Thank you for your prayers. They have helped, that is for certain. Our Lord is faithful and hears every prayer, answering them always. Please continue to keep me in your prayers though, I thank you.

Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is far from thee.”

Today in the Word of God we move into the book of Proverbs. I know I often say how I don’t look ahead to see the verses in the notebook I take these from, but I admit that I glanced ahead today Lol. We are going to spend some time in the book of Proverbs, so let’s learn wisdom and have understanding! (I also noticed that we’re coming to the end of the notebook! I’m still trying to think about what to do after we finish the notebook . . .)

The verse for today reminds us that it is what is in the hearts of men, that is their true self. From the heart is a man defiled, or a man cleansed. From the heart, the mouth speaks, and this is why we are told to believe in our hearts, AND confess with our mouths that Jesus is the Son of God and that God has raised Him from the Dead. This is also why it is not contradicting our Salvation by faith, when Jesus says “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” in Matthew 12:37. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Therefore if we have chosen in our hearts, to believe on the Lord Jesus and have chosen to seek Him and follow Him, then He has indeed filled the abundance of our hearts and our mouths will indeed proclaim Him . . . by our words we are justified or condemned, because by our hearts we are justified and condemned, because that is where the Word has been written when we are saved, or that is where we have hardened our lives to keep away from our Lord and the Truth, in our refusing to come to Christ.

The verse in Proverbs for today, reminds us that we cannot judge a person by outward things, but rather by their hearts. The evil man in the verse for today, may seem to contradict what Jesus says about how the mouth speaks what is in the heart, because of how the man says to eat and drink, but his heart is still far from you. This isn’t a contradiction though, but simply should be used together with what our Lord says, to remind us that we can’t take a person at his or her words in one conversation, but rather by their words as they live and act. People lie, as we all know, and therefore can appear righteous. Yet such an appearance in words, just as in actions, can’t continue forever. So don’t be quick to say a person is righteous, or evil, simply by one conversation—unless you have wisdom and can “read between the lines” and understand.

We are reminded in today’s verse, that we have to look at a person’s heart, and not what is on the outside, to see who they really are. Wicked men can put on a facade, and good men can stumble. Some may say that we cannot see a person’s heart, because only God knows the intents of the heart. That is true, that God knows the intents of the heart. However, we are not given the Spirit of God, and the Word of God, simply to help us inwardly, but also to be able to discern wickedness and righteousness. This is why, in Matthew 7, though we are told to not judge, we are told (in verse 16) also that we, “shall know them by their fruits.” It is as explained in John 7:24 as well, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” The Word shows us that we are to judge righteous judgement, which simply means that we both should, and are ABLE to judge what is in a man’s heart, by the actions and words of their lives. Yet it has to be righteous, which means that we cannot judge according to what we feel in our hearts to be right or wrong, but rather because God is the one who knows the intents of the heart, and it is the Spirit of God within us that allows us to understand that which is in one’s heart, we have to keep things in line with God, and judge righteous judgement by the WORD of God because It is a discerner of the intents of the heart as well: (Hebrews 4:12) “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Keeping all this in mind, we have to remember that it is the heart that is the true person. We cannot always believe what people say, or appear on the outside to be, but we can know the person by their hearts. This is why our Lord gives us a new heart, and writes His Word in our hearts. Before we are saved, we have a stony heart that is hardened against Him, full of wickedness and sinfulness. But our Lord gives those who come to Christ to follow Him our Lord Jesus, a New Heart of flesh: Ezekiel 36:26 “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

If our Lord doesn’t promise to change our hearts, then we would never be able to follow Him. If He never gave us His Spirit and Word, then we would never even know HOW to follow Him! So He gives us a new heart in place of the stony one, and writes His Word on our new hearts as well!

Though in light of all this, we have to remember that we cannot do as the world is nearly always saying, “Follow your heart.” Our Heart is not something we need to follow. Our Heart by itself will seek the flesh to follow it, and emotions, and things that give pleasure instead of the purity of the Truth. This is why we cannot just be given a new heart, but also a new Spirit, and the Word of God to be written in our hearts. The Heart itself is deceitful as we learn in Jeremiah 17:9, and how our Lord warns that such wickedness comes from the heart. Our Heart is not something that we need to follow, but rather it simply portrays the true nature of a person, by what is in the abundance of the heart. If we follow our heart, then in honesty we follow ourselves . . . and our Flesh will just jump for joy at that idea! Instead, Our Hearts need to be controlled and follow that New Spirit, the Spirit of God given to us, and then in turn our lives will likewise conform to the Spirit and follow the Spirit.

Thank you again for your prayers, Please continue to keep me in your prayers. I love you with brotherly love, and do keep you also in my own prayers. I pray that we are given wisdom and understanding, and that we never forget that it’s not what is seen for a moment that is always true, but what is in the heart, which is evident by one’s life, THAT is how a person is. May God guide us in His Word every day. I pray that you are abundantly blessed, and have a wonderful day today!

That's very true. Praise God we are indeed given a new, clean heart. I suppose I should've better explained what I meant though, that even though we are given a new heart, we have to set our heart to follow our Lord, because if we don't, then the devil would jump at any opportunity to fill it once again with deceitfulness. So if we did follow our heart, though we in Christ have been given new, clean hearts, then we would be taking a chance on following something that could have been placed in our hearts by the devil. Amen, as you said, we follow Christ our Lord,

You're right, it is a very sad thing when so very many are that way, refusing to speak against false teaching/teachers. That is something that is spreading more and more I believe. It truly is unbiblical.

(Very unfortunately, Joel Osteen recently had done that on the Larry King Live show. Larry King kept asking him about Jesus and other beliefs and getting to heaven, and Joel very sadly kept saying that he cannot say a person is not going to heaven. He even said that he can't say that if a person doesn't believe in Jesus, they won't go to heaven . . . Many times Joel was given many chances to say that Jesus was the only way to Heaven, and he sadly said each time that he didn't know because he "couldn't" say whether they would get to heaven or not Though, because after the show he had many write to him concerned about his refusal to say Jesus was the ONLY way to heaven, He did apologize---I think on his website or something? I believe sadly he refused on the show, maybe because he wouldn't have wanted to offend anyone. He mentioned on the show his main thing was that he liked to encourage people, instead of take chances of offending them)

It's widespread, very sadly

sorry about that!

Saddening indeed. I never watched the Larry King Live show. It's sad to hear that things like that happen often! I know if I were on such a widely watched show like that, I would jump at any opportunity to proclaim Jesus! Wouldn't you?

Sadly, truly many to become fools like that, and they teach for itching ears. But I suppose we shouldn't fret too much because it merely shows that our Lord's Return draws closer and closer!