Day 18, January 18, 2021
Scriptures: Genesis 34, Matthew 12, Psalm 64 The violence and depravity of humanity is on full display within the story of Dinah in Genesis 34. This tragedy of rape, death and deceit, disturbs our righteous sensibilities. How does a story like this get redeemed? What lessons do we learn? Jesus offers us a commentary of sorts. “Good people bring good things out of the good stored up in them, and evil people bring evil things out of the evil stored up in them.” “Out of the overflow of our heart, our mouth speaks.” Jesus teaches us that what’s in us, comes out of us. We see this as truthful as we reflect on our daily lives, and consider what we see and hear on our social media sites, our conversations with coworkers, friends and family. We hear, often times the anger, the frustration the bitterness, it pours out from all of our hearts. The only solution is to make the tree good. I read a long time ago, in a book, “The Great Omission” by Dallas Willard something that has helped me quite a lot in my journey with Christ. He says, in light of Matthew 12, “If you tend to the tree, the fruit will take care of itself.” Dallas’ point is that if you give your heart to Christ, if you open yourself to Him and His presence and Spirit, the fruit will change. A good tree will bear good fruit. We join with David, in Psalm 64 “The righteous will rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him; all the upright in heart will glory in him. All Glory be to Christ, Jordan
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AuthorJordan Ickes, Minister of Etna Green Church of Christ. Archives
December 2022
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