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Bible Reflections From Scripture Union Volume OneSample

Bible Reflections From Scripture Union Volume One

DAY 38 OF 181

What is Your Motive? Read Mark 7:1-23 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’ Mark 7:6 Terrorism is hitting us hard these days. Many live in fear of harm simply because of their beliefs. What is even more frightening is the use of violence as a means of justifying one's religious beliefs. Religious extremism is not a new thing. In today’s reading we see another form of religious extremism – judging people because they did not follow traditions. For the Pharisee, Jesus’ disciples were unclean simply because they did not follow the practices of Judaism (v 5). The problem with this assumption was that the Pharisees were selective in their practices – they only followed the practices that suited them (vs 9-13). We too can be found guilty of being selectively judgmental of others. We tend to sometimes pronounce harsh judgments on people simply because they do not do things the way we choose. Sadly, many of us hide behind religion to justify our judgments. Surely killing people to justify one’s religion cannot be right! Jesus tells the Pharisees clearly that it is not one’s actions but motives that determine one’s righteousness. And this has to do with one’s heart (v 20). We can do so many things hoping that by doing so we can be considered righteous but if our motives are wrong, all our good deeds will come to naught. Only God knows our heart Therefore only God can judge others and we should refrain from doing so. 1 Samuel 16:7b: The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. Pray that Christians will examine their motives in the things that they do so that they glorify God and not themselves.

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Bible Reflections From Scripture Union Volume One

Scripture Union Peninsular Malaysia's Bible reflections are devotional readings from the thoughts and insights of Asian writers. Consisting of 8 volumes, they cover the whole Bible in four years. Each volume contains boo...

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