Day 54 Bible Reading

Exodus 33 & 34, Mark 7: 1-30, Psalm 29

Mark 7: 18-23 (ESV)

“And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean. And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.””

In these verses from Mark 7, we read of Jesus redefining the strict laws for eating laid down by the Pharisees. But I think Jesus in some way also expanded the kosher laws to include all things that enter our heart. If we hear things and let it enter our heart that are not in keeping with God’s laws in the both the Old an New testament, then slowly but surely it can start to poison us so when it does come out it will defile us. These last few weeks, Holy Spirit has been convicting me of listening to people who are all doom and gloom. I told myself I listen to these people because I am an open-minded person and I like to hear different points of view on a topic. But Holy Spirit has been warning me that listening to people with negative points of view is not a good thing for me because I feel depressed afterwards. If I look back on the track record of these people in predicting world events and trends, I have to say that 80% of the time their predictions have not come true. Some people even refer listening to doom and gloom as “fear porn”. So I stopped listening to them and my mood has improved because I think I am by nature a very optimistic person. And of course, Holy Spirit was right. I was letting myself take in something that started to defile me inside.