A Heart Full Of Nastiness

The illustration above point out a truth that many do not want to hear. A truth that some refuse to speak on from the pulpit and in the church. We want to ignore it and hope that it will go away or, at best, not be true. What is this truth? That the human heart is deceitful and wicked.

Our government thinks the solution to the moral condition of humanity is more education. Teach the people...give them instruction..and they will do what they deem to be right. Herein is the problem. Any choice that is made comes from heart conviction. If the heart be sinful, then the choice will not be truthful or even holy.

The heart reveals the nature and character of people.

I remember during former president Bill Clinton's first campaign, the Republicans kept hammering at his character. Clinton's response? Character doesn't matter, it is the issues. I never will forget the sinking feeling that came to my spirit when I heard this statement. Character doesn't matter? It is the character of the man that determines the decisions he makes.

A heart that is not or has not surrendered to Jesus can only produce one kind of behavior.

Listed in Galatians 5 we read that list.

Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and the things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

God presents mankind in another verse, Jeremiah 17:10 -  and is desperately sick. The heart is more deceitful than all else Who can understand it? The heart? Not that organ that pumps blood, but that which is the very core of our being. The connection between our will, our ego and our intellect where our decision on how to act and what to do come forth. IF the heart is wicked and evil, then our actions and behaviors will reveal this.

When I was at Rapha, one of the hardest things to get across with people who come into the program , is that their addiction is a secondary thing. It is a symptom of a greater thing. The very truth that has to be addressed if recovery is to be our goal, is that we suffer from a broken relationship with Jesus. Our hearts are wicked and full of sin. Sin? Sin is my self chosen independence to live my life with no interference from God on any level. When the woman was deceived in the garden of Eden by the serpent, the serpent put fort the idea that God has holding back from Adam and Eve. The serpent told her, "God surely knows that when you eat of the fruit, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God." Imagine that! The subtle promise that we can be like God. If I am like God, then I won't  need him. That is the very point that mankind traded away the promises of God.  Ever since that time, we have lived outside the will of God because of our sinful hearts and the nature that drives us to do that which is contrary to God's will.

It takes a heart-transplant from the divine heart of God to take us out of this old lifestyle.
King David knew this when he wrote in Psalm 51, "Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me."

According to the Twelve Steps:

Step #1 -  the total awareness that we are powerless to do the right thing. As Romans 7 reads.."That which I want to do, I do not do. That which I do not want to do, that is the very thing that I do." My friend that is powerlessness.

Step #2 - We come to believe in a Power that is greater than ourselves who could restore us to sanity.

Sanity comes with the heart change which produces a life change.

Step #3 - We made a decision to turn our WILL and our LIFE over to the care of God as we understood Him .

We look to every excuse and reason to validate our bad behavior except to the truth of God.

Therapy will not relive the pain and destruction of sin.
Medication will not free you from the bondage of a life separated from God.

Group-thought and Validation will not confirm the reality of Jesus' saving grace.

We find the answer for our life and for our future at the foot of the cross.
There forgiveness is applied to a life a sin.
There we find the unspeakable joy of the Lord. A joy that the world can neither comprehend or duplicate.

It is the shed blood of Christ that ushers us into the "new" life we have been searching for.

That is why I write daily.
To share with you the joy that has been brought to my own life.

To share Jesus with you....
May you find Him today for yourself.

God on you....

mb