Scripture
True circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by God’s Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.
~Romans 2:29, NLT
Quote
Circumcision of the heart is when what we ought to do and what we want to do are one in the same.
~T. J. Keller
Once again, I am appalled at my ignorance. Of course, I know what circumcision is literally; a bloody and painful mess to say the least but I have never understood why it was chosen as a symbol of the covenant. The gore, the pain, the blood are all symbols of sin or at least the consequences. In Genesis 17 we read, “But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.” The key words are cut off and this is what circumcision is, the cutting off of the foreskin. Those who fail to abide by the covenant are cut off. Just type those two words into the box in Blue Letter Bible and see how many times “cut off” comes up. Obviously, the meaning of spiritual circumcision is the cutting off of the flesh meaning our old fleshly nature. Physically circumcision cannot save us; just as baptism cannot save us but the circumcision of the heart is another matter.
Even after conversion, we find our wills in conflict with God’s. It would be great if our will was always in line with His but that is not the case. We have to pray as Jesus prayed, “Not my will but Thy will be done.” The reason for this prayer is that our will is not always His. A circumcised heart is one that is in sync with His will. It is when what we want most is to do His will. It is when His will becomes our will. When it happens, we lose our desire to manipulate and control others. Our passion is to obey Him, and this obedience brings us great delight.
Extra
Well today is the last day of August and 2022 is 2/3 gone. Even though I don’t like summer, it all went in a hurry. Fall and football are just around the corner. Our Atlanta Braves have lost three in a row. Our strength has been our weakness lately: clutch hitting and airtight bull pen. My sister Holly starts with chemo treatment. I was hoping no chemo would be necessary. Gregg is still on schedule to get his stem cells Friday.
I was meditating yesterday on the calendar and the days of the week. We are so accustomed to Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday, etc. that is hard for us to believe that no such thing existed during New Testament times. I think the Romans gave Sunday its name. My thoughts were how did they make it without FRIDAY. What did they call Friday. I know that called Saturday the Sabbath. I tried some quick research on internet but come up with nothing.
Have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.