Matthew 15:20 (KJV) Heart Matters

Matthew 15:20 (KJV)

These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

 

This verse concludes a topic that began in,

Matthew 15:1-3 (KJV)

Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,

Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.

But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

 

The Pharisees had not helped people worship God with their “enhancements” to the faith. They had, in fact replaced and made the Word of God ineffective in people’s lives. Religion, no matter how well-intended, does that.

 

Jesus did not say that it’s wrong to wash our hands before eating. He was making a comparison between the outward work of the flesh and the inward work of the heart. Changing our actions will not make us right with God. What we need is a new heart, a new love, a new faith—not in ourselves but in God.

 

And that comes from God’s Word.

 

Anything that draws us away from and makes the commandments of God “of none effect” is dangerous doctrine.

 

Stay with the Bible. None of us understand it completely, but it is the source of God’s wisdom. Study the Word of God. Obey the Word of God. Teach others the Word of God.

 

#TrueFaithOverTradition #HeartTransformation #BiblicalWisdom #GodsWordMatters #AvoidingDoctrineDangers

Heart Matters: How Religion Can Hinder Faith

 

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6200 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Matthew 15:20 (KJV) Heart Matters

Jeremiah 3:13 (KJV) Restored and Renewed

Jeremiah 3:13 (KJV)

Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

 

Jeremiah was preaching in Judah, in the days of Josiah, but in this case, the message uses Israel, the backslidden northern kingdom of Jews as the target. God says,

Jeremiah 3:1 (KJV)

They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.

 

God, contrary to the accusations leveled against Him by those who do not know Him and do not believe He is, is more gracious, more forgiving than the average person is. He is willing to forgive and take back those that almost no person would — the one who has immorally betrayed him.

 

I, in fact, believe that many of those who hate God the most stand as they do because they do not believe God would take them back if they wanted Him to. They sure wouldn't if they were God. But they are not God. His character is higher than theirs. He invites them to return.

 

Just one condition.

Jeremiah 3:13 (KJV)

Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

 

There it is. One must acknowledge he has transgressed against the Lord to return to Him. That's repentance. It's not quitting all your sin so God will forgive you. It is acknowledging that sin and turning back to God. No matter how terribly a person has sinned, even those sins we would never forgive ourselves for, if he turns back to God, God receives him and accepts him. It is not that God unjustly ignores the sin. It is that God has already provided a just payment for the sin in the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary.

 

#DivineForgiveness #ReturnToGod #RepentanceandRestoration #GodsGraciousLove #AcknowledgeIniquity

Restored and Renewed: The Path Back to God

 

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6200 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Jeremiah 3:13 (KJV) Restored and Renewed

Jeremiah 1:17 (KJV) Confidence in the Call

Jeremiah 1:17 (KJV)

Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.

 

Jeremiah chapter one is taken up with the call of this young man into the ministry. His call, we who have read the book know, would be an exceptionally challenging one. God provides in the chapter several things to bolster Jeremiah in his work.

·       He was known of God

·       He was ordained of God

·       He was accompanied by God

 

God told Jeremiah not to be afraid of the faces of the people he preached to “lest I confound thee before them.” Public speaking is intimidating to many people, maybe even most. It is certainly a skill that must be developed but it is a skill that can be developed. The point of this verse is not to develop the skill of public speaking so that Jeremiah was confident when he preached. The point was that he must not be afraid of their faces. If he was to preach confidently amidst such opposition as he would face, he had to have something far greater than confidence in his ability to speak — he had to have a greater confidence, a greater fear of God and of His calling than of whatever obstacles, personal or otherwise, that would be in his path.

 

The preacher is not a professional. His is not a vocation. Preaching, in God’s view, is not a skill one can acquire. Preaching, God’s way, is a divine commission. The preacher must preach under the fear of the Lord or, regardless how well he presents his sermon, his words will become confounded and meaningless to those who hear Him.

 

#DivineCommission #FearOfTheLord #PreacherCalling #ConfidenceInGod #JeremiahMinistry

Confidence in the Call: The Preacher's Call to Fear the Lord 

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6200 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Jeremiah 1:17 (KJV) Confidence in the Call

Isaiah 66:3-4 (KJV) Cherry-Picking

Isaiah 66:3-4 (KJV)

He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.

I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.

 

A few days ago, a man challenged me and said the God I preach is a psychopath. Those who make such accusations think God is pro-slavery, killing innocent women and children,[1] and indiscriminately gave the Promised Land to Israel without thought or care for the previous occupants. In those cases, they’ve merely misread the Bible. Most likely they’ve not read the Bible at all but have cherry-picked out those events in the Bible someone else told them are unjust.

 

But here is a legitimate complaint they might level. The fact is God does not judge equally the thoughts and actions of all men. He does not accept every sacrifice presented to Him. They, like Cain, might complain that God has no respect for their offering while He does for another.

 

And it’s because they’re confused about God. The corrupt nature the serpent promised Eve has led them to believe they, not God, are the judges of morality.

 

Frankly, until they get past that falsehood and surrender to the supremacy of God, nothing else in the Bible is going to make any sense at all."

 

Someone once said, “Low thoughts of God lead to a hundred lesser sins.”

 

#MisunderstoodDivinity #GodsJustice #ChallengingBeliefs #SurrenderToGod #UnderstandingDivineJustice

Cherry-Picking: Grappling with God's Moral Standards

 

 To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6200 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Isaiah 66:3-4 (KJV) Cherry-Picking

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[1] These same people are most often pro-abortion.

Isaiah 65:2 (KJV) God's Plea to a Rebellious World

Isaiah 65:2 (KJV)

I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;

 

As one works through this chapter, we see it begin with current times and move toward eternal days.

• Verse 3, “a people that provoketh me… continually”
• Verse 17 “for behold I create new heavens and a new earth”

 

I take it that the chapter begins nearing the end of what we would consider current times. I see then these words, therefore, as indicative of the days in which I write.

 

There has never been a time in history easier to get the gospel around the world. Just my little Daily Visits with God podcast is heard currently in sixty countries around the world, many of them being restricted access nations. Truly God has “spread out His hands” today, inviting the rebellious, sinners, and unbelievers to come to Him and be saved.

 

But as surely as the ability to spread the gospel has increased in this time, the way those people walk has grown increasingly wicked and their thoughts, like those in the days of Noah have become “only evil continually.”[1]

One of those accusations so often leveled against Christians today is that we only believe because our parents believed. When the floods came only Noah, and his family boarded the Ark. I imagine those outside mocking them for being brainwashed. But then I imagine them crying out to be forgiven and invited in.

 

We’re inviting you into our spiritual family right now, before it’s too late to cry.

 

#SpreadTheGospel #DaysOfNoah #EternalInvitation #GlobalFaith #SpiritualFamilyInvitation

God's Plea to a Rebellious World: The Modern-Day Invitation

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6200 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Isaiah 65:2 (KJV) God's Plea to a Rebellious World

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[1] Genesis 6:5 (KJV)

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Matthew 24:37 (KJV)

But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Isaiah 63:16 (KJV) Knowing Jesus

Isaiah 63:16 (KJV)

Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.

 

The Jew made such a big deal to Jesus of Abraham as their father.[1] The Muslim does the same thing today. Interestingly, God speaks of a day when those who come to Him will have no claim in either Israel or Abraham.[2]

 

I take this to be a mystical[3] reference to the New Testament Church age Christian. 

 

John the Baptist urged people not to fixate on Abraham. 

Matthew 3:9 (KJV)

And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. Distinctions such as heritage, lineage, and standard of living all give way to membership in the local church of God. Pedigree no longer matters. All the Lord is interested in is whether you know Him.

Matthew 7:21-23 (KJV)

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

 

Do you know Jesus? Rather, do you know that He knows you?

 

#InChristAlone #SpiritualHeritage #BeyondLineage #LocalChurchUnity #KnowingJesusKnowingMe

Knowing Jesus: A Personal Relationship Beyond Heritage

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6200 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Isaiah 63:16 (KJV) Knowing Jesus

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[1] John 8:33 (KJV)

They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

[2] Except for a spiritual one.

[3] I believe the great mystery Paul spoke often about is the local New Testament Baptist Church.

Isaiah 62:7 (KJV) Prayerful Pursuit

Isaiah 62:7 (KJV)

And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

 

Because there is a watchman in verse six, the context seems to be about witnessing, warning, and speaking to the unsaved about the great need of their soul. The need for faithful, persistent, and passionate witnessing cannot be overstated.

 

But the passage is not directly about witnessing. The one we are encouraged to give no rest to is God. This is prayer. More than this, it is fervent, earnest, importunate prayer. This is praying until God does what we know He has promised to do.

It has a direct connection to witnessing because the best, no, the only way to win the soul of another and successfully rescue them from the coming wrath is through the grace of God. We can’t rescue them by persuasion or rational thinking. It must come from the heart and soul. It’s an area of their being they won’t always admit exists. It’s an area of their being we have no access to. But it is an area of their being God has promised to touch.

 

So, the most effective witness is accomplished not by persuasion but by praying. The most effective way to witness is to give God no rest about the need of the lost.

 

Get a burden for some unsaved souls and “keep God awake” with your prayers for them. Don’t stop until God has saved them.

 

#PrayWithoutCeasing #FerventPrayerForTheLost #WitnessingThroughPersistentPrayer #IntercedeForSalvation #GiveGodNoRestForTheUnsaved

Prayerful Pursuit: Giving God No Rest

 

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6200 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Isaiah 62:7 (KJV) Prayerful Pursuit