{"id":36977,"date":"2025-08-15T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=36977"},"modified":"2025-08-05T16:31:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T23:31:17","slug":"mark_7_14-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/mark_7_14-23\/","title":{"rendered":"To Be Truly Clean Before God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark 7:14-23\u00a0\u00a0 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

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Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

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Today\u2019s passage is Mark 7:14-23.\u00a0 With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage.\u00a0 Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage?\u00a0 After you\u2019ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

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Mark 7:14-23 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’?
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)<\/em>
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.'”<\/em>On verses 14-23:\u00a0 The Pharisees and teachers of the law focused so much on physical cleanliness, washing their hands, cups and dishes, all under the belief that those who washed were clean before God whereas those who didn\u2019t were unclean.\u00a0 Jesus clarifies that it is not what enters a person from the outside that makes him spiritually unclean; rather it is what comes out of that person\u2019s heart \u2013 the sin that is already there \u2013 which makes him unclean.<\/p>\n

We tend to focus so much on the condition of our appearance, when what really needs our attention and work is the condition of our heart.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>God knew that too.\u00a0 That is why He sent Jesus Christ for us, not to deal so much with our outside appearance, but more importantly to deal with our broken and dirty heart condition. \u00a0\u00a0Jesus Christ died so that all the sins we have committed, including those he lists in verses 21-22, could be forgiven.\u00a0 Only through Jesus can we truly be clean before a holy God.<\/p>\n

Father, I recognize today that there is nothing we can do to make ourselves perfectly clean before God.\u00a0 Only the blood of Your Son Jesus washes us clean of sin and makes us acceptable before You again.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Mark 7:14-23.\u00a0 With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage.\u00a0 Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage?\u00a0 After you\u2019ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nMark 7:14-23 (NIV)
\n14\u00a0\u00a0Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.
\n15\u00a0\u00a0Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’
\n17\u00a0\u00a0After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.<\/p>\n

On verses 14-23:\u00a0 The Pharisees and teachers of the law focused so much on physical cleanliness, washing their hands, cups and dishes, all under the belief that those who washed were clean before God whereas those who didn\u2019t were unclean.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36977"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36980,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36977\/revisions\/36980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}