Self-Denial and A Deceitful Heart
Dear Champions,
The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Jeremiah 17:9. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
At the end of WW2 a guard in a town with a concentration camp dug up bodies that were buried in order to get rid of the evidence. The GI's found the bodies, and Patton knew that the people in the town must have known about the camp in spite of the fact that they denied knowing. In fact, he made the people come out and dig graves for the bodies. That night the mayor and his wife hung themselves and left a note. "We didn't know, but we knew." This mechanism is at work in our hearts as well. We hide painful truths, and it is the root of great evil.
Many hide behind religion to do evil, and others avoid religion because of hypocrisy. Some cheat at work, but say, "I'm not like those Enron guys." The Enron guys say, "I'm cheating people out of millions, but I'm not like the mafia out killing people." The mafia guys say, "Sure I kill but not like Hitler." What did Hitler say to himself? We don't know, but he said something.
This capacity in our lives makes it possible for the nicest people to fall to the lowest depths and to live in self-denial. If you don't recognize where this is at work in your life, then you are capable of the worst things as well. That sin that ruins you is the sin that you don't see.
Only Jesus' obedience makes us holy. He was great but became small so that we, though small, would become great in God's eyes.
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining
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