“But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person, For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person…“ — Matthew 15:18-20a (NIV)

And in view of current events, here’s another applicable verse: The wicked earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward. –Proverbs 11:18 (ESV)

In Matthew 15, Jesus repeats this verse in several ways–but he is speaking about the purity or cleanliness that the religious leaders and Pharisees professed and contrasting it with the uncleanliness and impurity that comes from deep within everyone (religious leaders included).

from Patheos.com

The same scene is replayed in Mark 7: 20-23, where he elaborates even further, “What comes out of a person’s mouth is what makes them unclean. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder,  adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  (NIV)

Can I go so far as accusing the president of murder? I’m not sure, but his lack of leadership and lies about the COVID-19 virus/crisis have caused the United States to lead the death rate in the western world. As of September 28th, the U.S. had  209,777 deaths. The rest of those adjectives are evident in his words and his actions…

Christian, can you really vote for a man who embodies these characteristics? He is the antithesis of everything righteous the Bible calls us to be.

Because of the release of the president’s tax returns, I added an additional verse for today because I simply cannot ignore the deceit that this president has lived. Here is the entire article from the New York Times: The President’s Taxes.

And in case you don’t want to read the whole article here are 5 points:

1. The president paid $750 in taxes in 2016, and again in 2017–the first two years of his presidency. (That is equivalent to what someone who makes $20,000/year would pay. If you aren’t outraged by this, what will it take?)
2. In 10 of the past 15 years, he paid no taxes at all, mostly because he had such large losses. (Even if he did lose that much money, it goes completely against the way he has portrayed himself as a genius businessman who has a Midas touch.)
3. He is being audited by the IRS over a $72.9 million tax refund (!) that he claimed 10 years ago.
4. Within the next four years, more than $300 million in loans — obligations for which he is personally responsible — will come due. (The Times said the president appears to be responsible for $421 million in loans, most of which will come due within four years. On top of that, a $100 million mortgage on Trump Tower in New York will come due in 2022.) I have seen several articles that classify a president who owes that much money as a National Security Risk.
5. His businesses lose millions. Mr. Trump has claimed $315 million in losses since 2000 on his golf courses, including the Trump National Doral near Miami, which Mr. Trump has portrayed as a crown jewel in his business empire. Some of these above statistics are from this article too: 7 Takeaways from New York Times report on President Trump’s Tax Returns

And for tomorrow–a discussion of righteousness…