Text:
Mark 7:5 (HCSB)
5 Then the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, "Why don't Your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders, instead of eating bread with ritually unclean hands?"
Observation:
I'm so glad that the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus the question that is our focal passage for today.
The believers of every age must guard against the practice of elevating rituals, and traditions above the Word of God.
Mark 7:6-9 (HCSB)
6 He answered them, "Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
7 They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men.
8 Disregarding the command of God, you keep the tradition of men."
9 He also said to them, "You completely invalidate God's command in order to maintain your tradition!
The Pharisees and the scribes were good at cleaning up the outside with many rules, and regulations. However, their rules, and regulations could not clean the heart.
It is the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit of God doing His office work in our lives that will change the heart.
David, a man after God's heart said this concerning his heart; a heart that needed a change.
Psalm 51:10 (HCSB)
10 God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
The Apostle Paul points the way to having a changed heart; a heart after God's heart.
Acts 15:8-9 (HCSB)
8 And God, who knows the heart, testified to them by giving the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us.
9 He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
Prayer:
Father, hallowed be Your most holy, and righteous name. Father, I acknowledge that You alone can change our hearts.
Father, we thank You for Your divine work in changing us on the inside, and revealing from the inside to the outside Your presence in us for a watching world to see.
Ephesians 2:10 (HCSB)
10 For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.
Father, we thank You, and praise You for the finished work of Jesus on our behalf. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (HCSB)
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift—
9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
Isaiah 55:11 (KJV)
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Read the Daily Devotional by Herb Cotton; click here:
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