Read Mark 7:14-23
14 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. 15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.a]’>[a]”
17 Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used. 18 “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? 19 Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)
20 And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. 21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”
We go to incredible extremes and spend untold millions on cures for things like, “heat disease.” And we should. Heart disease kills millions. But what about spiritual heart disease?
Spiritual heart disease has killed billions!
But it gets little attention, and little financing for a cure. That’s okay—the best cure (as it turns out) costs nothing. It’s just a matter of adjusting what you put in your mouth (for physical heart disease).
You are what you eat — as they say.
Same goes for spiritual heart disease only it’s not what you put in your mouth but what you put in your mind (and ultimately, your heart) that determines whether or not you will develop the full blown disease or live a healthy, vibrant spiritual life.
Now, though we know this, most of us continue to eat junk food, bad carbs and drink diet sodas and chug the beer on the weekends believing the line that weekends were actually made for Michalob.
But it’s also killing you.
And the same thing is happening to your soul.
Stay tuned. We need to talk about this.
* Hey, anyone want to join me in Monroe this weekend? I love visiting our Monroe campus from time to time and this weekend is one of those times!