[Faith-talk] FW: [thefamilyoffaith] God's Precious Inner-workings - Senior Living Ministries

[Eric Calhoun]

Original Message: 
From: "TONY_at_FloridaHealth" <FloridaHealth21 at verizon.net>
To: <thefamilyoffaith at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [thefamilyoffaith] God's Precious Inner-workings - Senior Living
Ministries
Date: 
Thu, 21 Apr 2011 10:01:15 -0400



           
             
              The great Christian evangelist, D.L. Moody, was once asked
to speak at a convention in Indianapolis.

                  
                 
                         
                        [Jesus said]: "Woe to you, teachers of the law
and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look
beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and
everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as
righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."
                        --Matthew 23:27-28 
                       
                 
                 
                 
            After her retirement, she was transformed into a hotel and
museum. During the conversion, she was given a complete facelift. Her three
gigantic smokestacks were taken down to be scraped and repainted. But once
on the dock, they crumbled as soon as the makeover began.

            Nothing was left of the ¾-inch steel plates that had once
formed the stacks. All that remained were more than thirty coats of paint,
which had been applied over the 40 years she was at sea. The steel had
rusted away and left the stacks without substance.

            Similarly, when Jesus called the Pharisees "whitewashed
tombs," He meant they had no substance. They were merely concerned with
externals...how they appeared before others. Jesus said, "On the outside
you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of
hypocrisy and wickedness" (Matthew 23:28).

            Oh that we, as followers of Jesus Christ, would never be
compared to the Pharisees! As children of the King, we must "first clean
the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean"
(Matthew 23:26).

            The Scripture says God does not look at outward appearances
or the things that man looks at, but instead He looks at the heart (see 1
Samuel 16:7). Seek daily a pure heart and your outward appearance will
reflect your inner beauty and God's love.

            Prayer Challenge
            Ask God to cleanse and purify your heart, removing anything
unclean from your life. Pray that He would create in you the inner beauty
of His love, shining through to a lost world.
             
           
             
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