Where's Your Heart?

The heart as an organ is essential. If injured or diseased life is threatened. Figuratively speaking if you steal one’s heart you have their love. If you break one’s heart you abuse them.

Jesus said that “where your treasure is there your heart will be also” (Luke 12.34). That is a nugget. Think about it. What you treasure possesses your being.

My heart screams, “Wait a minute Lord, what do you mean? I love you! Really! I do!”

In my mind I am in love with Jesus Christ. He is my Savior. He is my Lord. He is the reason for my existence. He protects me and cares for me. I have given Him my heart and asked Him into it too. Those are pretty words aren’t they?

But let’s look at my heart relationship from a different angle. If Jesus were my husband/ wife (for the sake of illustration) what would my love life be like? Really. It is a legitimate question. How often would I speak to Him? What would I talk about? How would I show Him my affection? How would I treat Him?

My mind works against me. [Side note, the heart and mind are the same thing. Both represent my total being. My mind can fool me. Jeremiah in his classic literary work stated something important about my heart/ mind when he said, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”] So, if I cannot trust my heart, how can I know that I truly love Jesus Christ? What will guide me to a consuming love?

When I first saw my future wife it was a tingly feeling in the pit of my stomach that told me that I was in love. She was vibrant, gorgeous and I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It was love at first sight. How did I know? I felt it!

Did my mind lead me astray here? No. She was a jewel even before she became a Jewell. However, my motivation for love was based on a feeling. I could see no defects in her. She was a stunning goddess! She stole my heart.

In 1 Kings 11 something happened to Solomon’s heart that is a warning to us. He loved many foreign women. God had warned about the consequences of loving foreigners in Exodus. Yet Solomon chose to embrace them instead of eluding them. These women did exactly what God said that they would. They “turned his heart away” from God.

We see Solomon doing things that we can’t believe. He allowed his wives and concubines to build altars and temples to their gods. Ashtoreth, Milcom, Molech and Chemosh were horrible beliefs. They required devotion to the point of human sacrifice. Babies were given over to Milcolm’s consuming embrace.

Stunning! How could the wisest man who ever lived come to this? And what can we learn from his devastating diversion? Just this; be careful to guard your heart. Solomon said it best in Proverbs 6.25 when he reminded his son, “Do not desire (a prostitute’s) beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes.”

How could eyelashes capture a man? Easily, right men? Solomon’s heart was stolen over a thousand times and God allowed him to lived to regret his exacerbated love life.

The application for us is to focus on Christ’s love. Allow Him to captivate and conqueror me. Let Him alone dominate my thoughts and intentions. My flesh and the world’s allures will fight me tooth-and-nail but in Him I can resist and rest. As I meditate on His love for me and imitate it will I be truly fulfilled and satisfied.

Daughter and dog...

About six months ago we discovered that Ann was pregnant and were very excited for she and Jackson. We will have babies on this side and that of the Atlantic. We weren't prepared for that news and we we were even less prepared for the news that our little dog is pregnant. To date we have spent more on the dog than on Annie (don't tell her... Ann that is). Ann has yet to discover whether her baby is a boy or girl. Both ultrasound images were inconclusive. Though I did some further investigation of my own and was startled with what I found. to me it looks as if the baby is definitely a boy and has some resemblance from both sides of the family. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think.

God’s Orchestration

I love to see the Lord work His Salvation miracles. His works are Master Pieces of sweet music. They are arrangements that only He can make happen. Two weeks ago I began my second attempt at cello lessons. I had tried the instrument about five years ago and found my fingers so rusty and decrepit that I had given up after just a few months. So, why my second go? Here’s one short and sweet story. There is a youg man that works with Alexandre at school. He teaches music and is a musical genius. At sixteen he began a city wide music program to train young musicians in Sorocaba. Recently he has worked with two deaf children and has been able to teach them to play violin using a method that he developed. There doesn’t seem to be an instrument that he cannot play. His seventeen year old wife also plays the flute and is studying nursing. They are a very young but very sharp couple. In a conversation after the recent Recital Junior convinced me that it would be a good idea for me to take up...

Abs of Steel with Glasses

Have you ever wondered why Clark Kent always took his glasses off before he turned into Superman? I hadn’t ever thought about it either until this last Saturday when I almost got sucker-punched. Wellington, one of my spunky Juniors, wanted to wrestle. He feigned a punch to my gut and I said, “Go ahead. I have abs of steel!” I think that my gym visits might be going to my head because my abs of steel are buried under a healthy layer of blubber. I have improved my six-pack but it is far from chiseled. It looks more like a quarter of a keg. Anyway, quick as a wink and with near lightening speed Wellington said, “Yeah but up here is made of glass!” as his poke went within a hair’s breadth of my glasses! I belly-laughed. His rapid reflexes and wit had caught me by surprise. And what he said was so true and funny. It was an excellent though brief lesson. I often prepare for an oncoming fray. I get ready, set and then “BLAM”! The proverbial punch comes from a totally different direction. ...

jewellpage.com

Search This Blog