State of the hearts

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:9

I ran across a column by Dennis Prager, a conservative talk show host and a Jew, on Real Clear Politics today. In it, he makes the statement that he looks first to the Bible for moral guidance and wisdom.

His comments come purely from a secular point of view, looking at the impact of the Bible on civilization. He comes to the conclusion that "...there is nothing -- not any religious or secular body of work -- that comes close to the Bible in forming the moral bases of Western civilization and therefore of nearly all moral progress in the world."

Our own hearts - our personal feelings, our inclinations - are put up against Scripture as the basis of moral authority, and comes up lacking. The Bible itself tells us that our hearts are fickle, untrustworthy, incapable of making moral distinctions.

Our hearts are "desperately wicked". So God graciously gave us His Word as the final authority on matters of morality.

We just don't want to listen to it.

More and more often I've run across Christians who've decided that Scripture is irrelevant to current times, as if an omniscient God could not have foreseen the state of our world, so did not mean His word to be binding through the centuries. They pick and choose, twist and mangle, until they are satisfied they can do anything their hearts desire.

And their hearts are sick.

If you profess Christ, take a good look at the opinions and positions you have on some  of the big issues facing us today - abortion, gay "marriage", social programs. Are your positions based on what Scripture says, or on what your own feelings (and the prevailing culture and media) says? If you had to explain your position to God today, would your argument stand?

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:105