Detecting Defiled Hearts

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Exodus 4 Listen: (4:17), Read: Matthew 15 Listen: (4:23)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Exodus 5 Listen: (3:15) Read: Matthew 16 Listen: (3:43)

Read: Exodus 6 Listen: (3:56) Read: Matthew 17 Listen: (3:46)

Scripture Focus: Matthew 15.10-20

10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” 12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” 13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides.  If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

Reflection: Detecting Defiled Hearts

By John Tillman

Jesus says what comes out of us shows what is in us. Words we say or endorse can detect or diagnose defiled hearts.

This is true individually and collectively. Jesus affirms this when he tells his disciples to abandon the “blind guides.”

First we host defiling sin in our hearts, allowing it space and comfort. This sin could be anything—hatred for the “other,” lust for pleasures, or greed for gain or power. Letting sins linger, protecting them from the light of scripture, the revelation of conviction, and the purifying fire of repentance, allows sin to root itself in our thinking.

With sin-rooted thoughts, we justify and build logical defenses of sin. We explain it away as “my choice” or “I have no choice.” We defend it as “a strategic necessity.” We claim it as “part of my identity” or “how I was raised” or “how I was born.”

We spread seeds of our sin-rooted thoughts in speech. We manifest it in language or images. We share it in insults, inappropriate comments, memes, slander, lies, half-truths, manipulations of the truth, and dehumanizing declarations against our enemies.

Next we, or sometimes others, move our words into actions. Ponzi schemes are pitched. Corruption becomes the cost of doing business. Riots get started. Churches get burned. Protesters get shot. Victims are sexually assaulted. Police get attacked. Laws get passed.

Wicked actions are the fruit of wicked words, from the branch of wicked thinking, connected to the vine of wicked hearts, growing from the root of sin. And the seeds are all around us.

How can we live undefiled in a defiled world with defiled systems and leaders spewing defiled thinking, slogans, and logic? We need to remember that we have a different root and vine to tap into.

Your root determines your fruit. Righteous actions are the fruit of the Holy Spirit, growing through unworthy, grafted-in branches, drawing on the true vine of Jesus Christ, rooted in the Father’s unquenchable love for us.

Whose words guide you? Whose words do you repeat? Are you trusting “blind guides” whose defiled language reveals a defiled heart? Are you justifying and defending language which reveals the defilement of sin? Are you hosting sin in your heart, protected from the fire of repentance?

Abandon blind guides with defiled speech. Follow Jesus. Judge with sober judgment the words you say or endorse. Words reveal the condition of your heart.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us saying: “It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love.” — Luke 7.47

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Poisoning the Heart of the Gospel

The approval of the phrase “poisoning the blood of our country” among Christians is theologically wrong, morally reprehensible, and politically dangerous.

Read more: Killing With our Hearts

I do not kill with my gun…I kill with my heart.” Stephen King’s fictional Gunslingers understand Christ’s teaching about murder in a deeper way than some Christians.

For Sustainable Cultivation—Guided Prayer

Scripture Focus: Matthew 15.13
He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.”

From John: Yesterday and today, we are looking back at some posts from 2019 about the spiritual work of cultivating a deep spiritual life of growth and discipleship. 

Reflection: For Sustainable Cultivation—Guided Prayer
By John Tillman

A growing faith that produces a sustainable harvest is one that is cultivated.

Faith that produces harvest is supernatural. It has a purposeful and planned rhythm. It starts with the destruction of clearing obstacles. It continues with protection and tender care for the young plants. It multiplies with growth and harvest that is shared among community. It propagates through seeds of knowledge, passed on for the next generation of growth.

As we conclude (for now) our series on cultivating faith, we pray over our hearts (our fields) some scriptures from today’s readings.

A Prayer to the Sustainer of Faith
Oh, God, planter of the first garden, cultivator of all creation,
We ask you to teach us to cultivate our hearts.

Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
   their teachings are merely human rules.’”

We do not want our hearts to be far from you, Lord.
We do not wish to cultivate a system of human rules,
But a harvest of the fruit of your Spirit.

But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

You have taught us, Lord, that the fruits of our actions spring from our hearts.

Our hearts are the fields that we must till and tend.

He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.

Help us, Lord, to resist the urge to weed someone else’s field.

We pray that you would send us, Lord, first into the field of our own hearts.
To pull up the stones.
To burn out the crops of selfishness.
To pull up by the roots our callousness.
To nourish the good seed of the gospel.
To share the harvest in celebration.

Only then, Lord, will be able to give freely to our neighbors of the seed that you have planted in us.

We echo the cry of the outcast Syro-Phonecian woman, Lord.

Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!

We are desperate for a crumb of the harvest of the gospel.
And we long to hear you answer,

You have great faith! Your request is granted.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Search for the Lord and his strength; continually seek his face. — Psalm 105.4

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Genesis 16 (Listen – 2:18)
Matthew 15 (Listen – 4:23)

This Weekend’s Readings
Genesis 17 (Listen – 4:02) Matthew 16 (Listen – 3:43)
Genesis 18 (Listen – 4:59) Matthew 17 (Listen – 3:46)

Read more about Cultivation Requires Planning
Do you have a plan to cultivate your spiritual growth?

Read more about Cultivation Starts With Destruction
May the scripture help us to plow up and destroy the cultural idols, trends, teachings, and brands that hinder our growth.

For Sustainable Cultivation :: A Guided Prayer

Matthew 15.13
He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.”

Reflection: For Sustainable Cultivation :: A Guided Prayer
By John Tillman

A growing faith that produces a sustainable harvest is one that is cultivated.

Faith that produces harvest is supernatural. It has a purposeful and planned rhythm. It starts with the destruction of clearing obstacles. It continues with protection and tender care for the young plants. It multiplies with growth and harvest that is shared among community. It propagates through seeds of knowledge, passed on for the next generation of growth.

As we conclude (for now) our series on cultivating faith, we pray over our hearts (our fields) some scriptures from today’s readings.

A Prayer to the Sustainer of Faith
Oh, God, planter of the first garden, cultivator of all creation,
We ask you to teach us to cultivate our hearts.

Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
   their teachings are merely human rules.’”

We do not want our hearts to be far from you, Lord.
We do not wish to cultivate a system of human rules,
But a harvest of the fruit of your Spirit.

But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

You have taught us, Lord, that the fruits of our actions spring from our hearts.
Our hearts are the fields that we must till and tend.

He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.

Help us, Lord, to resist the urge to weed someone else’s field.
We pray that you would send us, Lord, first into the field of our own hearts.

To pull up the stones.
To burn out the crops of selfishness.
To pull up by the roots our callousness.
To nourish the good seed of the gospel.
To share the harvest in celebration.

Only then, Lord, will be able to give freely to our neighbors of the seed that you have planted in us.

We echo the cry of the outcast Syro-Phonecian woman, Lord.

Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!

We are desperate for a crumb of the harvest of the gospel.

And we long to hear you answer,

You have great faith! Your request is granted.

Prayer: A Reading
Jesus taught us, saying: “Whoever holds my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my father, and i shall love him and reveal myself to him.” — John 14.21

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Genesis 16 (Listen – 2:18)
Matthew 15 (Listen – 4:23)

Are you interested in joining an online community to share with The Park Forum readers? Email us at: info@theparkforum.org

Read more about Kingdom Manifestation :: A Guided Prayer
There is a kind of sin-sickness that we nurse and maintain. Pray that it be healed. Ask for your eyes to be opened as your blindness is revealed.
Ask to be raised to new life.

Read more about Meals Together, Forgiveness to Go
Christ’s breakfast on the shore is a model for us of gathering those who have failed, reinstating each other through Christ’s redemption, and being sent out to feed others.

Cultivation Must Be Learned

Matthew 14.16
Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

Reflection: Cultivation Must Be Learned
By John Tillman

Cultivation requires intergenerational transfer.

The first training schools for ministers in the church were communities called, in Latin, seminarium, meaning “plant nursery” or “seed plot.” The root word (we just can’t escape agricultural metaphor) also gives us the word semen, the literal “seed” of humanity; seminal, implying an original source of thought or work; and, seminar, a focused time of learning.

Spiritual wisdom and knowledge, like agricultural knowledge, must be passed on, with its seeds, from one generation to the next.

I learned to shell purple-hulled peas (a more flavorful cousin to black-eyed peas) because I sat on a porch with my family and shared in the work before sharing in the meal. Many of us learn agricultural knowledge from a loved one. We learn to tell a fruit or vegetable is ripe, how and when to prune roses, how to properly root a cutting of a plant, or at what depth to set bulbs in order to have blooms at the proper time.

In individual, cultural, or generational isolation, we lose the ability to transfer or receive knowledge. And in one-way relationships, there is no ability to contextualize knowledge, to discuss it, or to practice together how to live it out. This is why one of the most rewarding parts of The Park Forum is when I hear from readers, and discuss what has challenged or encouraged them.

There are limits to the level of community that is possible for a geographically distributed ministry like The Park Forum. Distributed communities, like long-distance relationships, require energy and investment to maintain. It is our hope that The Park Forum is a community tool, a seed bed, a source of cuttings that can be planted and rooted in your community.

More of us need to sit around biblical teaching, like my family sat around a bucket of unshelled peas, extracting the value from the harvest together, one pod at a time. When we share in the work of extracting the goodness of the land, we gain more than a harvest of nutritional content, or monetary gain. We gain community.

Who is your community? With whom are you processing God’s Word? Who are the believers, older in the faith, from whom you are learning? Who are the believers, younger in the faith, with whom you are sharing what you have learned?

Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Sing to the Lord and bless his Name; proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations and his wonders among all peoples.  —  Psalm 96.2-3

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Genesis 15 (Listen – 2:53)
Matthew 14 (Listen – 4:14)

Join Us:
Are you interested in joining an online community to share with The Park Forum readers? Email us at: info@theparkforum.org

Read more about Where Wisdom Is Found :: A Guided Prayer
Human wisdom can only take us as far as human understanding, which even the greatest of scientists would admit continually finds more questions than it answers.


Read more about The Root of Wisdom
The writers of Scripture believed integrative wisdom could come only through prayer.