Sunday Bulletin – 09 February 2025

Sister Elizabeth Daniel | Feb 09, 2025

Dearly Beloved in the Lord,

Some homes have this board hanging at the gate: Beware of dogs! And if it is the first time you are to enter this home you would be so careful lest you get bitten. The Bible also has many commands telling us to be careful about many matters. Beware! We are told. What are the areas we need to be careful? In the letter to the Hebrews the author tells us:

“Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.…” Hebrews 3:12

What does this an evil heart of unbelief mean? Amp Bible puts it this way: “A wicked, unbelieving heart (which refuses to trust and rely on the Lord, a heart) that turns away from the living God.”

“ a wicked, unbelieving heart [which refuses to cleave to, trust in, and rely on Him], leading you to turn away and desert or stand aloof from the living God.” AMPC

“evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God.” NABRE

“….be careful that none of you has an evil, unbelieving heart that will turn you away from the living God” NCV

This verse tells us that we must beware, be careful, pay attention, take all the necessary caution to keep our heart trusting, believing and being, faithful to the Lord our God. Trying situations can twist us that instead of putting our trust in the Lord God, our hearts are carried away into easily trusting man, horses, material things, wrong people, lies, distorted truth etc. Our hearts can be easily distorted to think that evil is good and good, evil. That is what this bible verse calls as an evil heart of unbelief. In our human understanding we would not want to think that ours is an evil heart, for we would give all kinds of excuses to say that after all it was only one time, that we did not think in that angle, it was so hard, that you could see no other way, things were not clear etc. Now look at Abraham who was asked to sacrifice his only son, the promised son of his old age (Genesis 22:2). How hard that must be for us. But the Bible tells us in the very next verse (Genesis 22:3) that “Abraham rose early in the morning ….took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son…” and went to make the sacrifice exactly as the Lord asked of him with no questions asked. He only had faith “that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead…” (Hebrews 11:19).

Moses however when told to speak to the rock for water to come, struck it (Numbers 20:7-11). Psalm 106:33 tells us that “He spoke from his lips without thinking because they went against the Spirit of God” (NLV). “They made Moses angry, and he spoke foolishly” (NLT). One wrong response to God’s command and Moses could not enter the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 32:51). We need to stop giving excuses to obey the commands that the Lord has given us from the Word of God. With the help of the Holy Spirit who is ever present with us to help us in every situation and through prayer we can believe the Lord and obey. Let us have a believing, trusting heart, willing to obey the Lord like Abraham however difficult, hard challenging it may be or even beyond our human understanding.

In the blessed love of Jesus,

Sister Elizabeth Daniel