The HEART - Good or ....

Monday, April 17, 2023

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?  Jeremiah 17:9

I was passing a church sign the other day and, being a “church-a-holic”, I could not help myself; I had to read the message on their sign.  

Being quite familiar with Jeremiah’s verse about the desperately wicked heart, I immediately thought WHAT?

I tried to give a benefit of the doubt to the one who handles their signboard.  Perhaps the meaning was that we all know what’s in our hearts, where we hide all those secrets that we’d be ashamed to let others know.  But what kind of “Christian message” would that be….unleash all your doubts and sins on whoever will listen?  Perhaps the sign referred to a saved person, living a life of following Jesus, opening his or her heart of love, so it will let out a testimony of faith…how Jesus saved a lost sinner? 

Honestly, in kindness, I would love to have stretched until I found a suitable Biblical match for that signboard’s message, but came to the conclusion that dog would not hunt!  The signboard custodian may have meant well, but the theology is so Hallmark, not Christian.  It reeks of I’m OK; You’re OK, and that is NOT OK if you care at all about an honest interpretation of either God’s Word, or that which is our human nature, a deceitful and desperately-wicked heart.  If you care what Jeremiah actually said about the human heart, it matters.

A better message, especially in a world run amuck with sin and darkness would be:  

Open Your Heart and Let He Who IS Truth Come In

For You Today 

If you’re a church signboard-keeper, this bit of sniping I’ve aimed at poorly-thought-out messages could make you mad.  I hope not…it’s designed to be a wake-up call that your job is important…you’re representing Christ to the many who drive by every day.  Do that job well!

If you are not a signboard custodian, let’s not waste this thought:  Your life, and how you live it, is also representing Christ to a lost and dying world as the only hope.  The world has enough darkness…let your life’s light shine brighter than the noonday sun!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   Following the Leader  and  A Light Shines in My Heart  

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

The Struggle Between Good and Evil

[1]

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.  But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.  They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.  Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.  But not the wicked!  They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.  They will be condemned at the time of judgment.  Sinners will have no place among the godly.  For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.  Psalm 1:1-6

Just like following a beam of light from earth all the way back to the sun, if you follow the anger beam back to its’ source, you will discover angry apocryphal arrogance.  The first Psalm is a study in the effects of what went wrong in humankind.  For anyone who has ever wondered from whence sprung all the anger, violence, and lack of decency in our world, it is the outcropping of the seeds of sin; when we fail to obey God, the only other choice is to embrace being the enemy of God, and that requires anger and death.

It seems ludicrous that anyone would choose death and decay over life and love, but it doesn’t happen overnight.  In angry apocryphal arrogance, the apocryphal or mythical part is how we got where we are; it is the steady beam of fading light away from God’s presence.  It is what happens when people begin the turn away from God to self.  On a cosmic scale, there is not a single human who hasn’t experienced that[2].  On a personal level it is played out very young.  The first time a child realizes the one holding him back from grabbing something he wants, the seeds of rebellion and sin begin to sprout.  That creates an anger and resolve to have that toy, or hissing snake, no matter the cost.

The Psalmist traces the behavior and fate of those who (eventually) choose godliness over selfishness.  The good prosper; evil dies.  This is seen in the psyche of the child that is grasping the forbidden object for the first time.  Instead of intense and growing satisfaction at having what was heretofore taboo, there is a growing sense of guilt and shame at having defiled the relationship between child and parent.  As a child you did feel that thing inside about disappointing Mom and Dad, didn’t you?

The antidote we humans seem to prefer is to begin (and keep on) telling ourselves some version of a fairy tale that we’re ok, when evidence to the contrary keeps building up.  Over the course of time we begin to believe the lie and mock the truth.  This is the progression of sin…we entertain sin, begin to listen to its advice, and finally adopt it as righteousness.  Our childhood angst over this hard-wired guilt is turned into self-righteousness, and, in a frantic (but futile) attempt to gain a foothold of respectability, we repeat the lie so often that I’m OK; you’re OK, we wind up validating a searing of our conscience.  As Scripture states it, we earn ourselves a hardened heart[3], but whistle in the dark about how good we really are!

News bulletin:  That didn’t work in Noah’s day when the raindrops began falling!

For You Today

The world’s culture all around you will sneer at the goodness God wants to create in your life.  Mocking is a natural response to anything Godly.  What God-followers do is listen to the Holy Spirit who prods us to reject this world and be transformed by God’s light.  Darkness and Light are locked in an eternal struggle; and we must choose how we will walk every day, covered in God’s light, or stumbling in evil’s darkness.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of  Pixabay.com     Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

[2] Romans 3:23, Romans 5:12

[3] Matthew 13:15, Jeremiah 17:9

Words Matter

[1]

Thursday, October 5, 2017

How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?  Cleanse me from these hidden faults.  Keep your servant from deliberate sins!  Don’t let them control me.  Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19:12-14^(NLT)

Words and thoughts do matter.  It is from the heart that all the weighty matters of life issue.  What’s down in the heart eventually comes to the surface – for good or evil.  And most often, that which divides and separates us as brothers and sisters in humanity can be linked back to the “words” swirling around deep in our souls. 

For instance, in the Black Lives Matter movement the premise is that white persons, particularly those wearing blue, persecute innocent persons of color.  Such an assumption breaks down with the word innocent.  In the same way, the knee-jerk movement of Blue Lives Matter wobbles on the false assumption that the hearts and inner thoughts of white (or any) law enforcement persons are somehow innocent.

What does our Creator say about our hearts?

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.  Who really knows how bad it is?  Jeremiah 17:9^(NLT)         

As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one. Romans 3:10^(NLT)

The Psalmist, King David, understood himself.  As a human who was well-connected to his Creator, the shepherd boy-turned-king of Israel, understood his life was out of control.  Above all else, wealth, fame, power, and personal strength (David’s God had given him all that and more) David craved innocence.  And so he prayed not for justice or freedom…David prayed for cleansing.  In this psalm he prayed that God would so cleanse him that the words of his mouth and the very thoughts of his inner being would match up and be pleasing; he wanted the God of holiness and righteousness to give him clean words and thoughts that really mattered. 

Many people in our culture do not understand this as the most prescient need in our culture today.  Our biggest void in the battle for humans living together in peace, harmony and fairness is not more laws, regulation or stricter enforcement.  The biggest battle is the eternal, internal struggle for righteousness in the human heart.  Because once the inner person is freed from his lust, anger, greed, haughtiness, envy, pride and gluttony he is not only fit to live with…he is then fit to love.

For You Today

Your words do matter.  And they matter first and foremost when they’re uttered to God, honestly, without agenda.  And when God cleans up those words and inner thoughts, they will do the most good in loving your neighbor as yourself[2].

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Matthew 22:39

A Light Shines in My Heart

[i]

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?  

Jeremiah 17:9^(NLT)

As a rule old people know more than young people about how much evil can reside in the human heart.  It takes some living and sinning-big to find that out!  The darkness of evil hides truth from being discovered as much as possible…and that includes hiding from our own minds that evil which is belongs to us. 

Hence, the very useful saying:  to thine own self be true!

Paul the Apostle understood this; he faced a daily battle with evil in his life:

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:  Romans 3:10^(NLT)

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;  Romans 3:23^(NLT)

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.  1 Timothy 3:15^(NLT)

Yes, Paul understood personal evil and the pain of being separated from God because of his choices.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  Romans 7:24^(NLT)

I know you join me in Paul’s frustration.  After all, who is the person who has not lived through the agony of failed New Year’s resolutions, promises broken to loved ones, and the pitiful guilt you feel over not being more disciplined in a diet. 

If you take it to the natural conclusion you can also say with Paul: 

And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t.  Romans 7:18^(NLT)

That doesn’t leave much room for hope; almost makes you want to drink the red Kool aide.  But Paul doesn’t leave us there.  See what he wrote to the believers at Corinth:   

For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.  We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.  This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.  2 Corinthians 4:6-7^(NLT)

A fragile clay pot is what held the oil and wick which, when lit, became a shining light.  Paul’s imagery here is that we are like an empty fragile jar when there’s no oil, wick, or fire.  But, if you take Biblical symbolism seriously you know that oil represents God’s Holy Spirit, as does fire…and then the whole picture makes sense.  God’s Spirit comes when we present ourselves unreservedly, ignites our fragile clay pot lives and light fills our hearts, chasing the darkness.

It’s all a very picturesque way of saying:  we need God; we can’t do it alone!

For You Today

If you recognized all the darkness imagery, but have a little trouble identifying with the light coming on….well, that’s God speaking to you with a little light He is offering to make a great light shine where you used to see only darkness!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

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[i]  Title image: By Anant Nath Sharma (www.thelensor.tumblr.com), via Wikimedia Commons

Following the Leader

[1]

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

VIDEO

Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others.  God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too.  Are we commending ourselves to you again?  No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart.  If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God.  And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.  Either way, Christ’s love controls us.  Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.  He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves.  Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.   2 Corinthians 5:11-15^(NLT)

A popular saying is that you should always follow your heart.  And, for those who want to support what they want that to mean, you can always find Scripture to back it up. 

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.  Luke 12:34^(NLT)

The problem with that is Scripture can also be used to show the other side of the argument:

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.  Who really knows how bad it is?  Jeremiah 17:9^(NLT)

So, do you follow your heart, or avoid it like the plague?

Paul understood his calling to follow Christ was a lifetime battle for the souls of men and women.  He also understood that God’s calling could make him look like a crazy fool or a hero.  But that was all in other people’s perception; for Paul, the only thing that mattered was the love of Christ that urged him on, directing him. 

Paul said it was Christ’s love that controlled him; he walked with Christ, voluntarily became the slave of Christ, and chose to leave everything for the joy of serving Christ.  And therein we find the truth of Scripture that cautions each of us against trusting our own hearts in favor of following the heart of Christ.

An example of this would be in marriage or family.  I have a wonderful Christian wife, and three grown children with families of their own.  My heart’s treasure is right in front of me whenever I think of them.  When it comes to my time, treasure or talents, there’s no competition – I would choose them over you any day of the week.  It’s not that you’re not a person of worth; it’s just that they are my heart’s love.

But there is a greater love that controls me.  

Life’s choices are many and ever before us.  In choosing to follow Christ I have decided to place Him on the throne of my heart.  And that allegiance supersedes everything, wife, relatives, children and friends.

If someone in my circle of acquaintances, family or neighbors chooses against Christ, that does not mean I would love that person less; indeed, as Christ loved, I would continue to love and perhaps reach out more sympathetically in an attempt to draw them back. 

But, this “love that controls” me cannot control others, nor make their final choices.  In the end, the same freedom in which Christ has offered his love and acceptance to us if we come to him is that very same freedom that permits us to walk away from him. 

We can follow the leader…or not!

Which leads to a sad statement we read in the prophet Amos: 

Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?  Amos 3:3^(NLT)

If I am following Christ and another person follows his own heart, choosing to reject Christ, the two directions will inevitably take us apart. 

And that is the pain of the sword Christ warned us he came to bring, where households would be divided.[2]

For You Today

Got a division in the house?  Reach out with the love of Christ.  While there is breath there is still hope.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

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[1] Title image: By Doug Coldwell (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Luke 12