My Body His Temple

MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE a 14-day personal Bible study on purity for kids

© On Tablets of Human Hearts Heidi Kreider April 2007

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE Table of Contents DAY DAY DAY DAY DAY DAY DAY DAY DAY DAY DAY DAY DAY DAY

1: What is “purity”? 2: Why purity? 3: Think on these things. 4: Be careful little eyes what you see. 5: Be careful little ears what you hear. 6: The words of my mouth. 7: The meditations of my heart. 8: Hiding God’s Word. 9: A little review. 10: My hands ~ His praise! 11: Run, Joe run! 12: But I’m only a kid. 13: I’ve sinned, now what? 14: Blessed are the pure in heart.

VERSES TO MEMORIZE GLOSSARY

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE day one Introduction: What is “pure”? What is “purity”? Find Psalm 119:9-16 in your own Bible. Please write just verse 9 below. Psalm 119:9 _______________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ How can a young man keep his way pure? ___________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What is “pure”? What is “purity”? Write your own definition for pure and purity or look them up in a dictionary and write the definitions below. Pure = __________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Purity = __________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ I like this definition for “pure”-- “clean, spotless or unblemished”. When you see a glass filled with “pure water”, all you see is water. You don’t see anything coloring the water, floating in the water or floating on top of the water. “Pure water” is so clear that you can see right through it. “Unblemished” means that it has no spots, stains, wrinkles, or anything added to it. In the dictionary, “purity” means “the condition of being pure”. So, for us “purity” could mean “the condition of being clean, spotless and unblemished”. These definitions of pure and purity will work well for our Bible study MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE. TEMPLE For this study you will need a Bible (preferably NIV), a dictionary, and the desire to learn from God’s Word! The world we live in today is wicked and full of sin! It seems like everywhere you look, listen, and live, evil wants to dirty or stain our hearts. God commands us to keep our hearts pure. He also commands us to keep our bodies pure. We will be studying why God commands us to be pure and how we can live lives of purity in our world today. Living a life of purity is not easy but it is the best thing to do. Your assignments for today are to write the definitions for pure and purity in the glossary at the back of this study and to write out the verse below. Psalm 51:10 _______________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE day two Why purity? Do you remember our definition of purity from yesterday’s lesson? If you need to look back, you may. Please write the definition below. Purity = _______________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Purity means “the condition of being clean, spotless and unblemished”. I had you write that definition in your glossary yesterday and on today’s lesson because I hope you really learn it. Perhaps, even memorize it! Before we can explore how to be pure in all areas of our lives, we need to know why we need to be pure. Do you have any idea why God would call us to purity? __________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Look up Isaiah 43:1-7 in your Bible. Answer the following questions. Who created you? (v. 1) ____________________________________________ Who says, “you are mine”? (v. 1) _____________________________________ Who did God create for His glory? (v.7) _______________________________ Now look at 1 John 3:3. Fill in the blanks. 1 John 3:3 “____________________ who has this hope in him ______________ himself, just as ________ is _________________.” Who is pure? __________________________________________________________ That’s right! John says “he is pure” and the “he” John is speaking of is Jesus Christ! God created us for His glory and God is pure! Do you think a pure God can have fellowship (a relationship or friendship) with a person who is dirty, stained or blemished? NO! Find Habakkuk 1:13 in your Bible (Habakkuk is near the end of the Old Testament). Fill in the blanks for the first sentence of this verse. Habakkuk 1:13 “Your eyes are too __________________ to look on __________; you cannot tolerate _________________.” Habakkuk tells us that God can not tolerate evil! We can not have a relationship with God until we are pure. God is so pure and so holy (set apart) that He requires the blood of pure sacrifices to pay for sins. In the Old Testament, the people would offer spotless lambs to be sacrificed for their sins. By offering this sacrifice, they could have a relationship with God. God’s plan for redemption (or saving) of man’s sin was not complete until God Himself came to earth as a man and died as man. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He died for all people’s sins, including people who had not even been born yet. Find 1 Peter 1:18-19 and fill in the blanks, “________ were redeemed…with the precious _____________ of Christ, a ___________ without ____________ or defect.” Once Jesus gave His blood as our sacrifice, He gave us a way to be saved of our sins. If we are willing to accept Jesus’ gift of salvation, His blood can wash our hearts and make them pure again. Isn’t in wonderful that God made a way to have fellowship or a relationship with Him?! 4

If you have not asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and wash your heart and make it pure, this entire Bible study will not be for you. You can not try to live a life of purity without God in your heart. Look at John 15:5. Jesus said, “apart from _______________ you can do ___________________.” If you want to ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and wash your heart, please do so! You can ask me or your parents for help. If you have already accepted Jesus as your Savior, Jesus has washed your heart with His blood. You have been redeemed or saved by Jesus! You can live a life of purity or a life of being clean, spotless and unblemished with Jesus’ help! Ephesians 3:17 says, “so that ____________________ may _____________ in your _______________ through faith.” Christ dwells or lives in your heart! Find 1 Corinthians 3:16 in your Bible and write it out. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ If you look at 1 Corinthians 3:17 it says “for God’s temple is _______________ and ____________ are that temple.” He lives in me and if you have accepted Him as your Savior, He lives in you. A pure God must have a pure or holy temple. Holy means “perfectly pure”. Look at 1 Peter 1:15-16, “But just as _____________ who called you is _____________, so be _____________ in __________ you do, for it is written, “be ______________ because ______ am holy’.” Let’s start learning how to keep our temples pure.

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE day three Think on these things. Have you ever noticed that evil thoughts start in our minds? Even when we don’t try to think of mean or wicked things, these thoughts just appear. This is because we are sinners and we are not perfect. It is also because God’s enemy, Satan, does not want us to succeed in having a pure temple for God. Look up 1 Peter 5:8 in your Bible and write it out. _______________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Hungry lions prowl when looking for something to devour. Have you ever watched a movie about real lions? When they eat, they tear their food apart quickly. When they are finished, there usually isn’t much left on the carcass. Satan is like a hungry lion. He wants to “devour” us. If we let him, he will fill our hearts, minds and bodies with evil, wicked thoughts and actions, so that our temple won’t be pure for God. We talked about pure hearts in the last lesson and today I want to learn about pure minds. How do you think we can keep our minds pure? __________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Turn to Colossians 3:2 and write it out. ________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ The apostle Paul tells us to “set your minds on things above”. That means we are to think (set your mind on) on Godly things (things above where God is in Heaven). If we think on Godly things by praying, studying God’s word, singing praise songs, praising God at church, and listening to sermons or lessons about God; then there won’t be room in our minds for evil. Paul gives a list of things to think about. Find Philippians 4:8 in your Bibles. Finish the list of things to think on. 1) Whatever is _________________________________________________ 2) Whatever is _________________________________________________ 3) Whatever is _________________________________________________ 4) Whatever is _________________________________________________ 5) Whatever is _________________________________________________ 6) Whatever is _________________________________________________ 7) If anything is ________________________________________________ 8) or __________________________________________________________ …think about such things. God gave us this list in His Word, so we can have something to measure our thoughts against. For instance, most of what we think comes from what we read, see or hear. So if you are reading a book and it is not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy, I would suggest you stop reading the book and get rid of it! If you are watching a movie or television show that is not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy; then turn it off! If you are listening to someone or something that is not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy; then turn it off or walk away. It is much 6

better to throw something away, turn something off or walk away from someone; than to allow Satan to use these things to put evil in our temple! God gave us this list to help us fill our minds with good things, not evil things so that we can give Him a pure temple. I would like you to work on memorizing Philippians 4:8 today. Use this verse often! Whenever you need to know if what you are reading, listening to or watching is pure, compare it to the list Paul gave to the Philippian church. If it is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable and excellent; then it is a good thing! Write out Philippians 4:8 here and work on memorizing it. _______________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE day four Be careful little eyes what you see. There is a song that starts out, “Oh, be careful little eyes what you see”. You may think this is just a preschool song and that you are too old for it. Guess what? I’m almost 40 years old and I’m not too old to be careful what my eyes see!! That song is a great reminder for all of us. In comparison to the size of our body, our eyes truly are small. However, what we see with our eyes can cause a lot of evil to come into God’s temple! Find Luke 11:34 in your Bible. Fill in the blanks. Luke 11:34 “Your ________________ is the __________________ of your ____________. When your _______________ are _________________, your whole __________ also is full of ________________. But when they are _____________, your body also is full of _______________________.” Jesus is speaking these words and he is reminding us that our eyes are what let light or darkness into our bodies. What do you think the “light” that Jesus is speaking of is? _______________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ Find John 8:12. Who is the “light of the world”? ______________________ That’s right! Jesus is the light. When our eyes are good, our whole body is filled with the light of Jesus! What do you think is the “darkness” that Luke was talking about in Luke 11:34? __________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Look up Proverbs 4:19 in your Bible. What is “like deep darkness”? ________________________________________________________________________ The way of the wicked is like deep darkness. Look at Luke 11:34 again. “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.” When your eyes are bad and look at sinful, evil or wicked things your body is full of darkness. We can use the list that Paul gave in Philippians 4:8 to determine if what we are looking at is good or bad. Do you remember Philippians 4:8? YES or NO If so quote it to yourself right now. If not, go back to lesson 3 and read it again. What we allow our eyes to see is one way to keep the temple of the Holy Spirit pure! When you hear a small child sing, “be careful little eyes what you see”, remember to let only light into your temple! One more thought; there are other verses to that song that we can learn about in the next few lessons.

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE TEMPLE day five Be careful little ears what you hear. Are you thinking what I am thinking? Is there a song in your head right now? What about, “Oh, be careful little ears what you hear?” I hope you are not offended or feel like you are being treated like a preschooler when I use that song as an example. It’s a great example for anyone from age 2 to age 92. We all must be careful of what we see and of what we hear. Your ears are openings to your temple just as your eyes are. Your temple can be pure and holy or dirty and evil depending on what your ears hear. Find Luke 8:8. Write out the second part of this verse. “…he called out, ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Jesus often used this phrase when he was teaching others about God and about Himself. The best way that you can use your ears is to hear the Word of the Lord! I know that it was about 2000 years ago that Jesus said those words. I also know that you probably have never heard him speak out loud to you; neither have I. We can “hear” His words because they were written down for us in our Bible. Can you think of other ways you can use your ears for hearing the Word of the Lord? _______________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What about praise music? Often songwriters actually make songs using Scripture. Listening to Scripture songs is a great way to hear the Word of the Lord! Look in your Bible at Acts 28:27. Fill in the blanks. “For this people’s ___________ has become ___________________; they hardly ____________ with their _________________”. When we don’t hear the Word of the Lord and keep our temple pure, our heart will be come calloused, or hard, and we will hardly be able to hear the Lord. Another way to be pure and keep your temple of the Holy Spirit pure is to be careful what your ears hear. Use the list from Philippians 4:8 to help you. Is what you are listening to true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy? If not, turn it off or walk away!

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE TEMPLE day six The words of my mouth. I can think of one more verse for song that is still going through my head. “Oh, be careful little mouth what you say”. In today’s lesson, we are not going to talk about what is coming into our temple; instead, we will talk about what is coming out of our temple. Find Matthew 12:34. Jesus is speaking in this verse. Please fill in the blanks, “You brood of ___________, how can you who are _________ say anything ________? For out of the ______________ of the _______________ the ____________ speaks. “ Wow! Do you know what a “brood of vipers” is? ______________________ _______________________________________________________________________ A brood of vipers is a group of snakes! Jesus was speaking so sternly to the Pharisees (religious leaders) because they had accused Jesus of being Satan when Jesus healed a demon-possessed man. He said, “…for out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” What do you think Jesus meant? ___________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Have you ever realized that when you are in a bad mood (for whatever reason) you tend to be grumpy and say mean things to people? What about when you are in a really good mood or excited about something; do you tend to say nice things? That is what Jesus meant. When your heart is overflowing with bad things, bad things come out of your mouth. When your heart is overflowing with good things, good words come out of your mouth. Can you see the connection between your temple being pure and the words that you speak? All I can say to that is “Oh, be careful little mouth what you say!” This is what I would like my mouth to say…. Look up Psalm 19:14 and write it out below. Psalm 19:14 ______________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE day seven The meditations of my heart. At the end of the last lesson, I asked you to write out Psalm 19:14. I’m going to ask you to write it out again. Psalm 19:14 _______________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ This verse applies to both the purity of our mouth and the purity of our heart. What does “meditation” mean? You may write your own definition or find one in a dictionary and write it below. “Meditation” = ___________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Meditation means “to think on something, or to dwell on something”. When King David wrote this psalm, he was telling God that he wanted the things that he dwells on in his heart to be pleasing to God. Have you ever dwelt on something in your heart? ____________ What was it? _______________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ I’ll give you an example in my own life of meditation to help you understand this word a little better. When my children were not yet born, I would meditate in my heart about them. I would wonder who they would be, what they would look like and how was I ever going to know how to take care of them. This was more than just a few thoughts in my mind; it was a deep thinking in my heart. Another way to say it would be a “pondering in my heart”. I would meditate and pray often for my children even before I ever saw them. My children are a gift from God and I’m sure God was pleased with this type of meditation in my heart. There are other times, though, that I have not pleased God with the meditations of my heart. There have been times that I have been very angry with someone and thought it over and over and dwelt on it. It seemed the longer I meditated on it, the angrier I got. This would be an example of meditation that is displeasing to God. Find Mark 7:20 in your Bible and fill in the blanks. “He went on: ‘What comes _________ of a man is what makes him ___________. For from ___________, out of men’s _____________ come _____________ thoughts…” Jesus is speaking and telling his disciples that the evil in men’s lives comes from their hearts. Our hearts are part of our bodies and part of the Holy Spirit’s temple. We need to keep our hearts pure and meditate on those things that are pure and pleasing to God. One way to keep our hearts pure by meditating on pure things is by memorizing Scripture. We’ll talk about that in the next lesson.

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE day eight Hiding God’s Word. As we keep learning ways to keep our temple of the Holy Spirit pure, we keep looking at God’s Word. God’s Word tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 3:17). The Bible also tells us to keep our way pure (Psalm 119:9-16). The way to a life of purity is through the Bible! Another way to meditate (or think on) pure things is to remember verses that you have memorized and repeat them in your mind. There is no greater way to defeat Satan than with Scripture! Satan knows Scripture too. He will try to twist God’s Word for his (Satan’s) own glory, not God’s glory. Read Matthew 4:1-11. This is the story of the time when Jesus and Satan were together and Satan was trying to tempt Jesus into not being a man anymore. When Jesus was a man, He did not do anything that only God can do; such as turning stones to bread. Satan wanted Jesus to give up being a man because he knew that Jesus had to die like a man to forgive the world of their sins. Keep you finger or a bookmark in Matthew 4 and look at Psalm 91:11-12. Compare Matthew 4:6 with Psalm 91:11-12. Do you see that Satan actually quoted Scripture to Jesus?! Jesus responded to Satan in Matthew 4:7. Write Matthew 4:7 out. ___________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Jesus responded to Satan’s quoting of God’s Word by quoting God’s Word back to Satan. Look at Psalm 119:11 and fill in the blanks. “I have _________________ your _____________ in my _______________ that _______ might not ____________ against _____________________.” If we have scripture hidden in our hearts, we can think on it any time we want to. Anytime we are struggling with being pure, we can quote scripture. I often quote Philippians 4:8 to myself when I am wondering if something is worthy of watching on television. Most of the time, I have to turn the television off! Keep working on memorizing Philippians 4:8! I’d also like you to try to memorize Psalm 19:14. Please write both verses out on the page in the back of this workbook. It may help you to write these verses on a note card or small piece of paper and carry them around with you. Riding in the car is a great time to work on memorizing verses. By hiding God’s Word in your heart, you can keep your temple pure.

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE day nine A little review. How are you coming on memorizing your verses? Do you remember that I asked you to memorize Philippians 4:8 and Psalm 19:14? Test yourself and see if you can write the verses out below. You can look back at them, if you need to; but, try to write them without looking first. Philippians 4:8 ___________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Psalm 19:14 _______________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ So far, we have talked about the importance of purity in our lives. Do you remember what 1 Corinthians 3 calls God’s temple? _________________________ That’s right! Our bodies are the temple of God and that is why we must keep them pure. We’ve talked about keeping our mind pure. We’ve learned about being careful what our eyes see and our ears hear. We have also learned part of keeping our temple pure is watching what comes out of our mouth. In the last lesson, we talked about our heart and keep it pure. We have a few more days to learn more about keeping our temple pure and holy for our God. For today, write out the definition of “purity” below. Did you remember that I had hoped that you would memorize it? If you can’t remember what the definition of purity is, you may look in your glossary or in lesson one. Purity=__________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE day ten My hands ~ His praise! Have you ever noticed that it’s hard to do two things at once? Even though you can sometimes manage it, it’s not easy. It is especially difficult to do one thing, if your hands are busy with something else. If you keep your hands busy doing things for God, your hands can’t get into trouble! Your hands are an important part of keeping your temple of God pure. What are some ways your hands can help keep your temple pure? _________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What are some ways your hands can get into trouble? ____________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ There are many ways our hands can get into trouble. The Bible is filled with stories of people who were punished because their hands took something that didn’t belong to them, their hands made idols to worship instead of worshipping God or their hands even killed someone! I think that if those people would have used their hands for worshipping God, their hands would not have gotten into trouble! Find Psalm 47:1 in your Bible. Write this verse out. _____________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ A great way to keep your hands out of trouble is to use them to praise God! Now look up 1 Timothy 2:8. Paul wrote this as a letter to his friend, Timothy. What does Paul want men everywhere to do? _________________________________ Turn to 1 Thessalonians 4:11. This is another letter that the apostle Paul wrote. This letter was written to a church. Fill in the blanks of 1 Thessalonians 4:11. “Make it your ambition to lead a ___________ life, to mind your own ________________ and to __________________ with your hands just as ________ told you”. Remember, it’s hard to do two things at once, especially if your hands are busy. If you keep your hands busy doing good things and not bad things, your hands will help keep your temple pure. Using your hands to praise God is the best thing you can do with your hands!

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE day eleven Run Joe Run! Have you noticed that in learning how to keep our body pure, we started with our mind? We started with our head and each lesson took us to a different part of our body. Well, we started at the top of our body and today we will work on our feet, the last part of our body. Are you wondering how your feet can help keep your body pure? I have a great story to tell you from Genesis 39 about a guy named Joe. Actually, his name was Joseph and you may have heard of him before. Joseph’s story begins in Genesis chapter 37 and goes all the way to the end of the book of Genesis. It’s a great story and I think you should read it. For our lesson today, though, we are going to learn about one verse in those 13 chapters. Find Genesis 39:12. I want to talk about the second part of that verse. Fill in these blanks. “But he ______________ his cloak in her hand and ____________ out of the _____________________”. Joseph had found himself in a situation that he had to make a choice. He could choose to sin or he could choose to run. What did Joseph do? _____________________________________________ How do you suppose Joseph’s feet helped him when he made the decision to run? _____________ ________________________________________________________________________ That’s right! Joseph’s feet helped him get out of there as fast as he could. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we can choose to sin and dirty our temple or we can use our feet and run as fast as we can away from the situation. Our feet have another purpose in helping to keep our temple pure. We can use our feet for God’s work. Look up Romans 10:15. This is another letter by the apostle Paul and he is quoting from the book of Isaiah. Finish the verse, “As it is written, ______________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Now find Isaiah 52:7 and write it out. _______________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Our feet have two purposes in keeping our temples pure and holy. First, they can get us away from sinful situations by running away. Secondly, they can take us to help bring the good news of Jesus Christ to people. As Isaiah and Paul both said, “how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE day twelve But I’m only a kid. You’ve done so well in this Bible study! There has been a lot of Scripture to look up. You’ve had verses to memorize and definitions to write out. I know it’s been hard but I want you to know that I’m proud of you! Sometimes we get discouraged when something is difficult. Do you remember that I said in lesson 1 that living a life of purity is not easy but it is the best thing to do? Being pure and keeping God’s temple pure is tough. You may be thinking “But I’m only a kid!” Do you think that the Bible is for adults only? __________ Why or why not? _____________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ We’ve learned a lot from the apostle Paul in this Bible study and I want you to turn to another of verses from Paul. Look at 1 Timothy 4:12. Remember, this is a letter from Paul to his friend, Timothy. (There are two letters from Paul to Timothy in the Bible.) Timothy was a lot younger than Paul. I wonder if Timothy was ever discouraged because he was young. Write out 1 Timothy 4:12 below. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Wow! Paul wrote to Timothy about being young and being discouraged! Paul gave Timothy a list of ways that Timothy could be an example to other Believers. I’m sure a lot of the Believers were older than Timothy. Look back at the verse you wrote out. There are five areas in which Paul wanted Timothy to set an example. What are the five areas? 1) ________________________________________________ 2) ________________________________________________ 3) ________________________________________________ 4) ________________________________________________ 5) ________________________________________________ You are not too young to set an example in purity! If you trust God, He promises to help you. Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” God is with us and God gives us the strength to keep our temples pure regardless of our age!

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE day thirteen I’ve sinned, what now? “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” I Corinthians 3:16 “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.” Psalm 119:9 “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’.” I Peter 1:15-16 These are verses are verses that we have studied in this Bible study on purity. They tell us about being pure and holy. They remind us that we are God’s temple. They tell us how to be pure. There is one thing they don’t tell us though. They don’t tell us what to do when we’ve sinned and our temple is dirty, stained or blemished. In lesson two we learned that we all are sinners. We won’t be perfect until we get to heaven. All of us, me included, have a nature to sin. Sometimes this is called a “sin-nature”. We sin because we have a sin nature. We also learned in lesson three that Satan doesn’t want us to be pure. Remember 1 Peter 5:8? Satan wants to devour us like a hungry lion would eat us. One way Satan devours us is to make sin look like fun, or like something we would really enjoy. Some times we believe Satan’s lies and we find out that the sin was not fun and we did not enjoy it at all. Other times, we enjoy the sin and we don’t want to stop doing it. Those times we really need God to rescue us from our sin and to clean His temple! Either way with our sin nature and Satan wanting to devour us, we are going to sin! This doesn’t mean that we should not try to live pure lives! Instead, this is a reminder to us to not give up. So, when we do sin and our temple gets dirty, stained and blemished (spotted)? What now? Look up 1 John 1:9 and write it out. __________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ John says if we confess (or tell God) our sins, God will forgive our sins. God will also “_________________________ us from all ____________________________” God will purify us again! Isn’t that great? God cleanses His temple if we confess our sins! What does God do with the sin we’ve confessed? We know that He cleans His temple and purifies us. Let’s learn what He does with our sins. Find Psalm 103:12 in your Bible and fill in the blanks. “as far as the __________ is from the ____________, so far has he _____________________ our _________________________ from us.” Another word for “transgressions” is “sin”. God removes our sin as far as the east is from the west. Think for a minute with me. If you take your sin and place it on a rock as far east as you can go and then you turn around and travel as far west as you can go, do you think you will ever see your sin again? NO! God takes our sin that we confess to Him and puts it so far away from us that we will never see it again! 17

So when you sin (which you will do), don’t give up. Your temple for God will be dirty but God will purify it when you confess your sin to Him. We all need to confess our sins and let God clean His temple in us.

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE day fourteen Blessed are the pure in heart. Look up Matthew 5:8 in your Bibles and write it out. ____________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Do you remember Psalm 19:14? Write it out. __________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Write out Philippians 4:8 also. _______________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ We are called to live pure lives. It is not easy. The world is a dirty wicked place but God has called us to keep our bodies -- His temples clean. Find Deuteronomy 31:6 in your Bibles. God was talking to Joshua. What did He say to him? Fill in the blanks. “Be _______________ and _________________. Do not be __________________ or _____________________ because of them, for the _____________ your ____________ goes with you; he will _____________ leave you nor ________________ you.” The same is true for you. Your God goes with you. He will never leave you. Be strong! Be courageous! You can live a pure life with God! What is the reward of a pure heart? Read Matthew 5:8 again and write down the reward. _____________________________________________________ Take time write now to commit to a pure life with God’s help. Write a prayer out asking Him to help you. Remember, if you have any sin you need to confess, do that too so that He can clean His temple. Dear God, ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Before you finish this Bible study, please finish your glossary. You will find all of the definitions in the pages that you filled out. All of the definitions should be in italics.

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE verses to memorize Philippians 4:8=____________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ Psalm 19:14=_________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________

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MY BODY ~ HIS TEMPLE Glossary holyholy-________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ meditationmeditation-________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ purepure-_______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ puritypurity-______________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____ ________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ redemptionredemption-_______________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ transgressions transgressionsessions-_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ unblemishedunblemished-______________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________

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