FEAR BRINGS CALLOUSNESS
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
TEXT: Mark 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
FEAR BUILDS IN SUCCESSIVE LAYERS. THESE LAYERS BECOME HARDER AND MORE CALLOUSED. THIS AT FIRST BECOMES A FORM OF SELF PROTECTION. FEAR WILL HARDEN YOUR HEART… MANY HAVE LOST THEIR HEART LAYER BY LAYER…
I have a large onion and a knife… I cut the onion in half… then I take a slice from the middle of the onion. I make the observation that the onion is in layers. I remove the outer layer it is the peeling. It is large and hard. The next layer under the peeling is a little smaller and not as tough. Each successive layer is not only smaller, but it is MORE TENDER.
TIME TENDS TO CRUSH A PERSON’S DREAMS… WHAT IS SO SAD IS FEAR COMES ALONG SIDE OF OUR HEARTS AND CALLOUSE AND LAYER HARDNESS ONE LAYER AT A TIME UNTIL WE LOSE ALL SENSE OF COMPASSION. WE OFTEN CALL THIS COMPASSION FATIQUE.
I have a friend that was having serious problems with her feet. Her skin was getting hard all on her feet. The skin got so hard and dry in was cracking and bleeding. Seems she had lost all the feeling in her feet. Her feet seemed to be to be getting hard and dying. Finally she broke down and told her doctor about the problem. He referred her to a good PODIATRIST. On the first visit he explained to her, that the hard skin was CALLOUSES. The soft skin was still there, just the callouses were covering her soft skin. The problem was so bad she had lost her feeling in her feet.
He told her it was OK and easily corrected. The doctor said in 3 visits your feet will look much different and your feeling will return. He explained the soft skin was still there, it was so covered by callouses and he would remove the old, dead, hard callouses. In the 3 visits to his offices he removed the layers of hard, dry, dead skin. Her feet returned to their pink color. The hard dry cracked bleeding skin was removed. The feeling in her feet returned. He warned her to never allow her feet to get in this bad of condition again. He peeled off layer after layer of callouses to make her feet healthy again…
AS WE ARE LOOKING AT LOSING HEART OR LIVING WITH HARD HEARTS LET US PONDER SEVERAL APPROACHES TO LIFE.
1. Never take a bath, just stink all the time? Seems everyone will smell you but you? We get so accustomed to the smell it does not bother us?
2. Never take a bath just get some expense perfume, cologne and after shave lotion? Cover up the smell?
3. Never take a bath just change to clean close?
4. Take a bath often just put your dirty close back on?
5. The smart, healthy choice is to take baths often, change to clean clothes and use deodorant?
Spiritually we have much the same choices.
1. We can stink to high heavens, never repent…
2. We can repent and not change,
3. We can make surface changes and revert back to the same old same old…
4. We can acknowledge we need to change our WORDS, DEEDS, and ATTITUDES and make plans and procrastinate or blame others. Look back? Go back?
5. We can fall at the feet of Jesus and submit to His authority. We can repent. We can change. We can change our words, deeds, and attitudes and be faithful and never look back.
We have daily choices then we become the SUM TOTAL OF OUR DAILY CHOICES.
*CALLOUS:
*To be indifferent, hard hearted,
*To become hardened, thickened,
*To show no emotion, no sympathy,
*To not show any feeling or any concern about others, about problems or suffering…
I WOULD LIKE TO TEACH A LESSON TO ME FIRST AND THEN TO EVERYONE THAT WOULD LISTEN: WE MUST PEEL BACK THE FEAR AND CALLOUSNESS ONE LAYER AT A TIME… PATIENCE AND PERSISTENCE.
WE NEED CHANGE! We need more than repentance. The issues of life come from the heart…
Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
U-TURN? Stay the same way you are? TO AVOID LOSING HEART OR HAVING A HARD HEART … WE MUST COME TO THE POINT OF DESIRING REAL CHANGE AND REPENTANCE.
Ezekiel 33:11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Zechariah 1:4 Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD.
IT OFTEN BECOMES VERY DIFFICULT TO TEACH A PERFECT PERSON…? WELL, WE MUST KNOW WE ARE NOT PERFECT… BUT MANY HAVE THE THOUGHT IN THEIR MINDS THAT THEY ARE BETTER THAN OTHER PEOPLE. I AM RIGHT AND THE WHOLE WORLD IS WRONG… I GUESS I AM SO SMART, MY PERSPECTION IS RIGHT, GUESS THAT I KNOW EVERYTHING…
Hebrews 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Hebrews 3:12 (MSG) So watch your step, friends. Make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God.
WE OFTEN DEVELOP ATTIITUDES TO PROTECT OUR PERSONAL HABITS AND BAD BEHAVIOR, ONE LAYER AT A TIME… WHAT IS THE GREATEST DISTANCE IN THE WORLD?
Could the greatest distance in the world be the distance from the heart to the head? The average distance is about 18 inches…
Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
Seems the crowd could see blinded eyes opened, deaf ears hear… lepers healed and then have every intention on KILLING THE SAME MAN… behind the ISSUES OF THE EYES were the issues of the heart… UNBELIEF WAS SO STRONG THAT SEEING EYES WERE BLINDED AND HEARING EARS REFUSED TO HEAR.
Seems in Jesus’ day there was a battle between the Pharisees and the Sadducees… THEY KNEW THE WORD IN THEIR HEAD, but the RHEMA, LIVING WORD SEEMS FAR FROM THEIR HEART.
Layer by layer we gradually are LOSING HEART and develop a HARD HEART that takes dominion with our attitudes. We must allow the Holy Spirit to keep our hearts PLIABLE and SOFT. If we avoid the Bible, church attendance and the altar we will BUILD PROTECTIVE LAYERS OF CALLOUSES THAT HAVE US OPERATING IN PRIDE, ANGER, BITTERNESS, STUBBORNESS,AND REAL UNBELIEF… THE LAYERS GROW…UNTIL WE ARE SO CALLOUSED AND HARD HEARTED THAT THE WAX COVERS OUR EYES AND EARS…
FEAR CALLOUSES US NOT MY METAL BARS BUT MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL BARS. A CALLOUSED HEART TRAPS US IN GREAT FEAR. DOES DAILY LIFE MAKE PEOPLE LOSE HEART?
POTENTIAL OFTEN ENDS ON A SAD NOTE… No sadder words of pen or tongue are the words: WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN… At the end of life we might just see I COULD HAVE DONE MORE! Fear and timidity kept us locked in a cell? You know what we call our new phones? CELL? We become friends with strangers in faraway places and not talk to our mothers, fathers and children?
PARENTS CAN TEACH THEIR CHILDREN TO BE calloused and hard hearted? HARD, UNFORGIVING, VINDICTIVE, AND REVENGEFUL. DOES LIFE PENETRATE THE HEART WITH FEAR? Fear hinders our POTENTIAL, IT IS AN AMAZING THING…
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
SET YOUR SELF FREE… BE AN AGENT OF REAL CHANGE. We have a promise LOVE WILL NEVER FAIL.
CAN WE IDENTIFY THE LAYERS OF CALLOUSNEESS THAT ARE SIGNS OF A HARD HEART?
1. A hard layer to overcome is NOT KNOWING GOD’S WORD. The satanic goal is to keep you from God’s word.
Matthew 22:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
2. DRIED UP TEARS… we can get to the point where we don’t care. I remember the goodness of God and these little water drops slip out of my eyes and run down my cheeks…
3. CALLOUS No conviction, no real repentance, no real change. NEVER SATISFIED --- NO CONTENTMENT! Contentment is never an automatic discipline. Contentment is something you learn.
4. GOD LOVES A BROKEN AND CONTRITE HEART… not a contrary heart. Psalm 34:18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
CONCLUSION: GOD CAN DO A HEART TRANSPLANT… GOD CAN TAKE A HEART OF STONE AND TRANSPLANT A HEART OF FLESH… My friend you must acknowledge CALLOUSED and HARDHEARTEDNESS is a SELF-INFLICTED WOULD THAT GETS INFECTED. Do you believe? You will add one layer upon a layer of doubt, self-doubt than God doubt. Eve first sin? DOUBTING WHAT GOD SAID… then she continues more and more layers until the enemy’s trap… DOUBT BREEDS FEAR, FEAR BREEDS A HARD HEART. The next layer is always FOLLOWED BY SIN…
Do we realize DOUBT, SIN then the next layer is DENIAL then refuse to REPENT… Adam, Eve, Cain never repented… The next layer is TO STAY THE SAME, NEVER CHANGE… Then soon we will find another layer called PRIDE?
Ezekiel 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
1 Samuel 10:9 And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
