Avoiding Hardness of Heart

Avoiding Hardness of Heart

By Richard Maffeo

“When [Jesus] approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it,  saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes." (Luke 19:41-42)

It should surprise no one that Jesus wept over Jerusalem. He was not – He is not – willing that any should perish, but that all come to repentance and eternal life.

But they wouldn’t have any of it. There were likely many reasons for their rejection of truth, but none of those reasons prevented or mitigated the outcome – that being spiritual blindness and hardness of heart.

How many people attend a parish that doesn’t believe God loves justice so much that He will cast the unrepentant sinner into an eternal lake of fire? How many attend a parish that believes God will eventually empty hell, and that all souls in hell will have a second chance at eternal life? How many attend a parish that believes everyone is God’s child?

If so, they need to find a parish that teaches the whole Bible and not just the parts they like.

Even now, Jesus weeps over those who persist in their sins. But someday for them, as it was for His beloved city, Jerusalem, He will say to them, “But now [truth has] been hidden from your eyes.”

Please. While we still hear His voice, may God help us to “seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:6-7)

The time will come that the Lord will no longer be found by hardened hearts. He will no longer be near. And that will be a terrifying day.