the Heart

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HUMBLENESS, AN ATTRIBUTE OF GOD

One of my favorite scripture passages is Matthew 11:28-30.  In this passage Jesus refers to himself as “gentle and humble in heart”.  Doesn’t gentle and humble sound safe.  I am drawn to him when I think of him being gentle and humble.  Paul supports Jesus’ statement that he is humble with this declaration in Philippians 2:6-8,

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!

Jesus not only declared himself humble, but he unequivocally demonstrates his humble nature on the cross.  When you think of God, do you think of him as humble?  That’s not my first thought when I think of God, but he truly is humble.  So, what is humble? In all the definitions of humble, I find that not putting yourself first seems to clarify its meaning.  Jesus did not put himself first.  He put our needs ahead of his.

Adam and Eve were humble because they were created in the image of God.  They lost this attribute as a result of the fall.  They then became self concerned.  At the start of Philippians chapter 2 Paul is exhorting us to return to being humble.  He tells us, (Philippians 2:3-4) “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”  He follows this with the scriptural illustration in Philippians 2:6-8 of Christ’s humility.

In our desire to be more like Jesus, humbleness should be near the top of the list.  As I looked at this attribute of God, I had to ask myself, am I gentle and humble in heart?  Am I safe for others? 

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THE HEART

When the Bible refers to the heart, it obviously refers to something other than the muscle that pumps blood throughout our bodies.  So, what is the Bible referring to?  It’s not our soul because we are told to love the Lord with all our heart and soul; therefore, the two are separate. As I have searched through the scriptures, it seems that the heart embodies the deep inner self where emotions, moral values, and our decision making process resides.  In essence, the heart is where we live. 

I’ve been concerned about what is in my heart.  Jesus said that what comes out of a man’s heart can make him unclean.  I find that what comes out of my heart is a mixed bag.  There is in my heart the potential of both good and evil.  So, what can I do about this? 

Paul prayed for the Ephesians: “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…” (Ephesians 3:16-17).  I desire to be strengthened in my inner being.  I need God’s power to overcome the evil things in my heart, so the things that “come out” of me will be good things. 

In Psalm 51 David asks God to create in him a pure heart. (Psalm 51:10)     I join with David in this prayer.  My deep inner being, my heart, needs the presence and the power of God if it is to be good.  God alone is good.  Good comes from me when I am full of God. 

“Create in me a pure heart most generous and merciful God.  Draw me closer to you that I may reflect your goodness, amen.”

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CRY OUT TO GOD

(Psalm 34:17&18)The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.  The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

I have prayed and ask the Lord for many things.  I have sought his wisdom and direction.  Still there have been times of despair when I was emotionally distraught, and I have cried out to the Lord.

Every time I’ve reached the point of crying out, God immediately answered. God answered my cry because there was surrender and recognition of my need for him.  I went to him in my time of trouble because I knew only he could help me.  Often the answer did not immediately resolve the difficulty, but he was there to comfort me and lead me through it. 

When I come to the end of myself, and I humbly stand before the Lord, my words are flowing from a humbled heart.  That’s when he draws near to me.  He hears and he answers. Therefore I can confidently recommend that you trust in God in your time of need, cry out to him, and he will be there to answer you. 

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LOVE ALWAYS

(Matthew 5:44) But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

(1 Corinthians 13:4-7) Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered.  It keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves.  His last command to his disciples was to love one another.  He also taught us that we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.  My conclusion then is that we should love everybody.  How often should we love?  Love always seems to be the answer.

I am grateful to the Apostle Paul for his definitive description of what love is, but knowing what love is doesn’t make following the teaching any easier.  Now that I know I’m to love always, I ask myself, “Do I do this in all my encounters with others?”  Not really is the true answer.  As a teacher, I wonder what grade I might receive.  Actually, I don’t want to know.  I think I’m going to need to retake the class.  I’ve come up short in application of the lesson.

Love is a lesson that requires daily and continuous application.  There are many obstacles, moods, fears, emotions, prejudices, and cultural attitudes to name a few.  Oh, and there is always my self-seeking nature.  In order to love always, I’m going to need a lot of tutoring.  Thanks be to Jesus that he sent the Holy Spirit to be constantly with me.

I’m reminded that the closer I am to Jesus, and the more I am able to receive the Father’s love, the easier it will be to give love to others.  I have my work cut out for me.  I not sure I have enough to get a decent grade for this lesson, but I’ll keep taking the class as long as I can.  It’s worth every effort.

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 PSALM 82 AND GOD’S SOLUTION

Humans are at war all over the earth.  There is no peace on earth.  They kill each other and rob from each other.  Evil abounds!  The author of Psalm 82 laments the injustice on the earth.  He calls for God to intervene. We often hear cries for God to do something.  Why does he allow all this evil?

On the other hand there many acts of love and caring on the earth.  People sacrifice for the benefit of others.  They give their money and time to the needy.  Some have even given their lives for others.  Kindness and compassion do exist in the midst of daily life.

I recall that in the beginning we were created in the image of God himself.  Therefore, we are like God, beings of love.  I also remember that we chose to rebel against God and bring sin into the world.  Thus we have the by-polar existence of great good and great evil.  What can be done?

God in his infinite wisdom chose not to fix the symptoms but the cause.  His solution began with an infant born in a stable.  From this humble beginning, He brought about redemption from sin for all humans.  Yet, as in the beginning, He didn’t take away our right to choose.  He did give us the opportunity to be a part of the solution rather than part of the problem.  We can choose to repent of our sinful life and accept Jesus as our savior or continue in the pursuit of evil. 

 Yes, peace on earth is a possibility, but it is held in the hands of each person who lives on the earth.  We can elect to return to God or remain in our sins.  Evil or good, we get to choose.  God has heard our cries, and Jesus his Son is the solution for our dilemma.

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RECEIVING BLESSINGS FROM OTHERS

(Romans 15:2 MSG) Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?”

I have a large tree in my front yard.  In the fall the leaves of this tree turn yellow, orange and red.  It is quite beautiful.  Usually the leaves fall between the last two weeks of November the first few weeks of December giving me a nice period of time to pick them up.  This year was different.

November was unseasonably cold this year leading to a surprise event. The colder weather prepares the leaves to break loose from the tree and fall to the earth more quickly.  Sunday and Monday of this week, a strong northwestern wind presented itself. Within twenty-four hours, ninety present of those beautiful leaves fell to the ground.  Four weeks of work turn into a one day experience. The good news, I was blessed with unanticipated help.  As I faced my overwhelming task, three Good Samaritans passed by. 

The first was a young man delivering a package to my neighbor.  He stopped to verify the address, and I pointed him to the right house.  On the way back to his truck, he stopped and offered to help me.  He stayed long enough to load a large bag with leaves.  I thanked him, and he replied that he used to pick up leaves with his grandfather.  He smiled and said he enjoyed helping me.

It takes many weeks to dispose of so many leaves.  I can only fill up one lawn waste can per week which would have taken me more than a month.  Then the second Good Samaritan came by. I don’t know who this was, so they remain anonymous.  When I went into the house for a coffee break, I left two large bags of leaves lying in the driveway.  When I returned one of those bags was gone.  I can only assume that a neighbor came by and took one home to put in his lawn waste can.    

The third Good Samaritan was my neighbor from across the street.  He noticed me laboring there in my front yard and offered his green can for me to fill.  He probably would have stayed to help me fill it, but he had broken his wrist and it was covered with a large brace. Now getting rid of the leaves will happen in just a couple of weeks thanks to my neighbors.

Three people, out of the kindness of their hearts, made my arduous task less difficult and more enjoyable. Their acts of kindness blessed my heart.  With their simple acts of kindness, they embodied our scripture from Romans. 

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  THE RETURN TO GOD’S PERFECT LOVE

(Genesis 2:25) Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

(Genesis 3:7) Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

From the last verse in Genesis chapter 2 to the 7th verse of chapter 3, a significant change came over Adam and Eve.  They began with no awareness of being naked; and then when their eyes were opened, they were ashamed and felt the need to cover themselves.  In the beginning, Adam and Eve only looked through eyes that saw good.  After the fall, their eyes were opened to also see evil.  The events of verses 1-6 in chapter 3 tell of their fall into sin.  With sin came self-awareness. 

Self-awareness has tainted the way we see each other and the way we love each other. Before sin came into the world, we were other focused.  We could love without thinking about ourselves.  Love in the pre-sin world was a pure love, a Godly love.  The kind of love God still gives to us, his perfect love.  But fallen man’s kind of love is infected by self-awareness. 

When we return to God through Jesus our Lord, he gives us his Spirit so we are empowered to fight against the sinful nature, yet it is a continual fight.  Selfishness, judgement, hatred, and unforgiveness get in the way.  We are born with a sinful nature into this world of tainted love.  We are trained by those around us to follow the selfish tainted ways of loving.  Yet there is hope for retuning to God’s perfect way of loving.

 We can trust in the hope of that day when Jesus will come and take us home to a place where perfect love again prevails.  The Apostle Paul speaks of this hope, (1Corinthians 13:8-10) “Love never fails.  But where there are prophesies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears”.

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THE ENEMY WITHIN

(James 1:13-15) When tempted no one should say, “God is tempting me.”  For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.

Did you ever wonder why Jesus was so hard on the Pharisees?  They were the leaders of the Jewish faith.  They were the moral and righteous ones, yet Jesus called them hypocrites because they failed to recognize their hypocrisy.  So I ask myself, “Am I also a hypocrite?”  The answer is painfully, “yes!”  Every time I judge a fellow human, or place myself morally above them, I’m in danger of hypocrisy.  Since I’m a sinner like everyone else, I never have the moral high ground.  I’m as capable as the next guy of sin.  My greatest enemy therefore is my own sinful nature, the enemy within.

I’m amazed at how little impact Jesus’ words, “Love your neighbor, pray for them who spitefully use you, judge not less you be judged, take the plank out your own eye so you can then remove the speck from you neighbors eye, etc.”, have upon my daily actions.  Do I think that Jesus was only kidding when he said these things? Actually, I believe he was placing a mirror before my eyes, so I could see my failures and maintain a humble place in my walk with him.

Truth brings reality, and reality should bring humility, which in turn will put me in a right place with God.  Then the words of Jesus can guide me into righteousness; however, there will always be the enemy within working to cloud out the words of Jesus.  Every day I need the light of his words to disperse the clouds and keep me in that humble place.

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THE SOURCE OF LOVE

(1Corinthians 13:4-8a) Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails …..

  In these verses, The Apostle Paul gives us a definition of agape love, God’s love.  These are the characteristics of the love God has for his creation, and especially for us the crown of his creation.  This is also the love he wants us to have for each other.  Jesus said to his apostles, “This is my command: Love each other” (John 15:17).

Where did love originate?  Only one answer presents its self, and that is from God.  The Creator fashioned all that is in the temporal world, so it’s a logical assumption that love came from him. This is what the Apostle John has to say in chapter 5 of his first letter, verse 16 – “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”  He goes on to say in verse 19, “We love because he first loved us.”  Love is therefore inherent in God.  Love must have existed even before the creation within the triune of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I have a desire to love more completely, and if you share this desire with me, we know that we must go to the source of love.  As I meditate on the list of what love is, I am fully aware of how much I lack in loving God and loving others, but this list also speaks of how God loves me. I believe the secret is to first comprehend his love for me.  The more his love pours into my soul the greater the opportunity for it to flow out of me.  God is love, and he is the one in whom we can find true love.

Author’s note: Did you ever realize that God’s love is a very humble love?

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A DEPRAVED MIND

In my concern for our country, I would like to spark some Biblical insight about what is happening to America.  Last week I shared that countries will be judged for their wickedness.  Today I’d like to give some thoughts on what is wrong with our thinking.  Have you noticed that our leaders seem especially irrational in their thinking?

In Romans chapter one the Apostle Paul explains how rejecting God affected our thinking.  Romans 1:21, For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

If you think there isn’t a God, you fit in well with the liberal thinking of our times.  However, America was founded with the idea that there is a God who is identified in the Bible.  There is certainly still enough evidence to this conjecture to be convincing.  No doubt there are many who would like to destroy this evidence, but let’s get back to our investigation of the problem with our thinking.

Romans 1:28-30, Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.  They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.  They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents.

In God we find the source of wisdom.  We think we’re intelligent, but without God we falter in our use of knowledge.  Sin gets in the way of our ability to think rationally.  We need God!  He is our only hope!  Unless we repent and turn to God, we are doomed to continue in our futility and irrational sin driven thinking.