Doing It Right… What’s in Your Heart?
Taking offense and then action to the sins of others is a serious and Righteous matter, but, it opens the door of opportunity for examination of the sin in your life. Isn’t it often amusing the things people decide to hold the line on for others, but won’t address the sin issues in their own heart? Matthew 7:3-5; …and why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite, First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
A Righteous Life – Seeking after the Face of God is not just the things we see on the outside. The things most Christians pay attention to are vocabulary, smoking, drinking, carousing and adultery – you know “the big sins”. However in God’s eyes, there is a constant, Sin is Sin, and all is unacceptable and ugly from His perspective. SO – today Christians attempt to abstain from all the biggies, but on the inside they fight other battles.
Bitterness, Cynicism, Contempt, Rebellion, Sarcasm, Discord, Strife, Antagonist, Selfishness, Pride, Self Righteous, Demeaning and Un-Forgiving are other Sins of the heart that do not align with the Christian Attitudes that Christ spoke of in Matthew 5. Nor are they a product of the Fruit of the Spirit that Paul wrote about in the letter to Galatia.
We are glad to take His name, but we won’t spare the energy or time that it takes to get to “KNOW HIM”, so that we can be more like Him. Friends, if you haven’t surrendered your heart completely to Christ, YOU are still in control. If you harbor those ugly things in your heart – you are quenching the very Spirit of God that will give you freedom over them. Demanding obedience without balancing it with Love and Compassion will breed contempt and despair.
We must read our Bibles, Pray for the Holy Spirit to Minister to our hearts and then surrender it all to Christ. His Spirit will fill our surrendered hearts, then obedience will occur as Fruit of that Spirit and His Love will cushion the trials and temptations that test us and purge and purify our hearts. Humility will fill the crevices of pride, and the Joy of Christ will emanate from the Spirit from within. Christ and crotchety don’t really go together, I don’t remember Christ every being that way in my Bible studies, do you?
Taking offense and then action to the sins of others is a serious and Righteous matter, but, it opens the door of opportunity for examination of the sin in your life. Isn’t it often amusing the things people decide to hold the line on for others, but won’t address the sin issues in their own heart? Matthew 7:3-5; …and why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite, First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
A Righteous Life – Seeking after the Face of God is not just the things we see on the outside. The things most Christians pay attention to are vocabulary, smoking, drinking, carousing and adultery – you know “the big sins”. However in God’s eyes, there is a constant, Sin is Sin, and all is unacceptable and ugly from His perspective. SO – today Christians attempt to abstain from all the biggies, but on the inside they fight other battles.
Bitterness, Cynicism, Contempt, Rebellion, Sarcasm, Discord, Strife, Antagonist, Selfishness, Pride, Self Righteous, Demeaning and Un-Forgiving are other Sins of the heart that do not align with the Christian Attitudes that Christ spoke of in Matthew 5. Nor are they a product of the Fruit of the Spirit that Paul wrote about in the letter to Galatia.
We are glad to take His name, but we won’t spare the energy or time that it takes to get to “KNOW HIM”, so that we can be more like Him. Friends, if you haven’t surrendered your heart completely to Christ, YOU are still in control. If you harbor those ugly things in your heart – you are quenching the very Spirit of God that will give you freedom over them. Demanding obedience without balancing it with Love and Compassion will breed contempt and despair.
We must read our Bibles, Pray for the Holy Spirit to Minister to our hearts and then surrender it all to Christ. His Spirit will fill our surrendered hearts, then obedience will occur as Fruit of that Spirit and His Love will cushion the trials and temptations that test us and purge and purify our hearts. Humility will fill the crevices of pride, and the Joy of Christ will emanate from the Spirit from within. Christ and crotchety don’t really go together, I don’t remember Christ every being that way in my Bible studies, do you?
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