Daily Bible Readings YLT February 23rd

Our uncleanness comes from within. When Jesus speaks to the Pharisees in response to them asking why He did not wash before eating as is the tradition of the Pharisees, he says that it is not the outside which needs cleaning but the inside, the evil within us comes from our hearts which need cleansing.There are examples of physical situations which are founded in the culture of the time which have spiritual truths that we need to understand. Even as Jesus spoke in similes so that only those who would seek Him and be enabled by the Holy Spirit to understand the teaching of God, so we also will not understand Scripture unless we have our eyes opened and our ears unstopped by a willingness and desire to know the truth that Jesus teaches.We need to ask Jesus to explain the Word to us that we might see with our eyes and hear with our ears and be healed from the hardness of heart that prevents God from entering in and being born in us by His Spirit today. In our uncleanness we need to be separated from others, because our lives can contaminate others, our uncleansed thinking, our wrong thinking, our wrong speaking, can affect others, to damage them. An angry person can by their constant anger being expressed cause the person they live with or share a work space with to also become angry. Only a person of peace and compassion and kindness can counter such anger. Choose not to sit "with vain men And with dissemblers I enter not. I have hated the assembly of evil doers And with the wicked I sit not." from yesterday's reading of Psalm 26: 4-5. Separate yourself from those who can influence you to wrong doing, and keep away from those who gather to speak or do evil. Get up and move away from those who speak evil of others, who gossip or criticise. Make good choices. "I, in my integrity I walk, redeem me and favour me. My foot hath stood in uprightness, in assemblies I bless Jehovah." Psalm 26:11-12There is only one verse from Proverbs in today's readings:"The wise in heart accepteth commands, And a talkative fool kicketh." Proverbs 10:8Even a person in authority will be under authority - the wise in heart accept commands, but a talkative fool resists commands and talks about it to others in their choice to resist, to kick out instead.