We are like dogs returning to our own vomit, letting the world overwhelm us again and again. We just get deeper and deeper into the mire. There is one truth, Jesus Christ, and knowing him is more rewarding than anything the world could possibly have to offer. It is well to keep that in mind at all times. The warning here is dire.

 2 Peter 2:20-22 -  

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

2 Peter 2:20-22 Bible Gateway link (ESV)

My dear friend is in terrible straits. Covid restrictions have wiped out his livelihood and his savings. I know he needs to return to his faith, but I’m unsure how to help him. I’m praying to be used. I have total faith that God is at work.

 James 5:19-20 

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

-James 5:19-20 Bible Gateway link (ESV)

A friend recently said he had always thought I was really religious. I said I didn’t know about being religious, but I was a Christian. As I move through the world, I just pray for help to keep my priorities straight.

 

James 1:26-27 -

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

James 1:26-27 Bible Gateway link

I’m obsessed with this idea of a new heart because it came true for me. You see it repeatedly in the Holy Bible. The promise of a new covenant, the one we got when Christ was resurrected from the dead.

 

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I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Bible Gateway link: Ezekiel 36:25-28 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Ezekiel%2036:25-28&version=ESV

God packs a lot into this one little sentence. Repenting is similar to forgiving. It is not something you wish you could do. It is not something you intended to do. It is not something you’ll do when you get your life in order. You just have to do it. Turn. It’s life and death.

Ezekiel 18:32 -

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”

Ezekiel 18:32 ESV Bible Gateway link

It is easy to forget what a great God we have. We go on as if we provided all this for ourselves. A phrase in this verse haunts me: “he gave them what they asked, but...” I can’t know what God’s plan is, but I have my precious Bible to tell me what happened in the past.

Psalm 106:13-15

But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel. But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.

Psalm 106:13-15 - (ESV) Bible Gateway link

Image from: Lifehopeandtruth.com

When one of our reporters had been abducted in Gaza, I prayed more fervently than I ever had. I asked God if it was His will, to change the hearts of his captors. Our reporter was released. Through much trial in my life, God removed my heart of stone and gave me a new spirit. I went from despair to hope. Gratitude barely describes it.

 Ezekiel 11:19-21 

And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord God.”

 Ezekiel 11:19-21 (ESV) Bible Gateway link