You have probably heard of it by its common designation – hardening of the arteries. It is a slow progressive build-up. It begins through high blood pressure, smoking, or high cholesterol. The build-up of plaque takes time and hits around middle to older age. Eventually, the blood flow is slowed or stopped and a heart attack results. Like many medical terms, atherosclerosis has Greek roots. “Hardness” comes from sclerotes. It is only found once in the New Testament, in Romans 2:5 – “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” Paul has critiqued the Jews for hypocritically judging the Gentiles for sins they have committed themselves. The Jews were having a hard time admitting that they needed something (Someone) besides Moses and the Law to overcome sin. In fact, they had a “hardening of the spirit”. Here, Paul says their hearts were “hard” (sclerotes). God had told the prophet Ezekiel a similar thing: “the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart” (3:7). The Jews’ forehead was hard because their thoughts could not be penetrated by the message of God. Their hearts were stubborn and they refused to respond to the love of God. Again, in Romans 2, Paul says their hearts were hard – hardening of the spirit. Men with reduced testosterone also face difficulty in gaining weight because of excessive cialis online slovak-republic.org stress, it will be relieved with this herbal ingredient. female viagra sildenafil http://www.slovak-republic.org/marriage/comment-page-3/ It increases the supply of blood to veins while sexual act. Some sildenafil tablets without prescription companies offer costless shipping for your order. You don’t want them to be an accidental cialis no prescription usa collection, do you? Psychologists explain this in terms of length and girth – then realize that the supplement in question is really just a form of treatment. Hardening of the spirit does not happen overnight. It takes time to develop. It begins with selfishness – wanting to do things “my” way. Then, when the message of God is heard, the ears are closed to the truth (Mark 7:6). That reinforces the decision to do things “my” way. All you hear, then, is your own voice. Your spiritual life becomes an “echo chamber”, sending back to you your own thoughts as if they were God’s voice. If you do that long enough, you develop atherosclerosis of the spirit. The Hebrew writer talks about some who had “once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away” (6:4-6). They were impossible to renew to repentance because their spirits had hardened. The one cure for spiritual atherosclerosis is humility before God. Keep your heart from hardening by continually reminding yourself that He is God and you are simply the servant. He speaks; we obey. “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2).
–Paul Holland
