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This one will strike most Christians in the place where they are less likely to find fault located....within themselves!

We are told in Jeremiah 17:9-10...

"The heart is deceitful ABOVE ALL THINGS, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (vs.10) I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."

But most Christians either ignore this verse, or they don't believe it's in the Bible. We pat each other on the back for doing a "good job" when it suits our purpose. And we throw "nasties" at those with whom we don't agree. And we try out best to "be nice", when the actual thoughts of our heart are anything but "nice"! Yet, some will be hypocrites and liars to cover up how they really feel.....anything to make themselves look good in the eyes of others.

Be honest!! I admit that sometimes I WON'T say something because it's ugly thoughts deep down within me that I don't want to show to the public....but the thoughts are there!! It's that "desperately wicked" heart within me, and it's within everyone else as well. Only God can change it! And it's a liftime process through fighting those demons (giants) within all of us.

And it astounds me how some of us can actually believe that this unchanged "heart" within us will be overlooked by God...and one day soon we will be "wisked away" in the "rapture" to be given the title of "the bride of Christ". GOD DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!. But then, there are those who still believe that God is an unmerciful tyrant who will torture people in hell forever....and THAT shows a "desperately wicked heart"!!

Only a mature Christian who has studied, prayed, and knows at least a little about our wonderful and loving God, can see some of these things with "spiritual eyes"....and understand with "spiritual ears"... "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches"....said seven times in Revelation chapters 2 & 3.


J. Preston Eby has lessons most of us should learn:


http://www.godfire.net/eby/rev-110.html


Piece of the link article:

Humankind has an enemy — a wily nemesis, an adversary, described in God’s word as deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. This enemy has adversely affected every generation of mankind from the blissful beauty of the garden of Eden to the present. Just who, or what, is this inimical deceiver? The prophet Jeremiah unmasked this enemy in these inspired words, “The HEART is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” and he went on to ask the searching question, “who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).

To the enlightened mind of this prophet, the power of deceitfulness and thedepth of iniquity of which the human heart is capable is so great that it is beyond the ability of any man to comprehend! This heart of deceit and iniquity is buried so far down in man’s being that no one can search it out or ever find it! How many times have you heard it? Someone perpetrates an unbelievably ghastly crime, like the ax murders of an entire family by a young lad barely in his teens, or the brutal murder of a father and a mother by a teenager some years ago, who buried them in a shallow grave, and then repeatedly drove a tractor over the site, in an attempt to cover the crime — and yet relatives, close friends and near neighbors all said, in a state of bewilderment and shock, “But he was such a nice, quiet, decent boy!”

A motion picture some years ago portrayed the dual lives led by a judge who had two families some distance apart! He had “married” two different women, was actually living with each for a certain number of days each week; would then disappear under the pretense of some important responsibilities in a distant town, when in actuality he was going to spend the remainder of that week with his second family! Obviously, each wife thought she knew this man, thoroughly! After all, just how well do you know your own spouse? Interesting, isn’t it! We feel we truly know our husbands, wives, children; our closest and dearest friends. But according to the word of God we don’t even know ourselves!

We, perhaps above all people, are often deceived by our own hearts! There is a deeper part to all of us — a part that only God knows! We should not find this so utterly astounding were it not for one important thing. Jeremiah did not list an exception, saying, “The heart is deceitful above all things except the devil!” He stated in no uncertain terms that the heart of man is deceitful above all things — PERIOD! There can be no mistake, for Jeremiah wrote under the full inspiration of the Holy Spirit! If the heart is deceitful above all things, it naturally follows that there is nothing anywhere, not in heaven above, not in earth beneath, nor under the earth, nor in the lowest regions of all depths, that is more deceitful.

The heart of man, then, is the MOST DECEITFUL THING IN THE UNIVERSE! A photographer has the most difficult profession in the world. He does his best to make ugly faces good looking, smoothing out all the ungainly, uncouth features and marks. But when the portrait is finished in a manner satisfactory to the customer, it is usually anything but a true picture. But when God makes a picture of the human heart, He portrays it just as it is! “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” That is the mystery!

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And yet, how many of us like to look at ourselves as "head and shoulders above the rest". We give ourselves "honorable" names and titles which command respect from others....BUT....that most deceitful thing of all, our wicked heart, is still within us more deeply hidden than ever!

It's only through God's wonderful, loving, and merciful grace that any of us are ever saved! And God's salvation plan, FROM THE BEGINNING, has been salvation of all mankind....either in this present age, or in the ages to come. Yet, the wicked heart of some men (and women) won't believe Him....they would rather think of God as a tyrant, when the actual "tyrant" is within themselves.

Arlene