Friday, February 13, 2015

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

My cousin sent me an e-mail with precious, sometimes profound beyond their years, comments young children have made about 'marriage'. This is my favorite. . .

"No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with."   Kristen, age 10

The boys also had their say.  I like this one. . .

"Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a dump truck."
Ricky, age 10

It will soon be Valentine's Day when we are focused on love, things of the heart, spending money on flowers, candy and maybe a special dinner with our sweetheart. We've pretty much dropped the 'Saint', but this special day was named after a real person, Saint Valentine, who was a third century Christian martyr.  

A red heart has come to symbolize love, thus you see a lot of hearts this time of year. Christians will often make the statement that they've invited Jesus into their 'heart'. One day someone, not a believer, said to me, "That's absurd, the heart is a muscle!" Yes, the heart is a hollow muscular organ that contracts and acts as a pump to maintain circulation of the blood in our body. If we do not have blood circulating through our body, we have no life. The heart is our source of life, no heart beat, no life.

The word 'heart' is also used to describe the whole personality of a person, including emotional and intellectual functions; courage - 'He has a courageous heart' or a 'kind heart'. We use this word to fetter out what is really important - getting to the 'heart' of the matter, or the central part, as in 'the heart of town'.

The Bible mentions the human heart nearly 300 times and describes it as the spiritual part of us where our emotions and desires dwell.

"My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart. . .Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Proverbs 4:20-21, 23

You will discover that the Scripture says so much about our hearts. We love and trust with our heart, our desires come from the heart, and if you are a believer, God's law has been written in your heart. The Lord doesn't look at our outward appearance - getting all dressed up and acting 'nice' doesn't fool Him at all; He looks at our heart. In fact David wrote in Psalms 44:21 that God knows "the secrets of our heart."

God has a heart too! God declared that David was a man after His own heart. He said in I Samuel 2:35 that he will raise up a faithful priest "who will do according to what is in my heart and mind". God can 'soften' a heart and reveal who He is, or He can 'harden' a heart as in the case of the Egyptian Pharaoh. We can trust that God's plan is good and His heart is pure;  but, ours is not. The Bible tells us that from within, out of men's hearts come evil thoughts - Mark 7:21. Romans 3:10 says "There is no one righteous, not even one. . ."

I think you can see the problem here; we're in big trouble and need to have our heart rejuvenated, healed and changed into the heart God wants us to have. This is an internal problem, it comes from inside of us. We all have that dreaded heart disease. Every one of us! God is faithful to His promises and He has told us if we come and ask Him to change our heart, He will. In fact He'll give us a new heart. This is a promise God has made -

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees. . ." Ezekiel 36:26-28

We can't do this ourselves, we need to trust God to do this for us. All we need to do is come to Him and ask that He change our heart. With this new heart will come new thoughts, new desire, new wisdom and the capacity to forgive and love others. We will still walk around in a body of flesh and our new heart may not always be visible to others, but God will see it. Flesh sins. We're stuck with this body and in this less-than-perfect world  until the Lord gives us a new body so that we can live with Him eternally with a purity this world can never know.

My heart hurts for those who feel  lonely, unloved, insecure, lost and without hope - especially on Valentines Day when there is so much talk of love. If you are one of these people, know this. . .God never turns away anyone who comes to Him and asks to be forgiven and accepted as His child. Just ask, He will hear you. 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 3:16

Thank you Lord that you have come to fix our diseased hearts. Thank you for suffering for us so we can live eternally with a pure heart.