The Measure of the Heart

This was today's Tozer. It's too good not to share:

Your baptism and your confirmation and your name on the church roll and the big Bible you carry--these are not the things that are important to God. You can train a chimpanzee to carry a Bible. Every one of us is the sum of what we secretly admire, what we think about and what we would like to do most if we became free to do what we wanted to do.  

Yes, fruit is very important in our lives.  If we don't have fruit then we can be sure that we are not saved.  However, we can bear a kind of plastic fruit that looks good to others, but we know the difference.  God certainly does too.  Let's not kid ourselves or Him about the fruit that we bear.

What are the longings of your heart?  This is a convicting question.  I am glad that my mind doesn't drift instantly to porn anymore.  I'm also glad that I don't have the hunger for video games I once did.  Frankly, when I have idle time I spend it thinking about how I have homework to do.  I'm not sure this is so much better.

This Tozer quote seems akin to Piper's message about how we are to desire God.  Frankly, I don't desire Him as much as I probably ought.  None of us does really.  However, He gives the grace to desire Him more.  Let's keep asking for it.

Edit: I read this in my daily reading after I posted it.  It fits in so well I thought I'd better add it.

Psalms 50:12-23
(12)  "If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.
(13)  Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
(14)  Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High,
(15)  and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."
(16)  But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?
(17)  For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.
(18)  If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers.
(19)  "You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.
(20)  You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son.
(21)  These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
(22)  "Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
(23)  The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!"