Author: Jennifer Armstrong

Today’s reading links: Genesis 16; Matthew 15; Nehemiah 5; Acts 15

Every day when I drive my kids to school, we start our 15 minute car ride by talking to God. In these few minutes, we affirm that we want our hearts to look like Jesus, and ask for God’s help to change them.  I’ll be honest, we’ve been praying this prayer for about a year and a half, but my heart still requires a lot of work.  Many mornings, especially on Mondays, this request is often followed by a prayer of thanks that God’s mercies are new EVERY morning.  Oh how I need them!

Since reading Matthew 12 on Tuesday, I haven’t been able to get the last phrase of verse 34 off my mind, “…out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

In reading Matthew 15 today, we find the Pharisees and scribes challenging Jesus about his disciples’ failure to keep some traditions. I love how he answers their question with question and begins to get at their hearts.  In verses 10 and 11, Jesus gets very direct with those gathered to listen to his teachings, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

My small group is reading the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.  In this week’s reading, Lewis says, “…surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is.” Why? Back to Matthew 12:34, because what instinctively comes out of your mouth truly reflects what is in your heart.

Think about what’s in your heart. With my children and I, today will you ask God to help change your heart to look like Jesus?

Today’s reading link: Genesis 9–10; Matthew 9; Ezra 9; Acts 9

Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  A pure heart is one that is fully devoted to God; no hypocrisy; a condition in which outward actions reflect the true condition of the heart.

Always devoted? Never an impure thought or selfish motive?  We could never get here on our own.  But God gave us a guide, and a lot of grace, to help us.  God’s commandments aren’t simply a list of rules to make our lives more difficult, but a guide to help us purify our hearts and move toward full devotion to him.  This theme runs throughout today’s reading.

In Matthew 9, Jesus saw the thoughts of the scribes and affirmed his authority through a miracle:

When he saw the faith of the people who had brought him and the faith of the paralytic, Jesus told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven. The scribes/teachers who were looking on said nothing, but Jesus looked at their hearts and saw their accusations of blasphemy.  He responded by also healing the paralytic’s physical disability.

In Ezra 9, Ezra mourned because the Children of Israel disobeyed God’s command to remain pure by refraining from intermarriage:

God commanded the Children of Israel to keep themselves separated from the people of the lands with their abominations. They were not to give their daughters to them in marriage, nor take non-Israelite daughters for their sons, and never seek the others’ peace or prosperity.  All these things would lead them away from full devotion to God.

In Acts 9, Ananias sought after a Saul, a known murderer of Jesus followers:

Saul’s heart, “…still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord”, sounds pretty pure.  Purely in opposition to Jesus.  We read the story of his conversion, and know he goes on to purify his heart and become a great man of God.  But the pure heart that rings through in Acts 9 is of Ananias.  When God commanded Ananias to go to Saul, Ananias gently reminded God of Saul’s reputation.  God affirmed his command, but he did not play to Ananias’ selfish desires (like I would have) to convince Ananias to go.  My line would have sounded something like, “Ananias, I realize the risk is great here, but so is the reward.  This guy will go on to write almost have of the New Testament.  You’re going to make history.  This story will be recorded in the best-selling book ever written.  Billions of copies!”  See, God didn’t have to play to Ananias’ selfishness because had a pure heart, he simply followed God’s command.

In Genesis, God punished Ham’s impure actions:

Ham commits an impure act against his father Noah. God doesn’t punish Ham directly, but punishes Ham by making his son a servant to his brothers.  As a mother, seeing my kids pay for my sin is way more painful than suffering my own consequences.  Heart-wrenching is the word that comes to mind.

Samuel 16:7 says, “…for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  What does God see when he looks at your heart today?

Today’s reading: Genesis 3; Matthew 3; Ezra 3; Acts 3

Seven months after returning from captivity to build the temple, the Children of Israel built an altar. At this time, the foundation for the temple was not yet laid.  It wasn’t until two years and two months after their return that the Children of Israel got around to defining roles and finally beginning to work on the temple structure.  We know from Ezra 2 that a ton of people returned from captivity.  A lot had to be done to settle and re-assimilate to their homeland.  But two years from the start seems like a long time to finally get started on the task for which you came!  Contrasting this to the seven-day account of creation we read over the last two days, I personally expect this should have happened a lot faster.

Today, we also read the account of The Fall in Genesis 3. How familiar this story sounded.  The serpent capitalized on Eve’s desire for wisdom, she brought Adam along to eat with her.  When questioned by God, Adam tried to shift the blame to anyone but himself.  “It wasn’t me, it was the woman you gave to me”, he said.  In other words…”not my fault God”!

Now back to Ezra 3. I can only imagine how much of this “blame shifting” was going on as the Children of Israel all moved back, settled and began to organize to make progress on the task at hand.  These folks were all sinners just like me.  I am positive they were grumbling, fighting and trying to be better than / gain a better position than their neighbors. But God still worked with each of their in adequacies and selfish desires to move them to accomplish his work.

Bottom line, God’s timing is perfect. I often forget this and lose sight of the goal.  God’s goal in Ezra 3 was not really about getting the temple built.  His objective in this passage is the same as it is in every other passage, relationship with the people he created.  Always using a variety of means, including the circumstances at hand, to help shape our hearts to look like his.