Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Why do people do bad things?”  Some of the stuff we hear and see in true life stories just amaze us. John Karr admitted to killing 6 year old JonBenoit and leaving a ransom note.  We ask, why would a school teacher do that to a 6 year old.

                    In Kenton, Ohio two teens were sentenced to 60 days in jail.  They stole a decoy deer, mounted it on the hood of their car and drove up and down the road.  Cars coming at them swerved to miss the deer.  As a result Robert Roby Jr. crashed his car into a pole and broke his neck, collarbone, arm and leg. His passenger, Dustin Zachariah, suffered brain damage.  Why do people do things like that?

                    I have heard many people ask, “How could anyone be a suicide bomber?  What would make someone hate so much that they would kill themselves in order to kill others?”

                    The Biblical answer is the human heart.  The heart is the seat of our convictions.  It is the control center for all we do.  It is a part of us that people cannot see.   The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah says. 

                    The deceitfulness of the heart means that we don’t always know why we do what we do.  How often have you told someone that you were not upset but as the discussion went on, you came to realize that you were?  The difference came because we can’t even read our own heart!

                    We do not know what goes on inside the heart of a person.  Outwardly everything may look good, but inwardly we find something else.

                    On September 9th, 2001, Abdessater Dahmane and another man assassinated Ahmed Shah Massoud, the legendary leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in Afghanistan on orders from Osama ben Laden.

                    A CNN News reporter interviewd Dahmane’s wife.  "It's easy for me to describe the love my husband felt because I felt it myself," she said. "Most Muslims love Osama. It was he who helped the oppressed. It was he who stood up against the biggest enemy in the world, the United States. We love him for that."

                    The reporter said, “Our CNN crew was quite taken aback at these words. Before the interview she had kindly fussed over us with an amazing array of cakes and Moroccan tea. But now she was professing devotion to bin Laden and his cause.”

                    They didn’t know what was going on inside this woman.  Her heart was hidden from them until she chose to reveal it.  This is one reason that Malachi tells us to “guard our spirit” or “our attitude” or “our inner thoughts”.  The lack of protection of the heart is the cause of divorce according to the passage.

                    As we are dealing with the topic, “Taking God seriously” we have discussed God’s hated of  haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood. 

                    Notice again the body parts: eyes, tongue and hands.  Now he comes down to the unseen part of us, the heart.  God hates the heart that devises wicked schemes..

                    It is interesting the history behind the word “devises.”  It is the Hebrew word for “plow.”  You can see the oxen pulling the plow that breaks up the field. 

                    The word “wicked” speaks of trouble.  So the person is plowing trouble.

                    The schemes speak about the thoughts of a person.  Have you ever just stopped and thought about what you would do to a person?  You were plowing thoughts, looking for a way through the rows to hurt or cause trouble to another person.

                    Imagine your thinking as a field.  When you think about another person or situation, you analyze what is going on.  When we analyze, we are trying to put our thoughts in order.  But this person is trying to put all the thoughts together in such a way as to devise a plan to cause trouble for another person. 

                    We have heard about this in political campaigns.  Have you ever heard the expression, “smear campaign?”  God hates those. 

                    When our mind is running overtime to try to find a way to hurt, destroy, or make another person pay for what they did, God hates that.

                    What should be our concern?

                    First,  no matter what others do to us, we are committed to doing what is right to them.  You break into my house and steal, I will have you arrested.  It’s only right.  But I will not steal from you.  We are committed to doing what is right.  If someone hates the Christian, the Christian will love them.  We are commtted to doing what is right.

                    Second, we will seek to bring our mind under the control of Jesus Christ.  When we find ourselves racing with thoughts of vengeance and retaliation and getting even, we confess to God that we are wrong and ask for his help in dealing with the temptation. 

                    Third, we will not act on the impulse.

                    Notice the next phrase: “18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil,”Proverbs 6:18, NIV.

                    If God hates the planning, he also hates the execution of the plan. 

                    What do you think is the key word in this phrase “feet that are quick to rush into evil?   We see another body part here, the feet.  But I believe the key word is “rush.”

                    Here is the person who acts on impulse to do an evil deed.  If we act on impulse to do a good deed, God is pleased.  But if we make a plan and rush to do something that is harmful to others, God hates when that happens.

                    We use the phrase that a person “loses it.”  God hates when a person loses it.  These feet that rush to do evil hurt people God loves.  That person that you may dislike, that person whose goods you stole and you don’t even know the person, that person who will receive the brunt of that evil, is someone that God loves. 

                    For the Christian to impulsively hurt people and plan evil against others is a trait that God says must stop.  

                    What would happen if this did stop?  There would be a lot less gang wars!  Churches would have fewer problems.  Husbands and wives might use the energy that was used to plan and execute evil to solve the problems that they face.  Guilt would decrease.  Joy would increase.

                    And most important, the light that shines in us, the love of God and the grace of our Heavenly Father, would shine brighter to those walking in darkness.

                    Think about it.