Hard Heart

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  Have you ever had a problem in your life that you knew you were dealing with in an inadequate way, yet you persisted in that vain anyway. That it would seem has been one of the central themes of my wayward life at times. Knowing better but having a hard head. Well God would say you have a hard heart. Now what that means exactly is this, you seem to be able to say no to god despite overwhemly evidence and pressure to say yes. Well this character trait is not unique to human beings. As a matter of fact since the beginning of time the bible has given us living examples of individuals who insisted on doing things their way. Usually the consequences from this behavior is severe and can often times be downright fatal.
The story of creation, Adam and Eve is another example of this. God gave Adam and Eve very clear instructions about how to proceed in the Garden. Genesis 2:16-17 And the lord God commanded the man saying :"Of every tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat. 17: "But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it; for the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die."

  We know the end result of their hard heartedness, sin, sickness, pain, suffering and death entered into the world. Contrary to what most men would have you believe, most of us have succumbeed to it at some point in our lives. The exception would be the individual who trandscends it. A very rare jewel in deed. Now we are all familiar with the story of Moses and the ten commandments. We are particularly attracted to the exodus story, the story of the  jews release from over 400 years of bondage and slavery to the egyptions. The central figure in this story is of course pharoh. The bible says that God said he would harden pharohs heart. Exodus 7: 3-4 says, I will harden Pharohs heart, and mutiply my signs and my wonders in the land of egypt. But Pharoh will not heed you.

  How many time have we had overwhelming evidence in our own life of the truth,? yet we persist in going our own way anyhow. Specifically what I am talking about is, the addict that continues to use in spite of a failed marriage and ruined finances. The alcoholic who continues to use in spite of a ruined liver. The smoker who continues to smoke in spite of getting lung cancer. The rebellious teen who continues to skip school and defy his parents in spite of failing grades and juvinile incarcerations.

  My own life story would reflect some of these flaws. Particularly the hard heartedness. The consequences for me has been repeated failure in area;s of my life. Today I am not ashamed of the evidence of this, because I firmly believe that the truth wiil set you free. We can release ourselves from the shame when we totally and completely turn our will over to God. He through consequences and trials and error in our lifes, will eventually soften up our hearts if we will be receptive to his message. All of us have as human beings one of the most inportant descisions we will have to make in our lives in my opinion. The choice of rather to recieve Gods message and submit to his will for our lives, or harden our hearts refuse the message of salvation and recieve the reward that accompanies it. Death and eternal damnation.

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