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.
