Everywhere I Go: Learning to See Jesus

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Wed Nov 21

Day 326 of 363

Mark 7:14-23

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14Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand.15It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.# Some manuscripts add verse 16, Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. Compare 4:9, 23.”17Then 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?19Food 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.)20And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you.21For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,22adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.23All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

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Mark 7:20

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I DID IT MY WAY Do you have a cabinet? I don't' mean do you have a covered shelf ﾖ I mean, do you have a cadre of trusted advisors whose opinions you weigh carefully and whose advice you welcome? Trusting only self ﾖ consulting with only old number one ﾖ is a dangerous practice. What happens when we listen only to ourselves? When I was growing up, we listened to music on phonographs, and then on "record players." We enjoyed it. There was no noise reduction then, no surround sound or complex balancing of treble and bass, but ignorance was bliss! We enjoyed what we heard. Now those in my generation have developed a more "sophisticated ear." Phonographs and record players are obsolete. The "flat" sound we listened to as teenagers has been given a whole new dimension by compact discs, digital recording, and stereos with instrument panels that resemble that of a 747. When we listen to our own voice, we live by a flat sound. When we pass up the symphony of other voices in favor of our own solo, we are operating at a disadvantage. My heart is wicked. Yours is, too. We need the straight stick of God's Word to live by, and the voices of other, trusted friends to tune our lives to play out the music of His grace.