Monday, May 7, 2012

SD502 Wk 4 DQ#3 What are the dangers of a "divided heart"?

I wasn’t sure what a divided heart would be; possibly serving God or serving manna? Elijah said it well in 1 Kings 18:21 “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.”

A search of the Bible resulted in Hosea 10:2, “Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.”

On to the Internet and “A Divided Heart,” sermon by Delivered on Sabbath Morning, September 25th, 1859, by the REV. C. H. Spurgeon at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0276.htm

“Do you know a class of people that pull the most tremendously long faces, that always look so serious, that talk the English language with a kind of unctuous twang, that give a savoury pronunciation to every word they utter? Beware of them. When a man wears all his religion in his face, he has generally but a very small stock in his heart.”
This excerpt from Rev. Spurgeon’s sermon reminds me of Matthew 23: 27-28, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
Rev. Spurgeon’s sermon was rather long so I searched for an audio reading of it. Not only did I find a reading of his sermon, I was able to download it to my computer and MP3 player. There are a number of sermons on this website:
http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?cid=46.

In all my usual searching for what other people think, I concluded that a divided heart is just that, a divided heart! If we are going to work to bring people into the Kingdom, just do it. If we are going to chase after the things of the world, just do it. One or the other!
In my opinion many of today’s religious leaders are falling into the manna trap. They are diluting the Word of God into more PC terms to gain membership. But then, my preference is for small groups.

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