August 19th, 2026
Scripture – “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.””
Mark 7:20-23 NIV
Observation – Jesus is explaining to his disciples that it isn’t what people eat that makes them unclean but rather what comes out of a person is what makes them ‘unclean’. He goes on to explain that the evil that we say, do and think all comes from our heart and they defile us.
Application – It is common to hear the phrase, “she’s a good person” or “he has a good heart”. Now she may very well do good things and he might have a positive ‘vibe’ to send out from time to time but both of them have evil thoughts that result in each one us falling short of how and why God made us. This sin results in broken people and broken relationships with each other and God. When the overflow of our hearts result in an outward manifestation of one of these terrible things we will say things like, “that’s not me” or “I don’t know what got ahold of me”. These truth is, nothing got ahold us, our true nature was exposed, Jeremiah said the heart is deceitful and beyond cure, who can understand it. Jesus died on a cross so that our sin could be done away with and we could be forgiven and accepted by God. Place your faith in Jesus and repent of your sins today. Once you do, you will receive the gift of eternal life and will experience a deep peace that can only come by being made clean and whole by the Creator of the universe.
Prayer – Lord Jesus, help us to see ourselves clearly so we can repent and ask for forgiveness. Amen.
What are you doing? Do it better 