“What’s wrong with our clock?” asked Mr. Kelly when he came home from work. “It’s 6:00 and the clock says 5:30.”
“I don’t know what has happened to it. It has always kept good time until today,” answered Mrs. Kelly. “Elsa missed her school bus this morning because of that clock.”
Mr. Kelly moved the hands of the clock around until it read exactly 6:05. “Let’s check it later.”
When Mr. Kelly checked the clock, he saw that it had lost more than fifteen minutes. So he reset it again, but still it would not keep the right time. It ran slower and slower. Finally, it completely stopped.
The next evening Mr. Kelly said, “I’m going to take the back off the clock and see if I can find the problem.” When he opened it up, he discovered that something had made a little home inside the clock! In among the parts was a silky web, and the little spider that had made the web ran away as fast as its eight little legs could carry it.
“Good thing you got out of there in a hurry!” scolded Mr. Kelly. “You tied up the parts of our clock with your web!”
He cleaned out the spider’s web, and then the parts started working again in the clock. He set the hands for the correct time, and the next morning the clock was still correct. Once again the clock told Mrs. Kelly when to get breakfast ready, it told Elsa that her bus was due, and no one was late again because of the clock.
The clock looked okay on the outside, but the trouble was on the inside! That is the very same problem you and I have - trouble on the inside - our hearts are tied up in sin. The Bible tells us, “From within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts . . . murders, thefts . . . wickedness . . . pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within” (Mark 7:21-2321For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. (Mark 7:21‑23)).
We cannot just take our hearts out and clean out the bad things, like Mr. Kelly did with the spider and its web inside the clock. We have to have our heart washed clean from sin by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The heart that we are talking about is not the heart inside of us that pumps our blood; it is the part of us that loves and affects our thoughts and our understanding. We need to accept and believe the message of the gospel with this heart, not just with our minds. This is why it says in Romans 10:910, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Won’t you accept the Lord Jesus in your heart as your Saviour?
ML-11/02/2003