Renovation of the Heart
Jeremiah 17:9 · Genesis 3:1-7 · Romans 1:21-25 · Romans 3:18
The stakes of the ruined soul
"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal."
— C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"
Jeremiah 17:9"You will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Genesis 3:5The temptation at the root of all temptation
"God being God offends human pride. If God is running the universe, then I'm not."
— Dallas Willard, Renovation of the HeartDenial is the primary device the human self uses to deal with its own wrongness.
The cascade across the dimensions
"For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened."
Romans 1:21"There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Romans 3:18"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked... carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath."
Ephesians 2:1, 3Dead. Not injured. Not weakened.
"It is common today to hear Christians talk about their 'brokenness.' But listen carefully and you'll often find they're talking about their wounds — not about the evil that is in them."
— Dallas Willard, Renovation of the HeartThis Week
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
Psalm 139:23-24