“Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As on the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers put Me to the test, And saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways’; As I swore in My anger, They certainly shall not enter My rest.’” Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we keep the beginning of our commitment firm until the end, while it is said, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.” For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:7-19 NASB)
Last week many people around the world were saddened to hear about the passing of the great pastor and teacher, Charles Stanley. This morning I decided to honor him by passing on to you something he spoke of in one of his In Touch Ministry, televised broadcasts. Now, I did not see it, but one of the Bible that came into my possession at a nearby thrift store that gives away Bibles for free. It was filled with rich teachings from God’s word, emphasized by the previous owner’s notes from Charles Stanley’s teachings.
In this Monday Short meditation, I will just share the title of Dr. Stanley’s teachings, from the verses above and below. As the handwritten notes scribbled in the margin of the Bible I found, he spoke on “The Danger of a Hardening Heart.” Read these verses and hear the voice of God speaking through Dr. Stanley specifically speaking to us on this Monday morning. Have a great start to your week. Be blessed!
“Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.” (Proverbs 28:14 English Standard Version)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King