It was Henry David Thoreau who said, “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” What a true and profound observation! Our problem as a human race is deep and serious. It cannot be overcome by a mere resolution to do better for God. No, our problem goes to the root of who we are, our heart. Listen to the prophet Jeremiah: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it” (Jeremiah 17:9)?

Worse yet Jeremiah goes on to say that the Lord searches the heart and tests the mind. In other words, our sick and deceitful hearts cannot be hidden from God. We can’t pull the proverbial wool over God’s eyes, fooling Him as to our real problem. So what are we to do?

Well, if we are the problem and that problem goes to our core, then there is nothing we can do. What we need is intervention. What we need is for the divine surgeon to perform a heart transplant on us. And this is exactly what the prophet suggests. Listen to verse 14: “Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me and I will be saved” (Jeremiah 17:14).

God doesn’t just demand that we do better. No, He performs a one-sided rescue. He sends Jesus the savior/surgeon to single-handedly strike at the root of our problem giving us by His grace a new heart. Has He done this for you?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“And He was saying, ‘That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.’”

~ Mark 7: 20-23

The worst thing that God could do to a person in this life is to withdraw His gracious presence and give one over to the corruption of his own heart.

In Romans 1 when St. Paul explains the judgment of God upon those that reject the communication of God in nature, he repeats three times the nature of that judgment. And what is it? Three times the phrase is repeated: God gave them over. And to what did God give them over? To the lust of their own heart, to their own dishonorable passions, and to their own corrupt mind. According to the Bible, God judges us in this life by giving our corrupt desires free reign to run their course and eat us alive.

It was the late, great preacher Jonathan Edwards who said that there is enough “hell” in the human heart to consume a man if only God would cease to restrain it.

If we reject the gracious instruction of God, we are destined to become who we choose to be. We are destined to become those divorced from the beauty and gracious protection of God. We mustn’t think that we are escaping God’s judgment when it appears that we get away with our sin. God may be allowing us to become our own trap. In the haunting words of John Milton: “Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!) the dungeon of thyself.”

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, and the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord.The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, ‘There is no God.’”

~ Psalm 10: 1-4

Are you an active listener? One time, while explaining the importance of internalizing his message, Jesus said: “No one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand, in order that those who come in may see the light” (Luke 8:16). A little later he says: “Therefore, take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him shall more be given and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away” (Luke 8:18).

So what’s Jesus’ point in this somewhat familiar but perhaps puzzling passage of Scripture? Well, in the context the lamp or light is the message of Jesus. And the one positioning that lamp is the hearer of that message. As with any message, the one hearing it is responding in some way, shape, or form. He is either actively listening, passively dismissing, or actively rejecting the message. The very sobering thing that Jesus teaches here is that those that do not actively listen will eventually be denied the message completely. In keeping with the word picture the lights will go completely dark. Why? Well, as the saying goes, “Truth received brings light, truth refused brings night.”

What about you – are you actively listening? Are you internalizing the message of Jesus and letting it illuminate the nooks and crannies of your life?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“‘Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light. So take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him.’”

~ Luke 8: 16-18

Nothing provides us with greater meaning in our lives than relationship with others. This is infinitely true as it relates to our relationship with God. We were made to find our ultimate pleasure, our ultimate satisfaction, our ultimate meaning in the very Person of God. But our sin causes us to pridefully rebel, saying, “I can make my life work without Him.”

As Peter Berger points out, all beautiful things are to be “signals of transcendence;” that is, they are to point us to God. But instead we take the beautiful things and make them our god. The problem is that they can’t bear the weight of our God-given desires. Eventually the structures of meaning, pleasure, and happiness that we have constructed, and we ourselves, crumble to the ground. And there we sit in our pile of rubble, still stubbornly resistant to turn to the source of true pleasure, meaning, and happiness.

Have you ever considered that the fact that you can’t make your life work the way you want, far from being evidence of the judgment of God is actually evidence of His mercy? That He is actually wooing you to Himself, to a place where your desires will no longer be disappointed?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Then I looked again at vanity under the sun. There was a certain man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches and he never asked, ‘And for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure?’ This too is vanity and it is a grievous task.”

~ Ecclesiastes 4: 7-8

Some wanting to soften the more unseemly edges of Christianity have sought to downplay the reality of final judgment.  These folks argue that the notion that we will be held accountable, as the Bible plainly teaches, for every thought, word and deed, is an impossible road block for people seeking to come to faith in Christ.

However, I would beg to differ.  Not only is downplaying the reality of final judgment a distortion of the teaching of Jesus Himself—Jesus spoke of the reality of final judgment more than anyone else in the Bible; and not only is it patently unfaithful to the teaching of the apostles—Paul, for example, preached that God has “set a day in which he will judge the world with justice” (Acts 17:31).  All these things are true and are reason enough to reject the notion of downplaying the reality of judgment.  However, perhaps most interestingly such a soft-peddled message is ultimately dehumanizing. It leaves its hearers with the notion that in the end their lives really don’t matter—that their choices and actions account for nothing at all.  Listen to the words of the non-Christian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein:   “If what we do now is to make no difference in the end, then all the seriousness of life is done away with.”  Do you think your thoughts, beliefs, words and actions are going to count in the end?  Then, it makes all the difference how you live now.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective”.

“The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.
For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”

~Ecclesiastes 12:13-14