Keepers of our hearts

Proverbs 4:23
Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life.

What is it to keep our hearts?  Does it mean we close the heart off?  Do we never fully reveal ourselves, never fully allow others in?

What are the issues of life?  The daily mundane routines of life?  Our spiritual life? 

What is it then, to keep our hearts and how, if indeed we even can, do we control the issues that come out of it?

Grasping and understanding what God desires of us and for us can sometimes feel like an overwhelming and impossible task.

Create in me a CLEAN HEART O GOD! the Psalmist prayed. 

Is it true that only God can cleanse and wash our hearts?  God, Who knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts?  God, the One Who gives the desire of our heart?

If so, then the question is, how can we keep these hearts? 

By paying attention to what we allow to influence us, that’s one way.  By watching carefully what ideas, thoughts, visual pictures and sounds – words and music included – that we give our time and attention to.

The heart, the physical organ, is the unifying factor in the functioning of our bodies as a whole.  Every drop of blood passes through our heart and by that heart is pumped out into every cell of our bodies.  If the brain stops working, we are still alive.  If the heart stops pumping, we are no longer alive, life has left our body.

It is the same with this spiritual heart the Psalmist is talking about.  Thoughts come from our minds, influenced and affected by the things we've allowed into it. 

• ·        The conversations we have with other people
• ·        The movies or TV shows we watch
• ·        The books and magazines we read
• ·        Pictures we look at
• ·        Things we discover on the internet

Romans 12:2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The renewal of ourselves comes from the renewing of our minds to Gods truth.  Our five senses are continually taking in data from all around us, and then circulating that information and emotion through the spiritual heart on a constant basis just as every drop of our blood circulates through our physical heart.  Even when we are sleeping, our minds are churning, thinking, and the spiritual heart is sorting, organizing and deciding what it will keep, how the data will be processed and what will be discarded.

Keep our (spiritual) hearts with all diligence, the psalmist warns us, for it is with that self same heart that we will believe to receive righteousness, the peace of God that passes all understanding and trust in the Lord with all of that heart.

With all our hearts, we pray Gods merciful grace be bountiful toward you in all ways and your heart be created clean in His image.  When we confess our sin and receive the gift of Eternal Life through Christ Jesus, He gives us a brand new heart! 

2 Corinthians 5:17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Yes, He was born a babe, grew, lived and was crucified like a common criminal.  But unlike any other, He took to the cross the sin of all the world, nailed it with Himself to the cross and then ROSE FROM THE DEAD ALIVE FOREVERMORE!  His resurrection, when believed and received by us, raises us from DEAD in trespasses and sins and ALIVE ETERNALLY with Him!

Reputation vs TRUTH

Amazingly enough and although I’ve read the book of Acts numerous times, the other day while my husband read chapter 5 to me something I’d never noticed before captured my attention and demanded further investigation.

Read with me a little bit, and see if you catch it:

Acts 5: 17-29

¹⁷ Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with indignation, ¹⁸ and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. ¹⁹ But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, ²⁰ “Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.”

²¹ And when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest and those with him came and called the council together, with all the elders of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

²² But when the officers came and did not find them in the prison, they returned and reported, ²³ saying, “Indeed we found the prison shut securely, and the guards standing outside^[a] before the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside!” ²⁴ Now when the high priest,^[b] the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be. ²⁵ So one came and told them, saying,^[c] “Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!”

²⁶ Then the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned. ²⁷ And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, ²⁸ saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!”

²⁹ But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. ³⁰ The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. ³¹ Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. ³² And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

Take another look, specifically at verse 28.

Now if I may ask you a question. 

IfRo you put men in prison and the next morning they weren’t in there despite the locked doors and guards, wouldn’t your first question be HOW DID YOU GET OUT OF PRISON?

The very fact they didn’t ask the question indicates to me they already knew the answer.  So they were asking the only question that mattered to them – WHY DID YOU THWART OUR AUTHORITY?

Their only true concern was what they saw as the diminishing of:

Their POWER: because they liked ruling it over others

Their POSITION: in the community which afforded them “special” treatment

Their PRESTIGE: recognized and respected by everyone as being ‘above’ and more important

When we go about our lives, what are our major concerns?  Are we focused on the integrity and purity of God’s word and our adherence to it?  In our churches, are our concerns about teaching and demonstrating Truth or have we been swayed into false concern over protecting our own “reputations”?

Asking the tough questions will help us not only to examine our own hearts, but to keep them right and in alignment with the will and purposes of the Lord.

It's far too easy to slip and fall into "worldly" thinking and actions, especially when so many actions of our churches are difficult to differentiate from actions in the world.

To experience transformation that pleases the Lord, we are NOT to conform to this world!

(Romans 12:2)

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DOUBTING GOD

Do you ever doubt God?  His interest in you personally?  His very existence?  Do you ever wonder if the bible really IS a book, written by people specifically inspired by an unseen being known as GOD?

One more question.  Would it shock you to know that I sometimes question all of this too?

Faith is a very interesting state of being.  If it were easy, it would never to be need be exercised.  If it were never exercised it, like actual human muscles, would lose strength!  So I am pleased and happy to have my faith tested, exercised and strengthened on a regular basis.

I worry a bit about those who are afraid of faith being tested.  I am concerned over those who are afraid of God being questioned.  

As if Gods feelings will be hurt and He’ll just curl up and cry because someone is uncertain of His powerful presence.  I decided a long time ago that a God who would tell Moses to tell Pharoah, at that time the most powerful human in all the world, that His Name is simply and straightforwardly ‘I AM’ probably doesn’t have any ego problem I need to compensate for.

I am far less interested in writing a set of rah – rah go GOD blogs, and far more interested in getting people to think, question and come to strong, firm conclusions others cannot easily talk them out of.

I trust God that much.  I trust that anyone who genuinely pursues knowledge of the Almighty will be confronted by it.  I trust that anyone seeking wisdom with a humble heart will discover wisdom that causes their heart to soar beyond any boundary they’ve ever considered existed.

I trust Him to keep His word.

Deuteronomy 4:29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Jeremiah 29:13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Matthew 7:8  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Diligence is more than a quick glance or one fast perusal.  Diligently seek Him honestly with your heart and soul and He promises you will find Him and receive reward as a result.  

His promise.  I trust Him to keep it.

I understand that the argument is that anyone can say that about any religion.  But only the One True God will keep a Word that has been written down, can’t be changed, and the reward is BOTH now and later.  Not just later, maybe, sometime in the future.  And not just some otherworldly reward.  REWARD NOW.  Tangible.  Obvious.  

He is a very individual God, so the reward may be one thing for one person and something else for someone else.  But it will be evident.  Evidenced in changed hearts, changed lives and in many other ways unlimited by human ability to conceive or explain them.

It is my strong and ever strengthening faith in God as Creator, Master, Savior, Deliverer and all that 'I AM' encompasses that keeps me preaching His truth and sharing His message of Salvation through Christ in spite of running across a few apparent evidences to the contrary.  

I don’t take them as isolated incidences and build unbelief based on them.  I don’t offer “explanations” for them.  I don’t pretend to know or understand everything in this vast universe.

Neither have I taken a few evidences of His existence and built belief based on those.  I have weighed the evidence of all I have been exposed to.  His Word, what I’ve experienced personally, what I have witnessed firsthand in the lives of other people and all the evidences presented. 

There are a few things on the “negative” side.  There are a great many things on the positive side.  That tipped the scales for me.  

Go ahead.  LOOK for evidence of the Almighty God, weigh that evidence for yourself.  I trust Him that you are in for a pleasant, Holy Spirit surprise.  I trust Him, because I’ve seen what He can and will do for those who seek Him.

I have come to know that I can trust Him.  Not that I will never have a difficult time in life.  Not that there will never be consequence because of my own bad choices.  Not that I will selfishly get everything I ever demand of Him.  

Trust happens when you KNOW someone.  Seek.  You may be surprised by what you find.

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