The Heart of the Matter Is The Matter of the Heart:
Studies have determined bacon is good; then no, bacon is bad. Coffee is good; no, coffee is bad. Eggs are good; no, eggs are bad. Wine is good; no, wine is bad. And on and on and on it goes.
Well, I don’t really care what they say, I’m gonna eat my bacon and eggs and drink plenty of coffee; trust me.
Wine, they say, is a matter of taste and I don’t have much taste for it anyway so it doesn’t matter.
These kinds of studies really don’t trouble me all that much though, like some of the other things going on in my neck of the woods these days.
We’ve got grown men molesting little girls. We hear of men shooting their wives because one or the other is having an adulterous affair. There are men cheating on their wives and wives cheating on their husbands.
Whether you support it or not, it’s not uncommon anymore to see men with men and women with women.
It’s also commonplace in today’s society for people to be “shacking up” with no intention of any marital commitments. And the next thing you know, they are aborting their so-called “mistake.” It’s not a mistake.
Why are all these things happening? It’s because The Heart of the Matter is Really a Matter of the Heart!
The Heart of the Matter is a Broken Heart:
The moral and spiritual collapse in our modern day society has us reeling with unimaginable problems.
The breakdown of the nuclear family has given us kids who are so rebelliously disobedient to their parents.
There is no respect for any human life anymore to the point that kids are even killing their very own parents for any number of senseless and selfish reasons.
The fruit of this societal brokenness has given us babysitters making children eat feces for punishment. How sick?
We have greedy people cheating undeserving people out of their savings.
And if that’s not bad enough, we have a handful of preachers fleecing their flocks, lying and deceiving, conniving and manipulating, and on and on and on it goes!
WOW, how much more can we say? There seems to be no personal responsibility among people and sadly even among people in the church.
The Heart of the Matter is a Broken Heart. The human heart has a hole in it. It has a God-shaped void that only God can fill. So, what is the key to a healthy heart?
The Key to a Healthy Heart:
What we generally hear from so many self-righteous people these days is “oh, they can’t help it because they were born that way”. Well, guess what?? They are absolutely right!
We were all born this way. We were born with a sin-sick sinful nature, very capable of committing any number of these heinous acts.
But just because we were born this way doesn’t exempt us from our personal responsibility and accountability. We will give an account one day.
So we really shouldn’t be freakin out and saying “how could they do this or that?” Because you see, the heart of the matter is really the matter of the heart. And the key to a healthy heart is a changed heart.
A Healthy Heart is a Forgiven Heart:
Then Jesus called the crowd again and said in Mark 7:14-23: “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing outside of a person can enter and contaminate a person in God’s sight; rather, the things that come out of a person contaminate the person.”
After leaving the crowd, he entered a house where his disciples asked him about that riddle. He said to them, “Don’t you understand either? Don’t you know that nothing from the outside that enters a person has the power to contaminate? That’s because it doesn’t enter into the heart but into the stomach, and it goes out into the sewer.”
By saying this, Jesus declared that no food could contaminate a person in God’s sight. “It’s what comes out of a person that contaminates someone in God’s sight,” he said. “It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thought come sexual sins, thefts, murders, adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evil things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight.”
There is good news though. There is hope. But, it requires action on our part. In 1 John 1:8-9 it says: If we claim, “We don’t have any sin,” we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from everything we’ve ever done wrong.
I don’t say all this because I’m intolerant. I don’t say this because I’m a bigot or a hater of any kind.
And, it’s certainly not because I think I’m better than anyone. It’s because I’ve lived through some of this. It’s because I actually do care.
We can never overcome a problem until we understand there is a problem. We first must see it is the heart that has the problem. Then deal with it!
The Heart of the Matter Is The Matter of the Heart!
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Thank you all and blessings your way!
Mike
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Thank you Carole. Currently we do not offer a subscription. As soon as we do, I will gladly add you. Do you think others will subscribe?