Sunday, August 30, 2015

Devotion 8.31.15

Mind your manners.  I remember the phrase as a child because I am a product of the south.  Manners were very much a part of the rearing of a child, me included.  Not that they weren't in other areas of the country, but I had the privilege of visiting my dad's family in Minnesota as a child.  So, when I used words like "ma'am" or other such mannerly words, they loved it.  Then my aunts and uncles would say, "You learn more manners in the south than our children do."

Not that manners made me a better person mind you.  It was just a part of who we were, but it made me stand out.  My cousins resented it too.  "Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes" I would hear.  Come up here and make us look bad.  And I knew I could be just as evil as anyone else with how I said, "Yes ma'am" or "No ma'am" based on the tone of how I said it.

So the Pharisees questioned Christ when the disciples didn't wash their hands prior to eating. "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with unclean hands?" (Mark 7:5)  Deep into Christ's reply, he says something very relevant, "For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean." (21 - 22)

The façade is clear.  You can paint a house and make it appear neat, but what is in the structure is what makes it stable.  Likewise, what we appear to be on the outside has nothing to do with how we are in our hearts.

Pray our hearts are aligned with Christ. 

Hope Men's Ministry

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