Leviticus 15:1-16:28
Mark 7:1-23
Psalm 40:11-17
Proverbs 10:13-14
Mark 7:6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
Focus on the heart and the words and actions will then honor the Lord. We need to be careful that our traditions and practices as a church body and in our own personal lives line up with God's commands and that when we practice traditions and rituals for God we are really doing it for God and not for ourselves. That can only be done when are hearts are close to the Lord.
Mark 7:15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”
If our hearts are focused on God and we remain close to Him in that way, then nothing of the world that we are living in should be able to influence us and turn us from Him.
Mark 7:20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
When our hearts are focused on God and we remain close to Him then what comes out of us in our speech and actions will be righteous and undefiled and we will be noticeably different from the world around us. But when we allow our hearts to stray from Him then we can give into the temptations of the world much easier and we are defiled by them.
John MacArthur on WORD FM today was talking about How to Live in a Dying World. He talked about us being the light of the world preaching on Matthew 5:13-16. He said, "We can't affect the world unless we are different." Also, "We live in a dark and decadent world...God's plan to deal with this dark and decaying world is us."
We are to be salt and light in this world and that means we need to be different. The only way that I can be different is to remain as close to Jesus as I can and keep my heart mind and soul focused on Him. When I stray from that and the temptations of the world draw me into actions and words that defile me my witness is useless. Lord, please forgive me for the times that I was so much like the world that when people saw me there was no difference. Thank you for this reminder to think about what is coming out of me and my life and the need to be different.
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