Thoughts of the Heart

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. (Proverbs 23:7) So we have to zealously guard our hearts, for from it flows the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

Simply: our thoughts guide what we do, which defines who we are. And our attitude toward life determines how we understand it, and live it.

The Puritans had it right, and practiced it daily. We examine ourselves rigorously "...to see if [we are] in the faith...that Christ Jesus is in [us]." (II Corinthians 13:5)

That means looking over our deeds, certainly, to see if we have done what is right. I consider it means even more examining our operative thinking rigorously, since it is the parent of our deeds. As Jesus said, a bad tree can't produce good fruit.

On trial are our "thoughts of the heart:" the attitudes, assumptions, and purposes by which we operate.

Christians obsess about their minuscule deeds: "Can I have a beer with this man without damaging my Christian witness...?" Christians seem to pay no attention whatever to the operative thoughts they let into their hearts. How else could they have drunken so deeply of the "spirit of this world" ?

Here, as in all other considerations, foolishness is a moral quality. Christians have been profoundly foolish, especially in their politics...tithing their mint, and dill, and cummin, they have neglected the "weightier" demands of the gospel for justice, truth, and mercy.

May God open the blind eyes of the self-satisfied, hypocritical American Church !!