HEART to HEART: Treachery of the Heart

A lot of people in the Christian circles these days don't really know the Bible.  Many Christians seem to think that their heart is NOT evil and no matter what they do or how they live their lives they are fine with God.  Such Biblical neophytes easily fall prey to false doctrines as they seek to craft a comfortable lifestyle religion for themselves.   One of the essentials of a self-designed religion is to never mention or confront repentance or sin because such things upset people.  No one wants to hear that God might be planning to pronounce judgement or level punishment on sinners and slackers. 

Such self-styled false teachings only perpetuate carnal desires to the extent that some begin to believe “anything goes” behaviors are actually okay with God.  Some even go so far as to convince themselves that God has no other purpose than to make them happy and fill their life with nothing but good things... on their terms.  this thinking, becomes the theology by which so-called christians live their lives.  the bible and its absolute truths are discounted, distorted and perverted into something that suits a life out of harmony with the commands of Christ and holy living.  

Jesus used powerful words as rebuttal to the Pharisees as they tried to argue for a perverted interpretation of God’s truths.  He said in Matthew15:18-20... “But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person...”

What comes out of your mouth... what you say suggests what you think, what you believe and what you will do in life... and all of it comes from the heart. The heart can trick you into thinking something other than what you should be thinking which determines what you will be doing in life.  The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Here is the problem with the human heart: It is a poor student of the Word of God! It will take God's plain truth and twist it, change it and rearrange it to make it fit into a box that is pleasing to one’s lifestyle.  All you have to do is find a version of the Bible that reads the right way, find you a preacher or teacher who explains it like you want to hear it, and you will condition your heart to an interpretation of God’s Word that lines up with your lifestyle.

In effect, this is nothing more than humanism with a “biblical varnish” applied to make it look and sound religious.   It allows man to live as he pleases without regard for what God says about any matter. As long as you can justify it, then you are all set. 

When you live with this kind of deceived heart, you are forfeiting God's best for your life.  Until we can come to the place where we can silence our hearts carnal desires and take God's Word as our standard for living, retrain and discipline ourselves, we will never be all He wants us to be! We will always be trying to claim His promises by our own efforts in our own unholy ways. We will always be trying to live to our own standards. We will always be living lives that claim to please God, but that really only please self!

HEART to HEART: The Human Heart & God

He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God's sight.  Luke 16:15

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."  1 Samuel 16:7

For out of the heart come evil thoughts--murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. Matthew 15:19

"I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve." Jeremiah 17:10

These are just a few examples of the human heart mentioned in the Bible.  God's emphasis on the heart pervades Scripture, mentioned specifically and implied through many situations and circumstances. The English word appears in no fewer than 878 references in the Bible, with the related Hebrew or Greek words appearing in another 55 passages and translated as either "mind" or "understanding." Of the 66 books of the Bible, only seven do not specifically use the term but make implied reference is matters of the heart.

This article today is not about the heart as a vital organ, the muscle that pumps blood throughout the body. Neither is it about the romantic, philosophical, or literary definitions of the heart.  The focus of this discussion is the heart as the spiritual core of humans, where our emotions and desires form, distill and flow forth in our choices, actions and attitudes.

Before we look at the human heart, its important to understand that since God has emotions and desires, He, too, can be said to have a “heart.” We have a heart because God does. David was a man “after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22). And God blesses His people with leaders who know and follow His heart (1 Samuel 2:35; Jeremiah 3:15).

That said, the heart of man is distinct from either "soul" or "mind." This is made clear from the Lord's emphasis in His allusion to Deuteronomy 6:5, as recorded in Matthew 22:37: "Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27). But just what is this heart that God so explicitly requests love from?  One must collect the biblical data before a correct conclusion can be drawn.

The phrase "with all your heart" is used 20 times in the Bible, citing the heart as the key to obedience, love, and service (Deuteronomy 10:12); repentance and turning back to righteousness (1 Kings 8:47-49); trusting in God's direction (Proverbs 3:5-6); and, of course, believing and trusting in the promise of salvation (Acts 8:37; Romans 10:9).

The human heart, in its natural condition, is evil, treacherous and deceitful. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” In other words, the Fall of man has affected us at the deepest level; our mind, emotions and desires have been tainted by sin—and we are easily blinded to just how pervasive the problem is.

We may not understand our own hearts, but God does. He “knows the secrets of the heart” (Psalm 44:21; 1 Corinthians 14:25). Jesus “knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man” (John 2:24-25). Based on His knowledge of the heart, God can judge righteously: "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve." (Jeremiah 17:10).

Jesus pointed out the fallen condition of our hearts in Mark 7:21-23: “From within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.” Our biggest problem is not external but internal – all of us have a heart problem.

Even with this knowledge, that the heart can be the source of evil things,  it is the core of the human condition and a “good heart” is absolutely necessary for a right relationship with the God of eternity. The heart is the fountain from which the nature of a person is revealed. Several obvious statements to this reality are made in Scripture:

"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." (Proverbs 4:23)

"...out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." (Matthew 12:34)

"A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things." (Matthew 12:35)

Whatever the heart may involve, it is clearly the source of our "real and true" character.

Our heart can commit sin – even apart from carrying out the actual deed (Matthew 5:28) and is naturally linked to the "treasure" we lay up for ourselves (Matthew 6:21). The heart is capable of religious deceit (Matthew 15:8), and in its natural state is full of wickedness (Jeremiah 17:9). If left to follow its natural inclination, the heart will become hardened and unreachable with the truth (Mark 6:52; Romans 2:5). Indeed, it appears that we have the ability to harden our hearts even beyond their natural tendency to rebel against God (Hebrews 3:8). No wonder Paul cried, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24).

The answer to that desperate question is, of course, the "new" heart that comes with the "new birth" (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10; 10:16). God promises that we will find Him if we seek Him with "all [our] heart" (Jeremiah 29:13). We are also told that even the "desires" of our hearts will be granted when we delight in the Lord (Psalm 37:4). Once we have learned to trust God, our hearts can rejoice and be glad (Psalm 28:7; Zechariah 10:7), ultimately reaching a steady "comfort" and full assurance that acknowledges the great mysteries of our relationship with God (Colossians 2:2).

The HEART is essential to a relationship with God and our hope for eternal life. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that the heart is vital to our behavior, our salvation, our understanding, and our commitment--either to righteousness or to evil. 

Still, what IS the heart? The heart can reason (Ecclesiastes 7:25; Mark 2:8), and has "thoughts and intents" (Hebrews 4:12). The heart is in some way connected to our flesh (Ezekiel 36:26; 2 Corinthians 3:3), but is also definitely associated with our conscious understanding (Proverbs 2:2; 15:14; Matthew 13:15; Ephesians 4:18). But this connection goes deeper than the conscious mind. The heart is the source of a "hidden man" that produces character qualities (1 Peter 3:4). The heart can feel pain (Nahum 2:10) and anguish (2 Corinthians 2:4), as well as sorrow or joy (Isaiah 65:14).

It seems that the heart is inextricably intertwined with our whole human nature, influencing and being influenced by everything we do. It operates something like a network of spiritual connections that senses every thought and every emotion, both external and internal, and will feed back its own desire and focus, influencing and controlling our behavior more than we realize. Perhaps a good illustration would be the operating system of our computers – Windows, Linux, or the "heart" of an Apple Mac OS. The programs that we use – Word, Excel, Photoshop or email are the training, education, habits, and associations that we develop in our lives. But the operating system, the heart of the computer, controls what can be done with the programs and whether or not they respond as expected or lock up or crash.

No wonder God longed for "such a heart" that would fear Him and obey Him, so that we might be the beneficiaries of His blessings (Deuteronomy 5:29). God cannot, of course, reward evil any more than He can be evil. Although God's love for us has moved Him to sacrifice His only begotten Son on our behalf, He nonetheless will not acquit the wicked (Nahum 1:3). Before we can have our hearts made righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21), we must bring them into a "contrite and humble" state (Isaiah 57:15), one that is "broken" before His holiness (Psalm 34:18; 51:17). When the heart believes (Romans 10:10), repentance (Acts 8:22) leads to an enormous change in the "natural man" (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Obviously, since this huge change is not a normal human event, it must be brought about by the supernatural power of the great Creator Himself (2 Corinthians 5:17). And since it is God who is creating the new heart, there is no possible result but that the new heart is created "after God… in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24).

Once the event of the "new creation" takes place, culminating in a person’s “baptism [joining with Christ] we are given a NEW heart [a clean slate, a new start], an operating system, that can run the "programs" of righteousness immersed in holy living. After the new birth, it becomes possible to fear (or "reverence") the One who created us, and to keep the commandments that are all recorded in our "Owners Manual," also known as "The Bible." While no analogy is totally satisfactory, this may help us to understand how essential our heart really is in working out our salvation (Philippians 2:12). If we would desire that it be "well with [us], and with [our] children" (Deuteronomy 5:29), then we must "keep [our] heart with all diligence;  for everything you do flows from it" (Proverbs 4:23).

In order for a person to be saved, then, the heart must be changed.  This only happens by the power of God in response to our growing trust and faith. “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” (Romans 10:10). In His grace, God can create a new heart within us (Psalm 51:10; Ezekiel 36:26). He promises to “revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isaiah 57:15).

God’s work of creating a new heart within us involves testing our hearts (Psalm 17:3; Deuteronomy 8:2) and filling our hearts with new ideas, new wisdom, and new desires (Nehemiah 7:5; 1 Kings 10:24; 2 Corinthians 8:16).

So... what IS the human heart?  The heart is the core of our being, and the Bible sets high importance on keeping our hearts pure.  It’s a full-time job protecting our hearts and guarding our “core operating system” from viruses that could poison us to the core and ruin our relationship with God. “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

HEART to HEART: All You Need, Everything the Church Needs, IF...

The sovereign Lord is the great Provider. When Israel needed a leader, He raised up Moses. When they needed water in the desert, He supplied it from a rock. When they needed food for their wilderness wandering, He gave it in the form of manna. Man needed a Savior from his sins, so God sent His only begotten Son to die on Calvary's cross.

The hand of God's provision is also open to us in our time of affliction. He has provided for the need of His suffering saints. Paul wrote, "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).

When we're deep in a crisis, especially a financial crisis, and we've been in God's waiting room for what seems like endless days, weeks months, even years, it may appear that the storehouse of God's supply is all but exhausted. We may feel that He can do nothing for us. But the promise of the Holy Scriptures is that He will supply all our needs.

One of many promises in the Bible that has strengthened and sustained God's people for centuries is Philippians 4:19: "But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." In this verse the apostle Paul was not introducing a new promise. The provision of God for His people had its roots deep in the Old Testament. In fact, it goes back to the very beginning of human history, when God created man and placed him in the Garden of Eden. There in the garden Adam and Eve had all they needed.

Christians today don’t really comprehend this truth and it needs to be understood and reinfused into our Christian living attitudes. The human sources of wealth and cash, (supply) fueled by our own abilities, our own wit and power, have diverted our attention from what God can and will do for his people. Such thinking has permeated the church and clouded the real power behind our giving and support of missions and ministries.

With higher wages, social security, and guaranteed incomes for the unemployed, fewer people are bringing God into their thinking. In addition, some fine Christian men and women have never learned to trust God for all their needs and that has had a dire impact on dependence on God and His desire (plan) to provide for “all our needs.”.

Let us carefully examine Paul's text (vs.14-19) within its context and try to glean the lessons it has for our lives.

The Great Provider

The first important truth of Philippians 4:19 is that God is the Provider. The apostle said that the Lord is "my God." When Paul received the Lord Jesus on his way to Damascus, he was brought immediately into a personal relationship with God. I fear that the belief many persons have in the God of the Bible is merely intellectual and academic, not experiential.  They believe God is omnipotent--that He has an ability that knows no inability--but they know nothing of a personal, intimate relationship with Him. Sometimes people inside our churches, as well as those outside, know about God, but they do not know Him. Paul knew Him as the provider of all his needs.

In the Old Testament the Hebrew name for God the provider is Jehovah-jireh. It appears in Genesis 22 when Abraham, in obedience to God's command, took his son Isaac to Mount Moriah to offer him for a burnt offering. After father and son had arrived at the designated place and prepared the altar, Isaac said to his father, "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering" (Genesis 22:7-8). And that is precisely what God did: He provided a substitute to die in the place of Isaac (v. 13). "And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh" (v. 14), meaning "the Lord will provide." But keep this fact in mind: Abraham did not experience God's miraculous provision without first giving obedience to God's command. Abraham was not presumptuous; rather, he displayed implicit faith and obedience. He became acquainted with Jehovah-jireh.

Do you know who Jehovah-jireh is? He is the God who provides. He is the God of the Bible, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is through personal faith in Christ that we gain that experiential knowledge of God. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Can you say with the apostle that Jehovah-jireh is "my God"?

The Promise

The second important truth in Philippians 4:19 is found in this promise: "My God shall supply." Take note of how this thought follows logically upon the first. The expression "my God," used also by Paul in Philippians 1:3, gives assurance that one who is rightly related to God will have his needs supplied. There is to be no doubting, no hesitation, no apprehension. Our Lord said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7). "And all things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive" (Matthew 21:22). There is positive assurance in these promises.

Why can a believer be confident that his need will be supplied? Because the promise is supported by the Provider. "My God" is the all-knowing Provider; therefore, He knows exactly what I need. Twice in one discourse our Lord said, "your Father knows what things you need, before you ask Him" (Matthew 6:8). "For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things" (v. 32). In contrast with God's omniscience is our lack of knowledge. The apostle Paul reminded us that "we don’t even know what we should pray for" (Romans 8:26). Because we are inherently selfish, our prayer requests often reflect more personal greed than genuine need. 

The writer to the Hebrews was commenting on this truth when he wrote, "For you have need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise" (Hebrews 10:36). It is not God's will for any of us to be impatient, yet most of us are woefully lacking in patience.  Perseverance has never been one of humanities strong points. We want what we don’t need.  We long for the things that will make us happy, but happiness should never be our pursuit.  We spend countless hours seeking the things that are transient, short lived, and squander the time we should be spending building up our relationship with God.   through all of this human self-centeredness, God is patient with us.   God knows what we need. To say it as Jesus said it, "your Father knows the things you need."

We are baffled when trials and tribulations come our way. We ask God over and over to remove the trial, believing that repetition was what we needed, when our real need is patience. God allows situations to happen, to continue to produce in us a desired quality like patience. If this boggles your mind, perhaps the Word of God will make it clear to you. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” (James 1:2-3). The Provider keeps his promise to supply all our need. Does it make it any easier, knowing that He knows our needs and that He keeps His promise?  Our actions and attitudes would suggest that we do not trust Him with either His capacity to provide or promise to do so!

The Provision

Third, let us examine the provision spoken of in Philippians 4:19. The apostle summed it up in three words, "all your need." Not some of your need, not much of your need, nor most of your need, but all of your need. That is bountiful provision! God can meet the many and varied needs of His children because of His infinite and inestimable riches.

The psalmist prayed, "O Lord, how many are your works! In wisdom you made them all: the earth is full of your riches" (Psalm 104:24). Notice that it is the earth which is full of God's riches, and it is on the earth where God has put us. The psalmist linked man and God's riches together when he wrote, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it; the world, and all who live in it" (Psalm 24:1).

The apostle Paul quoted this verse from the Psalms twice. He did this to remind us that the earth and everything in it belongs to the Lord (1 Corinthians 10:26, 28). The Lord Himself said, "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you: for the world is mine, and all that is in it" (Psalm 50:10-12). Our great Provider created and controls all of the provisions that can possibly come from this earth.

How vast is the wealth of God? How rich is the Provider? I doubt that we will ever fully know in this life the extent of God's riches. He said to His people Israel, "I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel..." (Isaiah 45:3). Yes, God has hidden riches in secret places about which we know nothing. The apostle Paul mentioned "the riches of his goodness" (Romans 2:4), "the riches of his glory" (Romans 9:23; Ephesians 3:16), and "the riches of his grace" (Ephesians 1:7; 2:7). What an amazing provision from the great Provider!

We Christians who read the Bible know all of this, and we know that it is all true. At least we should.   But do we show plainly and clearly,day to day, that we live in the personal knowledge of God and His bountiful provision for us? If we do, we need never be anxious, and we must never be worried. If we would really and truly grasp the truth of this great text, then worry, stress, and anxiety would be banished from our lives. In other words, we must bring ourselves in mind and heart and will to take seriously what our Heavenly Father says to us. We must exercise ourselves to rely implicitly upon His Word. We are never alone in our need. We always have access to the Provider and His provision.

More than Enough to supply our Need

Next, Paul spoke of the plenty of God's supply. He gives to His people "according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." God's giving is not merely from His riches, or out of His riches, but according to His riches. Suppose you have an urgent and a legitimate need for $1,000 and I have $100,000 in my savings account. We have been friends for a long time. You come to me and tell me about your need. Without hesitating, I write a check in your name in the amount of $100. I would be giving to you out of my riches, but not according to my riches. And because my giving was so meager, your need would not be supplied. If I were to give to you according to my riches, however, I would write out the check for $1,000--and your need would be supplied.

God has promised to supply our need according to His riches. This tells us that we cannot have a need too great for God to supply. Our Heavenly Father knows what our need is, and all His riches are made available to His own. "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). God, who gave His own beloved Son to redeem us and make us His children, will not refuse to meet our needs. God has underwritten the supply of our every need. He has given His word to that need. Christians.... listen up: Let us never question or doubt this great truth. God's unlimited supply and His unfailing word should satisfy our minds now and for all of time. God's wealth is at our disposal, and this is a provision beyond calculation. Don't impoverish yourself by refusing to take God at His word. You are His personal property, and He desires to give you His perpetual care. Believe it. Trust it. Live it.

This promise is real and its a guarantee to every age for God's people. The Apostle Paul was not referring to a future time. The promise in the Philippians text refers to the present life--to material and bodily needs as well as to spiritual needs. It speaks of "all" of them; that is, to every one of our needs. The whole context of this passage in Philippians 4 is in reference to the needs of this life. In verse 16, Paul spoke of his personal need, which was most certainly a need he had at that time. 

Read our Lord's teaching on this subject in Matthew 6:19-34. He was talking about the material needs of this life.  He used the word "money" in verse 24, a word that represents the material and mundane things of this life. And then He added, "For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things" (v. 32). Philippians 4:19 promises God's abundant supply for our daily needs in this life.

The Prerequisite... or The proverbial “Catch”

There is a final perspective that must not be overlooked. Some prerequisites must be met before we can receive God's provision.  It is not mentioned in the text itself.  You will not find it in verse 19.  But it is there in the context, particularly in verse 18. The two verses are linked with the word “but” a conjunction that ties them together.

Beginning at verse 14, the apostle reminded the Christians at Philippi of the generosity they had shown him in his need. He said, "it was good of you to share in my troubles" Paul elaborated further on this in the next verse, telling them that "not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only" (v. 15).  If we want to claim the promise and provision in verse l9 we dare not ignore these verses. There is implicit teaching here, and if we fail to pay attention to it we will in effect be rejecting the blessing. Why is it that so many believers tend to say, "I am a Christian. I believe Philippians 4:19, but it doesn't work for me"? In all probability, those Christians have not carefully examined verses 14 through 18.

The Philippian believers had shared generously with the apostle in the ministry God had entrusted to him. Their giving was not casual, nor did they give only when it was convenient for them. We know this because he reminded them in verse 16, "for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need" Paul rejoiced in their giving, not because of what it did for him, but because of what it did for them. Their giving had actually added to their account (i.e. - standing with God) (v. 17). The motive, manner, and measure of their giving had a definite and direct effect on their being able to claim the promise of verse 19. Because they were in good standing with God the Provider, this gave to them the right to claim His promise. 

All this can be seen in verse 18. Notice how Paul described their gifts: "I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God." Here the apostle was clinching his main argument, namely, that if God is not pleased with our giving, then we have no claim upon Him. The expression "a fragrant offering” in some translations - “an odor of a sweet smell [or savor]" is an Old Testament phrase for a sacrifice that pleased God. The term was used frequently in a symbolic sense. If the offering displeased God, it was a "bad smell" (Ecclesiastes 10:1), or a "stench" (Joel 2:20). But when God was pleased, it was called "a pleasing aroma" (Genesis 8:21; Exodus 29:18; Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17; 2:9; 3:5, 16; 4:31). The Christians at Philippi gave sacrificially out of a pure motive; therefore, the apostle could say to them, "My God shall supply all your need."

This is the essential lesson in our Lord's teaching to His disciples in Matthew 6:19-34: Christ talked about their need for money, food, drink, clothing, and shelter, and He assured them that their heavenly Father knew that they needed all those things (6:32). But the mere fact that God knew of their needs was not in itself a guarantee that they would receive what they needed. Such knowledge about God might relieve any of us of worry, stress, and anxiety. But merely knowing God as the omniscient provider is not sufficient.

What is the prerequisite to a valid claim upon God for our total needs? Our Lord said, "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you" (Matthew 6:33). Jesus did not speak these words to unbelievers in order to tell them how to become believers. He was telling believers how they could lay hold of all the necessities of life. "His disciples came to him: And he . . . taught them" (Matthew 5:1-2). He was telling them how to behave as people of God. They would have needs in their lives. Those needs were known to God. But if those needs were to be supplied, the disciples would have to put first things first. So He said to them, and to us, "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."  GOD’S CHURCH AND IT’S MISSION MUST COME FIRST!  

Pursue holiness. Behave rightly. This is what pleases God. It is what moves Him to supply all our needs. The more righteous we are in our behavior, the nearer we are to God's storehouse. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6). If you put God, His Kingdom (Church) and your relationship to Him first, then you have His pledge that all your needs will be supplied.  

We must understand this truth. Then we must take the initial step and pursue it each day. Don't put the other things in your life first, put God and His things first. We have no right to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" (6:11) until we "seek ... first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness" (6:33). This is the same prerequisite that the apostle Paul was talking about in Philippians 4.

The Text – Philippians 4:14-19.... Consider prayerfully as you walk with Christ and do your part in caring for God’s Church...

14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. 15 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; 16 for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need. 17 Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. 18 I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. 19 And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

THE PROBLEM OF THE HEART

Envision for a few minutes a beautifully crafted, yet old pocket watch. It looks like any other pocket watch, just much older. It has a carved case of silver and gold, delicate hands and a beautifully crafted face. It has a chain and all the requisite parts that are necessary for it to carry out its function as a reliable timepiece. 

However, there is a problem with the watch. No matter how grand its appearance...it just won't run. It's basically a piece of worthless junk in its current condition. Why? It won't run because it has a problem with its core... you might think of a watch's core... as a heart. Inside the case, there is a spring, and that spring is the heart of the watch. That spring is essential to the proper operation of the watch as a timepiece. That spring, the heart of the watch, is defective. The heart of the problem with the watch, is a problem of the heart of the watch.

Sound familiar?  Can you apply that analogy to people in God’s Church?  Unfortunately, you can.  There are plenty of people in the Church and in religious circles who are just like this watch. On the outside they look just fine. They appear to be religious and they do good things, but they cannot function as they were designed to function by their maker. They cannot truly worship God and bring glory to Him because they have a problem that cannot be readily seen by a mere surface inspection of their life. They have a problem that goes deep to their core... a problem with their heart!

Here’s the reality of this situation: No one knows who has a problem with their heart and who does not.  We cannot truly determine who is redeemed and who is merely acting religious. In fact, I would suggest that a lot of so called Christians do not even know their own heart. Some may think they are redeemed, when in fact they are still mired in sin, leaning on their own understanding and tailoring their religion to suit their self-absorbed-self-centered lifestyle.

No one really knows your heart. I suppose for some, that’s a sense of security, albeit a false one, in knowing that others – fellow Christians, cannot really determine the content of your heart, the core of who you really are.  You can fool people, but you can’t fool God.  He knows all about what is inside each one of us. He knows what makes us tick! 

Today, begins a series of articles on the Heart.  We’re going to examine what the Bible tells us about our very essence, our hearts.  We will look first to Jesus for counsel, (Matthew 15:1-20), especially His dialog with people who were suffering from heart trouble and didn't even know it.  Jesus exposed the true nature of the hearts of those who thought they were religious. As He does, He also gives us some principles by which we can examine our own heart and determine if we may have a problem with it.

This series of articles is intended to challenge our personal perspective and our spiritual security.  Don’t be disheartened... understanding who we really are, and where you are in your "walk with God" and knowing how to fix the problem of a defective heart, is a very good thing indeed.   We’ll work our way to the heart of the problem.. and discover that God has a solution for us!  

STAY TUNED for MORE next WEEK!

Envisioning the RETURN of CHRIST through Remembering and Honoring Him

We humans seem to naturally gravitate to making things complicated.  If something can be simple, our tendency is to over explain, embellish and complicate whatever it is we are dealing with.  We especially do this with Biblical things. 

 In the New Testament we should be struck by the utter simplicity that characterized life in the early churches.  While we are given a broad picture of early church life, many details or  particulars are left untouched by the inspired writers of the New Testament. That lack of detail, which fuels our over complication, is troublesome for us.  So what do we humans do with Biblical things?  From the birth of the Church on Pentecost, the simple message of the gospel and church fellowship lost its original simplicity and became enmeshed in a quagmire of ecclesiastical machinery and theological speculation... i.e. “over complication” to the nth degree!

The Lord's Supper is a case in point. There is a simplicity about this ordinance in the New Testament, albeit sketchy. Yet in post-apostolic times the remembrance meal became embedded in hierarchical church structures so that it became a mysterious ritual to be "administered" by the "ordained," and ended up being the source of endless speculation about "what happens" in the so called  "sacrament."

The evidence in the New Testament, in the book of Acts and other epistles, indicates that this remembrance meal, and the instruction which accompanied it, was a center-piece in Christian assemblies (Acts 20:7). Eating together in the "breaking of bread" and remembering the Lord in the Supper were virtually synonymous in Christian worship.  Unfortunately, many things have changed in this practice since the early days. Let's explore some basic points concerning the Lord's Supper, based on 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 and compare them with our conceptions and practices.

The Historical Structure of the Supper

First of all, it will be helpful to isolate the threefold historical structure that exists in the institution of the Supper itself. Only by holding these three perspectives in proper balance can we even hope to approach the Supper correctly.

1. Remember the Past

In the Lord's Supper we remember the past. The covenant that brings us the forgiveness of sins was ratified, or "cut," by the shedding of Christ's blood. The Lord instituted the Supper on the eve of His impending death in the context of a Passover meal. "Remembrance" itself is a covenantal word. The Israelites were often commanded to "remember" God's acts of covenant faithfulness. In the Supper, Jesus has given us an ordinance by which we continually remember that our blessings were purchased by means of a costly [highest] price.

2. Enjoy the Present

In the Lord's Supper, we enjoy the present. Jesus has brought us into fellowship with others in the new covenant. When we come together "as a body of believers," we can eat as a body in the presence of the Lord Jesus. The emphasis here is on a joyous meal, a covenant celebration. Again, in the Old Testament covenantal meals which celebrated the mighty acts of God on their behalf were to be enjoyed (Exodus 24:11). The pattern of redemptive history is that celebratory meals [remembering and honoring] follow covenant enactment.

3. Look Forward to the Future

In the Supper, we look forward to the future: "you do show the Lord's death until he comes." This ordinance is to be repeated ("as often as you do it") until Christ returns. Each time we proclaim His death in the Supper, we are also reminded that He is returning. In His death, burial and resurrection Christ was removed from us physically. The Holy Spirit now gives us Christ's presence. When He returns, our faith will become sight.

Given these three dimensions - past, present, future - it is no wonder that in the early church the Lord's Supper was "the central event in Christian worship."  Although there is overlap, we might rightly generalize and say that in the Supper our faith looks back to the cross (Rom. 3:25), our love for Jesus and the saints is kindled by the Spirit (Rom. 5:5), and our hope is stirred up as we long for His return (Heb. 9:28; 1 Cor. 13:13).

The Lord's Supper is a reminder of what Jesus did in the past, a symbol of our present relationship with Him and a promise of what he will do in the future. 

The past dimension gives the Supper its objective character - we come together to remember the definitive work of Christ. The present dimension emphasizes the Supper's social character - in order to remember His body, we must be one body (1 Cor. 10:16,17). The future dimension recognizes the tension of Christian experience - we enjoy now only the first-fruits, and long for the full harvest (Rom. 8:18,23).

The bread and wine are memorials of Jesus' death on the cross (Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:26). In the Lord's Supper, we each eat a piece of bread in remembrance of Jesus. When we drink the "fruit of the vine," we remember that Jesus' blood was shed for us, and that it signifies the new covenant. The Lord's Supper looks back to the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Jesus' death shows how much God loves us — so much that he sent his Son to die for us, so that our sins may be forgiven and we may look forward to the promise of eternal life. This is good news for us personally, although we should be deeply saddened by the enormous price that had to be paid for us.

When we remember Jesus' death, we remember that Jesus was dead for only three days. We rejoice that Jesus, by His resurrection, conquered death, and has set free all who were enslaved by a fear of death (Heb. 2:14-15). Our hopelessness can be shifted from mourning to joy (John 16:20) and the anticipation of an endless future.

Christians look back to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as the defining moment in all of human history. This is how “one who believes” escape death and the slavery of sin, and this is how “followers of Christ” are freed to serve the Lord. The Lord's Supper is a memorial of this defining moment, a turning point, in history.

The Lord's Supper also pictures our present relationship with Jesus Christ. The crucifixion has a continuing significance to all who have taken up a cross to follow Jesus. We continue to participate in his death (Rom. 6:4; Gal. 2:20; Col. 2:20) because we participate in his life (Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:6; Col. 2:13; 3:1).  We begin the journey at our baptism and we live the journey until our death or His glorious return.

Paul wrote, "Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?" (1 Cor. 10:16). With the Lord's Supper, we show that we share in Jesus Christ. We participate with Him, commune with Him, become united in Him. The Lord's Supper helps us look upward [heavenward], to Christ.

In John 6, Jesus used bread and wine to graphically illustrate our need to be spiritually nourished by him: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.... Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him" (verses 53-56). The Lord's Supper reminds us that real life is found only in Jesus Christ, with him living in us.

When we are aware that Jesus lives in us, we also pause to think what kind of home we are giving Him. What kind of life are you living?  We must allow him to change our lives so that we live the way he wants us to. Paul wrote, "A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup" (1 Cor. 11:28). The Lord's Supper helps us look inward, to examine ourselves because of the serious implications of this remembrance and the foreshadowing of His return.

As we examine ourselves, we need to look around, to other people, to see whether we are treating one another in the way that Jesus commanded. If you are united with Christ and I am united with Christ, then we are united to each other, whether we like that or not, it is Christ’s expectation that we care for one another through thick and thin. The Lord's Supper, by picturing our participation in Christ, also pictures our participation (other translations say communion or sharing or fellowship) with each other (1 John 1:3, 7).  Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 10:17, "Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf." The Lord's Supper pictures the fact that we are “one body” in Christ, “one with each other” with responsibilities toward one another.

Finally, the Lord's Supper reminds us of the future... of Jesus' return. Jesus said he would not drink the fruit of the vine again until he came in the fullness of the kingdom (Matt. 26:29; Luke 22:18; Mark 14:25). Whenever we participate, we are reminded of Jesus' promise. Paul wrote that "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1 Cor. 11:26). The Lord's Supper helps us look forward.  He is returning and He expects much from His followers upon His return.  Be prepared, be ready at all times, for He returns when we least expect it.

The Lord's Supper is rich in meaning. That is why it has been an important part of the Christian tradition throughout the centuries. Over complication has made it a lifeless ritual, done more out of habit than with meaning. Some have overreacted to the complications put upon its simplicity by stopping the celebration entirely. The better response to God, is to restore the meaning and live by its past, present and future.