heart of the matter.

who do you serve? who are you attempting to impress ? is your outside appearance great but sin is spewing out of your heart?
do you just smile everything off and know exactly what to say?

the Lord says in  I Samuel 16: 7 that he does not look as we see but he examines the heart...

if the people around you could see your heart and thoughts in this rawest form what would people say? what would the reaction be? i know for me personally i haven't been honest at times and my heart has been rotten. without Christ being the propitiation for our sins there would be no hope of restoration but thankfully there is.

thank God for Christ who is willing to see my heart for as raw as it is and still love me... my heart sometimes yearns for him and at times my heart is selfish. 
thank God for Christ who constantly reminds me that there is a standard... and that i am to follow him , not culture , not society but Christ.
 
i only pray that we as people would be willing to admit that we aren't perfect and attempt to examine our selves... fooling yourself will only have you confused and in the middle of a lie.

God's standard is holy... nothing less than it.. 

J.C. Ryle says something legit in his book a bad heart "Unless you really know the character of your own heart, you will never value the Gospel as you ought; you will never love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity; you will never see how absolutely necessary it was that He should suffer death upon the cross, in order to deliver our souls from hell and bring us unto God."

i think that about sums up where i'm at right now...