A heart, sickened by sin, cannot be rehabilitated nor denied.  It’s fruit, or the lack thereof,  will one day be revealed when the fig leaves are removed.

“And when He (Jesus) saw a fig tree in the way, He came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.” Matthew 21:19

A sin sick heart is easily hidden in religiosity when circumstances are pleasing but sin defiles the heart and rottens the bones.  Sin is the problem in the world today.  It kills, steals and destroys a sound heart.  Such is the purpose of sin. This body, made of dust, will one day turn back to dust but our soul and spirit are eternal.  Much physical sickness is a result of a sin sick heart that has been counseled by vain philosophies of man and are given as Biblical doctrine.

“But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:9

The answer to a sin sick heart is a regenerated heart…a sound heart created in man by the circumcision made without hands through the Believer’s faith in the Cross of Christ.

“¹⁰ And you are complete in Him (Jesus), which is the Head of all principality and power: ¹¹ In Whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: ¹² Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised Him from the dead.” Colossians 2:10-12

Just to be sure, being “buried with Him in baptism” does not speak here of water baptism as many wrongly teach but baptism into Jesus’ death.

“³ Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?⁴ Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:3-4

Consider your own heart.  In this life we are not promised a life without difficulties but it is our reaction to those difficulties that the Lord is showing us the true condition of our heart.  No matter the reason for the bitterness, the bitterness remains sin in the heart and it cannot be rehabilitated.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalms 51:10

The unpleasant circumstances reveal what is under those religious fig leaves…a valley of dry bones waiting on the Word of the Lord to be declared from the pulpits.

^“7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

⁸ And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

¹⁰ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”  Ezekiel 37:7-10

Breathe on us O’Lord.  Create in us a new heart.  I hear the sound of bones coming together.

 

-Donna Clark Warren