Rotten hearts

Jeremiah 17:9-10,13-14 GNT

"Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else so deceitful; it is too sick to be healed. [10] I, the LORD, search the minds and test the hearts of people. I treat each of them according to the way they live, according to what they do." [13] LORD, You are Israel's hope; all who abandon You will be put to shame. They will disappear like names written in the dust, because they have abandoned You, the LORD, the spring of fresh water. [14] LORD, heal me and I will be completely well; rescue me and I will be perfectly safe. You are the one I praise!

I was born with a rotten heart. Like David said in Psalm 51:5

"I have been evil from the day I was born; from the time I was conceived, I have been sinful."

There's a spiritual cancer in the human DNA that none of us can avoid.

No one has to teach us how to be nasty, to lie or be deceitful - it comes quite naturally.

We are fallen creatures!

The only way this can be properly understood is via "The Fall" in the Garden of Eden - the part of Scripture laughed off as mythical.

But, it is the root of our rotteness - to turn our backs and rebel against our Creator and rely on ourselves instead.

That dreaded "Edenic" declaration of independence runs through our damned veins.

God sees it and deep down we know it too. Those who have sinned the most are the ones who know it the most.

Self justification will lead me nowhere but into a spiritually parched land.

Without Jesus I am cursed, bound for eternity devoid of any hope or consolation.

If my final choice is "God, I don't want or need You", then the Lord will give me what I desire - death will seal that choice - forever......

Forever without love, comfort - eternally taunted with remorse and regret - that's the result of a choice to reject salvation.

Because to be separated from God is to be separated from all that is good. It will be on me and my choice. If I choose to trust in me.

Hallelujah that, by God's grace, made possible via the Cross of Jesus, I have made a different choice. I choose life, The Life!

Jesus offers us The Way and tells us The Truth.

Put all your trust in Jesus - make the choice for eternity.