First, I apologize that I have been beyond inconsistent here at my blog. This will improve I promise. I am the king of excuses and often times I do my quiet time at night so I am pretty tired and I find reason not to post. Well, I feel convicted and I want to start having my quiet times first thing in the morning! (woopie...) So, I hope that will help me learn some discipline and I will be able to post more...that's the hope at least.
Ok, well today I went back to Mark after a long time not going there, and I read chapter 7. The part that really jumped out at me was Jesus little saying about the heart of man. It is in verse 15 and it says, "there is nothing outside the man which can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man."
Now I read this and was at first kind of like... well what about Drugs? Sex? Liking the Redskins?... all sorts of other bad stuff. those are outside the man. But, continue reading and God explains what it is that He meant by all of this. Basically, Jesus is saying that yes there are all of these things outside the body, but partaking in these acts ultimately is a reflection of something within the man: his heart. If your heart is right with Christ, you aren't going to desire these things and will flee from sin. But, if you heart is looking on yourself, that is when these evil things outside will affect you.
I heard this very thing (I don't believe it was the same verse) by pastor Mark Driscoll. He said that when we sin, the problem isn't the act itself, in that we must stop the act (which we do but this isn't the root). The problem is a worship problem. That we are worshiping ourselves and not God. Obeying our human heart, and not the heart of Christ.
I know that I often times fall into this same trap. I become legalistic and don't attack the root of my problem which is my heart isn't centered on God, but centered on me! Placing God in his rightful place and having your heart right will begin to allign your and God's desires together. Not to say that the temptations will just utterly disappear, but God promises strength in those times, but we have ot make sure that our hearts are right. It is not the things outside that corrupt us, so much as it is the stuff inside of us that does. It is our own heart that seeks after sin, and only God can fix that.
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im on ur blog subscribin to ur rss feedz!
"If your heart is right with Christ, you aren't going to desire these things and will flee from sin."
Do you mean temptation here? I agree with the fleeing from sin part, but I'm not sure that being right with Christ removes temptation.
What do you think?
Oh I don't mean to say that it removes temptation completely, not at all. You will be given the power to overcome your fleshly desires and flee. Good gracious temptation will always be there laying in wait, its not going away completely. But, I am saying that God gives us the ability to resist that temptation.
Although, I also believe that God can alter our perception of the thing that tempts us, and make us revile it like Christ does. If we truly see sin like he does, something revolting and evil, then naturally our attraction to it will become less. The problem is that we often times aren't aligned with Christ and our sinful nature causes us to desire the sin. Since the sinful nature is ingrained into our very person we can never truly escape it, but through Christ we can fight it, and he can help us see sin for what it really is.
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