March 8th, 2021
Love Goes the Distance - Day 16 – Monday, March 8th – Pastor Chris
Scripture Reading - Mark 7:14–23; focus on 7:17-23
Remember to Pause | Read | Reflect | Listen |Pray | Journal |Practice | Encourage/Share |Fast
After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
In traditional Jewish and Muslim culture, the eating of pigs is forbidden. And in 1st century Judea, the food limitations in Jewish Levitical law (Leviticus 11) were strict. In the text today, Jesus abolishes those laws by explaining it is not what enters a person’s body through the mouth that defiles them. One professor declared that verses 18-19 are wherein history bacon becomes the legend of foods that we currently know it as in our culture. The comedian Jim Gaffigan says, “everything is better with bacon.” One more reason to love Jesus, He gave us bacon.
However, though Jesus changes the bacon game, what doesn’t change is that a person’s heart is where the real problem lies. What defiles us spiritually is not food but the evil thoughts in our hearts and minds that become manifested in our actions. Jesus saw the pious nature of the Pharisee's adherence to the Levitical ceremonial (Mark 7:1-13) and food laws (Mark 7:14-23) but challenged their spiritual state instead. Eating unhealthy food will destroy our bodies, but our bodies are temporal anyway. However, destroying the soul through an evil heart and that heart's outward actions is an eternal problem. Let us all aspire to live a life of holiness that reflects Jesus in our hearts and not defile ourselves with sin.
Prayer Focus – We are praying today for our national leaders—that their hearts would be open to the Holy Spirit and they would lead our nation with a passion for pleasing God.
Scripture Reading - Mark 7:14–23; focus on 7:17-23
Remember to Pause | Read | Reflect | Listen |Pray | Journal |Practice | Encourage/Share |Fast
After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
In traditional Jewish and Muslim culture, the eating of pigs is forbidden. And in 1st century Judea, the food limitations in Jewish Levitical law (Leviticus 11) were strict. In the text today, Jesus abolishes those laws by explaining it is not what enters a person’s body through the mouth that defiles them. One professor declared that verses 18-19 are wherein history bacon becomes the legend of foods that we currently know it as in our culture. The comedian Jim Gaffigan says, “everything is better with bacon.” One more reason to love Jesus, He gave us bacon.
However, though Jesus changes the bacon game, what doesn’t change is that a person’s heart is where the real problem lies. What defiles us spiritually is not food but the evil thoughts in our hearts and minds that become manifested in our actions. Jesus saw the pious nature of the Pharisee's adherence to the Levitical ceremonial (Mark 7:1-13) and food laws (Mark 7:14-23) but challenged their spiritual state instead. Eating unhealthy food will destroy our bodies, but our bodies are temporal anyway. However, destroying the soul through an evil heart and that heart's outward actions is an eternal problem. Let us all aspire to live a life of holiness that reflects Jesus in our hearts and not defile ourselves with sin.
Prayer Focus – We are praying today for our national leaders—that their hearts would be open to the Holy Spirit and they would lead our nation with a passion for pleasing God.
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