Christianity Oasis Forum

[cimi]

WEDNESDAY JULY 29


WHOSE MESS?

READ:
Matthew 15:19-20
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Out of the
heart come evil
thoughts....
These are what
defile a person.
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Could they not carry their own garbage this far?" I grumbled to Jay as I picked up empty bottles from the beach and tossed them into the trash bin less than 20 feet away. "Did leaving the beach a mess for others make them feel better about themselves? I sure hope these people are tourists. I don't want to think that any locals would treat our beach with such disrespect."

The very next day I came across a prayer I had written years earlier about judging others. My own works reminded me of how wrong I was to take pride in cleaning up other people's messes. The truth is, I have plenty of my own that I simply ignore__especially in the spiritual sense.

I am quick to claim that the reason I can't get my life in order is because others keep messing it up. And I am quick to conclude that the "garbage" stinking up my surroundings belongs to someone other than me. But neither is true. Nothing outside of me can condemn or contaminate me__only what's inside (MATT. 15:19-20). The real garbage is the attitude that causes me to turn up my nose at a tiny whiff of someone else's sin while ignoring the stench of my own.
__Julie Ackerman Link

**Forgive me, Lord, for refusing to throw away my own "trash." Open my
eyes to the damage that pride does to Your natural and spiritual
creation. May I have no part of it.
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Most of us are farsighted about sin__we see the sins of others
but not our own.

*****************************Today's Bible Reading __ Matthew 15:7-21************************
7 "Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:
8 " 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from
Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines
the commandments of men.' "

10 When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to
them, "Hear and understand: 11 Not what goes into the mouth
defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles
a man."

12 Then His disciples came and said to him, "Do You know
that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?"

13 But He answered and said, "Every plant which My
heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them
alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind
leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch."

15 Then Peter answered and said to Him, "Explain this parable
to us."

16 So Jesus said, "Are you also still without understanding?
17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth
goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But those things
which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and
they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. 20 These are the things which defile a man, but to
eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man."

21 Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the
region of Tyre and Sidon.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
In today's passage, Jesus is talking to the
Pharisees, a group of the religious elite in Israel. They taught that
obeying the law was the most important thing, so they emphasized
external behavior. Jesus called attention to the condition of the
heart and essentially said, "It doesn't matter if you do everything
right. If your heart is bad, you are still defiled."