83. A Walk With Jesus (Out of the Heart)

And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."
Mark 7:20-23

Jesus here gets straight to the heart of the matter (no pun intended). And that is, that man is inherently wicked. David prayed in the psalms, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.(a)" A sad, but honest truth of the human condition, we are all innately sinners. Each one of us has the fullest capacity to do the most horrendous atrocities. Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Charles Manson, Caligula, Nero, Pol Pot... if we understand our diagnosis than we must also understand that we have in us the capability of becoming and doing the very same things that these people have done. A scary and considerably difficult concept, i know. However, considering we are all as equally powerless to fight the temptations of sin, than it must be understood that we are also as equally capable of becoming the worst people in society.

Consider Adolf, he wanted to unite Germany under a common blood and Christian faith (if it could so be called; and it can't). Initially, all he wanted was a untainted genetic linage of Germans; a pure race of healthy individuals... But as the old saying goes, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." And the rest is years of darkness and death in our history.

All of this evil proceeded from the heart, that is to say from the mind and the emotions. Now im not saying that we are all as evil as we could be, but that is not the standard given to us by Jesus. If it were than we could all just find the most wicked man in all of History and have our guilt cleared because we could than say, "well im not as bad as that guy." But the standard is not "are you as bad as the worst?" it is "are you as perfect as Jesus?" The standard is not down, its up. And if we do not meet the criteria than we will all perish. Humanly speaking, this is impossible to meet.

People, if you have been getting one thing out of reading these blogs of mine, and i am redundant on purpose, get this; Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. We need Him alone. Muhammad is dead, Buddha is dead, Joseph Smith is dead; only one man has come back to life, He is the Christ the Son of God; Jesus Christ. There is no other way to salvation than by faith in Him alone for His grace poured out on us.

Christians, be diligent in your thinking, as i even speak to myself. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.(b) If you keep thinking in your ways that you can do it without Christ, and your first encounter with Jesus was all you ever needed than you will always be in your sin; never free from bondage. Deny yourself and follow Him, then, and only then, shall we be free from our sins.


(a) Psalm 51:5
(b) 1 Peter 5:8