Mark 7:14-16; 20-23
Jesus called the crowd together again and said, "Pay attention and try to understand what I mean. The food that you put into your mouth doesn't make you unclean and unfit to worship God. The bad words that come out of your mouth are what make you unclean."
Then Jesus said: What comes from your heart is what makes you unclean. Out of your heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness. All of these come from your heart, and they are what make you unfit to worship God.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
Some of you know that I have food allergies… and my primary culprit is corn. If you go to the grocery store and start reading labels, you will find that corn is in thousands of things we eat every day. It has fancy names, such as microcrystalline cellulose, propylene glycol, citric acid, and modified food starch. All of these ingredients… and dozens more… may be derived from corn.
A “natural” ingredient that is readily grown throughout the world can cause all sorts of unpleasant things to happen to people who are allergic… hives, swelling, nausea and stomach pain, headaches and stuffy head, and in some cases – death. The corn itself is not harmful to most people… but how it reacts in my body and the bodies of others with this allergy causes all sorts of potentially bad things to happen. The problem is what my body does with the corn products.
Jesus is telling us in this passage that what we say or do may seem harmless on the surface, but it’s what our heart does with this that matters. So it may seem like you are not hurting anyone else by drinking a little or popping a few pills… but when you get behind the wheel and drive – or your activities get out of hand and you start behaving irrationally or irresponsibly – there is trouble. Telling a couple of “white lies” to supposedly protect the feelings and/or reputation of someone else may not seem like a big deal. But over time, it gets easier and easier to lie and distort things… and before long, the lines between reality and your fabrications are more than a little blurry.
As I’ve mentioned before, we all “fly off the handle” once in awhile, and we may even apologize quickly and say, “I didn’t mean it!” But our words and actions, if not kept in check, can get away from us in a hurry. Soon we are known as someone who “has a short fuse” or is “radical and unreasonable”… someone others don’t want to be around for very long, and certainly not a good witness for Jesus Christ.
The point is… we have to look at the big picture. On the surface, a ritual may seem important to our faith… a behavior or comment may seem inconsequential. But when internalized in our body – when these things penetrate our heart – what we send back out into the world may not be pleasing to anyone, especially God. We need to examine every facet of our lives closely. We need to “read the labels” and make sure that we are not ingesting anything harmful. We must be certain that the things we say and do – the behaviors and choices we internalize – will enable us to model Christian behavior to others that honors God and pleases Him. The old adage… “Garbage in – garbage out”… applies totally in this situation. It’s time to kick our garbage to the curb – and leave it there. Have you taken out the trash lately?
©2011 Debbie Robus
Showing posts with label habits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label habits. Show all posts
Daily Devotional for January 21, 2011
Ephesians 4:20-24
But that isn't what you were taught about Jesus Christ. He is the truth, and you heard about him and learned about him. You were told that your foolish desires will destroy you and that you must give up your old way of life with all its bad habits. Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person. You were created to be like God, and so you must please him and be truly holy.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
Change is hard… even when we know it is good for us. We know that exercising and eating right will help us live a healthier life – and give us a slimmer, more toned physique. But knowing this and actually doing the work are two different things. Often, overeating and lack of exercise become habits, and any habit can be hard to break. But equally as often, once we get in the groove and change the habit, we wonder what took us so long to make the change. Haven’t you ever known a smoker who said, “I’ll never smoke again!” – or someone who lost a lot of weight and maybe took up running or some other form of exercise and said, “I can’t believe I was ever like that!”?
The same can be said of our Christian faith. There are a lot of factors that keep us from being all we can be and changing into a new person… fear, laziness, procrastination, and more. And if we are honest, we will admit that all of these boil down to listening to the devil. HE plants these doubts, fears and excuses in our mind.
If we can just call upon the Holy Spirit and ask Him to fill us… to change our heart and mind… to help us to be more like God… He will do so. And over time, with careful attention, dedication, and determination, we will begin to lose the old habits that hold us back and keep us in the dark. We will become more sure of our “new self,” and we’ll be saying, “What was I thinking?!” We will struggle to recognize the old person and find it easier and easier to leave him/her in the dust.
We were created for so much more. We were created by God to be like Him… to please Him and be truly holy. And God sent His Holy Spirit to change our way of thinking and help us become this new person. Have you recognized the Holy Spirit in your life? Have you acknowledged Him and called on Him for help to become the new you? Isn’t it about time you did?
©2011 Debbie Robus
But that isn't what you were taught about Jesus Christ. He is the truth, and you heard about him and learned about him. You were told that your foolish desires will destroy you and that you must give up your old way of life with all its bad habits. Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person. You were created to be like God, and so you must please him and be truly holy.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
Change is hard… even when we know it is good for us. We know that exercising and eating right will help us live a healthier life – and give us a slimmer, more toned physique. But knowing this and actually doing the work are two different things. Often, overeating and lack of exercise become habits, and any habit can be hard to break. But equally as often, once we get in the groove and change the habit, we wonder what took us so long to make the change. Haven’t you ever known a smoker who said, “I’ll never smoke again!” – or someone who lost a lot of weight and maybe took up running or some other form of exercise and said, “I can’t believe I was ever like that!”?
The same can be said of our Christian faith. There are a lot of factors that keep us from being all we can be and changing into a new person… fear, laziness, procrastination, and more. And if we are honest, we will admit that all of these boil down to listening to the devil. HE plants these doubts, fears and excuses in our mind.
If we can just call upon the Holy Spirit and ask Him to fill us… to change our heart and mind… to help us to be more like God… He will do so. And over time, with careful attention, dedication, and determination, we will begin to lose the old habits that hold us back and keep us in the dark. We will become more sure of our “new self,” and we’ll be saying, “What was I thinking?!” We will struggle to recognize the old person and find it easier and easier to leave him/her in the dust.
We were created for so much more. We were created by God to be like Him… to please Him and be truly holy. And God sent His Holy Spirit to change our way of thinking and help us become this new person. Have you recognized the Holy Spirit in your life? Have you acknowledged Him and called on Him for help to become the new you? Isn’t it about time you did?
©2011 Debbie Robus
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