SIGHT AND SOUNDS OF THE HEART

John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled......

As I lay on the table with the cardiac technician, Janet, rubbing her stylus over my chest to record the shape, movement, and sound of my heart, I was reminded of how everything in my body is dependent on the function of this organ.  I began to compare this to our Christian life in which every part of our life with Christ is dependent on the condition of our spiritual heart.

In our culture the biblical “heart” can be translated mind, will and emotions, the seat of our being.  We live in a world of “heart trouble” for sin damaged our heart from the beginning. People’s minds are full of lies; their wills are enveloped in “I can’t,” and their emotions control them instead of them controlling their emotions.  Until we transfer our heart to Jesus’ control we will continue to have this “heart problem”....seeing everything from our selfish me, myself, and I perspective.  Until my heart beats in rhythm with His it will never be completely healthy. He tells us in Proverbs 4: 23 “Watch over your heart with all diligence for from it flow the springs of life.”

What does God see as He looks into my heart? One likeminded, whose heart beats in rhythm with His or one whose heart beats in rhythm with the world around me? 

Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Devotions For Different Occupations

The Nephrologist

II Cor 5;17  Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

My training has given me ways to treat kidney diseases.  Many times the disease destroys the kidney to the degree that it cannot function enough to sustain life.  In our lifetime we have been privileged to be able to put our patients on a life support called kidney dialysis. The patient is put on a machine for 4-6 hours on several days a week.

One day while reading Ezekiel 36: 26-27 about God giving us a new heart, I was reminded of the great joy our patients experience when kidney transplants became available. It is a wonderful analogy of the Old Testament sacrifices and temporary cleansing being like a dialysis machine and the contrast we have in the New Testament of God giving us a new heart being like a new kidney with a onetime placement of internal continual cleansing...free from a machine or continual animal blood sacrifices.

Just as the donor of a kidney (living or dead) offers a onetime sacrifice for the patient’s internal cleansing, Christ offered Himself for our continual internal cleansing.

Heb 7: 26  For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;  27  who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the [sins] of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

NEW WARDROBE

Col:12  And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;  13  bearing with one another, and forgiving each other.

My dear friend has lost a considerable amount of weight and her old clothes don’t fit her any longer. She has to shop for a complete new wardrobe with a much trimmer look.

Jesus tells us to “put off” many old characteristics which don’t fit us anymore as Christians.

But like my friend as she went through her old wardrobe, we may be reluctant to part with our old favorites or garments that cost us greatly.  But with a fresh new look and a healthy new life style before her, she is doing just that.  She is also not settling for just any new garment, but choosing ones that enhance her new look and feeling about herself.

Christ tells us to put on the very qualities He wears and walk among others with a new heart and harmony in our relationships with others: family co-workers and other relationships.

Just as she adds tops, dresses, slacks, underwear, and even pajamas to her shopping list, we have to add compassion, kindness, humility, patience, gentleness, and love to our moral wardrobe. This new underwear will not be seen by others, just as our some of our new characteristics and attitudes from the Holy Spirit may not be seen by others, but they are the foundation on which we build our new wardrobe to be worn at home, at work, everywhere we goes and our new characteristics will be “worn” as we walk before all the people in our lives.

 Eph 4:23  and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,  24  and put on the new self, which in [the likeness of] God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

(322)

All It Takes Is a Word

ALL IT TAKES IS A WORD

Have you ever had a word grab you?  Yes, I mean just grab your attention and compel you to look at it.  Maybe out of a conversation or something you are reading?  It startles you and you begin to roll it around in your mind and look at it from different perspectives.  It begins to change shape and fit in different places and you begin to build around it.

This is what writing is to me.  I heard the word “continuing” this morning in a conversation and I don’t know where it will go but I will be expecting God to build on it as I listen quietly for what He gives me to put around it; just as a child builds with Lego pieces, fitting them here and there until they suit what is in his mind.

This afternoon I read another word that halted my reading...”answers.”  I had just finished a devotion in which I used the words “God answered” and I began to remember how many times He had answered me, sometimes long after I asked the question...more words!

Thank You, Father for words.  They are the “things of life.”  They wound; they encourage; they create tears and laughter; they entertain; they reveal truth; they show emotions; they show love and hate.  Sometimes they reveal your age.  They cause trust and distrust.  They prod us on; they convict; they condemn; and they show forgiveness and grace!  They swirl around in our minds like ice skaters.

I love them for what they do in my life.  I am reminded of John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”    Who is this Word that was with God and was God?  It was Christ Jesus!

How appropriate that You, Lord, embody man’s way of communication, with words!  Even sign language has word meanings.  Without them, we are isolated; Without You we are isolated, unable to communicate fully with one another or with You.

Thank You, Lord, for words!!!

  

His Mysterious Ways

His Mysterious Ways

God uses many diverse ways to speak to us to draw us unto Him.  Several years at an all day ladies retreat at my church He allowed me to see myself in a truer light than I had previously been able to admit.

It was a beautiful fall day.  We had listened to a speaker and had fellowshipped around a good lunch.  Then we were given instructions for the rest of the day.  It was to be an afternoon of silence and reflection.  We were to go somewhere on the church grounds and spend the time alone, without any distractions, and write our assignment.  Whenever we felt that had been accomplished we were free to go home.

Our assignment: Write in your own words a description of your relationship with God.

I settled down on a towel I spread out on the grass with my back against a tree.  It was warm; other women were dotted around the grounds, but it was silent, except for the birds.

Where to begin?  I doubted the very existence of God...No, I hoped He was there, but who could be sure?  I had a very hard time believing a lot of the Bible.  I had been taught evolution and that made creation and the miracles hard to swallow.  God?   God?  What is my relationship with You?

Years before, in a high school Sunday school class, I had been convicted by the teaching that God wanted nothing less from us than total commitment.  Was that what I was fighting?  Was that why I argued that the Bible could not be true?

Then as I sat there sorting out my thoughts, a picture began to form in my mind.  God was holding out a large gold cross to me.  But my hands were full.  I was carrying a giant silver “I.”  It kept getting tarnished and I was continually rubbing and polishing it to make it look good.  The gold cross was beautiful and didn’t tarnish, didn’t have to be cleaned up.  I wanted it.  I really did.  But in order to take it I would have to put down my big silver “I.”  I couldn’t.  I was not willing to do that.

I didn’t sit there much longer.  I had done the assignment.  I gathered my things and headed for the car.  At home I stuck it all in a drawer and tried to forget it.

About a year and a half later, I came across what I had written.  What a relief!  In the time since writing that, God had slowly led me step by step to be able to know Him and trust Him so I could put down that heavy tarnished silver “I” and pick up His golden cross....and you know His burden is light!

That is another story in itself.

ENTERING HIS REST

Entering His Rest

Phil 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Are you troubled?  Do you crave rest in your soul?

Unless you make regular time and room for quiet communion with God, it will not be God that leads you.  It will be people, pressures, fears, doubts, and the world’s values.

Don’t misunderstand me;  people, pressures, deadlines, and legitimate responsibilities must be attended to, but they must never drive or motivate you!

You must find inner rest.  What troubles us most is not the outside circumstances, but what we find within ourselves...the inner struggle.

So I urge you, build an island of quiet within yourself; carry the calmness within you.  Hold in your heart this quiet place of God’s rest.  It is only entered into by faith, by knowing His character, and by realizing His great love for you.

The only way you can know of His great love for you is by digging deep into His Word, for He longs for you to know Him well.  He is not hiding from you.  He has opened His heart to you if you will take the time to learn of Him.

Now acquaint yourself with Him and be at peace;

Thereby good will come to you.

Job 22:21 (Webster’s translation)

NECESSARY LOSSES

NECESSARY LOSSES

Malachi 3:6 "For I, the Lord, do not change;

A friend is moving away.  It is hard to lose a likeminded friend.  I have lost several through the years.  So I face another change in my life, another loss.  It seems like a continuous cycle.

I remember a phrase I read years ago when I was young in my Christian faith...”necessary loses” and  I had asked God at that time “Why are they necessary?  What does it accomplish?”

And of course after many years, many loses and many changes, I can answer my own question!  It accomplishes greater trust in Him who never changes and who turns losses into gains.  Have I learned from my losses?  Yes, I have learned that though I do not know the plans He has for me, He does, and they are for a future and a hope.  (Jer. 29: 11  'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.).   I look with great expectation for the next gain He will bring about from this loss.

Hebrew 13:8  Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday and today, [yes] and forever.