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Hebrews 10:22-24

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil (guilty, Amp.) conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He Who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works (helpful deeds and noble activities, Amp.).

James was the first New Testament book to be written.

John MacArthur, Daily Study Bible:

"... prerequisites for entering the presence of God: sincerity, security, salvation, and sanctification.... 'Washing with pure water' does not refer to Christian baptism, but to eh Holy Spirit's purifying one's life by means of the Word of God" (1156-1157).

John Ortberg, God Is Closer Than You Think:

"The difficulty of the task is what increases the power of discernment" (31).

God said to Abraham, "'I will give you a sign of my covenant: circumcision'.... [Perhaps Abraham said, ]'Noah got the rainbow. Couldn't we use a decoder ring or a secret handshake or something?"

"One of the greatest challenges in life is fighting... spiritual habituation....we forget that Jesus never said, 'I have come that you might do okay....We have a kind of spiritual [ADD] that God will have to break through" (37).

"life on spiritual auto-pilot" (37)

"Maybe the reason God lowers His voice is so [that] we will learn to pay attention" (38).

"Perhaps our capacity to pay attention to God... only gets stronger when it gets exercised (39).

"It may be that out of all the prayers that are ever spoken, the most common one--the one that we least acknowledge making--is simply this: 'Don't look at me, God'" (40).

Perhaps God "... put on {Here's] Waldo's goofy-looking glasses and a striped shirt... everyone was expecting somebody who looked like the guy... on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel" 47).