Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Straight and to the point...

In Luke 6:43-45 God talks about a person and their intentions. Their works. Their heart.

v43-45 "A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart."

In today's society we have lot of thornbushes trying to convince you that they offer grapes, or even more I think they are trying to convince themselves. They justify their evil by thinking that their attendance in church on Easter and Christmas, or once a month will balance it all out. I feel that a huge part of the world's thinking is because even Christians have stopped reading the Word and stopped living a life of holiness. God says we are to be a peculiar people.(Deut. 14:2, Titus 2:14, I Peter 2:9) He also says we are to be holy for He is holy.(I Peter 1:16) Here's the catch. For those people who look at Christians and compare themselves to them I agree...you may look just as good, do just as good. But that's the problem. You've made a HUGE error...it isn't other people you compare yourself to, it is God who holds the standard. God is the one who is judge. God is the one who you will have to stand in front of one day and give an account for every action you have done in this life and let me assure you that blaming someone else will not be accepted.

The part of this passage that is most sobering for me is the last part..."What you say flows from what is in your heart." If you say something...you mean it. It came from what you were feeling in your heart. That's what God's word says. If you say "I hate _____"...you mean it. Oh God, please help us keep our hearts clean before you. David had reason to pray the prayer he did in Psalm 139:23-24 "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life."

Like David, I call out to the Lord to search me, point out anything that offends Him. I do not care what others think, I just want to please Him. God may we bear good fruit out of the treasury of our hearts that are pure before you...Amen.

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