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Day 17-getting caught up again!

Hey guys! I know it's been a while since I've posted. I've been in North Carolina for a week with my youth group at summer camp, and it was a great week! I had the chance to spend time with old friends, make new friends, and hear the Word of God preached! When I got back, though, I didn't feel so good. By home diagnosis, I think I have a cold... not fun! So I've been resting the last couple days to 1)recover from camp, and 2) knock out this cold! I'm feeling better, so I decided it was time to return to my blog. I'm going to be away from my scheduled plan for a few days in order to catch up, but I'll be back to where I am supposed to be by the end of the week I hope! :)

Today I will post about Matthew 15 (this was supposed to be posted on Sunday, July 29 if you are keeping up with the reading plan!)  I am choosing this passage because it was something we actually talked about at camp, and I thought it might be a good topic to get me writing again! If you haven't already, I encourage you to read Matthew 15 before you continue.

I'm going to focus on verses 10-20. These verses are about what defiles a person. In these times, the Jews believed that there were certain kinds of food that could not be eaten because the foods were "unclean". Many of the people thought that eating unclean foods would defile them; Jesus taught them that it wasn't what goes into the mouth, but what comes out of the mouth that would defile someone. As He said, "But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles a person" (vs 18). As one of our old associate pastor used to say, "What's in the well comes up in the bucket". Nice imagery, right? It gets the point across. The human heart is sinful beyond measure. And since our mouth speaks what is in our heart, our sin nature will come out of the mouth. Isaiah understood this in chapter 6 of his book. Check it out!

Isaiah sees a vision of the LORD in Isaiah 6. He sees the angels surrounding the throne of God shouting "Holy Holy Holy" night and day, day and night. Look at verses 4 and 5. In verse 4, God's presence is seen in the smoke, possibly a reference to the pillar of cloud in the day for Moses and the Israelites when they left Egypt. Now check out verse 5. Do you see Isaiah's reaction to the presence of God? Here's what he says:

     "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

Isaiah didn't think his physical lips were dirty in some way; he understood what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 15: The unclean heart will be shown through a person's speech. This is such an important thing to understand. I know I don't apply it to my life as I should. I don't fill my heart with the things of Christ like I ought to, and it shows in how I speak to those around me. I think this is so important to understand, to see that we need to be filling our hearts with the things of Christ rather than the things of this world. It's a daily struggle and a daily choice to do so, but it is so worth it in the end. I encourage you to look at the things that you read, the music you listen to, etc. Are the things you put effort into things that will turn your heart toward Christ or away from Him?

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