Heart as Source of Action

John Ritenbaugh, reiterating that the entire world is under the sway of Satan the devil (I John 5:19, Revelation 12:9, Ephesians 2:1-3), warns us to analyze and evaluate everything that enters our minds from the contaminated, mendacious media sources, medi. . .

Sin and human nature affect everyone in society—from king to commoner—but God has covered sin from every angle in the sacrifice of His Son, fulfilling Leviticus 4-5.

To keep us secure from the temptations of the world, we must embrace our metaphorical sister, Wisdom, keeping us focused on our relationship with God.

Ecclesiastes 7:1-4 highlight the Bible's attitude toward death, particularly its insistence that we allow the reality of death to change our approach to life.

John Ritenbaugh, reiterating that some successful wars have been fought without weaponry, affirms that the most successful battles have been won by words, with the adversary (the prince of the power of the air) convincingly and deceptively persuading the e. . .

When speaking with a new client, career counselors, after getting all the pertinent information on job history and the like, will often ask their clients, "Now, what do you really want to do? Where is your heart?" ...

All the medieval 'seven deadly sins' could be categorized as a facet of lust. God designed us to have proper desires, just as His desires are always proper.

One of our greatest enemies lurks within us, poised to bring disaster upon us if we allow it to take control. This devious enemy even hides its motives from itself.

Human will is not sovereign in the body, but is just another servant, functioning according to the information it receives. We choose according to desires.

The half-time show of the recent Superbowl exemplifies the lust of the flesh and the eyes, and the pride of life. Each choice we make changes our brains.

Bill Onisick, warning us that we are continually in danger of being deceived by our hearts and carnal nature, a nature which distracts us from following God, though we go through the motions, cautions us to not practice hypocrisy before Almighty God. Most . . .

Gary Garrett, focusing on the "bitter water" episode in Exodus 15:22-25, explains the symbolism behind the bitter water of the spring, the tree, and the sanctification process. The bitter water represents the culture of Egypt which God had not ye. . .

Kim Myers, asking us "How long do we think we have to live before Christ returns?" reminds us that God handpicked us for a specific purpose, just as He did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, and their extended families. God also handpicked second-gener. . .

John Ritenbaugh reiterates that the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2) is responsible for influencing the Zeitgeist (dominant spirit or mindset of the time)pulling us away from God and His commandments. Our heart at the time of conversion is in. . .

"You are what you eat" is a common expression, yet Jesus teaches that actually we are what we think. Even so, we are not always what we think we are.

Humanity finds itself inhabiting a world that is the place of restraint for untold numbers of malevolent spirits, all of whom hate God and desire to destroy mankind. John Ritenbaugh reiterates that our human nature reflects these spirits' attitudes, and th. . .

Everyone is out to acquire as much as possible for himself. The tenth commandment, however, governs this proclivity of human nature, striking at man's heart.

Christ warns that we must do everything possible to annihilate sin - surgically going right to the heart or mind: the level of thought and imagination.

One commentator said all public crime would cease if this one law was kept. Another said every sin against one's neighbor springs from breaking this commandment.

Though Satan influences, the choices an individual make are totally his own, even for those without God's Spirit. We sin when we are drawn away by our own desires.

Our natural carnal human nature (our heart, Jeremiah 17:9) is committed to values that are destroying us spiritually. These are values derived from family, religious, and cultural traditions—old wine that cannot go into new wineskins. Conversion invo. . .

Charles Whitaker, beginning with a potpourri of examples from lexicographers on the definition of the word mind, treating the concept as a verb, adjective, and noun, and mentioning that the King James translators render some twenty Hebrew words and eight G. . .

God gave Adam and Eve a neutral spirit and free moral agency; they chose the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, predisposing their offspring to sin.

David Grabbe, focusing on the prospect of a new pure language found in Zephaniah 3:8-9, takes issue with the naïve assumption that the blemishes of a language derive from syntactic, morphological, or phonetic considerations, but instead from the depths of . . .

God's mysteries have been in plain sight from the beginning of time, but carnality has obscured them from mankind.

Coveting—lust—is a fountainhead of many other sins. Desiring things is not wrong, but desiring someone else's things promotes overtly sinful behavior.

We tend to put matters behind us once we are finished with them, but we cannot afford to do this with the lessons we learn from the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Unlike most Millennials, obsessed with acceptance by their peers, Jesus did not mind being a loner because He loved the things His Father taught.

John Ritenbaugh, reminding us that Jesus handpicked the twelve apostles for a specific work, notes that there is a strong possibility that God has also handpicked each one of us to fulfill a particular role in the Body. Like an engineer on a building proje. . .

James Beaubelle, acknowledging that our annual, self-inflicted review of self can be humbling and even painful, reminds us that God's called-out ones have a measure of control over their carnality which those remaining in the world lack. We also have the a. . .

Zephaniah 3 foretells of a "pure language," by which people may call on the name of the Lord. Many believe it will be Hebrew, but the Scriptures reveal more.

Because virtually every sin begins as a desire in the mind, the command against coveting (lustful cravings) could be the key to keeping the other commandments.

The New Covenant was designed by God to circumcise the heart, making it possible for God's laws to be written in our hearts and reflected in our behavior.

Jesus taught that all outward sin stems from inner inordinate desire. What we desire or lust after automatically becomes our idol.