Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so.

If ‘the heart of man’s problem is the problem of man’s heart’, then mere external rites and rituals will not cut it. God must do a work in the heart.

Through Ezekiel He promised:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26.

It’s not that the outside of the life is unimportant, but genuine Christianity works from the inside out. The source of the ‘river’ is located in the area of the heart, and from there it flows outward to flood every part of the personality and body – and it even goes to regions beyond, in order to refresh the world.

God does not start with the outside. He begins in the heart; and from the internal, the external is transformed.

PRAYER: Lord, I pray that out of my heart there may flow living waters.

THOUGHT: ”The revolution of Jesus is in the first place and continuously a revolution of the human heart or spirit. It did not and does not proceed by means of the formation of social institutions and laws, the outer forms of our existence, intending that these would then impose a good order of life upon people who come under their power. Rather, his is a revolution of character, which proceeds by changing people from the inside through ongoing personal relationship to God in Christ and to one another. It is one that changes their ideas, beliefs, feelings, and habits of choice, as well as their bodily tendencies and social relations. It penetrates to the deepest layers of their soul.” Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ