Let your will and emotions catch up

God warns us to guard our heart above all else, simply because it determines the entire course of our lives. As we think of the heart, we must remember it encompasses our mind, will and emotions. One must guard the mind, have a determined will that is unwilling to compromise even one iota, and to have an evenness of emotions that don't carry us away.

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. (Proverbs 4:23)

Above all else. We get so distracted by what we think may not be 'all that bad', but in truth, whenever we look toward anything or anyone other than God himself, our hearts are already putting something else 'above' God. Needless to say, we have raised a whole generation of individuals whose mind is easily amused by whatever catches its attention. Perhaps the greatest challenge to individuals today is to have their mind focused with so many distractions working hard to distract one from their focus.

The will of a man is kind of fickle, isn't it? We can say we have 'willpower', but when push comes to shove, does it get us through? Not usually. The 'willpower' of a man with a mind that isn't focused is as fickle as can be. Whatever our mind entertains will eventually play upon the 'will' of a man. God reminds us to take control of our thought life, allowing him to help determine our steps - but we must be willing to take those steps!

Emotions are probably the most problematic of the three. They go up and down like a fast rollercoaster. They can plummet to new lows quicker than our thoughts can catch up. They can soar high for a while, as long as circumstances allow, but then when those circumstances change, watch out. This is why God tells us not to rely upon emotions to make decisions. I always cringe when I hear a believer say they don't 'feel' like they will ever change. If we relied upon our feelings in order to evaluate change within our lives, we would be all over the map!

The three - mind, will and emotions - operate simultaneously. We must remember that when the mind is fixed upon the right 'model' for our behavior, the will and emotions will eventually follow where the mind leads. The 'will' of a man may resist for a while, but when your mind is made up in a certain direction, with focused attention on God's best for your life, you cannot fail. Eventually your will and emotions will catch up. Just sayin!

The white coat syndrome

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Eliab is tall and handsome, but don’t judge by things like that. God doesn’t look at what people see. People judge by what is on the outside, but the Lord looks at the heart. Eliab is not the right man.” (I Samuel 16:7)

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself. (Wayne Dyer)

We can make some pretty false claims about others simply because we only see the 'message' they deliver on the outside. We can lift a man higher than he should be just because he 'plays the part' we expect based upon the 'role' he plays in life. Case in point - I observed almost every male nurse who wore a white coat over his work scrubs into a patient's room was asked if he was the doctor. The 'impression' of the white coat made the patient think the 'role' the male nurse was actually that of their physician. We can never judge someone by their appearance - there is always something much deeper that we must see - their spirit.

The heart of man is made known to those who are willing to look deeper than the 'first impression' of the outer presentation. A well-spoken orator may be the loneliest of individuals, hiding it well behind his speech. A well-dressed businesswoman may be struggling with a hidden addiction behind that well-coiffed exterior. A well-developed body doesn't always make for a sound mind, does it? The outside is easy to see, while the 'interior' of a man's heart is much harder to 'register' on our 'judgment radar'. We must get to know them a bit before we really understand what is hidden deep within their heart.

God's view of man is always the heart first - the outer impression matters very little to him. His view of our life's accomplishments goes beyond the degrees, promotions, awards, or duties performed. It goes to the things hidden within our heart. Do we view God's heart first - or do we look only at the outward things we can see and interpret with our mind's eye about who he is and what he does? Get to know his heart and you might find your own heart changing for the better. The inner workings of his heart are not always evident by the actions we see around us, but we can trust that his deep love and unyielding holiness will never be content to allow sin to dwell within our hearts. Just sayin!

Another look at 'do unto others'

No man ever got very high by pulling other people down. The intelligent merchant does not knock his competitors. The sensible worker does not knock those who work with him. Don't knock your friends. Don't knock your enemies. Don't knock yourself. (Alfred Lord Tennyson)

“But I say to you people who are listening to me, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Ask God to bless the people who ask for bad things to happen to you. Pray for the people who are mean to you. If someone hits you on the side of your face, let them hit the other side too. If someone takes your coat, don’t stop them from taking your shirt too. Give to everyone who asks you for something. When someone takes something that is yours, don’t ask for it back. Do for others what you want them to do for you. (Luke 6:27-31)

Are we really listening to Jesus? Most of us would admit we listen on occasion, more when things aren't going as we expected, but not as closely at other times. Why is that? We get distracted by life's occurrences and listening when we are distracted is kind of hard. God might say obedience begins with listening, so if we aren't listening all that closely to his instructions for us, are we likely to be obedient when the chips are down? We fail to respond with obedience and then we get upset with ourselves for our 'lack of listening'. Isn't that just like us - knowing what to do, not doing it, then knocking ourselves down a peg because we didn't? 

The heart wants what the heart wants. The only way 'toward' obedience is by having our heart changed. In case you didn't know it, "Nothing can hide its evil as well as the human mind. It can be very sick, and no one really understands it." (Jeremiah 17:9) All heart change begins by asking God to renew (regenerate) our minds. Instead of 'knocking' ourselves for our failures, we should be asking God to change the thing that gets us into all those sticky places of compromise in the first place - the mind. We might just begin to see others and their actions just a bit differently when God begins to change the framework of our thinking. We might just begin to see the framework of OUR actions a bit differently, as well.

We don't begin to 'do' for others or ourselves until we begin to 'think' the way God thinks. The only way to think that way is to submit our minds to his teaching - getting the Word of God into us so it can begin to divide the good from the bad, the unclear from the very obvious, the things not to be trusted from those we can build upon for a strong foundation. Just sayin!

What's your real need?

The Scriptures say, ‘I don’t want animal sacrifices; I want you to show kindness to people.’ You don’t really know what that means. If you understood it, you would not judge those who have done nothing wrong. (Matthew 12:7)

Picture Jesus out with his followers, walking through the fields, probably on their way from one spot to another. It was the Sabbath - a day which carried very strict rules the religious of the day had to follow if they were to be even remotely close to being acknowledged by God. One such rule was that of not "working" on that holy day - so all manner of normal "housework" or "house care" was to have been pre-planned on the day prior to the Sabbath. This meant they prepared enough bread for two days instead of their normal one, laid aside a portion of the meat they had cooked on the day prior to the Sabbath for the partaking on the Sabbath, and ensured enough water was drawn from the well to make it through. It was like work shut down for the day - because the Sabbath was dedicated to the Lord. 

The only problem with this was that there was also a whole lot of other "rules" added as time went on and the purpose of the Sabbath somehow got "lost in translation". To the Jewish believer of the day, the Sabbath had so many rules attached from how many steps one might be able to walk in that day, to not even being able to pulverize a medicinal herb should the need arise. It was on this day, with this frame of reference, that the Jewish religious leaders point out the followers of Jesus as "non-adherents" to the rules of the Sabbath. They were passing through the fields, hunger setting in, and plucked a few grains of wheat in passing. Shucking the wheat a little in the palms of their hands, they partook of those tiny grains to give them nourishment and stamina for their journey. In so doing, they have "broken the rules" of the Sabbath and are now judged by the religious leaders as "non-adherents" to the Law. It was as though Jesus was being pointed out as one who was leading these people into some type of sin. It was just like Jesus to take their own "rule" and turn it around to show how utterly absurd it was to rely upon the "rule" more than the soul of the one being expected to keep the rule!

Hearing this condemnation, Jesus began to point out how much it mattered that they found nourishment. It was something they didn't have time to pre-plan for when they set out to follow the one who would lead them into all truth and liberty, they didn't know their journey would extend into the Sabbath. Truth was right there being revealed in the person of Christ setting at liberty all who would follow, but the religious leaders could only see the "rule-breaking" behavior, not the hungry hearts of those seeking truth. Isn't it just like us to focus more on the rule being broken rather than the heart behind the rule-breaking? Jesus counters their judging spirit with a pretty awesome answer when he tells them they really didn't know the "intent" of the rule - they were just keeping it without understanding why God gave the rule in the first place. That is sometimes how we go through life - keeping rules without any clue "why" we keep them or "why" the rule was given. We keep the rule because we feel some "obligation" to keep it. Maybe this is the way we view life within "religion" - as a set of rules for which there is no room for violation. We believe penalty awaits those who "violate" the rule.

While there is some truth to this, rules aren't given to penalize or punish the individual - they are given to provide the individual an element of safety or protection when they are kept. Rules place someone under obligation. If we view rules as always carrying a penalty, we will see them like the religious leaders of Jesus' day - judging the behavior of those who don't adhere fully to the rule as "wrong" or "deviants". We often "miss" the intent of the rule because we focus on the "action" over the "heart". Jesus countered with: "I want you to show kindness to people." Jesus was saying when we focus on the action only, we miss need within their heart. We see the behavior and don't even stop to consider the hunger driving their heart. These were "hungry" people - not just physically hungry, but emotionally and spiritually hungry. They longed to be in the presence of the one who revealed truth and who actually embodied truth. This even impacted their "planning ahead" so much that they had no meal prepared for the Sabbath. They were willing to "risk" the violation of the rule in order to be in the presence of the one who would give them what their hearts yearned to receive.

We are "doing wrong" by judging without knowing the heart of the one behind the "rule violation". Do we ever find ourselves seeing only the goodness of others by how well they keep the rules? The lesson for us today isn't whether the rule is right or wrong - it is that the heart is always to be considered anytime there is a violation of a rule. The rules are provided for a reason - but we might have a good reason for violating the rul. The heart always matters more than the rule - failing to see more than the rule will always set us up to discount the needs and the actions of the human heart. Jesus made it a priority to consider the heart - we would do well to follow his lead. Just sayin!

Is this change right?

All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. (Ellen Glasgow)

No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people. (Romans 2:29)

The Apostle Paul is dealing with a whole lot of 'we are better than they are' mentality - it is 'better to be a Jew' than a Gentile kind of thing. Isn't it silly to compare ourselves to others by what we see as 'superior' in ourselves compared to what we see as 'inferior' in others? The most profound thing he pointed out to those who opposed Christ as the Messiah was that a changed heart is produced by the Spirit of God, not some 'act' or 'practice' man engages in. A changed heart is God-produced, God-ordained, and God-blessed.

The 'we are better' mentality comes with prideful attitude of seeking approval from others merely because of what you 'do', not what you really 'are'. We are ALL sinners - but they failed to appreciate that fact. We ALL need a Redeemer - but they failed to recognize that every outward action they performed really didn't change the fact that their hearts were still impure and given to sin. A person with a changed heart seeks praise from God - they don't need to call attention to themselves through religious actions. Their heart shines!

All mankind can do on its own merit is produce more flawed individuals, complete with complex hang-ups and deep hurts. What God can do when a man or woman says yes to him may not seem significant, but that is because the heart is often hidden from view. It becomes evident in the actions produced when his Spirit indwells our spirit, and the true communion begins. A changed heart is what we desire - not just changed actions. Eventually the actions will match the heart, but until they do, trust him to do what he began. All change is not growth, so make sure the change you seek is directed by his Spirit. Just sayin!

Groaning a bit?

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. (Romans 8:26-27)

Do you always know how to pray for whatever the need is that is set before you? There are times a friend will ask me to pray with them, but they aren't specific about their need. At other times, I know I 'need' something to change, be different inside me, or transpire, but I have no clear idea what that should be. When those times of prayer become 'difficult' because we 'don't know', it is time to trust the Spirit of God within us to lift our need to God's ears. Scripture says God even knows the meaning of our groans and sighs, so is it too hard to believe he would give us assistance in our prayers?

Prayer is probably one of my 'weaker' areas in this Christian walk. Yes, I pray, but am I always confident in my prayers? Not always, but I know God hears them, knows what is needed, and goes to work even before I ask. I know the Spirit of God within me is 'in tune with' the will of God and helps with expressing the need. It is true - there are times when words are just not sufficient to express the urgency, depth of a need, or the challenge to our faith that particular prayer is right now. God's plan was always to give us the Spirit to help us when we are not able to find 'sufficient words' to express it.

Have you ever 'put off' praying because you just didn't know what to pray for? You are not alone on that one, but we might want to reference this passage from time to time whenever that happens. I have actually said to God that his Word says I would have help to pray for the need before me. I have quoted back this scripture as my prayer - trusting that God 'gets' what I am saying and knows I am having trouble putting it into specific words. Why? He knows all hearts - yours and mine! He 'gets it' because he knows the depth of our heart's need and wants nothing more than to help with it. When we don't know what to pray, maybe we should remind God that we are trusting him to know our heart and hears its groanings. Just sayin!

Whom have I?

Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. (Psalm 73:25-26)

How's your health? If you are anything like me, you answer that one with 'fair to midland' - you aren't ailing really, but you have a few aches and pains that get you down from time to time. Physical health may fail, our bodies may grow weary, and our minds fatigue with age, but God's gift to us is that our 'spiritual heart' will never grow weak or weary.

When the desire of our heart is God first and everything else after that, our hearts are going to be pretty 'healthy'. God's spiritual strength can abide with us even when our physical strength wanes. We might not be up to winning any hundred-yard dashes at our age, but one thing is for certain - we aren't going to succumb to the pressures of our enemy, either! We have God on our side and that makes us stronger than anything that stands in our way.

Whom have I? That is a telling question when you answer it honestly. If we are truthful on this one, we may not be looking to heaven for our help at times. We look everywhere BUT heaven! We try things in our own strength and that seems to lack what it takes. We look to others around us, thinking some relationship will be the strength and hope we need, but find those fail us. There is no other place to find our strength than 'in heaven'. In other words, within relationship with God himself.

God remains the strength of my heart. Maybe that would be a good reminder to put on a small card at various places around the house for us to see and ponder when we are about to do something in our own strength or turn to some other source of 'strength' to 'make it through'. We aren't going to find any strength like his, nor do we need to look further than his Word for answers. Just sayin!

Contents revealed

Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you. (Psalm 85:11)

Teaching involves the impartation of knowledge held by one to another. Whenever we ask God to teach us his ways, we are asking for the impartation of the mind of Christ. We want God to prepare us for the day's tasks - demonstrating to us how it is we are to respond to the challenges of the day. Critics of 'the religious life' will say we are asking to be 'brainwashed'. Those into spiritualism will say we are asking for 'enlightenment'. Neither is true - we are asking for God to show us his will, demonstrate how we live within that will, and to keep us safe from the attacks of all manner of untruth that comes our way.

When God grants us wisdom (the ability to apply the knowledge we have received), he does so in order to purify our hearts. His goal is to rid us of all the things that stand in the way of our total communion with him. Purity of heart is not accomplished through rituals of religion, but by the connection of relationship. God's desire for us is open fellowship. That requires trust and trust is based upon truthfulness. God shares his truth in Christ Jesus - we are asked to share our truth. As we do, we find where our heart begins to be changed. Things we held onto so closely (like our secret sins) don't seem to have the same appeal. Why? God is bringing purity into the place where pride, lust, anger, bitterness, and every manner of hurt or hang-up had existed. 

Don't ask God to purify your heart unless you mean it, though. You might be surprised at what he reveals to you that needs to be confessed, forsaken, and forever replaced in your thoughts, emotions, or even your actions. We will be asked to stop hiding what or who we are, come clean on matters we might have wanted to avoid entirely, and then allow God to replace those things with all that brings honor and glory to his name. When we begin to put God first in our lives, we might just find we go through more frequent explorations of the 'content' of our hearts. Why? God wants the best for each of us and his best is always accomplished where his Spirit dwells. His Spirit dwells in a 'clean and pure' heart! Just sayin!

A troubled heart?

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” (John 14:1-7)

Trust is a learned thing - if it is violated enough, it can be harder and harder to trust the next time. Jesus gave his disciples absolutely no reason to mistrust him. He was always there, especially when they needed his help. He came in the middle of the storm, quieted the waters, settling their fears. He stood up against those who would resist his 'movement' and guided their steps. So, why would their hearts be troubled now? Perhaps it was the announcement that he was about to leave - making them feel like they were about to be abandoned. The thing they forgot was that he would never abandon them - though not physically present with them, he would send his Holy Spirit to assure them of his presence with them.

Even after all their time with him, they still were unclear as to his real 'purpose' - to redeem the world. They probably didn't quite understand his 'leaving' to make a way for others to 'enter in'. That seemed a little counter-intuitive to them. He came, so why wouldn't he stay? They didn't understand his 'coming' required his 'dying' and his death required his 'resurrection'. That complete cycle had to be finished - not just the coming and hanging around with them part. I am the way - pretty clear there, but they still questioned his meaning. Isn't it just like us to question even the simplest of instructions?

What I would like us to see this morning is not so much this struggle the disciples had that day, but the very real struggle man of us has on a consistent basis. The struggle? Troubled hearts. How is it we find ourselves in the pickle of troubled hearts? The answer is right there in the first verse - we 'allow' or 'let' our hearts to be troubled. We allow impure thoughts to enter into our minds and wonder why our hearts feel a little 'dirty'. We let unkind words to flow from our 'hurt minds' and wonder why we feel like we are all alone in this world. What we allow will continue to bring influence within.

I think this is why scripture reminds us that every thought must be taken captive - not allowing them to take hold in the first place, giving them exactly ZERO access to our minds, actually means we will deal with less 'trouble' internally. The more we focus on what we allow to have access to our minds, especially those thoughts of Christ's goodness and grace we like to ruminate on from time to time until they are 'all-consuming', the more we will find our hearts 'settled' and 'at peace'. Think of him more, allowing his presence to consume you, and you will soon find the 'troubled heart' begins to know less 'trouble' and more 'ease'. Just sayin!

My storehouse is full

“Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me.” Jesus replied, “Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?” Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” “A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I don’t have room for all my crops.’ ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’ “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.” (Luke 12:13-21)

We can all be so 'into ourselves' that we totally miss being there to help another when they are standing right there in front of us. It is truly a sad thing to be so caught up in this thing we call the 'making of a man' that we miss each other's needs. Jesus' clear warning is to guard our hearts and minds against such greed. Greed doesn't just happen - it is an attitude of the heart that comes from continual rehearsal in our minds of the desire to get or be 'more'. Our attitude of heart determines the actions we take, but we can use our actions to act as an indicator of our 'heart's attention and desire'. We might focus on our assets, but God focuses on our attitude. 

Some individuals think they are 'worth more' or can 'do more' because they have huge assets available to them. I think Jesus was challenging us to consider something that has absolutely nothing to do with our assets. He wanted us to see what a right heart can do in terms of meeting the needs of our community, not just a huge amount of wealth. Sometimes we think we have nothing to offer, or very little, because we are comparing ourselves to someone we think has 'more'. As Jesus said, we can amass much in the way of earthly wealth but be so emotionally and spiritually 'bankrupt' in the end. The more we allow Jesus to truly touch the chords of our heart, changing the way we think or look at the world's 'assets', the more we will find ways to share ourselves with others.

The main thing Jesus focused on so many times as he taught was the need for a rich relationship with God. We might not believe there is much 'value' in this deep, ongoing and vital relationship, but God's presence within us makes our hearts full to overflowing. A silo or barn can store up 'things' but a heart in tune with God can store up and GIVE OUT the blessings of God's grace and love. It would be foolish to count upon the filled silo or barn and neglect the one 'storehouse' that God focuses on so intently - the heart. Just sayin!

What flows from your heart?

We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne. (Marcus Aurelius)

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” (James 2:14-18)

Do good - for faith is manifested in the goodness produced without thinking - all because the heart is so in touch with God that goodness just flows from it. Actions speak louder than words, but actions alone are not enough. The spirit bears witness to the actions as much as the actions bear witness to the condition of the heart! God expects us to keep our heart in the very best of condition so that goodness is the natural outflow.

You see those little reminders on bumper stickers from time to time that challenge us to practice 'random acts of kindness'. You hear of the person at the coffee shop paying for the person's order behind them, or the customer adding a hundred-dollar tip to the five-dollar coffee and pie they enjoyed. Yes, these are perhaps 'random acts of kindness', but could it be that someone is so in tune with the goodness of God that their heart just overflows with that goodness to others? Perhaps, but not always. It is possible to 'practice random acts' such as these without ever knowing or trusting in God.

It may come as a surprise to some that good deeds don't always mean someone has said 'yes' to Jesus. It just means they chose to think of someone other than themselves for a moment. When God is at the center of one's life, ALL that flows from that life is bathed in God's goodness. Mercy and kindness are byproducts of having experienced God's grace. The heart is transformed and what flows from the heart is genuine and consistent. I see many a Christian beating themselves up because they don't feel they are living as well as God wants them to. Just know this - live for God, not for man. What flows from that is bound to be good. Just sayin!

A Gardener's Delight

We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. (Colossians 1:9-10)

The moment we say 'yes' to Jesus, this 'grow as you learn' thing begins to happen. We might 'know' a little bit about God from what he has created, for creation speaks of him all around us. We might 'know' something about him because we went to church as a kid and heard 'things' about what he had done in the past. This walk with Jesus really begins in earnest once we move from just knowing 'things' about God into a place of really learning from him directly.

Good fruit is produced at the hand of a skilled gardener. I have tried my hand at planting this or that in the 'garden', but I must not be a gardener. In truth, what I am not - a patient, attentive worker in the garden. I can prepare the soil, bring home the seedlings, plant them, ensure they have water, and then I kind of leave it be. I forget it needs tending. Leaves need nipped, soil needs to be loosened, bugs need to be sprayed away, and buds need to be pollinated.

It is a good thing God is not a gardener who 'plants' and then 'forgets' to tend. He spends a tremendous amount of time 'tending' the garden of our hearts because he is looking for the very best harvest of fruit. Things in our character that will honor and please him are being produced - to neglect such good fruit would be terrible. We might not even realize the fruit is there in our lives, because just like in my raised garden beds, some of the greatest finds have been behind the leaves in my garden.

Prepared soil will not always ensure a good harvest. Tended gardens are what produce the ample harvest that will keep us well-nourished and 'healthy' for a good long time. Nothing please God more than asking to have the 'garden of our hearts' tended under his watchful and skillful hand. Just sayin!

The temperature is just right

I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains. (Anne Frank)

After you have suffered a little while, our God, who is full of kindness through Christ, will give you his eternal glory. He personally will come and pick you up, and set you firmly in place, and make you stronger than ever. (I Peter 5:10)

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." (Corrie ten Boom) For those who are not familiar with Corrie, let me give you just a little background. She came from a family of Dutch watchmakers during the time of Hitler's regime. She and her family did much to protect the Jews fleeing the concentration camps and the horror that awaited them - hiding many in their attic space and providing for their daily needs. The motto of their household: "In this household, God's people are always welcome." She endured hardship upon hardship, including her arrest and detention in a political concentration camp. Yet, in all she endured, one theme comes through repeatedly in her writings and in her personal testimony. 

I had the privilege of sitting with her one night in a small group and seeing her faith. I didn't just 'read about' or 'hear about' her faith - I observed it living and breathing before me. One of the most profound things she said has stuck with me over the years and given me much insight into my own struggles. She told us, "Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open." We hold on so tightly to things we should not be so attached to, especially bitterness - the root of it being unwilling to let go of a wrong another has done to us. She always reminded others that the human 'will' may not want to forgive, but the 'will' is driven by the heart. The 'temperature' of the heart can be changed by the presence of God in your heart.

Herein is the hope we need to latch onto - God may allow suffering for a while - but he will not abandon us in it. The 'temperature' of our heart may grow colder and colder as the suffering becomes longer and longer but know this - the embers of his grace and love can rekindle that flame of faith. How? The answer lies in something else Corrie said, "If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at God, you'll be at rest." The 'rest' comes when the temperature of our heart begins to change, and the attitude of our spirit begins to reflect his grace and love once again. We cannot always avoid suffering - even when we are doing the right things. When it comes, WHO we face it with will determine the 'temperature' of our hearts. When that is Jesus, the temperature will be 'just right'. Just sayin!

Changed course through changed heart

For people who are stumbling toward ruin, the message of the cross is nothing but a tall tale for fools by a fool. But for those of us who are already experiencing the reality of being rescued and made right, it is nothing short of God’s power. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

A survivor is one who has 'beaten the odds', coming out on the other side of something they had a hard time enduring. If God is the one who fights with us, helping us with our 'survival skills' in the midst of whatever it is we have been called to endure, then we can be assured that we will come out on the other side. Will we have 'war wounds' of some sort? Probably. We aren't guaranteed to be 'wound free', but we are promised to be 'held together' and 'put perfectly together' in the presence of Jesus. There are a great many of us that can proclaim we have been 'redeemed' - made new through the power and grace of God in our lives. We have undergone a process of transforming our hardened hearts into something that resembles and gives back a little bit of the grace we have received. Our 'survival' wasn't our own doing - we played a part in getting into the mess we were in, but the way out of that mess wasn't in our hands alone! God took us to the place where we'd recognize that thing we were struggling to survive within was really going to be our undoing if we continued in that course. In time, we called out for help and acknowledged how foolish it was to attempt to continue in our own self efforts.

There are still others who are aimlessly attempting to just 'survive' life. Their life is hard - it isn't joy-filled, or even exciting - it is just one tough day after another sometimes even tougher one. They cannot hold their heads up because the weight upon their shoulders is so heavy they are just totally weighed down under the stress of it. If this is you today, I have a little hope for you - God's forgiveness and restoration is what awaits you at the end of that tough road. It isn't far off - it is as close as your lips. It only takes your acknowledging you aren't doing things very well on your own - that you need him to step in and change your course. Look at what the course of the 'challenged' is like - it is a place of stumbling. There is but one person who can keep us from stumbling - Christ Jesus. We don't avoid everything we could stumble upon in life in our own efforts. That attitude of despair will creep up unless God keeps our heart at peace. The frustration of things continually going in the opposite direction as we would have desired will bring repeated pain until God adjusts our focus to see each frustration through his eyes. He 'frames' those things in a manner that helps us see how those 'frustrating things' are acting to refine us - they are like sandpaper that brings out the beauty of the grain deep within the wood.

One other thing to consider today - some of us want God to change the course rather than stepping into the course he intends for us. We want him to change the challenging circumstances - not our 'challenged' heart, our responses, or our faith. God isn't going to change the challenging course until we are willing to let our heart be changed first! Instead of continuing to stumble toward ruin, perhaps it is time to just halt in our path and ask God to turn us toward the place of our victory - to the place in him where we will overcome our frustration, set aside our fears, relinquish the need to be constantly controlled by our circumstances. God isn't going to force himself into our 'battle', but he stands ready to help us to become more than just 'survivors' through his power, peace, and presence. We choose to stumble on, or walk strong in him. Just sayin!

Super-Hero vs. Villain

Have you ever watched one of those 'super-hero' shows where the villain is hard at work trying to destroy all things good and true, while the 'super-hero' is combatting the villain's every move? What comes across is that the villain believes in his heart that he cannot and will not be stopped. No matter what forces oppose him, he will continue to move his agenda forward. Along comes the super-hero, countering each and every villainous thing with some 'perfect' response to keep the villain from succeeding. One thing any super-hero is known for is their desire to continually 'do good' - it is that very desire that keeps them going and actually makes them unstoppable. It isn't necessarily his ability that keeps him going - it is his availability that does. How available are we when in comes to doing good? If we want to live 'super-hero' like lives, we might just want to focus on being more available to doing good in life rather than bemoaning the fact we don't always know how to do good!

If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you’re still better off. Don’t give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God. (I Peter 3:18)

If with heart and soul - these two interwoven in unity become pretty unstoppable forces. Heart and soul sold out to evil and self-interest makes a man or woman pretty domineering, unkind, and a force no one really wants to reckon with. Heart and soul sold out to righteousness and God's interests makes a man or woman stronger than any forces of evil, though. It isn't that we have become 'super-heroes', but that a super-hero like strength now resides within us - the power of Christ to live above the forces of evil all around us. Get heart and soul together on the same page, reading from the pages of God's plans, and you have a force that honestly has no real opposition, though many will still try to oppose it! Hearts at attention - notice the heart needs to be 'attended'. The mind and heart aren't going to remain upright and pure simply by osmosis. There is an 'attending' that must be done to keep them pure.

I think this is where we go wrong so many times in life - we simply stop paying attention. We lose our focus because something distracts us. Remembering that the heart is made up of our mind, will, and emotions, no wonder God reminds us to keep our heart at attention. The mind can be swayed when it is not 'on guard' to keep out stuff that isn't honorable and pure. The will can be convinced something isn't all that important when our mind isn't focused on what is very important for us. The emotions will play upon our mind and influence our will whenever they are allowed to lead the way. Attend to your heart - pay attention to where it is taking you in your thought life. Listen to what it is telling you to do and where it is saying it is okay to go. Compare that leading with the Word of God and you will oftentimes find you are being led down paths you are warned to stay away from!

Doing good isn't a result of some unconscious trait. It is a result of deliberately choosing to remain alert, attentive to the will of God, and thoughts 'checked' against God's Word each and every time we are about to make a decision. Heart and soul - mind, will, emotions - soul being almost a synonymous term for heart. Be attentive to where you are being led. No 'villain' really becomes a 'villain' unless there is a willingness of the heart to move in that dishonorable direction in life. No 'super-hero' really just happens upon becoming a 'super-hero' - there is a calling, a purpose, and a direction in life. Much like there is with the child of God - a calling to live uprightly, a purpose to be about the Father's work, and a direction in life that leads us into the throne room of God time and time again - worshiping at his feet, feeling his touch, understanding his leading. I think this world has way more super-heroes that could stand up against a few more villains if we'd just pay a little more deliberate attention to our heart and soul. Just sayin!

Not just another "Super-Hero"

Back in the day, when black and white TV was the norm and families with colored TVs were considered to be on the wealthier side of humanity, there was one cartoon I used to love to watch. I would work to get any chores done just in time to catch "Mighty Mouse". Tiny mouse, red cape, yellow shirt and pants, streaming through the air to bring justice and right all that went wrong in the world. A 'super-hero' of tiny proportions, but 'super' in the eyes of this child. Bear with me for just a moment while I recap the theme song of this cartoon: 

Mister Trouble never hangs around

When he hears this Mighty sound.

"Here I come to save the day"

That means that Mighty Mouse is on his way.

Yes sir, when there is a wrong to right

Mighty Mouse will join the fight.

On the sea or on the land,

He gets the situation well in hand.

(Source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/mightymouselyrics.html)

Now, let's remember this was a cartoon series featuring a mouse with 'super-powers'. He wasn't some real super-hero, but his theme song sounds a little like this passage from the Book of Isaiah:

Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will give you strength, and for sure I will help you. Yes, I will hold you up with My right hand that is right and good. See, all those who are angry with you will be put to shame and troubled. Those who fight against you will be as nothing and will be lost. You will look for those who argue with you, but will not find them. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as nothing at all. For I am the Lord your God Who holds your right hand, and Who says to you, ‘Do not be afraid. I will help you.’ (Isaiah 41:10-13)

If we can get enthused with a 'super-hero' of 'imaginative proportions', how come we have such a hard time believing God will do what he says he will do with his TRUE super-powers? God doesn't wear a red cape, nor do we see him streaming through the air, con-trail following behind. Yet, he is always 'on the spot' when trouble comes our way. He is already 'on the scene' of your present need, but perhaps we don't recognize him there because we are expecting a 'red cape' kind of super-hero!

I am the Lord YOUR God who holds your right hand, and who says to YOU, "Do not be afraid. I will help you." Let those words sink in just a moment or two. Go ahead, reread them a few times, and even say them our loud. I emphasized a few of those words so you would say them a little differently - because I know God needs you to hear he is YOUR God and he is holding YOUR right hand - he is speaking these words to YOU because he wants you to be assured he is YOUR help in times of trouble. I think we might just believe God has more important matters on his mind at times, forgetting that he is right there to 'save the day' like no other would or could. We just don't ask - nor do we look with expectation - for his intervention.

Mighty Mouse always came because those in need made it known that they were in need. I never really realized that until I was an adult thinking back on those cartoons, but any super-hero of that era was always 'summoned' by a call for help. Batman's cave was equipped with a bat-phone, making him aware of a cruel villain's attempt to harm someone or something. That little shoeshine boy nobody suspected of any super-powers would hear of the impending doom brought on by some villain, ducking into the little telephone booth, he would emerge transformed as the mighty Under-Dog. Speeding into action to right the wrongs, these super-heroes captured our hearts and entertained our minds. If a simple cartoon of old could do these two things, why is it so hard for God to capture our heart and to be central in our minds? Just askin?

Don't cop that attitude with me!

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up. (John C. Maxwell)

As I was raising my children, one of the most important lessons I believed they needed to learn was that of taking responsibility for their actions. Perhaps they didn't always appreciate the significance of this lesson, but I think it has served them well in their adult years. There are many of us that go through life attempting to shift responsibility from one place to another because making it our own is kind of uncomfortable at times and downright hard! We like the comfort of shifting blame, but does that really bring us any comfort? Not if you consider the weight of guilt blame-shifting places on your shoulders! Have you ever heard someone say, "You made me do it", or perhaps, "I have this bad attitude because you did that..."? Our attitude is OUR responsibility - it isn't dependent upon how another responds, what circumstances we find ourselves in at the moment, or even if it is a 'good hair day'. It squarely rests on our shoulders - no amount of 'blaming others' will ever change the attitude we have chosen.

Don’t let selfishness and prideful agendas take over. Embrace true humility, and lift your heads to extend love to others. Get beyond yourselves and protecting your own interests; be sincere, and secure your neighbors’ interests first. In other words, adopt the mind-set of Jesus the Anointed. Live with His attitude in your hearts. (Philippians 2:3-5)

If we choose the right attitude, we can master the right responses in life! The attitude of Christ was to put others first - not to make himself look good all the time. He didn't consider the ridicule of the Pharisee religious leaders of the day to be something that he'd dwell upon, or let it affect his response to those in need around him. Instead, he pressed on. He created a positive culture, not allowing others to 'dump on him', nor did he dump on others. Was he always a rule-follower? I think he may have been, but he wasn't afraid to challenge the 'rules' that didn't make sense. When money-changers set up tables in the temple to exchange the currency of those who would travel from afar to offer their yearly offerings and special offerings, he challenged them. Why? They had adopted an attitude of greed - taking a 'cut' of the money exchange as their own. There would have been a great deal of temptation to not 'upset the apple cart' since it didn't really seem anyone was getting 'significantly hurt' by this exchange. Yet, Jesus isn't willing to 'leave well enough alone'. 

He may have seemed upset (angry even) to the onlookers, but in fact, he chose the right attitude - he was protecting God's people. Anywhere between 300,000 and 400,000 Jews came to the Temple each Passover season. That was a huge chunk of change for these money-changers, knowing that the Greek and Roman coinage would have to be exchanged into the Jewish shekels in order to buy their offerings. Many of these thousands would have been poor or 'lower-income' individuals. To lose even a small portion of their funds was significant to them. So, in choosing to cleanse the Temple of these money-changers, Jesus was actually saying he valued the people he came to redeem. The choice we make in exhibiting the right attitude is entirely ours - the motivation for the attitude coming from deep within our heart. If we align our heart with Christ, our attitude should be pretty 'right-on', my friends. Just sayin!

Not just words

We all probably have different things written on our hearts, don't we? I have been loved, committed to love, and then have had that love broken. The words written then maybe went something like, "You didn't really matter to me", "Your trust wasn't important to me", or perhaps "You weren't what I really wanted." I have been guilty of writing some words there over the years, as well. Words like "You aren't good enough at that", "You won't ever measure up", or "Your best will never make you as popular as that one." Words get 'written' on our hearts as we live life, don't they? Some of them are 'written' there by others and others are recorded there because we write them ourselves. Either way, most of those words aren't really the truth God believes about us. In fact, he goes to great lengths to reveal to us what he has written upon our hearts - the truths he places there are what we might just call "grace writings".

Doing something for you, bringing something to you—that’s not what you’re after. Being religious, acting pious—that’s not what you’re asking for. You’ve opened my ears so I can listen. So I answered, “I’m coming. I read in your letter what you wrote about me, and I’m coming to the party
you’re throwing for me.” That’s when God’s Word entered my life, became part of my very being. (Psalm 40:6-8)

Grace words can very much 'undo' the other things written there by others and ourselves, but does it surprise anyone to know we sometimes take a long, long time believing what God says about us? It is like we find it impossible to believe we are loved in spite of all our wrong actions, selfish motivations, and prideful missteps. We couldn't love another as God loves us, so we measure his love for us against how we'd love others behaving the same as we have. We forget how much work God has gone to in order to erase those words we have allowed to be recorded that aren't really true words about who and what we are! His grace isn't easily embraced sometimes - especially when it comes to 'undoing' whatever it is we have formed or allowed others to form within us as 'opinion' about ourselves.

God's words are kind - they uplift. His words are beyond 'adequate' - they are all-powerful. They are grace words - truth-filled, liberating, and compassionate. They 'counter' the untruths we believe about ourselves - that we aren't worthy, we have gone 'too far', there is no one who will love us. They do more than erase the content of those words - they fill those spaces with words we can rely on, allowing us to stand firm upon them when untruth attempts to come again to fill us with words of doubt, discouragement, or distress. Mom used to tell sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. She was wrong! Words hurt. The stories we tell ourselves 'nurse' those hurts for a long, long time. Words are powerful. They carry life, or destroy it as quickly as they are said, believed, and 'recorded' in the recesses of our memories.

Back in the day, we had chalkboards in the classrooms. I remember loving to be the one to clean those boards at then end of the school day. We had those special erasers that would remove every hint of chalk dust and latent words upon those green surfaces. The boards would be fresh, readied to receive the next day's work and assignments. I would pass over those boards several times, taking those erasers outside and clapping them together to remove the dust from them until they were clean again. I think God has a 'special eraser', too. One he uses upon our lives to erase harmful and hurtful words written upon our hearts. His special eraser is grace. His purpose in 'erasing' is not to leave us 'sparkling clean', but to 'rewrite' the story on the freshly prepared slate! He doesn't just leave the 'board' of our hearts prepared to receive the next words, but he writes upon that clean slate the truth only he knows about us: We are deeply loved, dynamically redeemed, cleaned through and through, and exalted to a special place of honor in his presence. Now those are words worth placing upon any of our hearts! Just sayin!

Getting at the heart of it all

Have you ever seen someone so good with their skinning knife they can just peel away the hide of an animal without a rip or tear, no waste of any of the meat just below that skin? I have seen some fishermen able to fillet their catch with such skill not even one bone is found in the fillet. How do they learn this skill? I think it comes to them through practice and with the employment of the right 'tool' to do the job at hand. There is comfort in knowing that God means what he says and his Word will come to pass. His Word is like the scalpel in the skilled hands of a surgeon or the knife in the hands of the skilled hunter. As a nurse, I have seen the skillful use of the scalpel - dissecting away the finest of tissue to protect the healthy tissue and to expose the tissue that has become devitalized by disease or decay. I have also seen the damage done by a "blade" in the hands of one not trained or at all skilled in its use. The difference is beyond description.

God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God's Word. We can't get away from it—no matter what. (Hebrews 4:12-13)

Dissection is the process of taking apart the various parts until each part is exposed as uniquely separate from the other. The purpose is to bring separation.  In his hands, the Word cuts through our doubts. It reduces our defenses. In turn, it lays us open - not to bring damage through exposure of these parts, but to bring us to a place where we can see the aspects of our doubts and defenses at the "root". It separates our doubts and defenses away from our heart so he is free to get to work repairing the heart! No true analysis of our doubt is possible without understanding what contributes to that doubt - he needs to get at the root of the doubt. When we finally see the roots of our doubt (past hurts, inability to trust based on fear of rejection, etc), we are better able to allow him to show us how to bind up our wounds and to step out in faith. The purpose of exposure (separating those things from their attachment in our heart) was to bring us to a place of listening and obedience.

The same is true about our defenses. Without revealing the real reason we set them up (pride, anger, fear, etc), we will never be successful in seeing those defensive walls brought down. The walls did not go up in one day and they will not come down in one day! There is a process of taking apart the various "pieces" of the walls of our defense until all that is left is the total freedom of passage. That which remains hidden behind the wall is never truly able to be touched by God or others until we are willing for this "disassembling" or separating of the pieces. The reduction of our walls of defense may be catastrophic if a bulldozer simply pushes them down, but in the hands of Jesus, one stone is removed at a time until we no longer "need" to hide behind that wall any longer.

The really good news is that we cannot escape the Word of God. It has an impact in the lives of all that hear it - it has the same ability to separate in me as it does in you. We might not realize the complete impact of the "scalpel" until much later on, but once the health returns to the tissue, the realization of the healing is apparent. We don't realize what has been missing from our "line of sight" until the wall is finally down. That is what God is after when he uses his Word in his tenderly, skillful way. He brings health and he broadens our line of sight. Stop nursing your wounds - allow God to bring health to your life again. Stop limiting your "line of sight" - allow him to expand you beyond measure. His skill in doing both is beyond what you'd ever imagine possible! Just sayin!

In need of a heart transplant

Sometime we just need a little reality check, don't we? It is as though we need to hear we aren't doing things all that well, or that we don't have our act all together - and then we come to some revelation we need to change the things we are doing, or how we are responding to life's circumstances. If you don't want to know the truth, then don't ask, but you won't get very far in this lifetime if all you expect to live 'within' is the confines of some made up reality! There are just times when something 'new' needs to be added - because the 'old' hasn't been working out too well for any of us!

But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. (Romans 3:23-24 MSG)

There is no monopoly on needing God's help to set things right in our lives. It isn't a "Christian" thing to need Jesus' help to get things right - it is a worldwide thing, regardless of any particular 'belief system', all have sinned - all have fallen short of God's plan. All need the one, true God. All need an understanding of just how fall we have fallen and that there is no way to set things right no matter what we 'try'. All need to be 'set right' from time to time - some of us more than others! I am one of those who needs a little 'setting right' a little more frequently than some others, but I am not afraid to admit it. It is in the admitting of my need that I find what it is I most need - to be set free from my 'making things right' so that Jesus can go about truly 'making things right'!

The cold, hard truth is clear - you and I are incapable of living as we should. We might make a valiant attempt at being 'pretty good' people, but even all that valiant effort on our part doesn't do what God's grace can and does do within our lives. Nothing we 'do' restores us to a sinless state - it might mask the 'badness' of our nature, but all those 'things we do' don't change our nature! The only one capable of changing our nature is the one who created all of us in the first place. Sin has no end until Jesus brings it to an end in our lives, by empowering us to live beyond the pull of sin's influence.

Scripture is clear - there really is no difference between us. Our 'need' is all the same - it may just come in different packages! While my 'package' gets unpacked a little differently than yours, we are still a bundle of messiness! We live messy lives when we try to live them apart from Christ. Why is that? Simply put, we need his guidance to get things right. Our best attempt at 'goodness' is to show a little kindness from time to time, but to be truly 'good at heart', we need new hearts! Our hearts have been hardened by sin and there is no softening of it once that occurs. There must be an exchange of heart - his for ours! Just sayin!