{"id":21388,"date":"2017-05-17T00:10:30","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T07:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=10836"},"modified":"2017-05-17T00:10:30","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T07:10:30","slug":"may-17-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/05\/17\/may-17-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"May 17, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cThese people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.\u201d<\/em>
\nMatthew 15:8<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cKeep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.\u201d<\/span><\/em>\u00a0Proverbs 4:23<\/span><\/p>\n

The Live-In Prodigal<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the past, I have witnessed several people, who seemingly were rooted and grounded in the faith and were diligent to serve selflessly in the church, grow distant and lack the desire to live godly lives. What happened? I think about Solomon who asked for and was granted the wisdom and discernment to serve His people; and he did well for a long time, until he allowed his heart to become idolatrous because of the influence of his many pagan wives (sin).<\/span><\/p>\n

Lately, the song, \u201cCome Thou Fount of Every Blessing\u201d has been going through my head. Part of it goes like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJesus sought me when a stranger,\u00a0<\/span>
\nWand’ring from the fold of God,<\/span>
\nHe, to rescue me from danger,<\/span>
\n\u00a0Interposed His precious blood,<\/span>
\nProne to wander, Lord I feel it,\u00a0<\/span>
\nProne to leave the God I love.<\/span>
\nO to grace how great a debtor\u00a0<\/span>
\nDaily I’m constrained to be!<\/span>
\nLet Thy goodness, like a fetter,\u00a0<\/span>
\nBind my wandering heart to Thee.\u201d*<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the nature of our flesh to be \u201cprone to wander\u2014to leave the God we love.\u201d It is also the plan and desire of the devil to distract and deceive us, to derail us with pride, rationalizations and complacency (any sin). And it can happen so gradually that we don\u2019t even realize we are drifting away from the God we love.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We should be aware that this can happen to us as well. We can be like the prodigal son\u2019s older brother, who stayed home, did all his father asked him to do, but let resentment for his younger brother drive him from a loving relationship with his father and all his father had to offer him. We can still be going to church, paying our tithes and offerings, investing our time in serving, but our hearts can be led astray if we don\u2019t deal with our sin. Like the older brother, we can be in our Father\u2019s house, obedient to DO the stuff, but lose the heart of the Father.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, this doesn\u2019t mean we lose our salvation\u2014we are still His daughters\u2014but if we don\u2019t deal with our sin, our hearts and relationships will suffer for it. We will not only lose the love for our \u201cbrothers\u201d but lose the joy of pleasing our heavenly Father.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSearch me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting\u201d<\/em> (Psalm 139:23, 24).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFather, I am so grateful that You have sought me, bought me, taught me, and will continue to keep me by Your grace and mercy. I never want to lose my passion for You. In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen!\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

*John Wyeth\/Robert Robinson<\/span><\/em>
\n Words and Music: Public Domain<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThese people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5yY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}