hello my friend welcome to today's encouragement from our daily bread the reading titled out of the heart was written by Marvin Williams
 a rescue mission nicknamed operation Noah's are might sound fun for animal lovers but it was a nightmare for the Nassau Society of the prevention of cruelty to animals after receiving complaints about the noise and the horrid stench coming from a certain house workers entered the Long Island home and found and later removed more than 400 animals from their neglected conditions we may not be holding hundreds of animals in filthy conditions but Jesus said we might be harboring evil and sinful thoughts and actions in our hearts that need to be exposed and removed
 and teaching his disciples about what makes a person clean and unclean in Matthew chapter 15 Jesus said it isn't dirty hands or whatever enters the mouth that defiles a person but an evil heart the stench from our hearts will eventually leak out from our lives then Jesus gave examples of evil thoughts and actions that come out of the heart no amount of external religious activities and rituals can make them clean we need God to transform our hearts we can practice Jesus's inside-out ethic by giving him access to the squalor of our hearts and letting him remove what's causing the stench as Christ uncovers what's coming from our hearts you'll help our words and actions be aligned with his desires and the aroma from our lives will please him
 today's our daily bread devotional scripture reading is taken from the gospel of Matthew chapter 15 verses 12 through 20
 then the disciples came to him and asked do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this he replied every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots leave them they are blind guides if the blind lead the blind both will fall into a pit Peter said explain the parable to us are you still so dull Jesus asked them don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body but the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart and these defile them for out of the heart come evil thoughts murder adultery sexual immorality that false testimony slander these are want to file a person but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them
 let's pray father even has your children it can be easy for us to Harvard evil in our hearts when we don't guard ourselves against it would you help us to keep our hearts tune to you so that our attitudes would reflect a maturity and christlikeness that comes only from being led by you and it's in Jesus name that we pray amen
 thanks so much for listening my name is Wes Ward and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries