Stephen
Terry, Director
Inside
Out
Commentary
for the August 10, 2024, Sabbath School Lesson
"He went on:
'What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of
a person's heart, that evil thoughts come--sexual immorality, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
All these evils come from inside and defile a person.'"
Mark 7:20-23
One of my favorite hymns is
number 334 in the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing"
by Robert Robinson, an 18th century megachurch pastor. When he was
only twenty-two years old, he wrote:
"Come, thou fount of every
blessing, Tune my heart to sing thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me ever to adore Thee, May I still Thy
goodness prove, While the hope of endless glory Fills my heart with joy and
love." And then at the end of the hymn, the plea "Here's my heart--O, take and
seal it; seal it for Thy courts above."
His hymn recognizes the
essential foundation of the Christian faith is in the connection between the
human heart and the heart of the divine. That connection between the two goes
all the way back to Creation. We were not created to be an aberration, an inadvertent
creature devoid of connection to anything beyond ourselves. No, we were created
in the image of our Creator. (Genesis
1:27) Both male and female were created in the
image of God. No less a connection to the divine was found in woman than in man.
Today, they bear no less a potential for reflecting that image than in the
beginning. Like an old, unused motor that has not run for decades, yet responds
immediately when powered up, our hearts lie ever ready to carry that image in
our being.
What is that image? The Apostle
John tells us that "God is love." (1
John 4:8) Every act of love and self-sacrifice to lift up others from pain
and suffering, every comfort, and every aid offered to those in need is a
reminder that no matter how hardened we may have become, our hearts yearn to be
loving and reflecting the image of God as they once did. Despite that we
struggle to be loving. We too often find in the hardness of our hearts that we
want to seek revenge for the evil that has hurt us. We fear further hurt. That fear
makes it difficult for us to allow peace and love to take root and grow in our
lives. But love is the only way to deal with that fear. The Apostle John wrote
that "love drives out fear." (1
John 4:18) But if we find it difficult to love as we were created to, how
do we return to that image?
When our vehicle does not operate
properly, we often take it to a dealership connected to the company that
created the vehicle to restore it to proper working order. So, it is with our
hearts. When we return to our Creator for the needed restoration, he will
replace our malfunctioning hearts of stone with ones of flesh as we were meant
to have. (Ezekiel
36:26) This is not just a rebuild of the existing heart but a swap out of
the old, stony organ for a strong new heart capable of pumping the compassion and
grace of God's love into the world. This is no longer a heart subject to fitful
embolisms of rage and revenge. Cares of this life no longer narrow the
arteries, cutting off the abundant flow of love. We will still have knowledge
of the hurt and pain that is in the world and has hurt us also, but we will no
longer succumb to fear of that which would try to sever our connection to our
Creator. As the early Christian martyrs stood faithful before those who would
persecute them, we also will know that our future does not depend upon
succumbing to the fears of the present but our connection to the loving heart
of God, dwelling in image in our own breasts.
We are not free in this life
from those who would assail us, attempting to restore the fear we have set
aside. All that would seek to live in the image of God's love will be
persecuted for doing so. (2
Timothy 3:12) While we might expect such opposition from those who have
given themselves over to utter degradation and licentiousness that is often not
the case. Instead, we find ourselves opposed by the very ones whom we have
every right to expect should know better. Even Jesus met his greatest opposition
from those leaders in the temple and the synagogues who professed to be the
truly faithful. So, it was then and continues to be today. This is one of the
most successful strategies of the unrighteous to prevent those who long for
that loving connection to their Creator from making progress along the heavenly
highway toward a new life with a new heart. The Apostle Paul wrote of the
dangerous deception within the church that can lead us astray. He wrote that
Satan himself can appear to be an angel of light and his followers as priests
of righteousness making it hard to discern truth from the lie. (2
Corinthians 11:13-15) But their ilk is discernable in this, that they
invoke fear instead of love as the basis for faith. Rather than encouraging a
connection to a loving God that will bring forth love in the life of the believer,
they portray God as eager to inflict punishment and pain on his children. Their
greatest desire is to so fill the hearts of God's children with fear that they
can never freely love God or any of his children. Instead, they teach others to
judge all based on whether they show the proper amount of fear of God. How this
must break the heart of the divine when they are successful in their malevolent
work.
Where fear reigns, darkness
abides. Each year, during the winter months, we hear of seasonal affective
disorder caused by so much darkness and so little sunlight. Without supplementation
of vitamin D, the resulting depression can lead to despondency and even death
should the depression become clinically deep enough. This is not just thinking
bad thoughts. Serotonin levels alter, resulting in physical changes to the
functioning of our bodies. The fear that others would malignantly subject us to
is also capable of making similar physical changes to our being. It becomes
vital that we turn to God that he might restore us to what we were meant to be.
To eschew fear and live in love now is to live beyond fear in present faith in
the throbbing heartbeat of that love connection to our Creator. While we live
in this world, we are no longer citizens driven by fear of the evil that abounds
here. We are conduits of love being poured in from a
better place--a place to be the fulness of reality for all who have sought God,
who is love, and opened themselves to that heart change, that love.
Jesus warned us that evil would
become ever bolder as time progressed, but he also assured us that whoever
endured, whoever kept on loving despite the tide of darkness would be saved
from the evil to come. (Matthew
24:12-13) It all comes down to a choice. We can choose to live lives of
fear, ever resentful, seeking to get what we feel we rightfully deserve even
though we know whatever it is we desire is only a useful tool for others to
manipulate and humiliate us, or we can choose to live lives of love, loving
even those who would do us ill. Jesus did even as he hung from the cross, as he
said our Father in heaven does during his Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew
5:43-48) While religious leaders then and now encourage us to find
perfection and the approval of God who would otherwise destroy us in minute and
perfect obedience to a plethora of statutes designed to force us to be
compliant and obedient, Jesus encouraged us to find perfection in love. Jesus said
that if God demonstrates his love for us to the extent that he would die for
us, then we would be drawn to him because of it. (John
12:32) It is not fear of an irate God that brings us to seek restoration of
our connection to him. It is his goodness and love that draws us. (Romans
2:4)
The memory of Eden is synonymous
with everything good and pleasant--a value our hearts, hardened as they are,
nonetheless yearn toward. The world teaches us that Eden is a vain hope,
impossible of realization, as it seeks to obscure any idea of that possibility
with an overwhelming tide of evil to overcome the light of love seeking to
kindle in our hearts. But no matter how dark the room the light of a single
match can be seen from every point within its confines. So, it is with the love
of God. We only need to move toward that light.