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.

Tottering!

I was watching my one year old grandson, Brandon, today. He had on some baggy little shorts, weird flip-flops over his socks, and he was tottering. It made me think about how I often feel these days. Funny how that when we are little and "innocent" and tottering in our baggy pants, with our little potbelly sticking out from under our t-shirt we look precious. When we are older and tottering in our low slung trousers and the same potbelly, we looks pathetic! I guess that the two drastically opposite points of view are based on the viewer's chronological perspective. Brandon is growing and I'm dying. He is cute because the little guy has a lot to learn and we love to see him progress. The old guy has already had his chance at learning and what he is progressing toward is not quite so much fun to ponder. When I have these weird thoughts I praise my God because He never lets go of my hand whether a tottering little guy or an old one. And I found this verse to prove my po...

What Are You Worth?

What are you Worth? Have you ever thought about what you are worth? In investing circles there is a term used to gauge this exact question, it's called Net Worth. You take all of your assets, like property owned, funds in your bank account, clothes, jewelry, car, etc.. You total all of these things. You then take everything you owe, like mortgage, car loan, and credit card debt, and you subtract these items from the first total. This gives you your net worth. That number represents where you are financially. Most people never stop to think about this number because they don't understand anything about it. They never have two nickels to rub together. They live from hand to mouth and know (or at least believe) nothing will ever change so, they fall into the "daily grind" mentality. Psalm 49 should be a great encouragement to such as these. The sons of Korah write about them. These sons write about all of us. They call all people everywhere to listen to their wisdom. Bo...

Church Isn't a Place

Many times we say, I'm going to church on Sunday. What some fail to understand is that "church" isn't a building. I remember our pastor saying, "the church is an organism, not an organization." He was teaching us the Bible truth about the church. Jesus Christ is the head of the body, and the church is his body on earth. Another pastor once said, "God's hands have human fingers." This is a difficult concept for some to grasp, pun intended. However, it is important to understand that God accomplishes his work through human beings. He uses us, the church, to do his will and work. It's not that if we don't do his will that he is stymied. But he does use willing servants. To be in the church, one must be a part of the family. You cannot be in the church if you don't have the Savior. The church is not for the lost; it is for the edification of the saved. The lost can come and hear the message of salvation. But the church is made up of t...

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