Heart Matters

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  Hebrews 4:16

Do you recall being a little kid and breaking something that was of great value to your mom or dad? If so, do you remember how you handled it? Did you go and straight away tell your parents what you’d done?  I’m willing to bet (figuratively that is) that you allowed your overwhelming feelings of fear and shame to either prolong or prevent you altogether from coming clean. The probable threat of receiving a stern reprimand along with a dreaded spanking or punishment caused most of us kids to opt for trying to cover our transgression.  Simply put, we felt compelled to give it our very best effort to successfully stall facing the music for as long as possible.  If we destroyed mom’s favorite vase and she wasn’t around when it happened we might be tempted to: hide the broken pieces behind a pillow; throw all the shards away and bury them deep within the trash can; or just leave the mess right there and choose to act oblivious as to what led to it’s demise.  When that moment of truth would arrive and mom would question/interrogate us about the whereabouts of her vase, overall, we’d probably try to get away with convincing her we had nothing to do with it! At the time, getting away with it would matter more to us than her right to know the truth. As she’d strive with us to find out what happened, we’d put on our best performance to come across as being innocent, and we’d straight out lie. When she finally seemed to surrender to the fact that she had no evidence to incriminate us, we’d walk away basking in the glory of our victory, relieved having thought we escaped our sentence. That is until…..

Continue reading The Throne of Grace →

Heart Matters

“Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!” But the LORD said, “You have pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.  And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left-and much livestock?”  Jonah 4:9-11

Talk about someone with anger issues!  I can’t get over how bad Jonah was!  This dude was so stubborn and so strong-willed but ultimately he surrendered to God.  What I think I love most about this book in the Bible is that although Jonah is running from and therefore rebelling against God, he always seemed to keep it real with God.  When we read this book it doesn’t take long to see that for Jonah-the struggle is real!  Simply put, he didn’t like what God had called him to, so much so, he chose to disobey his call and face the consequences instead. Jonah has to be one of the most stubborn saints recorded in scripture.  His displeasure and disgust regarding his assignment was so strong within him he seemed more willing to fall into a raging sea, than to fall in line with God’s will. For those of you who haven’t read it yet (what are you waiting for?!), I’ll summarize for you.

Continue reading “A Jonah Spirit” →

Heart Matters

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”  Hebrews 12:1

If you’ve been a believer for any length of time, I’m sure you can do a quick inventory and easily identify the “sin which so easily ensnares” you. You know, that area of your life you’ve determined to be on guard against so as to not fall back into it once again. Yet, as soon as the opportunity sets itself up for it, you find yourself right back there, in that same familiar place seeking a tinge of comfort and a temporary reprieve from whatever’s begun troubling you. It usually happens in a whirlwind, it gets a hold of you, encapsulates and then slams you down, before you even know what’s hit you. The brutality of the force of the impact is actually what knocks you back to your senses.  You can’t understand how it happened so quickly, how you fell for it once again. That familiar place, where you were determined not to end up again, “that sin which so easily entangles you,” has called to you and captured you once more. That familiar place, the “home” the old you used to live in the one you thought you left way back in your past, follows closely behind you with its doors open, releasing sweet aromas hoping to tempt you (when the time comes) to return and once again seek refuge there. Like the delicious candy coated house described in Hansel and Gretel it seems irresistible but if you enter in you’ll have to fight to get out. Eventually we’ll realize that it’s not a home but a cave and the things we’ve given ourselves over to, has now began to take over us-leaving us feeling empty, destitute and ashamed of where we’ve allowed ourselves to end up.

The familiar places find us because of our spiritual frailty and our fleshly fondness of that particular sin. We’re wrecked so easily by it because in some way we’re still so very vulnerable to it. It’s one of those areas in which something has been deeply embedded and therefore is being removed bit by bit every time a piece of it breaks through the surface and exposes itself. While there are some things the Lord removes from us in one clean swipe, other things He takes us through a process delivering us over time, as often as we depend on Him.  As sure as I am that you can quickly identify the place you’re prone to fall into sin, I’m just as sure you can easily pull up all the hard lessons (and consequences) the Lord has used to encourage you to lay that sin aside altogether.  Identifying it is easy if we’re willing to be honest with ourselves.  Like Dr. Tony Evans likes to say “tell the truth, shame the devil.” LOL  Anyway the reason I’m even going there with you is because of the above scripture. There’s a lot that’s at stake!

Continue reading Familiar Places →

Heart Matters

“From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”  John 6: 66-67

John chapter 6 begins with Jesus feeding five thousand.  A huge crowd was following Him because “they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.” (verse 2)     Like the world today, there were people who were broken, hurting, diseased-in need of healing. When they saw Jesus and the miracles He performed they began to hope.  HE had something they wanted.  They had heard of how He healed the sick, caused the lame to walk, and turned water into wine.  And now they were about to simultaneously witness and experience together what He could do as He miraculously fed them out in the middle of now where until they had their fill. Jesus fed over five thousand people by multiplying just five barley loaves and two small fish.  Moved by His power and ability to provide they declare that He “is truly the Prophet who is to come into this world” (verse 14).  They were so enamored by what had taken place they decided they’d try to make Him their king.

Why? Was it really because they believed their long awaited Messiah had come?  They were ready to appoint and acknowledge Him as their ruler.  Was it because they realized He was The Bread of Life or was it because of all that bread He had just fed them?  I’m going with the latter.  They were willing to minimize and overlook the arrival of the person of Christ for the prosperity they felt He could offer them.  As the big picture unfolded right before their eyes they missed it because they were squinting on the crumbs.  Sounds familiar?

Continue reading Believers or Receivers? →