Monday, July 28, 2008

Home Is Where The Heart Is.


Mar 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the
first commandment.




Not to long ago, I was battling with bronchitis and walking pneumonia. While I was in the doctors office, they had taken my blood pressure. Now my blood pressure goes up and down, like a roller coaster, throughout the day. It just so happens that at the time of my doctors visit, it was high. So much so, the doctor was talking about blood pressure medicine and a stress test. She had told me that she would give me a free pass on all of that this time, due to my illness. She did, however, tell me to keep an eye on my blood pressure, and consider coming back to have it checked again.



The heart is such a vital organ, to keep us healthy and alive. It continually beats throughout the day, pushing blood through our entire body to keep us functioning. The heart just beats and beats without us even thinking about it. In fact the only time I really thought about it is when attention was brought to my blood pressure, and how I now had to purposely pay attention to it.



Throughout scripture, our Great Physician, Almighty God, also tells us to watch for warning signs, and tells us where our hearts should be. Who better to know our heart, than the One who created us.



Well, some may say, "my heart is just fine", or "I know in my heart...". God, on the other hand, tells us about our own hearts.




Psa 44:21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the
heart.


Pro 14:10 The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not
intermeddle with his joy.


Pro 21:2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth
the hearts.

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked: who can know it?




If we ponder on the thought of God's absolute knowledge, our very own hearts condemn us!

How can we have a better understanding of our own hearts? Well, an easy sure fire way, is by our lips. Scripture teaches that our lips have a direct correlation to our heart condition.





Psa 12:2 They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.





In this passage, the Psalmist refers to a double hearted person. One who has a heart to speak nice things, and one to create trouble.





Isa 32:6 For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to
practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul
of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.


Here Isaiah talks of how people will be known by what they speak. When the speach is evil, we see the "heart will work iniquity", or lawlessness.





Mat 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?
for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

Here, in Matthew, we see the condition of our hearts by how we speak.



Sometimes it so much easier to see the conditions of other peoples hearts, just by talking to them, then it is to see the condition of our own hearts. We must be diligent in paying attention to our hearts, through our speech. I will be the first to say, that this is an on going battle for me.

I took me awhile to realize how blaspheming our speech can be. Sometimes we will say things like, "Oh my (goodness, gosh, word)", instead of using the name of God. The tense is still the same though. We make the conscience effort to replace the name of God with another word, but it is still a verbal attack on God. The same goes for, "Holy (cow, macaroni, moly)". This tense, we attack the Holy Spirit. Our speech is not only offensive to God, it is offensive to our neighbor and ultimately destroys our witness. Do I need to mention the Holy name of Jesus, and how many times we blatantly use His name with out giving it its due reverence?



Lets look at an encounter with Jesus.


Mar 10:17 And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running,
and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may
inherit eternal life?
Mar 10:18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
Mar 10:19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. Mar 10:20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.
Mar 10:21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing
thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.
Mar 10:22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had
great possessions.
Mar 10:23 And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!




Wow, what an opportunity to witness. Imagine someone running up to you asking about eternal life. (On a side note, notice how Jesus didn't use the man center Gospel message, "Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life".) This man wanted eternal life, and said he kept the entire law, but God knew his heart, and knew he offended in one part. It was this mans money that will keep him from Heaven. His heart belonged to the love of money, and could never belong to God.

Like Jesus said:

Luk 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the
one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the
other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.


God want our heart. He did, after all, save us from Eternal damnation, through the blood of Jesus on the cross of Calvary!

Lets go to Matthew and take a peek at this scripture:

Mat 15:8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth
me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.


Mat 15:17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at
the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
Mat 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
Mat 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
Mat 15:20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

Scripture goes on and on about our sinful, wicked thoughts, speech and heart. This is a condition we are unfortunately born with.

It is great and powerful thing to know that God, knows our hearts, and as the Great Physician He is, He works on repairing our heart. He works on our heart through the Holy Spirit. Our conscience is a God given pace maker to remind us of what is right and wrong, and where our hearts should and shouldn't be.

In Acts 2, Peter was preaching, and the scripture says:

Act 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and
said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we
do?

The people were "pricked" in the heart. That is nothing but an awesome God thing right there. Scripture continues:

Act 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The people were pricked in their heart, and Peter told them to repent. Repent is a small word that means so much. Repentance means, admitting your wrong, confessing your sins, turning away from your sins, and continue in a new direction until you reach your destination. Our destination goal, is Heaven.

Through repentance, God will give us a clean, new heart, with new desires. Our eyes need to be focused on God. Our heart needs to be given over to Him. We need to lay our burdens down before Almighty God, so the Great Physician can heal us.

When someone has a heart attack, and the damage is repaired, and medication is given, there are changes as well. A change in lifestyle, diet, activity, etc. The very same goes when we give our life, and our heart over to God. God will give us new wants and desires.

When God gives us a new heart, He purges out the bad stuff and gives us blessings for keeping our heart right.

Mat 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

The word "pure", literally means clean or pure. Something we can not have or do, if it wasn't for the Grace of God!

2Ti 2:22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity,
peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Here, Paul tells Timothy to FLEE, meaning runaway or shun, youthful lusts. Those youthful lust belong to the old body. Paul gives us guidance in the rest of the verse.

Our heart has a constant drum beat. We need to look deep within ourselves to see if we need to march to the beat of a different drummer. We need to get right with God about our troubled hearts, and hand it over to Him.

If we live with a pure heart, focused on God, our home will truly, someday, be where our heart is. With God, in Heaven!

-Jon