“To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed” (Titus 1:15-16, NASB).

We tend to project our personal motivations onto others, whether those motives are of a good and noble nature or otherwise.  

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Outpourings of the Heart #3

By John Fulton

To the wicked all things are wicked; nothing is pure. They are blind to Your righteousness, O’ Holy One.

To the selfish and self-serving, all are selfish and self-serving; all who surround them are enemies to their pleasure, adversaries who seek to destroy their pleasure in order to fulfill their own.

They rejoice to see wickedness prevail; they applaud the self-serving in order to vindicate themselves.

When they encounter the humble, Your servants, they cannot believe what they see, for as they are, all must be.

So to build themselves up, to shore up their foundations, they spread lies about Your holy ones; they blaspheme their character to justify themselves as holy and good.

They are wolves in sheep’s clothing, O’ God, ravenous wolves whose hunger for their own pleasure is never satisfied.

They are wolves that devour all within their grasp.

They are wolves that masquerade as helpless lambs.

They are great actors who play the victim, yet domineer and bully everyone in sight.

When they perceive any of Your holy ones, O’ Lord, they play the victim, the abused, and understand not that You see past their mask and pierce into the truth of their heart.

When they perceive Your holy ones, they seek their life; they drain them dry like a leech sucks blood.

If Your holy one will not serve them, they seek to murder them.

Their chosen weapons are their words.

They speak evil of Your holy ones.

They blaspheme their character.

They twist their actions of good into actions of evil.

They spread lies and destroy Your holy ones in the eyes of family and friends and in all who will believe their report.

Their hands are covered in blood; their face splattered with the gore of Your holy ones; the knife of their words is buried in the heart of Your beloved.

They believe, O’ God, that You do not perceive, for what they do, they do in darkness.

They declare to You, O’ Most High and Holy One, that their hands are clean; they believe You are powerless to act, for they have spoken with their mouths, but not their heart, that Jesus is Lord.

How long, O’ God, Majestic and True, must Your children be in anguish because of the deception of the evil ones?

How long, O’ Lord, will grief rend their heart and their blood cry out to You for justice and relief?

Grant relief and strength to Your holy ones, O’ God.

Strengthen the feeble of Your children with Your truth.

Let Your love be a bulwark of protection around their hearts and minds.

Crush the wicked under Your feet; let them no longer revel in their pleasure and mock You saying, we will play all our days, for Yahweh is blind and impotent and powerless, a fool and a coward, worthy of mockery and derision.

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*Image by Marcel Langthim from Pixabay