PRAY FOR A HEART AND SPIRIT THAT ARE NEW, RIGHT AND FIRM.

Ancient King David was a great leader of his time.  He also struggled to hold up his relationship with God.  Most of his life was filled with turmoil, sinful conduct and the consequences of those choices.

Yet he is the only person in all of Scripture, the entire Bible, who is called out “by God’s own words… “a man after MY own heart.” 

Acts 13:22 says of David, “After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.‘”

Is there something in David that we can aspire to in our Christian lives today?

Let’s start by examining David’s feelings about his relationship with God.  The following words describe the heart of David as revealed in his own writings:

Humble – Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath. Psalm 62:9

Reverent – I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. Psalm 18:3

Respectful – Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. Psalm 31:9

Trusting – The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1

Loving – I love you, O Lord, my strength. Psalm 18:1

Devoted – You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. Psalm 4:7

Recognition – I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. Psalm 9:1

Faithful – Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalm 23:6

Obedient – Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Psalm 119:34

Repentant – For the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. Psalm 25:11

David’s example is a proven road map for how we are to live our life in harmony with God.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). The “right spirit” here is an established, firm, unwavering spirit that guided his every thought and action. He wanted to be done with the instability that he experienced, that led to his sin and family troubles.

What does it mean to be a person after God’s own heart? It means your life is in harmony with the Lord. What is important to Him is important to you. What burdens Him burdens you. When He says, “Go to the right,” you go to the right. When He says, “Stop that in your life,” you stop it. When He says, “This is wrong and I want you to change,” you come to terms with it because you have a heart for God. That’s bottom-line, biblical Christianity.

One might ask.. why isn’t David crying out for self-control and restraint? Why isn’t he praying for men to hold him accountable? Why isn’t he praying for protected eyes and sex-free thoughts?

The reason may surprise you… David knows that his sexual sin was just a symptom, not the disease. People give way to any kind of sin because they don’t have the fullness of joy and gladness found only by being in Christ. Their spirits are not steadfast and firm and established in a right relationship with God. They waver. They are enticed, and they give way to sin because God does not have the preeminent place in their feelings and thoughts that He should.

David knew this about himself.  Do we?  David is showing us, by the way he prays, what the real need is for those who sin. Not a word in Psalm 51 about sex.  Instead: “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. . . . Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing, firm, established spirit.”  David dug deep into his soul to find the real problem… his heart was not as “full of the things of the Lord” as it should have been. 

David understood that IF his heart and every thought of his mind could be FULL of the things of God, then there would be no room for anything else.  No room for doubt or contemplations of sin. This is profound wisdom for us.

Psalm 51:15 says… “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” Praise is what joy in God does when obstacles are taken out of the way. That is what he is praying for: O God, overcome everything in my life that keeps my heart dull and my mouth shut when they ought to be praising. Make my joy irrepressible, overflowing with praise.

Verse 13 declares David’s deepest desire… “Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.” David is not content to be forgiven. He is not content to be clean of sin. He is not content to have a right spirit. He is not content to be joyful in God by himself. He will not be content until his broken life serves the healing of others. “Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.” The upshot for David was to live from a heart devoted to helping others.  The upshot for us is the same… to have a life of effective and passionate evangelism, unencumbered by sin.   Which brings us to the last point.

Psalm 51:17 is profound… “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”  David discovered the wisdom of the ages… that God had crushed him in love and that a broken and contrite heart is the mark of all God’s children.

When you are a man or woman after God’s heart, you are deeply sensitive to spiritual things. Second Chronicles 16:9 explains it this way: “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”

What is God looking for? He is looking for men and women whose hearts are His…completely. That means there are no locked closets. Nothing’s been swept under the rugs. That means that when you do wrong, you admit it and come to terms with it. You long to please Him in your actions. You care deeply about the motivations behind your actions. God is not looking for magnificent specimens of humanity. He’s looking for deeply spiritual, genuinely humble, honest-to-the-core servants who have integrity.

God wants Integrity.  He wants to see us as complete, whole, innocent, having the simplicity of life, wholesome, sound, unimpaired by sin and malice towards our fellow believers.  It’s what you are when nobody’s looking. We live in a world that says, in many ways, “If you just make a good impression, that’s all that matters.” But you will never be a man or woman of God if that’s your philosophy. Never. You can’t fake it with the Almighty. He is not impressed with externals. He always focuses on the inward qualities, like the character of the heart . . . those things that take time and discipline to cultivate.

Brokenhearted joy.  This is foundational to everything. Being a Christian means being broken and contrite. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you get beyond this in this life. It marks the life of God’s happy children till they die.

We are broken and contrite all the way home — unless sin gets the proud upper hand.  Being broken and contrite is not against joy and praise and witness. It’s the flavor of Christian joy and praise and witness.

Consider the words of Jonathan Edwards, an American revivalist preacher and theologian of the early 1700s…

All gracious affections [feelings, emotions] that are a sweet [aroma] to Christ . . . are brokenhearted affections. A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is a humble brokenhearted love. The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires: their hope is a humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable, and full of glory, is a humble brokenhearted joy.

Disunity in the Church… a recipe for failure

Sometimes we have to face the reality of a sickness before we are willing to seek treatment. Please read the next sentence carefully... One of the greatest sicknesses in our churches in America is disunity. Indeed, many of the problems we think we have are really just symptoms of the breakdown of unity in the church.

The early church in Jerusalem thrived because it was so unified. Acts 2:47 says: “They were praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved…” The phrase “having favor with all the people” refers to those on the outside looking at the people of the church… the inside. They saw a selfless and unified body and were attracted to it.

So what are some of the key reasons we are seeing the breakdown of unity in our churches? Consider these reasons and contemplate whether these things are happening in your congregation.

1.  Gossip. Church members talk about one another instead of talking to one another. Paul calls church members who gossip people “filled with all unrighteousness” (Romans 1:29).

2.  Actions cloaked in darkness. I once heard of a church personnel committee and a few church staff members who “conspired in darkness” to fire their preacher without ever meeting with him first or giving him reasons for his dismissal. Then they refused to respond to church members who were asking questions.

3.  Failure to confront church bullies. Some church members seek power in a church they can’t get elsewhere. They are devious and dangerous. They must be courageously confronted and if necessary removed from the fellowship.

4.  Self-serving church members. Some church members insist on getting their way for everything from worship style to the order of the worship service. Biblical church membership, however, is selfless and more concerned about others and bringing glory to God.

5.  Lack of prayer. A church that does not pray together is likely to fragment into special interest groups.  I know of a church where gathering for group prayer is like pulling teeth.

6.  Fear of confrontation. Too many church members would rather sweep problems under the rug than deal with them. I know of one church where two deacons were known to be having extra-marital affairs. No one wanted to deal with it, so it was ignored.

7.  Adopting the hypercritical spirit of culture. This reality is especially true in blogs and social media. I’ve seen elders/pastors attacked publicly on Facebook in “darkness.”.

8.  Low expectations. Many churches have no clear guidelines on what it means to be a part of the body of Christ. If you expect little from members, that’s exactly what you’ll get. And some of them will use their idle time to gossip, criticize, and tear down.

9.  No church discipline. The majority of churches have no process for church discipline, or they have a process in place in theory only.  Sin is never dealt with.

10.  Churches known more for what they are against rather than what they are for. This negativity becomes pervasive in the congregation and destroys church unity.

11.  Fear of losing members. A church can be held hostage, plagued by a spirit of divisiveness by one or two member. No members are courageous enough to confronted the person(s) because they don’t want to lose members or offend feelings.

12.  Failure to be evangelistic. A church cannot be both evangelistic and divisive. Divisiveness usually wins.

13.  Power groups. Sometimes the bullies in the church get allies to form power groups. They may be informal groups, or they can be formal groups like elders, deacons, staff, or personnel committees.

14.  The silent and fearful majority. Do you think it is not always good to know the truth? Such a statement is unbiblical and symptomatic of members who let evil exist because they are afraid to confront it.

One of the greatest problems in our churches is the breakdown of church unity. It is insidious, debilitating, and destructive.

Paul urged us “to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, diligently keep the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us” (Ephesians 4: 1-3).

Jesus said in John 13:35: “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

The breakdown of church unity is one of the most critical problems in our churches today. The question for all of us… Are we part of the problem, or part of the solution?

The Wicked Who Harm the Fellowship of God's Church will NOT Win!

“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11).  What a sad, depressing, and discouraging commentary on the attitude of man toward sin.  History records thousands of instances where justice has been defeated and even humiliated by delaying punishment of the evil doer.  When the guilt of one has been proven beyond doubt, he should be punished straightway. 

This same sad commentary can also be found in the church of our Lord.  In many congregations’ sins are just “swept under the run” and, although they are never completely forgotten, they are ignored.  This action is preferred over doing it the Lord’s way (2 Thessalonians 3:6) and allows the congregation to wear the facade of peace, love, happiness, and contentment.  It lulls the brethren into a false sense of peace and unity.

If evil, like a raging fire, would scorch us all at once, we would take more care in doing the Lord’s will in such matters.  However, when issues are hidden by time or a perpetrator is concealed from view by the anonymity of modern technology– “swept under the rug” – our willingness to do the Lord’s will becomes more lax and we begin to get comfortable in sin and many more problems arise (“a little leaven ferments the whole lump”). 

Sins that are not dealt with swiftly will have consequences that may be beyond our immediate vision but will cause trouble just the same.  Simply “swept under the rug” they will leave “lumps” that will be stumbled over time and time again.

The apparent success of the sinner should not discourage others from doing that which is right.  His false pride and arrogance, combined with other forms of wickedness in his life, are grievous to the Lord and motivates him to falsely accuse the faithful whom he regards as his enemies.  This is purely a cowardice method used to deal with that which he cannot meet otherwise.  King David wrote about such a one:

His ways are always prosperous; your laws are rejected by him; he sneers at all his enemies. He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”  He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”  His mouth is full of lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue. (Psalm 10:5-7).

“But when grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.” (Isaiah 26:10).  Favor shown to the wicked will be unappreciated and will not improve his/her conduct but will only make it worse.  And even though such ones may be surrounded by the goodness of the faithful, they will continue in their unjust life, in their unholy ways, and in their disrespect for God and His faithful followers.

“The Lord is not slow concerning his promise…” (2 Peter 3:9)).  In God’s time, the wicked man will finally receive his “reward” as well as all who aid and abet evil actions.  Those who fear the Lord (and not the evil of the sinner) will receive favor from the Lord.  Shall we obey the Lord or continue “sweeping it under the rug?”

Treacheries of the Heart… Evil and Wickedness… CHOICES you make!

As Christians, we often have a hard time discerning between an evil heart and an ordinary sinner who messes up, who isn’t perfect, yet because of weakness succumbs to sin.

I think one of the reasons we don’t “see” evil is because we find it so difficult to believe that evil individuals actually exist within the body of Christ -- the Church. We can’t imagine someone deceiving us with no conscience, hurting others with no remorse, spinning outrageous fabrications to ruin someone’s reputation, or pretending he or she is spiritually committed yet has no fear of God before his or her eyes.

The Bible clearly tells us that among God’s people there are wolves that wear sheep’s clothing (Jeremiah 23:14; Titus 1:10; Revelations 2:2). It’s true that every human heart is inclined toward sin (Romans 3:23), and that includes evil (Genesis 8:21; James 1:4). We all miss God’ mark of moral perfection. However, most ordinary sinners do not happily indulge evil urges, nor do we feel good about having them. We feel ashamed and guilty, rightly so (Romans 7:19–21). These things are not true of the evil heart.

You may be dealing with an evil heart right now in your spiritual life.  An evil heart is very different from an ordinary sinful heart.  Here are the differences, heavily supported by Scripture:

1. Evil hearts are experts at creating confusion and contention.

They twist the facts, mislead, distort, lie, avoid taking responsibility, deny reality, make up stories, and withhold information. (Psalms 5:8; 10:7; 58:3; 109:2–5; 140:2; Proverbs 6:13,14; 6:18,19; 12:13; 16:20; 16:27, 28; 30:14; Job 15:35; Jeremiah 18:18; Nehemiah 6:8; Micah 2:1; Matthew 12:34,35; Acts 6:11–13; 2 Peter 3:16)

2. Evil hearts are experts at fooling others with their smooth speech and flattering words.

But if you look at the fruit of their lives or the follow through of their words, you will find no real evidence of godly growth or change. It’s all smoke and mirrors. (Psalms 50:19; 52:2,3; 57:4; 59:7; 101:7; Proverbs 12:5; 26:23–26; 26:28; Job 20:12; Jeremiah 12:6; Matthew 26:59; Acts 6:11–13; Romans 16:17,18; 2 Corinthians 11:13,14; 2 Timothy 3:2–5; 3:13; Titus 1:10,16).

3. Evil hearts crave and demand control, and their highest authority is their own self-reference.

They reject feedback, real accountability, and make up their own rules to live by. They use Scripture to their own advantage but ignore and reject passages that might require self-correction and repentance. (Romans 2:8; Psalms 10; 36:1–4; 50:16–22; 54:5,6; 73:6–9; Proverbs 21:24; Jude 1:8–16).

4. Evil hearts play on the sympathies of good-willed people, often trumping the grace card.

They demand mercy but give none themselves. They demand warmth, forgiveness, and intimacy from those they have harmed with no empathy for the pain they have caused and no real intention of making amends or working hard to rebuild broken trust. (Proverbs 21:10; 1 Peter 2:16; Jude 1:4).

5. Evil hearts have no conscience, no remorse.

They do not struggle against sin or evil—they delight in it—all the while masquerading as someone of noble character. (Proverbs 2:14–15; 10:23; 12:10; 21:27,29; Isaiah 32:6; Romans 1:30; 2 Corinthians 11:13–15)

If you are working with someone who exhibits these characteristics, it’s important that you confront them head on. You must name evil for who and what it is. The longer you try to reason with such people or show mercy towards them, the more you, as the Christian, will become a pawn in his or her unholy game.

They want you to believe that:

1. Their horrible actions should have no serious or painful consequences.

When they say “I’m sorry,” they look to you as the elder-pastor or Christian counselor to be their advocate for amnesty with the person he or she has harmed. They believe grace means they are immediately granted immunity from the relational fallout of their serious sin. They believe forgiveness entitles them to full reconciliation and will pressure you and their victim to comply.

The Bible warns us saying, “But when grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.” (Isaiah 26:10).

The Bible tells us that talking doesn’t wake up evil people, but painful consequences might. Jesus didn’t wake up the Pharisee’s with his talk nor did God’s counsel impact Cain (Genesis 4). In addition, the Bible shows us that when someone is truly sorry for the pain they have caused, he or she is eager to make amends to those they have harmed by their sin.  Consider the example of Zacchaeus’ and his response when he repented of his greed in Luke chapter 19.

Church leaders should not conspire with the evil one by turning attention to the victim, requiring the wounded person to forgive, to forget, to trust again when there has been no evidence of inner change on the part of the perpetrator. Proverbs says, “Trusting in a treacherous man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips” (Proverbs. 25:19). It’s foolishness.

The evil person will also try to get you to believe:

2. That if I talk like a gospel-believing Christian I am one, even if my actions don’t line up with my talk.

Remember, Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:13–15). He knows more true doctrine than you or I will ever know, but his heart is wicked. Why? Because although he knows the truth, he does not believe it or live by it.

The Bible has some strong words for those whose actions do not match their talk (1 John 3:17,18; Jeremiah 7:8,10; James 1:22, 26). John the Baptist said it best when he admonished the religious leaders, “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God” (Luke 3:8).

If week after week you hear the talk but there is no change in the walk, you have every reason to question someone’s relationship with God.

A major part of any Christians spiritual maturity, is that we have been trained to discern between good and evil. Why is that important? It’s important because evil usually pretends to be good, and without discernment we can be easily fooled (Hebrews 5:14).

When you confront evil, chances are good that the evil heart will stop fellowshipping with you because the darkness hates the light (John 3:20) and the foolish and evil heart reject correction (Proverbs 9:7,8). But that outcome is far better than allowing the evil heart to believe you are on his or her side, or that “he’s not that bad” or “that he’s really sorry” or “that he’s changing” when, in fact, he is not.

Daniel says, “The wicked will continue to be wicked” (Daniel 12:10), which begs the question, do you think an evil person can really change?

The Evil Among Us

I find this to be a convicting and uncomfortable truth: How we love others, particularly other Christians, reveals how we love God. The apostle John puts it bluntly: He who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20). Our love for each other is an indicator of the place God holds in our hearts.

God is very good at designing things so as to reveal our true heart: our faith is revealed by our works (James 2:18), our creeds are revealed by our deeds(Luke 6:46), and our love for him is revealed by our love for others. He makes it very hard for us to fake it.

Since the greatest and second greatest commandments are involved in these things (John 13:33-34), we know they are important to God. So perhaps the best thing we can do if we call ourselves Christian, is take an honest, lingering look at the way we treat others.  That brings us to the question of Evil and Wickedness.  We see evidence everyday of man’s evil towards others all around the world.  

Evil moves among us in a never-ending search for prey. Most of us believe we can protect ourselves because of our ability to tell the difference between good and evil. Sometimes, however, evil unsuspectingly creeps into our lives through the routine, the usual, the commonplace and even brought on by friends.

Maybe YOU have been the unfortunate prey, and the source of the attack on you is shocking and heart-breaking.  Why?  Because YOU are ravaged by a fellow Christian, someone you trusted completely.   How should we react to evil when it is perpetrated upon us by a “fellow Christian” someone we believe to be our brother or sister in Christ? 

The Christian is supposed to be defined by a special kind of love… the Christian loves Jesus Christ above everything else. This love is not an ordinary act of the will, as for instance when we decide to read a book or take a trip or attend a meeting or pay a visit to a friend. The dawning of Christ’s love is not something we conjure up ourselves. His love is grown in us by Him, by our obedient submission to everything He has commanded of us.  We love Jesus Christ only when we realize how much He loved us, to death on the Cross. We grow to love everything He loves, and He loves ALL His followers.

Galatians 6:2 says we should… Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  As one would expect, this is a command not an option.

This is a verse of Scripture that is frequently quoted but almost never truly understood. The typical dealings of a local church with a victim of evil, or the perception of evil among believers, proves that this is the case. Let me explain.

Most all of us at one time or another have been touched by evil – by abuse of some type. In this discussion I am singling out “spiritual” abuse. An abuser, a fellow Christian, abused YOU. The abuser hated and hates YOU now. It was YOU who had to deal with the person, feeling vulnerable, beaten down and defenseless. It was YOU who had to expose the person, confront the person, report the person, protect yourself and your family from the person. YOU had to do all this, in a body where such things are not supposed to happen. YOU were the one who was there, among so-called Christians, and experienced the pain of “spiritual” abuse at the hand of another Christian.

And yet what happened when you went to a pastor or other fellow church members, for help? The following is likely what happened to you, because it happens all the time when one Christian abuses another Christian:

•  You heard your abuser excused or at least their sins minimized and marginalized.

•  You were told to follow Biblical counsel and go to the person and discuss your hurt (with the brazen abuser) knowing such a discussion is one-sided if not entirely impossible.

•  You heard people remind you that “you are a sinner too” (a lie by the way. The Christian is not perfect, but is no longer classed as a “sinner” by God)

•  You see people seem to show some empathy toward you, and yet they continued to associate with your abuser, as if the abuser did no wrong, and YOU were the problem.

•  While YOU could not tolerate being in the presence of your abuser without being re-traumatized, your fellow Christians continue on visiting with the person and often even attending church events and activities with the person as if nothing happened.

Such “friends” have failed to do what scripture says is the fulfillment of the Law of God. They have failed to truly extend genuine love toward you because they have failed to bear your burden. Why?

They failed because they think they know everything there is to know about “what God commands” of anyone and everyone. They think that they understand what you have gone through at the hands of the evil one. But they do not know. They do not understand. And really, they don’t want to. It is too troubling and unpleasant, and ignoring YOU And your abuse is easier than confronting it.  This is how “real sin” erodes a body of believers who struggle to live as Christians. 

If we are going to bear the burdens of victims of evil, then WE are going to have listen to them very, very closely. WE are going to have learn about how this kind of evil works. WE must walk in their shoes, in their steps, and do our best to understand just what it means to be THE target of abuse.

And until we understand that, we will fail to fulfill the Law of Christ. You will continue to have no real problem attending a church service with the victim’s oppressor. You will have no real trouble chatting with the abuser when you run into the person in the grocery store. Worse, you will piously preach at the victim – “Come on! Move on! Quit reflecting on the past. Forgive.” – and other such whitewashed trash talk.

I am puzzled.  Can someone tell me, why those who are comfortable in the presence of a wicked-oppressing-person feel no remorse at what the “evil person” has done?   Evil people who call themselves Christians are impervious to Biblical counsel and any attempts at one-on-one discussion to resolve in love an evil deed.  Why? Because the evil one is right and the abused one is wrong and no amount of discussion will change that!

Please tell me why “evil ones” are accepted and condoned in the family of God? How is it that anyone can truly understand the evil worked upon a victim (who YOU claim to “love”) and still be comfortable in the presence of that evil?  Scripture tells us clearly… “Purge the evil person from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:13 ESV; 1 Corinthians 5:2 ESV)

Let me answer for you – you cannot. You do not. And until you do, you are failing to fulfill the Law of Christ. You are not loving the widows and orphans… or anyone else among the body of Christ.

And God sees it all… and remembers.