Tag Archives: heart

SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS…TREASURES ON EARTH – 4a

Bible Study, ,

Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

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We have learned, so far, that God’s people are His treasure. He created us in His image. Humans are the only creatures on earth that resemble God, have fellowship with Him and are His partners in managing the earth and administering His kingdom on earth through prayer. 

The Father redeemed the human race from self-destruction through the Son. The Spirit lives in those who believe in Jesus to transforms us into the image and likeness of the Son. He leads us to know Jesus and to do the Father’s will on earth. 

God has also given us a treasure to guard and to guide us on our journey through life. Jesus came from the Father armed with grace and truth. Grace provides the strength to overcome the obstacles we face on our journey, and truth renews our minds to believe what God has said, not what the world says. 

The resources we need to live under a corrupt world system with honesty, integrity and by faith are part of the treasure God has provided for His children. He knows what we need. He gives us what we need and some to share with others so that we live together in a shared life of fellowship and caring. 

Since we are in training for the life to come, what we do with our treasure now is one of the greatest tests of stewardship, faithfulness, and obedience to Jesus we will ever face. How we fair in this test in our lives here before we relocate to eternity, will determine our role in God’s eternal

Kingdom.  

““Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭16‬:‭10‬-‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

There we have it! Our use of money, not our doctrine or even our faith in Jesus or our love for each other, will determine how and where we serve in the life to come. 

Jesus knew that the way we handle our money will always be the acid test…

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭6‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…capturing the hearts of even God’s own children. 

Money is not only the currency that drives the world and its systems. It is also the seat of demonic control where and when people have submitted to its power. Jesus used the word, “mammon” rather than “money”, to indicate that there is a demonic influence behind the greed that holds people captive. His own experience on earth was that of the spiritual leaders…and even one of His own disciples…controlled by avarice, the demonic power of money. 

Jesus had much to say about money, teaching and warning His disciples to beware of its power and to be faithful in its use. In Matthew 6, He taught two great principals to guide us in our attitude to and use of money. 

The first principle…your heart will follow your treasure. 

““Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves I’ll follow do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭19‬-‭21‬, ‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If your treasure is hoarded in an earthly “treasury”, to be used exclusively for selfish purposes, your wealth is in danger of being corrupted or lost in the failure of worldly systems. 

If instead, you use at least part of your wealth to benefit and bless others, your worldly resources become a part of God’s heavenly treasury. You can make withdrawals by faith as needed when you participate in the life of God’s kingdom by sharing your resources on earth. 

“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭33‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The problem with being preoccupied with money, collecting and hoarding it, or lacking it, because our trust is in money and not in our Father’s faithfulness to His promises, is the issue of worry. Worry cancels trust, worry enslaves, and worry changes our focus.

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? …Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?…“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭25‬, ‭27‬, ‭31‬ ‭NLT‬‬

When our focus is on money, not on the Father, our heart will be stuck in the wrong place and captured by the wrong preoccupation…

To be continued…

MARK’S GOSPEL…LOVE AND OBEDIENCE – 29

Bible Study, ,

Mark 12:28-34 NIV

“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” 

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.”

Once again, Jesus was on the witness stand! The judge and jury, His perpetual opponents, the religious leaders, were on His case from morning until night, trying to catch Him unawares.  They were waiting for Him, in an unguarded moment, to incriminate Himself by His words. One word out of place would be enough to destroy Him. 

So, they schemed, they plotted, they questioned Him on every subject that could get Him into trouble. Taxes to Caesar was a hot potato! What about marriage in heaven?…Then, the greatest commandment.  If He was parading the idea that He was the Son of God, what, to Him, was the greatest commandment? Where did He fit in?

Jesus unerringly quoted the Shama, Israel’s declaration of faith. To be sure, without actually saying so, He is an integral part of “the Lord is one”, since He is of the one God in three persons. 

The command to love God wholly and completely is, however, part of the Mosaic Covenant that Israel found impossible to obey. Only one, Jesus Himself, ever and fully obeyed this commandment as He did every other commandment that constituted perfect righteousness according to the law. He alone was the only human ever qualified to stand in the presence of the Father as fully righteous by His obedience to the law. 

So, what Jesus accurately quoted as the greatest commandment,  and its companion, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” was the summary of all 613 commandments of the Old Covenant. What we, as participants in the New Covenant need to understand that this commandment, as all-encompassing as it was, became obsolete with all the other laws of the Mosaic Covenant. 

“For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.” 

…By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭8‬:‭7‬-‭8‬, ‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Before you argue with me about the eternal nature of this commandment, let me assure you that Jesus introduced His “new commandment” replacement for this law. 

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.””

‭‭John‬ ‭13‬:‭34‬-‭35‬ ‭NIV‬‬

And…in summary, the greatest commandment of the New Covenant…

“And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭3‬:‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Apostle Paul confirms John’s words…

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭13‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Our love to Jesus is only real if and when we obey His commandments…

“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…and, again…

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters…Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬, ‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God’s Word is simple and clear. The greatest commandment in the New Covenant is to love one another in deed and truth. Only in this way can we truly show our love for Jesus because all who believe in Him are “in Him” as members of His body. It is, therefore, impossible to love Him without loving His body. 

To the teacher of the law who asked Jesus the question, “ What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus’ reply was given in context…not the all-encompassing requirement of the Old Covenant. It was part of that which would be replaced by His new commandment to love one another, which the Jewish religious leaders failed to do. 

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THINGS THAT DAVID SAID – 3

Devotion, ,

HE KNOWS ME!

When I consider some of the many things David said, my mind jumps to Psalm 139, one of the most profound of all his songs, beginning…

Psalms 139:1 NLT
[1] “O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.”

This truth is something we could do well to weave into the very fabric of our everyday lives. God knows me!
This truth can either scare the living daylights out of us or bring comfort and hope in every situation, depending on the way we view God…Judge or Saviour?

The truth is…God knows us! David breaks this thought down to tiny details…thoughts, attitudes, motives, intentions, as well as actions and deeds, and even our coming and going.

The writer to the Hebrews expresses this thought like this…

Hebrews 4:12-13 NLT
[12], “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. [13] Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.”

A story in John’s gospel perfectly illustrates this truth.

The Pharisees, ever out to push Jesus into some infringement of the law, set up a trap. They staged an adultery, no doubt using one of their own, to force Jesus to make a choice, the law or mercy, knowing that He would lean towards mercy.

Throwing the guilty woman down before Him, they demanded His response, according to the law. Caught in the act! Guilty! Stoning was the penalty.

Jesus was unfazed. He said nothing. Instead, He knelt down and wrote in the dust. These foolish Pharisees didn’t reckon on His perfect knowledge of the law. They were too busy judging Him to judge themselves.

Remember the Scripture, the one about the Word of God exposing hearts? Jesus, the Word of God, was living out the Word that smacked them in the middle of their guilty foreheads.

Jeremiah 17:9-10, 13 NIV
[9] “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? [10] “I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”…
[13] Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be WRITTEN IN THE DUST because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.”

These same men, these religious leaders, had just sent temple guards to arrest Jesus.

John 7:32 NIV
[32] “The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.”

The guards returned empty handed because they were so impressed by Jesus’ words…

John 7:37-38 NIV
[37] “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. [38] Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

John 7:45-46 NIV
[45] “Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” [46] “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.”

The Pharisees’ contemptuous response…

John 7:47-49 NIV
[47] “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. [48] “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? [49] No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

… meant only one glaring thing…

Jeremiah 2:13 NIV
[13] “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

What did Jesus write in the dust?

Their names!!! He knew their names! How did He know their names? Only God knows all things! So… He must be God!

The guilty Pharisees fled the scene, leaving Jesus to show the woman mercy because there was no one to witness against her.

Does God’s perfect knowledge of you, (me, us), make you feel uncomfortable, or give you reassurance that you are okay with each other, God and you, because you hide nothing from Him, as if you could!

How do we respond to this discomforting disclosure? Again, David leads the way.

Psalms 139:23-24 NIV
[23] “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. [24] See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

There is only one way to play open cards with God… to be transparent. Since God already knows, we can hide nothing from Him. However, already He knows what we still need to know, hence the prayer, “Show me, God, who I really am.”

Only this kind of honesty, and the willingness to take responsibility for who I really am, will keep the lines of communication open between me and God, and exchange my weakness for His grace.

A truly life-saving way to live life, indeed!

SO SIMPLE, REALLY

Bible Study, ,

SO SIMPLE, REALLY

“Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: ‘The person who does these things will live by them.’ But the righteousness that is by faith says: ‘Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:5-9.

Why do we humans make complicated what God has made so simple that even a child can understand?

Righteousness which is achieved by keeping God’s law, takes hard work, is uncertain, and in the end is unattainable. No matter how hard anyone tries, he has already blotted his copybook because he was born with a sinful nature. He is not a sinner because he sins; he sins because he is a sinner.

Where does that leave us? Judged, condemned and sentenced to death! But God threw us a lifeline – Jesus. And Paul says, “You don’t have to try to find Him in heaven or in the grave. All you have to do is speak His name – Jesus, Lord – because He is alive and as near to you as your breath.”

“For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess faith and are saved. As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'” Romans 10:10-13.

Can it be any simpler? For the Jew and for the Gentile it is exactly the same. It takes no more than the conviction of the heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and  confession of the mouth that God made Him “both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36) to catapult us into the blessings and benefits of a new life in Christ Jesus.

God is not asking for an emotional “meltdown” before we can experience His salvation. The realisation that Jesus is alive and that He is the Son of God, is all that is needed to change the direction of our lives and secure our destiny as sons and daughters of God. Repentance may or may not be the result of an emotional storm, but it does require a change of mind. All God asks of us is that we understand what He has done for us, and receive it by believing it in our hearts and confessing it with our mouths.

In that one simple act of faith and confession, God sets us on the path to recovery; He begins the process of restoring us to whom He designed us to be in the beginning, sons and daughters created in His image to be one with him; and what He made us to do – to manage the earth in partnership with Him as His vice-regents.

He is doing what the Hebrews called tekkun olam – fixing everything that was broken, to the horizon, i.e., into eternity. What a hope! And He does this through His representative -Jesus. This is salvation – it is not a free ticket to heaven when we die; that is only one of the benefits and the end result of the process which begins when we believe and receive Jesus as Lord. Salvation is the journey to wholeness, back to where the human race began before sin intruded and interrupted God’s plan.

God has already determined, from before the foundation of the world, what we shall be and what we shall do as members of His forever family. He has an inheritance for us – our allotted possession which is ours by right as His sons and daughters. What is our inheritance and how do we possess it? According to Peter, our inheritance is His divine nature which we possess through His very great and precious promises.

“His divine power had given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises so that, through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” 2 Peter 1:3, 4.

And all this by simply believing and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord!

Acknowledgement

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THE GOSPEL OF MARK – THE PROBLEM OF THE HEART

Bible Study, ,

THE PROBLEM OF THE HEART 

17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:17-23

The question the disciples asked Jesus shows how deeply they were influenced by the thinking of their day. Fortunately, they had the sense to ask Jesus for an explanation that put the issue of dietary practices into its correct perspective. Perhaps this was also a revelation for Roman readers because their pagan religion was expressed in many ungodly practices which defiled them.

Jesus went straight to the “heart” of man’s problem – the problem of the heart. There is nothing we have to do to introduce pollution into us because it is already there, in the heart, awaiting the opportunity to expose itself to the outside world through words, actions and attitudes. All it needs is a little prompting through circumstances or through someone else’s words or actions.

The Pharisees, who were so meticulous about their observance of dietary taboos, were a case in point. Their over-scrupulous consciences about external cleanliness made them oblivious to the real issues that showed up the condition of their hearts: arrogance, pride, contempt for those who were not like them, hatred, murderous thoughts etc. They were too busy polishing the outside of the cup to acknowledge the condition of their hearts. Rather than take note of the issues Jesus was exposing in them, they chose to silence Him and hold on to their guilt.

What should our response be to the situations that cause pollution of our hearts to be exposed? The Bible is full of examples of wrong responses that only exacerbated the problem instead of dealing with it. How often, in the Old Testament, God’s faithful prophets exposed sin, only to pay the ultimate price for their obedience to God.

One man was different – David. Nathan’s exposure of his guilt brought David’s humility to the surface. “I have sinned,” he said. What a different place even the church might be in if God’s people recognised God’s grace in exposing our polluted hearts. The humiliation of exposure produces the peace of forgiveness and freedom from guilt. Instead, we hold on to our guilt, and punish others with our cruel words and deeds rather than eat humble pie by admitting, “I have sinned.”