2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Friends,
When I was asking the Lord to give me a message to share with you this morning, I was reminded of the time I was asked to join the arm of a fraternal organization for teenage girls. I jumped at the chance to do this at the age of 13, because it meant that I would be in on their “secrets” and get to wear pretty formal evening gowns to their meetings. I would no longer be the “geek” on the outside, or so I thought. You all know teenage girls can be cruel. If you had braces on your teeth, a less than model slim body type, and actually liked to study like I did, you were on the outside! Once I learned the “secrets,” I recognized inwardly how empty they were, but I acted like they were the most important thing in the world. The difference between my heart attitude and my outward behavior soon caught up with me. I was still the “dork,” the outsider! I didn’t understand why then, but now I thank and praise God for it.
This morning the Lord is leading me to share His thoughts about heart attitude in this series of messages on obedience. Yesterday, we looked at the mind and saw God’s mechanism to bring a person to faith, a transformation by the renewal of the mind. How gracious He is to reveal this to us! But, a head trip that never reaches the heart will never lead a person to live “in Christ.” The Lord knows this and wants us to know it too. Christ’s Parable of the Sower really demonstrates this in MT 13: 3-8 and Mark 4: 3-8. You will remember this is the story in which a farmer sows grain seed in his field. Some falls on a path where it never puts down roots; some falls where the soil is thin, so it’s roots are not deep; some falls among the thorns; and some falls on good soil where it roots deeply. Our Lord explains that the seeds that fall on the path are eaten by birds symbolizing evil. The seed that falls on shallow soil is burned by the sun and dies because it’s roots can’t sustain life. The seed that falls in the thorn bushes is choked out, the choking representing being overcome by the worries of life. Only the seed that takes root in good soil flourishes. Since the seed here is a metaphor for heart-attitude, this is very revealing. For us to bear good fruit and live “in Christ,” we must learn the Lord’s will with our minds, and it must sink down rooting firmly in our hearts.
As a Jew, I have spent a lot of time with the OT. Over and over again the Lord keeps wishing “they will know the law and it will be written on their hearts.” This message is repeated for the same reasons God repeats anything, He knows it is important for us to learn and believe. Let me mention two stories from the OT that demonstrate why one’s heart-attitude can have very far reaching consequences not just for the people immediately involved, but for people they will never even know. The first story is from Numbers 13: 25-32, the story of the 12 spies. Moses and the Jews arrived at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran (just south of the border between Canaan and Egypt). Despite the fact that God had told the Jews through Moses that they could be victorious against the Canaanites, they doubted it. It was decided that they would send 12 spies, a group that included Caleb and Joshua, over the border to assess the enemy and come back with a report. Ten of the spies lied telling the Hebrews that they would never be able to defeat the Canaanites; only two, Caleb and Joshua, told the truth. We all know that the people believed the liars and thus, had to spend 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Of the generation that was alive then, no person over the age of 20, other than Caleb and Joshua, would ever be allowed by God to enter the Promised Land. The other story is that found in Ruth 1: 16, 4-12. This is the story of a girl from Moab named Ruth who after losing her husband, pledged to her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi, “Don’t ask me to leave you! Let me go with you. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” Later, she meets with Boaz, her kindred redeemer, and marries him. Neither Ruth, nor Boaz knew it at the time, but this marriage was God’s will with extraordinary significance, because the children of this marriage are in the lineage of David, the family tree of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Imagine if Ruth’s heart-attitude had been to reject Jehovah.
Two citations reveal how our omniscient (all-knowing) God wants our heart-attitude to be. MT 7: 7-8, “Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” REV 3: 20 “Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into his house and eat with him; and, he will eat with Me.” If the thoughts of our minds, the words of our mouths, or the actions of our hands don’t match with a faithful heart, God knows this. If we are faithful, we have nothing to worry about; we can take comfort in that. If not, there is no time like the present to bring ourselves in line with God’s will. The point is that we must examine our own heart-attitude to know its condition. There is no exclusivity in this invitation, and that’s something I love about it. This invitation is for ANYONE, even if your life has been very ungodly up to the point you first are aware of it. That is why Christ forgave the harlot, spoke to the Samaritan women at the well, brought the Roman centurion to faith, and healed the lady who had bled for 12 years just for touching his garment.
If you are thinking that your circumstances represent a punishment from God, then look again. They may be a blessing instead. If they bring you to come to that door marked faith and to making a decision as to whether you will walk through it, then be joyous that through the death of His Son on the cross and His grace (unmerited favor), this opportunity is here. God loves you and wants you to walk boldly in to a life “in Christ.” Long ago, He led king Solomon to write in Proverbs 10: 23 “The hopes of good men lead to joy, but wicked people can look forward to nothing.” Nothing here is being cast in the lake of fire and sulfur wide awake to suffer for eternity. God doesn’t want any of us to suffer that fate, because He loves us so much. I hope you will find the comfort in this fact that I do. I hope you will understand how important to our loving Abba the heart-attitude we have really is.
PRAYER: O Heavenly Father, you are to be praised and thanked for the sacrifice of Your only Son on the cross, so that we can be saved. Help us to realize how crucial our heart-attitude is. If it needs adjustments to conform to Your will, then help us to make those adjustments. We stand before You ready to accept Your invitation to come to real faith and to live “in Christ.” In His name, Amen.
Love and Prayers Coming Your Way in Christ,
Lynn