, and it is achieved only in the fertile environment of churchliness. Any other mysticism, although it gives a deepening, nevertheless upsets the balance of the personality "/ Christ .: Florensky. 1990, p. 266 /.

But it is not so easy to listen to the heart: "the dragon, the prince of the abyss, rises in war against those who listen to the heart ..." / Christ .:. Chapters on the commandments. 1900, p. 210 /. But you cannot do without going deep into your heart: “If you want to win over the above passions (despondency, oblivion and ignorance - Z. Yu.) And it is convenient to defeat the regiment of foreigners in your mind, then you will come to your senses by prayer and God's assistance, and enter the depths of your heart , examine these three mighty giants of the devil ... "/ Christ .:. 1911, pp. 179-180 /.

What is called mental prayer in the West appeared rather late, this is not the Jesus Prayer, there is no system of concentration of the mind in the heart / Postures. 1965, p. 96 /. This cardiocentrism is fundamentally necessary: ​​“The Church Fathers know that with a change in the physical place of attention, the self-awareness of the body changes, and depending on this, the nature of prayer changes, and it can acquire undesirable and dangerous shades” / Christ .: Clever doing. 1994, p. 237 /. Two extremes are possible here: deviation from the heart either upward (towards the head) or downward (towards the stomach). In the first case, schematism, rationality, and daydreaming begin to prevail. In the second - the striving for "revelations", "visions", etc., which leads to a serious spiritual illness - delusion. Let us dwell on the second case in more detail.

In the patristic tradition, there are repeated warnings about not lowering attention when praying below the heart. In the 19th century, St. and St. ... Everything is clear here, and does not cause any controversy - you only need time and desire to read these works, republished in our time. But sometimes in patristic writings they talk about looking (with an inner gaze) at umbilical cord... For example, he advises the monk “not to wander his gaze here and there, but as if on some kind of support stop it on his chest or navel” / christ .:. 1995, p. 49 /. What does this mean, and in what cases should it be done? This is one of the auxiliary techniques used by the hesychast monk “trying to return his mind inside himself” / ibid, p.49 /. In this case, the heart (chest) is the first and main place of concentration, and the navel (belly) is the second and optional. Their similar hierarchy is associated with fundamentally different assessments of them from the point of view of spiritual doing: the heart is the spiritual and mental center (and the purified heart is also the throne of God), and the stomach, on the contrary, is not only the periphery, but also, in many ways, the antagonist of the heart. He is a den of passions: “the power of the mental beast is on the umbilical cord of the belly, because here the law of sin has its power and feeds the beast” / ibid, p.49 /; “All the power of the devil against men is contained in the loins, in the navel - all his power against women” / Jerome the Blessed. 1997, p.16 /.

Even when the heart is cleansed, the serpent driven out of it sinks lower into the stomach and tries to linger there. But by spiritual exploit, Christian ascetics expel him from there as well. This is a difficult and difficult work, impossible without God's help and spiritual nourishment (see its experienced description by the Caucasian hermits / Christ .: Sventsitsky. 1915 /). And it is precisely for the fight against this beast-serpent that it is proposed in the hesychast tradition to turn to the umbilical cord: “to establish here the opposing law of the mind armed with prayer (), so that the evil spirit expelled by the bath of rebirth (), returning with seven other and evil spirits, does not re-enter and the latter did not become worse than the first () "/ christ .:. 1995, p. 49 /.

In the non-Christian tradition, the opposite is true. Indian yoga is a particularly striking example of this. She also knows about the snake in the person, but at the same time she does not even dare to think about his expulsion, and she applies all the forces and special techniques to activate and develop it. It is about the Kundalini-serpent. As you know, there is even a special Kundalini Yoga that uses just work with Kundalini, although in essence all other yogas are based on this.

Interest in the navel is natural in modern "esoteric" literature / additional: Stokes, Whiteside. 1996, p. 143 /. And if such authors are faced with a dilemma between the heart and the navel, there is no need to talk about choosing a heart.

And if researchers, who do not understand the essence of the heart, begin to study the Christian heart's work, then nothing but a projection of their own attitudes onto this method occurs. For the sake of justice, it must be said that this part of the ascetic work was not understood before (those who did not particularly want to delve into the essence of the monastic deed). It is precisely this misunderstanding that the Athos hesychasm underwent - the most developed school of Christian heart practice - during (XIV century). What were the hesychasts accused of by his opponents, and the main of them - the Italian monk Barlaam of Calabria. They called hesychasts omphalopsychs - those who have a soul in the navel ( psychos- soul, omphalo- navel). It is clear that this shows a complete lack of understanding of hesychasm as such. Only to such a head rationalist as Barlaam, who does not know the secret of the heart, everything below the head could be represented only by the belly-navel. In response to this, he wrote with bitterness: “People who called them (monks-hesychasts - Z. Yu.) Omphalopsychs with the explicit purpose of slandering the accused - because did any of the prayer books ever say that the soul is in the navel? - not only exposed the slanderous intention of their attacks, but also showed about themselves that they defile the virtuous, and do not correct the lost, and write not for the sake of hesychia and truth, but out of slander ... "/ Christ .:. 1995, p.51 /.

Christian ascetics distinguished not only the heart from the belly. Deep spiritual experience allowed them to distinguish some spiritual areas within the heart itself, for example, its upper and lower parts. At the same time, they advised to concentrate when praying precisely on the upper part of the heart and not to descend to the lower part, for the human spirit “has its place of residence in the upper part of the heart ...” / christ .:. T. 5. 1993, p. 116 /.

All the more, other, non-heartfelt, forms of concentration of attention are wrong: "What you wrote about certain performers of the Jesus Prayer, who put their hand on the table and gather attention under their fingers, then these are inappropriate whims ... This is the enemy distracts from real prayer" / Christ .:. Issue 5. 1994, p. 205 /. Attunement to such bodily sensations is used in occultism, for twitching and tingling of the fingertips, as with irritation with a weak electric current, is a sure indicator of entering an altered state of consciousness / extra: Moody. 1997, p. 386 /. In various oriental psychotechnics, there is a concentration of attention on the spine, palms, feet, tip of the nose and almost all other parts of the body. In this way, a person's attention is, as it were, deliberately diverted from the heart, which, even in its unpurified state, can hear the echoes of God's call and can help a person come to God.

HEART PRAYER

So, the heart and only the heart is the main center Christian asceticism. Being in the heart is a distinctive feature of the third, heartfelt, image of prayer / christ .:. T. 2. 1993, p. 185 /. This highest, spiritual prayer cannot be understood by a limited rational mind: “The third image is truly marvelous and inconveniently understandable, and for those who do not know it experimentally, it is not only incomprehensible, but even seems incredible; and they do not believe that such a thing has happened in practice ”/ ibid, p.183 /.

The most important component of such a prayer is descent of the mind into the heart... Since the mind in its sinful state is in the head, and the work on its purification and enlightenment is possible only in the heart, then according to the patristic teaching it is necessary to bring it down from the head to the heart.

With a correct heart arrangement, “everything from a person’s head goes into the heart, and then, as it were, some clever light illuminates his entire interior, and whatever he does, says, or thinks, he does everything with full consciousness and full attention” / Christ. :. Issue 5. 1994, p. 228 /.

In Orthodox hesychasm, even technical techniques have been developed in detail to help the mind descend into the heart. This is how he describes the practice of this heart work (we quote the text in a modern transcription): “Therefore, sit in a secluded place, special and silent alone, in a secluded corner, and shut the door, and collect your mind from all temporary and vain things, also stick to your chest , and listen in your heart with your mind and your sensible eyes, and hold back a little your breath, and have your mind there, and try with your mind to find a place where your heart is, let your mind be perfect there: and in the beginning you will turn darkness there, and much blinding, and cruelty: afterwards, when you will do this attention continuously night and day, you will turn O miracles! incessant fun. When the mind has labored in this, it turns (he - Yu.Z.) a place of the heart, and then suddenly it will see something there that it has never seen, never knew. He will see the air that is found there inside the heart, and all himself bright, and full of all prudence and reasoning ”/ Christ .: Philosophy. 1793, s.or7 (73) /.

Of course, in this case, one cannot rely only on one technique: “The danger of psychotechnics, as long experience has shown, is that there are many people who attach too much importance to the method itself” / Christ .: Sophronius. 1994, p. 147 /. The most important thing is “consciously standing in the presence of the Lord with fear, faith and love” / Christ .:. Issue 2.194, p. 194 /.

It is necessary to pay attention to the heart correctly, without haste and without haste: “For the novice, the search for the place of the heart, that is, the search to discover in oneself the untimely and prematurely manifest action of grace, is the most erroneous undertaking, distorting the order, the system of science. Such an undertaking is a proud, insane undertaking! " / christ .:. T. 2.13993, p. 269-270 /.

The translation of the mind from head to heart in mental prayer should not be confused with eastern concentration - on the anahata heart chakra: the latter is initially figurative, while concentration in intelligent doing is spiritual, without images / poses. T. 1.1965, p. 45 /. In addition, they differ in the methods of concentration, and, more importantly, in their ultimate goals and objectives. Staying in the heart in Christianity is combined with prayer: “In the morning, make your mind go out of your head into your heart and keep it in it, and incessantly cry out intelligently and mentally: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! ..."/ Christ .:. About silence and prayer. 1900, pp. 227-228 /.

In addition, concentration in the heart has its own characteristics: “you need to be attentive in the heart or inside the Perseus, as other fathers say, namely - a little higher than the left breast, and there repeat the Jesus Prayer” / Christ .:. 1991, p. 210 /. These features must be known and taken into account, because they follow from the ascetic experience: "do not disdain this remark, no matter how it seems to you too simple and little spiritual" / ibid /. In patristic experience, of course, everything has its own importance and value.

But, in addition to focusing on the heart, one can also talk about gathering in heart. “Someone else said: my old man taught me first to accustom myself not to leave my cell with my thoughts; and what is in the cell ?! - prayer, reading, divine thinking, handicrafts. Then, he says, do not let them outside the body, occupying yourself with what is happening inside. Finally, hide, he says, in the heart "/ christ .:. Issue 6.14994, p. 116 /. The one who constantly collects himself in his heart receives a great advantage: “The collected one sees everything in himself. Whoever is in the center, looks at all the radii, sees everything in the circle exactly and as if at one time, and the one who comes out of the center sees in the direction of only one radius; ... who is collected inward, sees all the movements of his forces - he sees and can control "/ christ .:. 1908, p. 208 /.

Prayer collected and performed in the heart leads to integrity person. “In our prayer we strive to appear in the unity and integrity of our being; first of all, in the connection of the mind with the heart. To achieve this blissful combination of the two most important forces of our personality, we do not resort to any artificial means (psychotechnics); in the beginning we train the mind to stand attentively in prayer, as the fathers teach us; that is, carefully pronounce the Name of Jesus Christ and other words of the prayer. Concentrated invocation of the Name of God with a daily effort to live according to the commandments of the Gospel leads to the fact that both the mind and the heart naturally merge in a single action "/ Christ .: Archimandrite Sofroniy. 1994, p. 161 /. God's hand, which gives grace, leads to such a unity: "From the touch of a hand to my whole being, mind, heart and body united with each other, made up something whole, one" / christ .:. T. 2.13993, p. 316 /.

One of the main cracks that formed in a person after his fall from sin is the crack between mind and heart... The grace of God brings them together: “The separation of mind and heart, their opposition to each other, came from our fall into sin: naturally, Divine grace - when she stretches out her finger to heal a broken and fragmented person by his fall - to reunite his divided parts, to reunite mind not only with a heart and soul, but also with a body, to give them one correct striving for God ”/ christ .:. T. 5. 1993, p. 115 /. Here is how it is described in the patristic tradition: “Like a husband who was away from home, when he returns, he does not remember himself for joy that he again saw his children and his wife, embraces them and does not talk to them: so is the mind, when unite with the heart, filled with inexpressible sweetness and joy. Then he sees how truly the kingdom of heaven is within us ... "/ Christ .: Nicephorus the Solitary. 1900, p. 250 /.

Compound mind and heart gives a lot. It gives spiritual force: "Together with the union of the mind with the heart, the ascetic receives the strength to resist all passionate thoughts and passionate feelings" / Christ .:. T. 5. 1993, p. 115 /. With him comes the peace of Christ into the soul: “If you have felt that your mind has united with your soul and body, that you are no longer cut into parts by sin, but that you are one and the whole that the holy peace of Christ has instilled in you, then keep the gift of God with every possible diligence "/ christ .:. T. 2.13993, p. 231 /. This is the peace of Christ, which, as it were, returns a person to his integral state before the Fall.

But even when the mind and heart are united, the heart should take precedence: “Spiritual vision of spirits is accomplished by the mind and heart. Reveals the wicked spirits of the heart; the mind is not enough for this: it cannot distinguish by its own forces the images of truth from the images of lies, covered by the images of truth "/ christ .:. T. 3. 1993, p. 59 /.

No less important is the primacy of the heart in our everyday life: “All our actions, all our behavior with our neighbors must be governed by the faith that Jesus Christ called the entire human race to unity under one God. Whoever has translated this faith from a simple thought into the living content of the spirit, from the head to the heart, will meet in every person his, close, acquaintance, dear, brother "/ Christ .: Yurkevich. 1990, p. 356 /. But, understanding the importance and significance of the heart in our life is complicated by the fact that many people are very rational (cerebrocentric), or grounded-celiac (ventralocentric).

And in conclusion, here are some brief generalizations... First, of course, the concept of the heart carries a huge semantic load in the context of Christian culture. Without a thorough analysis of this concept, penetration into the world of Orthodox spirituality is impossible / Klimkov. 2000, p.77 /. Secondly, it is impossible to study and describe Christian anthropology without turning to the heart. And thirdly, the spiritual path of man to God is the purification of his heart and the struggle with the nesting in him after the fall serpent.

HEART AND PHYSICALISM

Of course, speaking of the heart, in the Christian spiritual tradition it is necessary to avoid oversimplification and physicalism... “When St. the fathers talk about the heart, then it is difficult, without having personal experience, to understand what exactly they mean here ”/ christ .: Hilarion schemon. 1912, p. 100 /. "Where sorrow, joy, anger, etc., respond and feel, there is a heart ... The bodily heart is a muscular heart-meat ... but it feels not meat, but a soul, for the feeling of which the meaty heart serves only as a tool, as the brain serves as a tool for the mind" / christ .:. Creations. Collected letters. Issue 5. 1994, p. 165 /. The heart is "the inner feeling of the soul, which constitutes the root and center of our spiritual life" / Christ .: Hilarion. 1912, p. 100 /.

By the heart we call the inner body of the body / christ .:. 1995, p. 44 /. “The heart is an inner person, or spirit, where self-awareness, conscience, the idea of ​​God with a feeling of dependence on Him all-round, all spiritual life is eternally valuable” / christ .:. 1890, p. 97 /.

HEART AND MIND

Separately, it must be said about the difficult relationship heart and mind(reason), which manifested itself in the historical development of Christianity. At the beginning, a heartfelt perception prevailed: “The initial period of the history of Christianity is characterized by an extraordinary abundance of charismatic phenomena. It was a time when every believer could see and feel the gifts of Christianity and feel the movement of the Divine Spirit in the most real forms of earthly life. This explains the characteristic phenomenon that for the first Christians, the evangelical salvation was not so much a matter of the mind as a fact of real life ”/ Christ .: Shushania hierod. 1914, p. 3 /. “But, as time went on, the more the religious upsurge among believers cooled ... Ancient Greek philosophy began to exert a strong influence on Christian theology. The center of this contact of Christian thought with antiquity was Alexandria ... "/ ibid /. “All this was reflected in the sphere of mysticism. The heart gave way to the supremacy of the mind. The center of religious life from the area of ​​feeling was transplanted into the area of ​​reason, and this laid the foundation for contemplative and speculative mysticism. The father of this direction is ... The highest expression of this direction has reached in the mystical system of Pseudo-Dionysius "/ ibid /. In contrast to this, another, no less powerful, trend arises in Christian mysticism. It found its spokesmen in the midst of Christian monasticism and is imbued with a vivid realistic spirit of understanding the Christian ideal. The forerunners of this trend are, and, in particular, / ibid, p. 4 /. At present, it can be noted that the predominance of the mind is more characteristic of Western Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism), and the orientation towards the heart is more characteristic of Eastern Christianity (Orthodoxy).

Ilchenko Yu.N.

Plan:

I. Introduction

It is important for God that our hearts are clean. In the Bible we read that David prayed: "Create a clean heart in me, O God" (Ps.50: 12)... Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount: (Matthew 5: 8)... If we have pure hearts, then we have a close relationship with God. A pure heart reaches out for God, thirsts for God, needs a pure Word.

II. Deceit defiles our heart Jer. 17: 7

Cunning is cunning, pretense, insincerity, hypocrisy, treachery. Deceit is associated with deception. Seduction is deception, deceit, betrayal. We are disingenuous when we call things not by their proper names, we do not want to admit our mistakes, we shift our blame onto others, we make excuses. God sees our heart and acts "With the pure, it is pure, but with the evil one, according to his craftiness" (Ps.17: 27)... There is a certain attitude in our heart: either sincerity or deceit in relation to both God and people.

III. When and how slyness appeared

Life. 3: 11-13 Crafty came from the crafty one. As soon as a person sinned, he began to deceive in order to justify himself. The nature of deceit is sin. There is no guile in God, He is always honest with us.

2 Sam. 12: 1-7 David sinned when he led an idle life. At the time when all the kings went out on the campaign, David stayed at home - a state of self-sufficiency, complacency. This condition led to sin, closed his heart. David does not see his problem, does not consider himself guilty and falls into the trap of seduction. He judges others and even gets angry. But the word spoken through the prophet pierced David's heart, he saw the abomination of sin, realized and repented. After that, his attitude and his prayer changed. (Ps. 138: 23-24)... As soon as we stop developing, learning and moving forward, we believe that what we have is enough for us - we begin to degrade. In order for us to stand in God and grow spiritually, we need to pray for our hearts, as David prayed.

IV. What deceit leads to

Revelation 3:17 A person loses the ability to see the real state of affairs, loses spiritual discrimination.

Proverbs 11: 3 Deceit leads to destruction, so do not compromise with your conscience, do not look for excuses and excuses. Jesus gives strength to be honest and sincere.

1. Deceit is associated with laziness. Matt. 25: 14-30 Through laziness, a person becomes bitter, unhappy, angry, blames, tries to shift the responsibility onto others. As a result, he even loses what he had. Laziness rules his life, dominates and keeps him. Proverbs 6: 9-12 Laziness and deceit leads to apathy, passivity, indifference, stops the movement of God through us. Jer. 48:10 Laziness and deceit leads to negligence, damnation, sterility.

2. Deceit is associated with unbelief. Heb. 3: 12-19 Cunning destroys our faith, leads to apostasy. It will not allow you to enter the promised land and receive God's blessing. In trials and difficulties, keep your faith.

Vi. What needs to be done

Proverbs 4:24 Reject and remove deceit from yourself: confess your sin, open your heart before God, repent.

Psalm 31: 2 Where there is no guile, there is blessing.

Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart, do not let the deceit throw stones at it.

Pray that God will test your heart, your motives, your thoughts, that your heart will be pure. Pray like David: Ps. 138: 23-24, Ps. 50:12

Sermon

David said: "Lord, create in me a pure heart" Ps.50: 12

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matthew 5: 8).

There is something amazing in a pure heart - this is an amazing blessing, so Jesus said - blessed, blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. A pure heart means you have a close relationship with God. A pure heart is drawn to God. A pure heart longs for God, it needs pure spiritual food, pure spiritual water.

What makes the heart unclean, what defiles our heart?

Jer. 17: 9 "The human heart is deceitful above all else and extremely depraved, who can recognize it?"... The Prophet says that the human heart is evil. Cunning spoils the heart. When we say: “Yes, this person is cunning,” we mean that this person is cheating, cheating.

Ozhegov's dictionary says: "to dissemble is to be cunning, to pretend to behave insincerely, to be a hypocrite." A crafty person thinks that no one will know or understand that he is disingenuous.

Jer. 17:10"I am the Lord, I penetrate into the heart and test the insides, in order to reward each one according to his way, and according to his fruits." Everything is open before God, but we often forget about it.

Deceit is a universal problem, it concerns all of us. Cunning often means self-justification. When we do not want to admit some of our guilt, a mistake, we find ourselves some kind of excuse. And it seems to us that there is no longer any problem, guilt, sin, because we ourselves have justified ourselves. Where and when did deceit come from.

Ps.17: 26 “You act mercifully with the merciful. With a sincere husband - sincerely, with a pure - pure, and with a crafty one, because of his craftiness "... There is a certain attitude in our heart. It can be a sincere attitude towards God and people, or it can be crafty. Jesus taught his disciples to pray.

Matthew 6:13 "Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one"... This is where deceit comes from - from the evil one. And who is the crafty one? This is the devil. He is the father of lies.

Genesis 3: 9-12 “Adam, where are you? (The Lord appears at the moment when Adam sinned.) I heard Your voice in the garden and was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid. " And the Lord said: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you not eaten from the tree from which I forbade you to eat? Adam said, the wife you gave me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate " To justify himself, a person immediately begins to dissemble.

We must deal with the situation, with deceit, because deceit is always a self-justification. When we do not want to admit our guilt, to repent, to say: "Yes, Lord, I am guilty, I have sinned, forgive me." When we want to shift our blame onto someone, find someone to blame, blame certain circumstances, that is, someone is to blame, but not me. This is deceit.

Genesis 3:13.“And the Lord God said to his wife: what have you done? My wife said - the snake deceived me, and I ate. " When did people begin to dissemble? When did they start cheating? When did they start self-justifying? When sin came. Therefore, we must understand that the nature of deceit is the nature of sin. There is no deceit in God, God never deceives us. God is always honest to us, always open and sincere. But deceit can happen to each of us, young believers, middle-aged believers, and elderly believers, pensioners.

2 Sam. 11: 1 "At the time when the kings went out [on campaigns] ... David remained in Jerusalem." When did King David sin? When the kings went to war, but King David decided that he had already fought, that he had all the medals, all the merits, and he didn’t need to go anywhere else, he didn’t need to move, he didn’t need to grow and develop. This is a state when we think that we no longer need anything, we don’t want anything, a certain self-sufficiency has come, like that of King David. He thinks: “I am already a king, what else is needed? I have everything, I achieved everything, I achieved everything. Why do I still need to pray, fight, be with God? Why should I move somewhere and prostrate? I don’t need anything else ”. This is a very dangerous syndrome.

Sometimes believers say, “I was already in Bible school, why should I go to a leadership school? Or I was already in a leadership school, why should I go to college to study? Why should I develop further at all? I am already enough self-sufficient, and I no longer need anything. " But as soon as we stop developing, we begin to degrade. When we grow, it means that we are drawn to God, we are moving, we are getting closer to Him. As soon as we say that we no longer need anything, then we begin to justify ourselves.

Jesus said: "You will be My disciples." But when? "When you deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Me" (Matthew 16:24). There is a difference between believers and disciples. The disciples followed Jesus, fulfilled His commandments, His orders. And those twelve disciples that Jesus had, who later became apostles, changed the whole world. The gospel has reached us - to the ends of the earth. Because Jesus had disciples, not just believers. Believers went, came and went, but thanks to the fact that there were disciples, people dedicated to Him, Jesus was able to carry out His will here on earth.

Cunning is always associated with laziness. We no longer want to do anything, we calm ourselves down, become narcissistic. And David also thought: “Why should I go somewhere to war? I have already fought, I am already a veteran of God's wars, I can no longer go anywhere, I can relax, I can do nothing ”.

It was at this moment, when David did nothing, finding an excuse for this, he saw a beautiful woman. He no longer looked at God, not at his wives, but in a completely different direction. In justifying himself, he fell into one sin, then into another. He sends Bathsheba's husband to the war, and the husband dies. Thus, his heart is closed, which is called a crafty deception, because the human heart is crafty and corrupted.

The danger of deceit is that a person ceases to see the obvious. He does not see his problem, his sin, what he needs to change, and what he needs to repent of. Repentance is a change in our mind. When we repent, our minds change and our behavior changes. But when a person is engaged in self-justification: “It's okay, nothing special has happened. Well, it happens that God loves me anyway. He will forgive me. " Finding such excuses for himself, David fell into a trap and so deeply that when the prophet Nathan came to him and told this story, he did not recognize himself.

2 Kings 12: 1-4 “In one city there were two people, one rich and the other poor; the rich man had a great many small and large livestock, and the poor man had nothing but one sheep, which he bought a small one and raised, and she grew up with him with his children; of his bread she ate, and drank from his cup, and slept on his breast, and was to him like a daughter; and a stranger came to the rich man, and he was sorry to take from his own sheep or oxen to prepare [dinner] for the stranger who came to him, but he took the poor man's sheep and prepared it for the man who came to him. "

David sits and listens to this story. But he was so mired in deceit, so justified himself that he was deceived, blinded and did not understand that it was about him.

2 Kings 12: 5 "David was very angry with this man and said to Nathan - As the Lord lives, the man who did this is worthy of death." The evil heart does not see a problem in itself, but it very easily sees problems in others and is ready to punish them "in full". When David heard of such a wicked man, resentment arose in him. At this moment he does not think of himself: "what a scoundrel he is, and what he has done."

2 Kings 12: 7 "And Nathan said to David - You are that man."... Nathan had to speak directly.

The word struck David. At that moment, he opened his heart, and the Holy Spirit could come in and sanctify him with His light. He saw all the abomination of the sin that he had committed. David repented before God. Most of all, he asked that God not take away the Holy Spirit - Whom he treasured so much, Whom he loved so much and grieved so much. What David did in secret, God said, would do in front of everyone.

Looking at David, we must understand that if we continue to engage in self-justification, that is, to be cunning, if we say that this is okay, that this is nothing special, then we will fall under the attack of the devil. We justify ourselves - we find some substitutes. We call black white, we call evil good. A person begins to invent some new signs for himself. He changes the inscription "sin" to "tolerance", "lust" to "love". Thus, a person, changing names, justifies himself.

Why are we talking about David? Because the enemy attacks each of us in this way. He wants, like the crafty one, to bring the seed of deceit into our lives, so that we find an excuse for ourselves, so that we do not want to change, grow, prostrate further, follow God.

Revelation 3:17 "For you say I am rich, I have become rich in nothing, I have no need, but you do not know that I am miserable, and miserable and poor, and blind, and naked." The Lord speaks to the Laodicean church, and He speaks to us, because we are His church. The problem with the Laodicean church was that they called black white.

People said that they no longer needed anything, they were already self-sufficient, everything was fine with them, wonderful. “Why do we need to move somewhere further, to grow somewhere, to conquer new territories”. But the Lord says: “But you do not know, because, constantly justifying yourself, you have lost your spiritual sight. You have lost the ability to distinguish between good and evil. And you don't see it. I say, I see you, that you are naked, beggar, pitiful, blind. And therefore, the Lord says, take from Me a special eye salve, anoint your eyes so that you can see. "

Slyness is slowly creeping in, it seems that there is nothing so terrible, but gradually we lose spiritual discrimination. Because we are self-justifying, we do not want to hear, we do not want to accept, we want to do everything our own way.

Proverbs 11: 3 "The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the craftiness of the treacherous will destroy them."... Cunning, if we continue to engage in self-justification, self-delusion, will destroy us. This will lead us to destruction.

Who are the upright ones? What do you think? Sincere, honest, straightforward soul, not double-minded, not some kind of hypocrite. So, this sincerity and honesty, it is written, will guide you, protect you, so that you do not deviate, and do not get into trouble, into destruction. Because, it is written, "the craftiness of the crafty will destroy them." Cunning will destroy. Friends, we must not deceive ourselves. You need to find honesty and call a spade a spade. Do not rewrite, do not change these tags, do not change the names. It will protect us. It's great to live under guard. Yes? Honesty guards will not allow you to compromise. She won't let you lie. Many people have replaced the word "lie" with the word "you know, it happened." And they come up with different excuses.

I remember when I was in school, we had some students there who were constantly late. They had such an illness, they were constantly late. And so, when they came for half a lesson, everyone sat and waited, well, what would they say now. Because they were amazing inventors. Each time they came up with some kind of story. And when they entered, everyone began to smile in anticipation of what we were about to hear. Which plane landed on the sidewalk, or which typhoon took you somewhere. Such interesting stories. But in fact, it was a lie, friends. Truth? Why did they tell this? To justify themselves and show that it was such a true story, and that is why they were late. But this is slyness. Very often many believers are cunning in this way.

When you ask: "Who will come and help to do something?" Many people say a very serious phrase: “I'm busy. I have no time". As at the kiosk, the window closes, and a sign appears: “She has gone to the base”. You look at the face and see: "I went to the base." But these people perfectly understand that if they needed it, they would definitely come and do something.

Many people are disingenuous, explaining why they do not serve, do not pray, do not want to get up early? There are many excuses, reasons are found, but to be honest, this is slyness. Because in the depths of their hearts, each of them knows and understands, he could do it, come, serve, pray. To do something, but he did not, because he was lying, found some kind of excuse, an excuse. Scripture tells us very simply that I "I can do everything in Jesus Christ who strengthens me"... And when we say - "I cannot," we are already cunning. Because the Word of God tells us very clearly and very clearly that I can do anything, because Jesus Christ gives me strength.

Further we will talk about the fact that deceit is always associated with unbelief. But now I want to say that guile is very much associated with laziness. Laziness and cunning they love each other. They adore each other. Why do many people lie? Because they don't want to do anything.

The famous parable of talents. We will open chapter 25. Gospel according to Matthew. The story is that the master gave one 5 talents, another two talents and a third one talent. And it is written that after a lapse of time, the master came and demanded an account from them. Friends, we should all know that each of us will give an account to the Lord. What did he do, what did he do. And what did he do with what the Lord commissioned him to do. And then the master comes and asks for an account from the one who had five talents. He made ten talents. "Well done. A kind and faithful slave. Enter into the joy of your Lord. " The one who had two, also multiplied, says, and to him: "enter into the joy of your Lord."

Do you know what I noticed? When we are obedient to the Lord, when our relationship with the Lord is full of faith, a person has a completely different appearance. The person who is always cunning is always displeased, pouty.

And now he comes to the third. Let's read Matthew 25: 24-25: “And the one who received one talent came up and said:“ Sir, I knew you, that you are a cruel man, you reap where you did not sow, and gather where you did not scatter, and, being afraid, went and hid your talent in the earth; here is yours. ” "... Well, it's just, in general, some kind of impudence. Some kind of rudeness. See what the evil heart does. How does it affect a person. He did nothing, and is most indignant. He is the most dissatisfied, the most evil, the most accusing one. And who is he blaming? He doesn't blame himself for not doing anything, right? This is the craftiness! Never admit your guilt. Always shift your responsibility to someone else. "You gave it to me, you are evil, you are bad, and I am good." “And I didn’t do anything, so because I’m good and you’re evil.” "Here, take yours!"

But do you know what the master answered him? The master said to him in response: "A crafty and lazy servant." See? It always goes along. Crafty and lazy. You are lazy, and therefore you are crafty. You justify yourself. You do not admit your mistakes, your guilt. You didn't because you didn't want to.

What happened to him? He lost everything he had. “So, take the talent from him and give to the one who has ten talents. For to everyone who has it, it will be given, and he will increase. And from those who do not have, what they have will be taken away. " (Matthew 25: 27-29)... Still, how good it is to have a pure heart, friends, how good it is not to dissemble. You will have success, blessings, development.

But if you are lazy, you will always be cunning. You will always find some excuse to do nothing. And you will lose everything that you have. And then he says: “And cast the worthless slave into the outer darkness. There will be - crying and gnashing of teeth. Having said this, Jesus cried out that whoever has ears to hear, let him hear. " (Matthew 25: 30-31).

Unsuitable - nobody needs it, good for anything. How scary to hear such words, right? You are not good for anything, nobody needs you. But what spoiled it? What spoiled this man? His laziness. His craftiness.

The Bible talks a lot about laziness. Especially in parables. And I just see how many people are enslaved by laziness. That is, laziness rules their lives. Not the Lord, not the Word of God, not faith. They are in slavery to laziness. And laziness dominates their lives. She holds them so that they do not go anywhere, do nothing, do not twitch anywhere. The power of laziness brings bondage.

See what the parables say. Ex 10: 4 "A lazy hand makes you poor"... We have nothing, nothing will work out, we will not have success, development, blessing. Because of which? Because of laziness. In Russia, this is probably a very big problem. The problem is that so many people here do not want to do anything. And this applies not only to unbelievers. There are a lot of believers who don't want to do anything. Therefore, now workers from different countries are coming to us. They come here, start gathering, build their own mosques. There are more and more of them. While they sweep our streets. But if it goes on like this, then we will sweep their streets. While they work for us, then we will work for them.

The Word of God tells us: "A lazy hand makes you poor, but the hand of the diligent makes you rich." Everything is very simple. There is no need to look for some super-deep revelations. "Lord, tell me what to do?" "Work!" “Do something,” says the Lord. Right? Laziness is not only manifested at work. It is transferred to the spiritual life. Why don't people want to pray? Laziness. But they find different objective reasons. Why don't they want to read the word? Laziness. Why don't they want to serve? Laziness. You see, what a huge trouble, what a huge power that controls people. So where do you get blessings, prosperity, where? No need to dissemble, just look and say: "Yes, I want to get rid of this vice, from this evil in my life." Because if you are not honest with yourself, then you will never show yourself honest, you will never change. You will not have this "methane" - change of mind.

Proverbs 6: 9: “How long will you sleep, you sloth? When will you get up from your sleep? "

Where does laziness usually lead? She always says: "Lie down, sleep, and everything will pass, sleep, my baby, sleep." God is not against sleep. We need sleep as rest. It doesn't say that we shouldn't sleep at all. But this is another lazy sleepiness. When you sleep, you do nothing. “You will sleep a little, take a little nap, lie down a little with your hands folded, and your poverty will come like a passer-by, and your need is like a robber. A wicked, wicked man walks with deceitful lips " (Proverb 6: 10-11).

See what happens, what guile does to us. It brings poverty, indifference. It brings passivity, apathy - you don't need anything, you don't want anything. I'll lie down a little, okay, I'll sit a little, I won't go a little, I won't do a little, and the result will come. Laziness is a robber, we should not take it lightly: "Well, what can you do, this lazy person." And somehow, you know, "Well, a lazy person ...", but we do not say: "Well, a murderer is a man, a suicide, so what's wrong with that." But, in fact, laziness is suicide. Right? We are somehow friendly to her. "Well, nothing, a little lazy, well, let it go, okay, let it die." No, we must see that laziness and deceit are evil, sin, this is from hell. It makes us poor, unhappy, prevents God from moving through us. Because we will only lie, sit, want to do nothing, and come up with various excuses for ourselves.

The Word of God says - “Most of all that is kept, keep your heart. Because from him are the sources of life. " Sources of life from the heart. But when we begin to justify ourselves, to be lazy, we do nothing, we, as if with our own hands, throw mud and stones at this source. Our justification is a stone, another justification, another stone, and another, and another, and another. And gradually, your heart becomes stone again. You fell asleep, blocked the source of life. And nothing can flow from there. When you repent, then you are liberated, you change. But when you justify yourself, you fall asleep again the source of life.

The Word of God tells us that "cursed is everyone who does the work of God with carelessness." Do you understand casually? It is written very clearly there. Whether we like it or not. It is written very clearly there. Cursed is everyone who does the work of the Lord carelessly. That is, as if doing, but was late somewhere for a service, for a rehearsal for 15 minutes, “Well, I came all the same! Here I have come. " Washed something, drove the dirt: “What's bad? But I did wash all the same. " I was carrying something, asked to convey it, dropped it, broke it: "But I tried, I was carrying it."

Many might think, “We have such a meticulous pastor. He gets to the bottom of us. He is all driving us somewhere, then go to study, then serve, then pray. " But I understand that I will stand before God myself, and God will ask me what I did here in this place. And if I do the Lord's work carelessly, I will also be cursed. Do you understand?

What is a curse? This is a closed sky. God cannot bless where the sky is closed. And I am hanging the lock with my laziness, slyness, and negligence, and heaven is closed to me. I can say I am a believer, I am a Christian. The same as Jesus said. Yes we are branches, we are on the vine. But you understand, you can be a believer, as it were, but sterile. Why? Because slyness, laziness block, and life does not flow. Therefore, it is written, “Keep your heart most of all that is kept. Because from him are the sources of life. " And when we justify ourselves, we drown out the sources of life. We drown out the blessings, we shut it down And then we say: “Why? Where is this blessing? " That is why it does not come, because we close it ourselves. We need to do with all our hearts, do as for the Lord. Then our level will rise. Not just how to shoot, how to photograph, how to stand there. And do something else casually. “Well, okay, it's okay, it's in church, it's not at work, they don't pay me money here. And so it will do. And thank God. May they still be grateful for this. " This approach is not acceptable to God. God does not accept such a ministry. Careless. I don't need that. God says: "I do not accept negligence."

In Christianity, there is often such a low standard, because there is negligence, we do not give our best 100 percent, we do not want to move, grow, develop. Don't, I don't need anything. But God says, "This is carelessness in your heart." We must eradicate negligence, throw it away, get rid of it. When you ask, "Who wants to be blessed?" We all want to be blessed. "Who will go there, who will go here?" Oops! "Someone, but not me." As they sang in some song. Yes?

Proverbs 23:24 "Cast away the deceitfulness of the mouth, and the deceit of the tongue, put far from you." You must reject guile when it comes to you.

See what else the Word of God says. Psalm 31: 2 "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile"... Blessed is the person who has no guile. So this is where, the blessing, it turns out to be buried. We often ask, "Lord, give me this, give me that." And it would be better to pray: “Lord, remove all guile from my life. I renounce all guile in my life. " And blessings will indeed be poured out to an abundance. Blessed is the man, it is written, who has no guile. That's who is blessed! And, thank God, that the Lord deals with our hearts. Truth? He looks at what is written on the heart. Right now we are sitting here, and where is the Lord looking? On the heart. What is there in my children’s heart is something. What are they sick with? How to treat them? How to get rid of this infection.

Hebrews 3 chapter. It tells the story of the Israelite people who left Egypt, but did not make it to the promised, blessed land. The apostle Paul here reminds Heb. 3:12 "See, brothers, that there is not in any of you a wicked and unfaithful heart." Look, then, watch yourself, your heart, so that there is no wicked and unfaithful heart in us. This is the other side of the crafty coin. We spoke of craftiness and laziness related. And here we are talking cunning and unbelief. So that "you do not have a wicked and unfaithful heart, so that you do not depart from the living God."

See where guile leads us. It leads us to unbelief. When we start to dissemble, we compromise with our conscience. “Okay, this is possible. Okay, this too, it's okay, and here, too, and so it will do. " And so, these compromises, guile destroy our faith. Faith depends on God, it is pure, it is holy faith. Faith says that I live before God. All I do, God sees, is in front of His eyes. How can I deceive God, deceive God? But cunning says: "It's okay, God does not see, God has turned away." And the person falls more and more into unbelief.

See what is written next. Heb. 3:13 “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is possible to speak now. So that none of you will be hardened by being deceived by sin. " We don't have to cover. Very often we cover up, we think that we are friends, if we do not tell the truth to our friends. No. It says here: "Instruct one another." And, first of all, if we are friends. If I see that my friend is living wrong, doing wrong, I must instruct him as a friend. This is my responsibility. Don't cover it up, "okay, sin, die." Am I a friend then?

"But admonish one another every day, lest one of you be hardened by being deceived by sin."... When a person falls into the trap of deceit, deception and self-deception comes. A person closes down, becomes hardened, he is not ready to hear, accept, repent of what he is doing. Because his heart is getting hard. Each time, justifying himself, he throws more stones. And his heart turns to stone.

What is written next? Heb. 3:14 "For we have become partakers of Christ, if only we firmly preserve the life we ​​began to the end."... How did we become believers? We became believers through faith. Because we have repented of our sins. And the Word of God says that we should go on with the life we ​​started. Why did we come to God? Because we felt disgusted with sin. We wanted to live a pure, holy life. But, after a while, people begin to justify their sins again. To agree again, to admit somewhere, to make compromises. And so the Word of God tells us - "We have become partakers of Christ." We are His body, His church, His people. What part of Christ did we receive? We received Faith, Hope, Love, Holiness. This is the part we received from Christ.

"If only we will firmly preserve the life we ​​have begun to the end." I sometimes hear about some problems, about the apostasy of people, and I say: “It's good that we repented and came to God. But you need to remain believers even before old age. Keep the faith. As the Apostle Paul said, it must be preserved through all these years, trials, difficulties. But if we compromise and justify ourselves, we will destroy that faith. We will lose her.

Heb. 3:15“As long as it says“ now ”. When you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as your fathers did when they murmured "... When bitterness comes, with this always comes discontent, a murmur against God, against the church, against people.

Hebrews 3: 17-19 “For some of them that heard murmured, but not all that went out of Egypt. With whom was He angry for forty years? Is it not against them that have sinned? Against whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest? How not against the disobedient? So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief. "... Friends for disbelief. Therefore, deceit is always associated with unbelief. It will not allow us to enter the promised land. It will not allow us to be in that place of blessing that God has prepared for us. Because God has prepared blessings for us. But for some reason, some entered there. They say: “Well, God blessed him, and what about me? I have been walking for so many years, but it doesn’t bless me. ” That's why God says, look into your heart. See what is in your heart hindering the blessings from coming. What is closing the heavens?

Blessed is the person, blessed is the person in whom there is no guile. We do not need to dissemble, pretend, be hypocritical. It is necessary to call a spade a spade. If there is a problem, say, "There is a problem, there is a sin." Don't hide, don't be like a turtle. The turtle, when it sees a problem, hides in its shell. And nothing can pierce this shell. So people sometimes, instead of opening themselves, hide in their shells. And it’s already useless: do not stab, he sits in his shell, and nothing will help.

Let's go back to David when he fell into sin. It was a terrible sin in reality. It was a sin of adultery, a sin of murder. But when he realized that he did not do everything right as a believer, he repented of his sin.

When we read the psalms, they come in order. The psalms that David wrote after his fall are different from those previously written. Look how he began to pray. Psalm 139: 23-24 “Try me God and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if I am not on a dangerous path and guide me on the eternal path "... I would ask, "How many people pray this kind of prayer for God to test their heart?" We mainly pray that the Lord will give us something. I think there are not many people here who would pray like this: "Lord, try my heart." Someone will say: “I didn’t even think about it at all. I thought I had all hallelujah. "

Many people think so until something happens. David, perhaps, also thought: “I am David Davidovich Davidov. I sing songs from morning to evening. I am at war, I am fighting. " Some kind of exaltation, most likely, began to come, self-sufficiency. That’s all, where is it even further, if I’m already David. Much wider, richer and more. But when this problem came, he realized that we are all human beings, human beings. That the human heart is crafty and utterly depraved. And then he began to pray. And in this psalm it is written that “try the Lord, try me God. My thoughts, motives, am I on a dangerous path. " This is, indeed, an indicator of deep remorse in his life. He no longer wanted to get there, he did not want to commit these sins. And he understood that everything is in the heart. Therefore, he began to pray for his heart constantly.

After that, what is the famous psalm? Psalm 50. "Create a clean heart in me and renew a right spirit in me, God." His prayers changed when he realized that the human heart is crafty and utterly wicked. And he began to pray that in his heart there was always purity.

Cleanliness is what the Lord wants. That is why Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart." Who Receives the Blessings? Pure in heart. For they will see God. Why people don’t want to pray, they don’t want to change, because there are so many stones in their hearts. There is so much in the heart that prevents blessings from flowing. Therefore, we, the church, need to pray a lot, as David prayed. For God to create a pure heart in us. For God to test our heart - if we are on a dangerous path. Because sometimes we think that nothing will happen to me. No, we need to understand, we need to depend on God, pray and watch the state of our hearts. Because the sources of life are from the heart. Hallelujah.

Encourage class members to be chaste in thought and deed and to repent of sins.

Preparation for the lesson

Prayerfully study the following scriptures:

1. 2 Samuel 11. David commits adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah (11: 1–5). David cannot hide his sin (11: 6-13). He orchestrates Uriah's death in battle (11: 14-17). David marries Bathsheba and has a son (11: 26–27);

   2 Samuel 12: 1-23. The prophet Nathan makes David understand the gravity of his sins through a parable (12: 1–6). David is told that he will be punished for his sins (12: 7-14; note that in Joseph Smith's translation of verse 13, Nathan says, “The Lord has not taken away your sin; you will not die.” First son of David and Bathsheba dies in infancy (12: 15–23);

   Psalm 50. Penitent David seeks forgiveness.

If you are using extra concentration techniques, bring a spool of thread and scissors.

Concentration of attention

To start the lesson, you can use the methodology below (or come up with your own).

Have the person who wants to stand in front of the class and stretch their arms forward. Loosely tie both of his wrists with a string. Explain that this thread represents an impure thought. Then the student must break the thread by sharply spreading his arms out to the sides.

What should we do if we have impure thoughts? (We must get rid of them immediately.)

Invite the student to extend their arms again. Tie them together several times to make the thread harder to break. Then ask him again to try to break the threads. Repeat until the increasing number of turns will no longer allow you to free your hands.

What happens when we allow impure thoughts to linger in our minds?

Free the student's hands by cutting the threads with scissors. Explain that part of this lesson will address the consequences of living with impure thoughts. The lesson will also discuss how you can free yourself from impure thoughts.

Scripture Discussion and Application

As you teach the following scripture passages, discuss their application to daily life. Encourage class members to share experiences in their own lives that relate to these scripture principles. Since it will be difficult to ask all questions or cover all aspects of the lesson, after prayer select those that best suit the needs of your class members. You may need to adapt some of the questions to fit the student's life circumstances.

1 Samuel 25 through 2 Samuel 10 provide important information about the historical events of this period. Since these chapters are not covered in the manual, you can summarize them as follows:

Soon after David saved Saul's life, Saul made another attempt on his life. Again David had the opportunity to kill the king, but he refused to do so. Wars continued between the people of Judah and neighboring nations, and in one of the battles Saul and Jonathan were killed. David became king after Saul and one of the greatest kings in Israel's history. He united the tribes into a single people, secured the protection of the land promised to his people, and organized a government based on the law of God. However, the last 20 years of his life have been clouded by the sinful decisions discussed in this lesson.

1. David commits adultery with Bathsheba and arranges the death of Uriah, Bathsheba's husband.

Briefly summarize and discuss the content of 2 Samuel 11.

David was walking on the roof of his house, saw Bathsheba and was tempted to commit adultery with her (2 Samuel 11: 2). What should David have done when he saw Bathsheba? What did David do that led him to sin with her? (See 2 Samuel 11: 2-4.) What might lead people to be tempted to commit such sins? What can we do to avoid the temptation to commit such sins?

You can use a chart on the chalkboard to list student responses, a sample of which is shown below. Possible answers:

You can use the first methodology below to discuss ways to drive out impure thoughts.

What did David try to do when he learned that Bathsheba was having a child? (See 2 Samuel 11: 6-13. He tried to bring home Uriah, Bathsheba's husband. Then one could say that the child would be from Uriah.) Why did David's plan fail? (See 2 Samuel 11:11. Uriah did not return home then because he was devoted to his brothers in arms and felt he should stay with them.)

What more grievous sin did David commit in trying to hide the consequences of his immorality? (See 2 Samuel 11: 14-17.) Who do you think David was trying to hide his sin from? How do our contemporaries try to hide their sins? What happens when we try to hide our sins?

“Do not be comforted by the fact that your sins are unknown to others. This is what an ostrich does, hiding its head in the sand. He sees only darkness and feels well hidden. In fact, it is visible to absolutely everyone. Likewise, all of our actions are visible to Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son. They know everything about us ...

If you have committed a grievous sin, you will not find any lasting satisfaction or peace in it. Justification of the sin, its concealment, perhaps, will create the appearance of a solution to the problem, but in reality it is not. The tempter will make your most outrageous behavior public at the most inopportune moment. Lies will weave an even stronger web, a trap in which Satan will catch you and destroy you ”(in Conference Report, Apr. 1995, 103; or Ensign, May 1995, 77).

You can use the second technique to illustrate the dangers of hiding our sins.

2. David is told that he will be punished for his sins.

Briefly summarize and discuss 2 Samuel 12: 1-23.

What parable did the prophet Nathan tell to show the Lord's displeasure with David? (See 2 Samuel 12: 1-4.) What did David think of the rich man's actions toward the poor described in the parable? (See 2 Samuel 12: 5–6.) In what ways was David's behavior similar to that of a rich man? (See 2 Samuel 12: 7-9.) How did David respond to the Lord's rebuke? (See 2 Samuel 12:13.)

Why do you think David was unable to acknowledge that the rich man in the parable represented him? Why is it sometimes difficult for us to admit our own sinfulness?

What did David's sins lead to? (See 2 Samuel 12: 10-14. These prophecies are fulfilled in verses 15-23 et seq. 2 and 1 Kings; see also D&C 132: 39. Note that adultery - this is a grave sin, but David lost the opportunity of his exaltation because the Lord held him responsible for the death of Uriah.)

President Marion J. Romney said: “David ... although he was held in high esteem by the Lord (it was even written about him that he was 'after the heart' of the Lord), he nevertheless fell into temptation. His lack of chastity led to murder, and as a result, he lost his families and exaltation ”(in Conference Report, Apr. 1979, 60; or Ensign, May 1979, 42).

What are some of the direct consequences of immorality? What will be the long-term consequences for someone who does not repent?

3. A repentant David seeks forgiveness.

Briefly summarize and discuss the content of Psalm 50.

In a psalm addressed to the Lord, David expressed his desire to help others repent, saying: “I will teach the wicked in your ways, and the wicked will turn to you” (Psalm 50:15). Even though David lost his exaltation through his orchestrated destruction of Uriah, we can learn from his repentance when he sought forgiveness for the sin of adultery. His words in Psalm 50 tell us a lot about true repentance. As you study the Psalms with the class, discuss how David's example of repentance can be applied to our lives.

In Psalm 50, David first acknowledges God and His mercy (Psalm 50: 3). David also confesses his sinfulness (Psalm 51: 3-5). Why is it important when we repent of our sins that we acknowledge the greatness of God and our own sinfulness?

What are we obliged to sacrifice in order to receive the remission of our sins? (See Psalm 50: 18-19.) What do you think it means to have a “contrite and contrite heart”?

How can our sins be “always before [us] until we are forgiven”? (See Psalm 50: 5.) How does this change after forgiveness? (See Psalm 50:12; Alma 36: 17-19.) How does God feel about our past after He forgives us? (See Psalm 50:11; Isaiah 43:25; D&C 58:42.)

David described forgiveness as cleansing (Psalm 50: 3-4, 9, 11-12), restoration (Psalm 50:14), and deliverance (Psalm 50:16). Why is this a correct description of the blessings of God-given forgiveness?

Conclusion

Explain that no matter how lucky or strong we are, we are all subject to temptation. Encourage class members to do their best to remain chaste in thought and deed. Express your love for Jesus Christ and your gratitude for His Atonement. Testify that through the Atonement, our sins can be forgiven.

Additional suggestions for teachers

1. Liberation from impure thoughts

Share a quote from Elder Boyd K. Packer in your own words about freeing ourselves from unclean thoughts that have entered our minds against our will.

“The mind of a person can be compared to a stage. While we are awake, the curtain is raised. There is always some action going on on the stage. It can be comedy, tragedy, interesting or boring, good or bad, but this action always fills the stage of our mind.

Have you noticed how dark, low thoughts can creep out from behind the curtains and attract your attention in the midst of any performance and without your intention? These dark thoughts will try to push everyone into the background. If they are allowed to continue, all virtuous thoughts will leave the stage. They will leave you because you agreed to it, succumbed to the influence of unrighteous thoughts.

If you give in, they will act out whatever they want for you on the stage of your mind, as long as you have enough patience. They can represent scenes of bitterness, jealousy, or hatred. They can be vulgar, immoral, even depraved. With your permission, once they have taken over the stage, they will invent the smartest reasons to keep your attention. They can arrange everything very interestingly, even convince you of their own innocence, because they are just thoughts.

And what do you do at a time when the stage of your mind is occupied by the rams of unrighteous thinking - grayish, almost pure in appearance, or so disgusting that there is no doubt about it? If you can control your thoughts, you will overcome habit, even harmful personal habits. If you learn to tame them, you will find a happy life.

This is what I want to tell you. Choose from sacred church music a hymn that you love, whose words are inspiring and the music is reverent, a hymn that evokes feelings akin to inspiration. Think carefully about each word. Memorize it. Even without musical training, you can mentally sing some simple hymn.

Now use this hymn as a guide for your thoughts. Let this be the direction in which to go in extreme situations. Whenever you find questionable actors creeping out of the depths of your mind onto the stage of your mind, play this tape back. Under the influence of sublime and pure music, base thoughts will be removed with shame. She will completely change your mood. As the hymn is uplifting and pure, vile thoughts will disappear. For as long as virtue has nothing to do with immorality, vice cannot bear the presence of light.

You will find yourself humming this melody to yourself almost automatically at the right time. Tracking the path of your thoughts, you will find some kind of influence on you from the side of the world, which caused an unworthy thought on the stage of your mind, and the music will begin to sound almost automatically.

Having learned how to clear the stage of your mind of unworthy thoughts, support it in the constant study of worthy ones. Change your environment so that you are surrounded by something that inspires goodness and evokes uplifting thoughts. Deal with the righteous! " (in Conference Report, Oct. 1976, 99-100).

2. The danger of trying to hide our sins

In trying to hide his sin of adultery, David committed an even worse sin. To discuss the dangers of trying to hide our sins, compare sin to a pile of filth. Draw this idea on the chalkboard as shown in the first picture.

What happens if we try to mask a small pile of dirt? (The pile will become larger and more prominent. Draw this as shown in the second image.)

How is trying to hide our sins like trying to hide a pile of dirt? (If we try to hide our sins, sinfulness becomes more and more serious.)

What should we do if we don't want people to see a pile of dirt? (We must clean up the dirt, not hide it.) How can we get sin out of our lives?

3. “Amnon hated her with the greatest hatred” (2 Samuel 13:15)

2 Samuel 13 tells the story of Amnon, the son of David, and Tamar, the daughter of David. Amnon felt attracted to Tamar and forced her to commit adultery with him.

2 Samuel 13: 1 says that Amnon loved Tamar. How did Amnon's feelings for Tamar change after he sinned against her? (See 2 Samuel 13:15.) Why is it that hatred, rather than love, occurs most often in relationships between people who violate the laws of morality?

President Gordon B. Hinckley said: “I heard Elder John A. Widtsoe ... say, 'I saw a young man and woman who break the laws of morality soon begin to hate each other.' I've seen the same thing. These may all begin with words of love, but then words of anger follow ”(“ True to the Faith, ”Ensign, June 1996, 5).

4. The hope of repentance

“The heart-wrenching thought that a mistake (or even a whole series of mistakes) makes repentance impossible does not come from the Lord. He said that if we repent, He will not only forgive our sins, but He will also forget them and will not remember our sins anymore ... Repentance is like soap, it can wash away sin. Deeply ingrained dirt may require a stronger remedy for its complete elimination, but it will be eliminated ”(in Conference Report, Apr. 1989, 72; or Ensign, May 1989, 59).

Light of the Gospel - I will not hide from you that your letter worried me. You write that in my reasoning about prayer I forget about sinners. "Undoubtedly because," you add, "you do not deem them worthy to pray." May the Lord save me from such pharisaism! I myself am a sinner and I turn to my sinner brothers to call them to conversion through prayer - I only think of them!

Yet I began to reflect on the way in which I speak about prayer. It seemed to me that in order to avoid the misunderstanding that happened to you, I should more often refer to the wonderful passage from St. Luke - on the parable of the prodigal son. Tormented by hunger, the unfortunate young man says to himself one fine day: "I will get up, I will go to my father." And the father, who every day went out to the place from where the road was visible, noticed him from afar, "ran to meet him," "fell on his neck," and "kissed him." This is a prayer: a moment that is especially favorable in order to realize your poverty and turn away from it, and turn to God; the meeting place of the Father and His children. Mutual embrace of mercy and poverty, joyous holiday of return.

Understand: it is not the son who is purified, sanctified by himself, and only then he goes to look for his father. Take a closer look: he approaches, being unclean, he is dressed in disgusting rags, and only his father's care cleanses him, transforms, clothe him in festive clothes. In order not to speak allegorically - the cleansing and sanctification of the sinner is not the work of man, but the work of God: "Create a clean heart in me, O God" (Ps. 50). It is a gift from God, an undeserved gift, which a person will never be able to be worthy, and which is given to him if he dares to believe in him. And this is precisely what is precious in the eyes of the Lord: when a person has such a high idea of ​​his God that he does not hesitate to believe in His mercy. And it is just that it is very grievous in the eyes of the Lord that the eldest son fell into temptation because of mercy, that he saw in him only a loss to his dignity, an insult to justice.

And the Pharisaic race will never be able to understand this. For for him, a person sanctifies himself through his efforts and his moral courage, and, as a result, appears before God already worthy, as he believes, to communicate with Him, to be close to Him. On the contrary, in the congregation of the saints "there will be more joy over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent" (Lk 15.7); this congregation is in awe at the sight of mercy pouring out of the heart of God every time a sinner appears before Him, trusting in Him, daring to believe in the "folly of God."

Bringing your poverty so that mercy encompasses her - such is the prayer of the sinner, such is the prayer of all of us, for "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us," asserts St. John (cf. 1 Jn 1.8).

O. Henri Caffarel

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." Matthew 5: 8.

An unexpected statement. I never imagined that there is a pure heart. Although the expression "from a pure heart" is quite common. But everyone understands that this is a figure of speech. The statements about his confession, they say, he gave a "frank confession", is more ironic than reflects reality. And perhaps by introducing such a saying, they deliberately kill the likelihood of a pure heart. Indeed, in combination with the deeds of the exposed criminal, a pure heart is nonsense. The bliss of a pure heart is beyond doubt. It is not in vain that David cries out so, weeping before God. " Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within me". Ps.50: 12. The thirst for cleanliness happened, arose. And the anticipation of bliss from touch, even mental to purity, is familiar. Happened. After all, somewhere in the depths of the soul there is no, no, and there is a longing for the purity of the heart, the purity of memory, the purity of thoughts. It happens, after all, that insight descends on the soul, the soul triumphs, shining with unearthly light, singing, ready to ascend, and obliging memory suddenly throws a dirty, heavy, poisonous pebble. Where are you, "With a pork snout in a Kalashny row"? And the song will cease. And the eyes will grow dull. And the face, that's just blossoming, turns into a snout. As usual. This is familiar. Gloomy. Let's go. Hopelessly. “Well, let it be, I will be like everyone else and as always,” I console myself mentally, trying to quickly take on the color of the surrounding world, masking the thought of purity that had arisen with pretense rudeness. Here is the Chekhov formula; - “In a person, everything should be fine. And face and clothes and soul and thoughts ”is forwarded to waste paper.

However, now, before Jesus, everything has changed. Jesus Himself, pronouncing these Beatitudes - unearthly, ascended over us, like the Lord who descended from heaven, possesses a kind of superknowledge, in Whom is hidden the essence of everything, the essence of life, the essence of happiness, the essence of tears, suffering, forgiveness and love carries away so much that you do not feel not only the ground beneath you, but your own body. The power emanating from the Teacher permeates both soul and spirit. And now he had just comprehended meekness, and thirsted for righteousness, experiencing true delight, as the Teacher suggested the first lesson in ministry. The gracious are blessed. Raising to such a state that it is impossible to transfer. Humiliated and insulted yesterday, and all my life, snapping at everything and everyone, imitating this cruel world, filled with malice and hatred, and who did a lot of evil, suddenly you rise above evil, free yourself from evil, tamed by the love of God, you do not respond to evil with evil, but by grace, forgiveness, love. Indeed, truth liberates. Truth makes you strong. After all, only the strong who possesses the truth can have mercy. I remembered the ancient song of the Israelite psalmist. “Mercy and truth will meet, truth and peace will kiss each other; truth will arise from the earth, and truth will come from heaven. " Psalm 84: 11,12. Prophetic proclamation of things to come, fulfilled in Christ. In this incredible union of truth and mercy, truth and peace, the secret of purity of heart is hidden. The earthly was sanctified by the heavenly. God has appeared in the flesh!

I remember being given recipes for cleansing the heart. You need to do this and that, and be sure there, in the midst of those, so that there are no others, observing the exact time and saying the right words. Conditions sometimes changed, I forgot the recipes, doubted their effectiveness, seeing how unclean the doctors were, but the desire to find happiness, bliss, again and again attracted me in search. Bible. It says it all. Ancient Israel received such a recipe from the Lord himself. The commandments of the Holy Law written by the Lord on the tablets. Their fulfillment, strict adherence to God's instructions gave the Israelites hope to be in the presence of God, to see God. But alas. “The Holy Spirit shows that the way into the sanctuary is not yet open while the former tabernacle is still standing. She is an image of the present tense, in which gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make the one who offers perfect in conscience. " Hebrews 9: 8.9. This is the verdict. Gifts and Sacrifices Cannot Perfect the Conscience of the One Who Offer them . However, do not despair. The message of God's apostle leads me straight to Jesus Christ. “Christ, the High Priest of future blessings, having come with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made by hands, that is, not with such an arrangement, and not with the blood of goats and bulls, but with His own blood, once entered the sanctuary and acquired eternal redemption. “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, through sprinkling, sanctifies the defiled, so that the body may be clean, how much more is the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Spirit offered Himself, blameless, to God, will clear our conscience from dead works, for serving the living and true God". Heb. 9: 11-14.

This is where the secret of the purity of the heart is hidden. Christ is not just a cool Teacher. He's not just a popular preacher. There were always enough teachers and moralizers. Christ is the Son of God. Christ is God who came in the flesh. He really is a man from heaven! (1 Cor.15: 47) The Son of God Christ sacrificed Himself! He gave His Life for us. He gave His Blood for us! Having become a sacrifice of atonement, He was resurrected! He's alive! He conquered death! And He shares His holy life, giving life to us. And His holy Blood is now given to me. This is where the secret to finding a pure heart lies. His life becomes my life. His connection with the Father becomes my connection with the Father. The holy Apostle John says about this in his epistle: “Beloved! We are now children of God, but it has not yet been revealed what we will be. We only know that when it is revealed, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is. " 1 John 3: 2. We are already children, we already see the Lord, but only spiritually. We also have to go through the process of purification, achieve likeness and see the Lord as He is! Somewhere vaguely there arises an understanding of that amazing act of replacing, killing me old, carnal, and re-creating a new me, as the holy Apostle Paul says about this: “ I no longer live, but Christ lives in me"! Gal. 2:20. This understanding is the result of realizing one's spiritual poverty, the result of tears, humility and meekness. After all, I went through all the stages of spiritual experience not in my own imagination, not in the laboratory of a psychologist, but next to Jesus, listening to His words and observing His deeds. The process of cleansing the heart was accomplished along with the fulfillment of the commandments of Jesus. And spiritual sight was restored, reaching the ability to see God in Him, first of all in Him. I remembered the prophet Isaiah. He saw God in a vision. Cherubim around. And the statement: " The whole earth is full of His glory ”! Is. 6: 3. And I was afraid. Why was he afraid? Realized my impurity. And he revealed to us that our impurity hides God from us. " And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost! For I am a man with unclean lips, and I live among the people also with unclean lips - and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. " Is 6: 5. All I've seen before is impurity. The uncleanness of the people. Its own uncleanness, personal. Everything is impurity. And what a miracle! The Lord does the cleansing, and Isaiah sees the Lord. Sees His glory. Hears His voice. Announces His righteousness. In the midst of human evil, he sees God's hand and calls on the people to follow the ordinances of God. The vision of the ancient prophet dissolved and was transformed into the reality of the world around me. Since childhood, surrounded by unbelief, anger, my heart was rammed by the propaganda of godlessness, praising violence, lies and unbelief. This is how I saw the world. Wars. Orphanhood. Debauchery. Bitter tears of widows. Triumph of lawlessness. The world is like a prison. Hospice. Cemetery. The kingdom of death. And here's a miracle. Christ stands before me. He overshadowed everything, and everyone. He is in everything and in everyone. I look at the world, and I see God in everything. Here is Cain, plotting to kill his brother Abel. And next to God, convicting him. Here is Abraham laying his son Isaac on the altar, and the Angel of God stopping Abraham's hand. "God will provide himself a sacrifice"! And here she is Golgotha. And the Son of God, who sacrificed Himself. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son! A dirty heart sees in Him a pretender to the royal throne. A pure heart sees in Him the Savior. And like Thomas he exclaims: "My Lord, and my God!" The heart has changed. A pure heart has pure vision. I go to the hospital. Helpless people, disfigured by disease. I lean over them. And I see Christ. I go into the dungeon. Gloomy cells, everything is dirty, gray, there is no light, there are prisoners on the bunk with empty eyes. I lean over them and see Christ! Beggar, crippled, sitting in an underpass. How many times have I passed by with my head raised. I do not see. I can not hear. And now I suddenly saw. I came up. Bent over, I see Christ. And I read the amazing words of the Lord. " For I was hungry, and you gave me food; thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me. " Then the righteous will answer Him: “Lord! When we saw you hungry and fed you? Or thirsty - and watered? When we saw you a stranger and accepted? Or naked - and clothed? When we saw you sick or in prison and have they come to you? "And the King will answer them:" Truly, I say to you, since you did this to one of these least of my brothers, you did it to me“. Matthew 25: 35-40.

« The pure in heart will see God". Everyone dreams of seeing God. Even the most convinced atheist, in the heat of controversy, more than once, as an argument of the last hope, says: "Show me God and I will believe." This is the position of the ruler of the world. Such a proud narcissism. As if the fate of the world is in my hands. And the fate of God, to be or not to be, depends on me. A hard-minded heart, a heart afflicted by sin cannot see God. Isn't that why even among Christians there are so many cruel judgments, hatred, divisions and wars? The heart is unclean. The unclean at heart does not see God in his brother. The unclean at heart does not see God in the church. The unclean heart does not see God anywhere and in anything and in anyone. And the Lord speaks. “Wash yourself, cleanse yourself; remove your evil deeds from my eyes; stop doing evil; learn to do good, seek the truth, save the oppressed, protect the orphan, stand up for the widow. Then come and let us judge, says the Lord. - If your sins are like crimson, I will whiten like snow; if they are red like purple, I will whiten like a wave. " Isa. 1: 16-18. How to cleanse yourself? The bath does not help. Dry cleaning doesn't help. And then, almost in despair, I, like David, turn to Jesus Christ: “ Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. " And, lo and behold! It's incredible. All the dirt is gone. All evil has disappeared. Heart, I have never experienced this, my heart is free, my heart is grateful, my heart rejoices and sings. Bliss. Yesterday I thought of God as an unknown, distant, terrible power. I even ran away from the thought of God. Now God has revealed himself to me as loving, forgiving. God giving life. God the Father! God is love.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.