What comes out of you when you get squeezed? What comes out of you when people, places, things do not turn out or do not do as you would like them to do? What do you vomit up?
After that, Pharisees and religion scholars came to Jesus all the way from Jerusalem, criticizing, "Why do your disciples play fast and loose with the rules?"
But Jesus put it right back on them. "Why do you use your rules to play fast and loose with God's commands? God clearly says, 'Respect your father and mother,' and, 'Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.' But you weasel around that by saying, 'Whoever wants to, can say to father and mother, What I owed to you I've given to God.' That can hardly be called respecting a parent. You cancel God's command by your rules. Frauds! Isaiah's prophecy of you hit the bull's-eye: These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn't in it. They act like they're worshiping me, but they don't mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy."
He then called the crowd together and said, "Listen, and take this to heart. It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life, but what you vomit up."
Later his disciples came and told him, "Did you know how upset the Pharisees were when they heard what you said?"
Jesus shrugged it off. "Every tree that wasn't planted by my Father in heaven will be pulled up by its roots. Forget them. They are blind men leading blind men. When a blind man leads a blind man, they both end up in the ditch."
Peter said, "I don't get it. Put it in plain language."
Jesus replied, "You, too? Are you being willfully stupid? Don't you know that anything that is swallowed works its way through the intestines and is finally defecated? But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It's from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That's what pollutes. Eating or not eating certain foods, washing or not washing your hands—that's neither here nor there."
Matthew 15:1-20
We all like to use the rules to suit our own wills, our own egos. We all like to tell ourselves that we can follow a few of the rules and "act like they're worshiping." We all would like to say to ourselves "I would never do..........." However, if we say we are a Christ follower it is much more important to pay attention to what comes out of our mouth and what comes out in our actions, than the rules we are telling ourselves we will follow. Jesus tells us here that it is not what you put in your body that pollutes it, but what we vomit up. When someone does something that offends us - calls us a name, cuts us off in traffic, yells at us, does the opposite of what we asked - what comes out of us? If anger, hatred, worry, bitterness, and frustration come out this is the beginning of all arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, and lies. Things that we do not want to happen to us in our lives start to happen, not because someone else did not follow the rules, but because we have not practiced on changing our hearts. We like to believe what "suits our fancy." It is safe to us, it brings us comfort. However, if that is the case have our hearts really changed?
I have used this example before. If I have an orange and squeeze it what comes out? Orange juice is what comes out, not apple juice or grape juice. There is no way for me to put some other kind of juice in the orange. An orange is an orange and what is in it comes out when it is squeezed. The same is true for us, we are what we think about, we become that which we meditate on. So who are you, what comes out when the circumstances and people of life squeezed you? What do you vomit up? We all, myself included, vomit up anger, jealousy, frutration, and worry at times. We are not yet holy. Yet we can work each day in our thought life, to take captive our thoughts and change our beliefs, to change how we see circumstances and people around us. If we do this what comes out is quite different. We must change the heart with the help of God and be open to the possibility that "I am more than capable of........"
Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won't show that we have failed. But if it comes to that, we'd rather the test showed our failure than yours. We're rooting for the truth to win out in you. We couldn't possibly do otherwise.
We don't just put up with our limitations; we celebrate them, and then go on to celebrate every strength, every triumph of the truth in you. We pray hard that it will all come together in your lives. 2 Corinthians 13:5-9
Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Allow Christ to truly take over and examine you today. Allow the examination of your weaknesses to make your stronger. Change your thoughts and change your life. Focus on the inward person and allow God's life to come out!
Namaste'
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