We need new hearts
Reading for Saturday March 25
Bible selection: Gospel of Mark 7:1-23
It is not about our physical hearts that Jesus is speaking here. He is using the word 'heart' to identify the emotion, will and passion that are so deeply hidden within us that we talk about our heart when we do not mean anything physical or visible. In today's Bible portion, Jesus says that we are self-contaminating people, what comes out of our own hearts is what contaminates our person. Hearts often do surprise us, we are surprised to find that thoughts and emotions not worthy of us, are springing up in our deep secret places. If this is true then our hearts are already sick beyond cure. Evil thoughts, sexual immorality, murderous wishes and intentions, plans for dishonest gain, lies, pride. We do not plan to think or feel these things, they grow in our hearts without cultivation or permission, they simply arise, sometimes we struggle against them, and sometimes we allow them free expression. People have the feeling that because such thoughts came up without planning them, then it is alright to entertain them. Whatever we think about the condition of our own hearts, the Bible says we need new ones. Hearts worthy of the great humanity that God has created, and suitable for the kind of person we are always striving to be.
The new hearts that the Bible talks about are the gift of God, replacing the sickness that often festers inside good respectable people.Sick hearts cause wrong actions, and so contribute to the corruption of the world we live in, evil causing evil, until hatred and revenge are the only things that hardened hearts can produce.
The great command that unites all people who worship God is that we love him with all our heart, soul and mind. The history sections of the Bible show that people could not keep that command, they couldn't get good enough. The prophetic parts of the Bible show that God purposed to change our hearts so that we could obey his command.
These new hearts will have all of God's law inscribed on them. . The promise that God will do this, (give us new hearts with his law written on them) is called the is the new covenant that God will make, instead of the old one that people could not keep. This is God's purpose, intention and work. We do not have to do great works of self-improvement, we simply come to God for new hearts.
This is good news for all people, yet some people are afraid because the new covenant is made by Jesus in God's name. Deeply reverent people are afraid that they may sin against God by thinking that Jesus could participate in a work so important as new hearts inscribed with the laws of God. But there is no need to fear. The ressurection of Jesus is the sign that Jesus pleased God. God himself has chosen his response to Jesus, he has incorporated us into the death of Jesus so that our sinfull heart dies, and incorporated us into the ressurection of Jesus so that we are made new.
God calls all people to turn from sin and receive new hearts from him, along with the new covenant he has made with us. It is not a religious group that has done this but God himself. He has sent his messenger to turn us back from sin and to release us from it's power and consequence. The Bible says that when we seek God with our whole hearts we will find him. Let us all be united by that instruction. Let us seek the Lord that we may live, and the our world may be healed.
Exekiel 18:31 Jeremiah 31.33
Bible selection: Gospel of Mark 7:1-23
It is not about our physical hearts that Jesus is speaking here. He is using the word 'heart' to identify the emotion, will and passion that are so deeply hidden within us that we talk about our heart when we do not mean anything physical or visible. In today's Bible portion, Jesus says that we are self-contaminating people, what comes out of our own hearts is what contaminates our person. Hearts often do surprise us, we are surprised to find that thoughts and emotions not worthy of us, are springing up in our deep secret places. If this is true then our hearts are already sick beyond cure. Evil thoughts, sexual immorality, murderous wishes and intentions, plans for dishonest gain, lies, pride. We do not plan to think or feel these things, they grow in our hearts without cultivation or permission, they simply arise, sometimes we struggle against them, and sometimes we allow them free expression. People have the feeling that because such thoughts came up without planning them, then it is alright to entertain them. Whatever we think about the condition of our own hearts, the Bible says we need new ones. Hearts worthy of the great humanity that God has created, and suitable for the kind of person we are always striving to be.
The new hearts that the Bible talks about are the gift of God, replacing the sickness that often festers inside good respectable people.Sick hearts cause wrong actions, and so contribute to the corruption of the world we live in, evil causing evil, until hatred and revenge are the only things that hardened hearts can produce.
The great command that unites all people who worship God is that we love him with all our heart, soul and mind. The history sections of the Bible show that people could not keep that command, they couldn't get good enough. The prophetic parts of the Bible show that God purposed to change our hearts so that we could obey his command.
These new hearts will have all of God's law inscribed on them. . The promise that God will do this, (give us new hearts with his law written on them) is called the is the new covenant that God will make, instead of the old one that people could not keep. This is God's purpose, intention and work. We do not have to do great works of self-improvement, we simply come to God for new hearts.
This is good news for all people, yet some people are afraid because the new covenant is made by Jesus in God's name. Deeply reverent people are afraid that they may sin against God by thinking that Jesus could participate in a work so important as new hearts inscribed with the laws of God. But there is no need to fear. The ressurection of Jesus is the sign that Jesus pleased God. God himself has chosen his response to Jesus, he has incorporated us into the death of Jesus so that our sinfull heart dies, and incorporated us into the ressurection of Jesus so that we are made new.
God calls all people to turn from sin and receive new hearts from him, along with the new covenant he has made with us. It is not a religious group that has done this but God himself. He has sent his messenger to turn us back from sin and to release us from it's power and consequence. The Bible says that when we seek God with our whole hearts we will find him. Let us all be united by that instruction. Let us seek the Lord that we may live, and the our world may be healed.
Exekiel 18:31 Jeremiah 31.33
posted by Jessie Coates at 11:21 PM
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