As I reflect on the message from this past week, I am challenged by the verse that Jesus quotes in Mark 7.  In his response to the Pharisees questions about hand washing, he calls them hypocrites (Pretending to be something they are not).  He then quotes the Old Testament:

“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are hearts are far from me.” Isaiah 29:13

How easy it is for us to give Jesus lip service.  We might show up at church, put a few bucks in the offering hats, and then leave forgetting what God revealed in that day.  This was a dangerous reality.  Jesus knew that these guys were on a path (way of the pharisee), that would lead them to a very wrong destination. 

Their religious lip service led them to eventually kill Jesus.  All of this because their hearts were far from God. 

What do your lips declare?  Is it the same thing your hearts declares as true.  Jesus wants our hearts!

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?  I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” Jeremiah 17:9-10

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” Ezekiel 36:26-27

Will you relate with God on a heart level? 

READ Romans 6-8 to hear how you can live by the Spirit this week, instead of giving God lip service.