Hello, Beloved Reader! I’m Faith. Thanks for visiting me today.
“There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.” –Mark 7:15
“But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart: and they defile the man.” –Matthew 15:18
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” –Jerimiah 17:9
The heart of man is an evil thing, selfish to the core. It wants nothing but to please itself. It thinks wickedly all hours of the day. It basks in corruption and maliciousness. It is villainous and vile, and to follow it would spell doom for the soul.
A man or woman can do good to others, go to church, and just be one of those good ole’ people. But if they never receive Jesus into their heart, sadly, they die and leave this world for an eternal torture.
What you do matters, but what’s on the inside matters first.
Interesting thought: Who you are on the inside will dictate what you do on the outside. Why do we label drinkers as ‘drinkers’? Think about it. You label a drinker a ‘drinker’ because that’s what they do. They drink. The same goes for a smoker, or a chef, or a farmer. I label myself as a ‘writer’ because that’s what I do. I write. But the thing is, a farmer wouldn’t plant crops all the time if that wasn’t what he wanted to do. A chef wouldn’t cook all the time if that’s not what his heart was drawn to. They are labeled those things because that’s what they do, but they wouldn’t do them if that’s not who they were on the inside.
Now, here’s the thing. The heart of man is evil and that’s what’s inside him. So, he will do what his heart wants. But when God comes in, the story changes.
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgements, and do them.” –Ezekiel 36:26-27
God gives us a new heart when we accept Him as Savior. We are new creatures in Christ. There’s a label given to people like that. They are called born again Christians because now it’s in their heart to be Christ-like. They have a desire to walk in God’s statutes, keep His judgments, and do them.
So, it matters what you do, but that is dictated by who you are on the inside, or rather, Who is inside you.