Category Archives: Christ Life

Offended

Proverbs 18:17 “The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.”

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It is unwise to make judgements based on a one sided story and limited facts. Be careful about believing everything heard or read. There’s always two sides to every situation, sometimes more.

When I don’t bother to obtain all the facts, assumptions are made founded on skewed perspectives. Relationships can be damaged, sometimes severely.

Picking up an offense that has nothing to do with me, based solely on what one person has said is a waste of my time, energy and emotion. It’s not worth it. I don’t need more drama in life than I already create on my own!

The Bible calls this gossip and also calls me foolish for partaking.

Jesus said offenses will come (Luke 17:1) and tomorrow has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:34) so why borrow offense from others?

If I’m not part of the solution, I shouldn’t make it my problem.

Quietly pray for all involved and move on.

Let God and the people concerned sort it out.

Proverbs 10:18 ESV “..whoever utters slander is a fool.”

Proverbs 17:9 ESV “Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.”

Matthew 18:15-18 (MSG) “If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.”

Lessons From My Garden~Weeds & Bees

Observations made as I worked in my garden today:


Weeds don’t need any help to grow. 

They don’t need fussing over, fertilizing, pruning…most of the time they don’t even need water, but the plants providing the most beauty and benefit need diligent care and some Miracle Gro.


Lesson 1~God speaking: Check your heart often, Diane.  Weeds sprout up from nowhere and everywhere. Weeds of bitterness, resentment, anger, envy, gossip, lethargy, disillusionment…so many! 

They grow fast and are hard to pull out once firmly rooted. Get rid of them quick before they take over your universe!

Give attention to your heart’s essential growth. Fruits of love, joy, peace, kindness, lo-o-o-o-n-n-ng suffering, patience, goodness, self control…so many! 

They grow slowly but once rooted, are firmly planted. Keep them fed and watered until they take over your universe.

Me: “Yes Lord, You are my Miracle Gro and I submit to your loving cultivation.”

 

A bee buzzed in angry circles as I fertilized a plant where he was collecting nectar. 

I told him (Yes, I talk out loud to creatures and plants. So now you all KNOW I’m crazy), “Listen up Mr. Bee, I’m the one who put this flower here. If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t be enjoying it, so don’t get mad at me. There’s plenty more around here, so move it!”

Lesson 2~God speaking: “Diane, everything you have comes from Me, so don’t get mad at Me when I’m trying to make improvements in your life. Some may come disguised in perplexity and inconvenience but don’t be like that bee.”

Me: “OK Lord, got it. But you’ll probably have to remind me again tomorrow. I might forget. “

God speaking: “Well, just come back out to your garden. You’ll remember.”

Didn’t know a garden can teach you things?

Go plant one and listen.

Independence Day

Like all of us, my son Jonathan, craves independence – freedom.

How do I know this? 

Well, first of all I know my son. I’m with him more than anyone else. But the most convincing evidence is observance of his actions and reactions.

When he wanders off, he’s not running away (like the police who help us find him believe), he’s relishing the idea of going someplace on his own, without being followed or watched.

In a restaurant, he longs to make his own food choices and scowls if suggestions are made. Occasionally he refuses to sit with us and moves to another table. I’m not offended. I understand he wants his own space.

At the store, he chooses items he likes, with no regard for cost and becomes very aggravated when asked to put something back.

He likes to stay up all night so he can have freedom to do whatever he wishes, without someone telling him to shower, shave, take his meds, put on clean clothes and a myriad of other directives that steer him toward a bit of responsibility.

If rushed, he balks, often freezing in place, because he wants the freedom to do it in his time and his way.

Jon has few choices in life. To give my son a small taste of the independence he craves, I have become incredibly adept at appearing to be uninterested in what he’s doing while constantly watching or following from a distance. Sometimes I am called out for this by strangers in public places, who don’t understand. They accuse me of being inattentive.

Maybe they don’t understand that true love recognizes the unspoken needs and desires of another and makes allowances for them.

What Jon doesn’t comprehend is this; freedom is not a license to do what we want whenever we want. It is a privilege that directs responsible living. 

We are not given liberty for selfish means with no thought of the ripple effect our actions have on others. Freedom, lived out properly, sets us and everyone within our sphere of influence, free.

Choice is a wonderful thing but it also has consequences, not just for us but also for those around us. When Jon chooses to not take his meds and is sick, not be ready on time for an appointment, not be safe by wandering away, it affects us in colossal ways. 

His desire for independence does not encompass the enormity of the consequences created for those who love and care for him.

From the very beginning we understand God created man with options and never forces us to do, say or choose the right thing. He watches and follows us from a distance if need be, His heart bursting with love and concern for our well-being. 

We may push Him aside or away, but He is always waiting in the wings for us to choose righteousness, to choose what is best, to choose Him.

And when we wander far away, He recklessly searches for the one lost sheep, gathers it in His arms and brings it back to the safety of the sheepfold.

I’m not certain my son will ever understand how much he needs me, a flawed and often inadequate mother. 

I, however, never want to forget how much I need my perfect, powerful, loving God. My only hope for true freedom lies in knowing Him. 

He gave up everything, laid down His life so I could.

So you could.

Don’t see Him? Don’t feel Him? Turn around and look. 

There He is..watching and waiting from a distance, just like I do with my Jon.

He never takes His eyes (or His love) off of you. 

He is waiting to set you free.

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm,then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit,and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Before It’s Gone Too Far

For the first time since it was built in the late 1990’s, our house can be seen from the street. Our home, which backs up to a lake and was, until recently, surrounded by trees and Florida’s wild palmetto and scrub brush in front and on both sides, has had a seclusion invasion.

A new house is being built on the lot next door. All the trees and brush on the north side of our home have been leveled and we are adjusting to the fact that very soon, a view of looming walls will be replacing nature on our northern horizon.

Our quiet acre of paradise has been invaded by backhoes, construction trucks and crews of workers wielding high decibel power tools and playing loud music, while attempting to converse over top of all the racket they are making. 

Two weeks ago we went outside after a rain and noticed water runoff, beginning near the side of the newly constructed foundation and flowing down, through the mulched area that stretches along the edge of our driveway between the two properties. A tiny rivulet of scooped out earth had formed and washed some of the bark mulch into our driveway gravel.

We pointed this out to the general contractor who promised to take care of it right away. 

He didn’t. 

A few days later after another hard rain, the first stream was larger and several more had formed. Now mulch and sand was washing down the driveway all over the cemented section in front of the garage. While I cleaned it up, the boss man looked it over and said he’d take care of it right away. 

He didn’t.

Several evenings ago we had one of the hardest rains I’ve seen in a while; one of those monsoon varieties with continuous thunder, lightning and a wide open fire hydrant sky, pouring torrential waters down from the heavens for well over an hour. It was one of Florida’s crazy, hazy summer afternoon rain storms.

When we went outside the next morning, an entire section of mulch and gravel and about one inch of sand that makes up the lower part of our driveway and its landscaped edge was washed up nearly to the garage door and under our cars. 

It was a mess. And I was upset!

I won’t bore you with the all the details of what happened next.  I will say that as soon as I went to the shed for a shovel and started digging the trench myself (that had been repeatedly promised) between our property and the construction site, reinforcements were quickly called in to help clean up the mess in our driveway. It took five of us about four hours to shovel, rake, sweep and pressure wash the driveway back to its original state. 

Apparently a fence company has been called and is supposed to come ASAP to put up a silt barrier. It will be buried eight inches under the ground along the edge of our property to stop the run-off and erosion into our driveway. I’m praying they come before it rains again.

I had a light bulb moment for my own heart, when I commented to Mike yesterday, “We all could have been spared four hours worth of sweaty, back breaking work in the hot sun if this had been taken care of back at the onset of the problem.”  

Hebrews 12:1 talks about the besetting sins that hinder us from finishing the course of our life; Song of Solomon 2:15, about the “little foxes that spoil the vine”; Hebrews 12:15, about the root of bitterness that left unchecked, grows until it defiles not only me, but many others; James 1:15 lays out the course of sin from a seemingly petty initial desire to conception and the end result.

It’s impossible to contain a river once it overflows. When I hand the destructive forces of my life over to God at their beginnings, while they’re still small, it allows for the eradication of problems that eventually swell out of control and run loose all over everything and everyone. I need to deal with my stuff before it’s gone too far. 

Inside the human condition, every tiny trickle and tributary left without God’s blueprinted boundary is potentially a mess in the making; a river of self destruction that flows farther and wider than we ever intended. Yes, thank God. He can restore. He can put us back together. He can repair the breach and clean up our mess, but it’s so much better if we just don’t go there at all.

May God help me commit every tiny area of my heart to His work of redemption, so the only thing flowing outward is the living waters of a life lived in Jesus. 

I pray every day what gushes from within me and all over you, is more and more of Him and whole lot less of me.

John 7:38 (ESV) Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

“A little thorn may cause much suffering. A little cloud may hide the sun. Little foxes spoil the vines; and little sins do mischief to the tender heart.”  ~Charles Spurgeon~

“Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.”  ~14thCentury Proverb~

Messing With Us

Until Jesus arrived on the scene, the Israelites had been doing religion the same way for almost 1400 years, since the time of Moses.  After Jesus came, the Jewish Christ followers experienced a continuous state of surprise with just about every tradition, law, regulation, doctrine and theology they had known and lived. Jesus turned the way they believed; all their ceremonial and gotta’-do-it-this-way-every-time thinking, completely upside down. 

In the following passage in the Book of Acts, not only was the Gospel opened up to the Gentiles, but these ‘uncircumcised heathens’ also received the gift of the Holy Spirit immediately, the moment they believed in Jesus, then following, were baptized in water. 

I’m thinking God did that for Peter’s sake so he would be convinced the Good News wasn’t just for the him and the Jewish folk, but for all. Reading on to chapter eleven, we see that initially, the other apostles, leaders and believers back in Judea and Jerusalem had issue with the Gentile’s joining their Christ ‘club’. Throughout their nation’s long history, they were so accustomed to everything of God being about them, that it was difficult for them to let anyone else in.

Acts 10: 44-48 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. 

In many church circles we like to think the order of a person’s faith in Christ has to follow a certain path: repent, be water baptized then filled with the Holy Spirit. We see from this account in Acts that’s not necessarily so. We Christian types like to ‘order’ so many of our beliefs and often hang a sign on the door of the building to announce them, so we can be set apart from (or above?) all the rest who don’t see it our way.  

How often do we miss something new and amazing God wants to do because we’re stuck in old patterns and a certain point of view? 

When God messes things up, it messes us up. We want to figure Him out, stuff everything He does into a construct so we can formulate it to work the same way every time, maintaining a spirituality that is comfy-cozy and doesn’t our rock our proverbial boat too much.

But we can’t slot God into an algebraic equation. He is GOD – Big, Powerful, Sovereign, Redemptive, Creative. He can do a thing one way today and come up with a zillion other unimaginable ways for it to happen (or not) the next time. 

I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been asking God to break down my “It has to be this way” mindset. I want to put aside preconceived ideas, boring, stuck-in-a-rut thinking and open my heart and mind to a God who is able to do and be, far more than I am able to imagine; allowing Him always to surprise me.

I’ve messed myself up plenty. If I’m going to be messed up, I want to be wrecked for Him, ’cause He’s the only one who knows how to mess me up properly and put me back together completely!

Bring It All

I had a dream the other night. Jesus was calling to us, all of humanity. 

Gently imploring, “Come to me. Bring me whatever you have, whatever you are. I love you exactly as you are so come.”

I was in line with a great crowd of people who were moving toward Him. Some were holding a thimble full of their stuff, some were pushing a wheel barrow full and others were driving dump trucks!

It didn’t matter to us or Him, what any of us had or the size of it, we were just joyfully relieved to be giving it all to Jesus, the good, bad and indifferent parts of us. He was willingly receiving it all and was pleased.

Then I woke up.
I’m thinking the point of my dream is this:
God isn’t messed up or surprised by who you are, where you’ve come from or what you’ve done. He just wants you to come to Him. Lay everything down before Him and allow His love to fill you, bless you and change you. 

He’s calling my name and yours. He’s patiently waiting.

So what are we waiting for?

Quit looking at my stuff and I’ll quit looking at yours. 
Let’s just go – together.
Matthew 11:28-30  “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”(MSG)

Broken Things

There’s a program I like to watch on TV about competing teams of interior designers who are given several hundred dollars for the challenge of choosing a few flea market items to refurbish and re-sell at the same flea market for a profit. The team that sells their re-designs for the highest earnings receives all the money at the show’s end. 

The designers choose objects that are broken, worn, damaged, old, ugly and possibly considered useless. They possess a passion for creative imagination and an eye for seeing something that is not yet there, turning discarded stuff into something people want. They restore value.

Just before Jesus began his ministry, scripture tells us, he was in the synagogue reading aloud this portion of Isaiah 61:

“And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

 “Then,” Luke 4:16-21 says, “He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus came to this planet wrapped in an earth suit – flesh and blood- to restore beauty and value to a broken world; to take us back where we have always belonged, into an intimate relationship with God our Father.

As Master Designer, God lovingly sorts through the scrap heap of our lives and sees us for who we can be rather than what we are. He sets our life on a path of repair and redemption the minute we yield everything we have and are to Him.

Feeling ugly, tattered, damaged, and useless? Though you may see yourself as such, your value has never once diminished inside God’s plan. He proved His obsession for your restoration by paying for it with the life of His Son. 

Are there pieces and parts of you that are shattered, incomplete or in disrepair? Broken things are God’s specialty. 

Surrender all your brokenness to God and allow Him a divine re-design. The process may be inconvenient and even painful at times, but endure it with gladness. 

When God revalues a broken thing the results are priceless and beyond astounding, because that is exactly what you are in His eyes!

Psalm 147:3 “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

Philippians 1:3 & 6 “I thank my God every time I remember you… being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”


Dead Right!


King David’s relationship with his son Absalom, had been strained for several years, after Absalom killed his half brother Amnon (2 Samuel 13). And now, in 2 Samuel 15, we find David and a large group of loyal followers leaving Jerusalem when the king receives word that his son has launched a rebellion and is on his way to the city to overtake the throne. Once again David is running for his life, this time from his own child (2 Samuel 15-18).

After Absalom arrives in Jerusalem and discovers his father is gone, Absalom begins to plot how to find and kill him.  One of David’s trusted advisors, Hushai, has stayed behind under the pretense of switching allegiance to Absalom, but undercover, he is relaying Absalom’s intentions and actions as they unfold, to David, by messenger. 

Ahithophel, Absalom’s top chosen advisor, recommends rallying troops to go after David immediately, but after Absalom listens to Hushai’s counsel, he decides to follow his plan instead.  After all, Hushai has been a close and trusted friend of King David and would have knowledge of the King that no one else does and Absalom, at this point, has no indication to distrust Hushai’s intentions.

Behind the scene, God is using Hushai to reverse Ahithophel’s strategy (which actually was the best one for defeating David) to bring disaster down on King David’s rebellious son, Absalom.

How it all ends is not the most important point of this drama. Let’s spotlight on this scripture for a minute – 2 Samuel 17:23:

“When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out for his house in his hometown. He put his house in order and then hanged himself. So he died and was buried in his father’s tomb.”(NLT)

Wow! When I read this I had to stop and consider, how many times in my own life, would I rather been dead than have my opinion rejected, ignored, overlooked? Maybe not literally dead, but the, “You don’t like what I believe or say so I’m going to pack myself up and cut myself off from you and anyone else who does not value what I think,” kind of dead. 

This mindset is a growing norm in our society. People are polarizing around issues of government, politics, religion, ethics, morals, lifestyles and behavior. Everyone wants to be heard, be right, and all who disagree, on either side of the divide, are considered intolerant, hateful and narrow minded. It’s an all out, “I’m right and you’re wrong,” continuous brawl!

Many years ago, Mike went to visit a church member who was in a mental ward. As this guy shared his plight, he confessed there were things in his past he couldn’t let go of because he was right and “those people” were wrong. Mike asked him, “Would you rather get out of here or be right?” The man’s reply was, “I’d rather be right.” That man could still be in that psyche ward; maybe he died in there for all we know. Sometimes there’s a high price for always needing to be right.

Back in the narrative of 2 Samuel – Absalom thought he had a right to the crown but he died in the war that ensued as he tried to escape from some of David’s men that came upon him. They found Absalom hanging by his long, thick hair that tangled in a fat tree branch after his mule kept going and left him dangling there. And his big-ego counselor, Ahithophel, needed to be right so much, that he hanged himself all because his opinion went unheeded!

The only one really in the right here was David, who had already learned the hard way that being so is not more important than being king, being cast from God’s presence or falling out of relationship with a son or friend. Just a read through the Psalms of David allows us to see how he experienced the lessons of pride, humility, exaltation, brokenness, reliance upon self or trust in God. 

Jesus laid down his rights to be right and died for us. Before doing so, He told us to love one another as He loved us (1 John 3:16). That’s a colossal assignment

When being right and having the last word becomes more important than relationships with people, God, or living a life of peace and contentment, serious trouble is brewing.

Don’t get ‘hung up’ on always being right. I’m painfully and slowly learning it’s better to humbly die to self, than be dead right; cut off from the Spirit of God in my life and those I am called to love and serve! 

That’s way too great a price and one I’m not willing to pay, anymore.

Psalm 34:18  The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite [humble] spirit.

Philippians 2:3-8  Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

John 10:17-18  The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life…No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

Contentment


Most of the church staff is away at a leadership conference. I wanted to go but I’m home with my son instead. So now I have a choice to make. I can be sad, mad, annoyed, feel left out and left behind OR I can see a day ahead full of amazing promise and purpose.

It’s a beautiful Florida day and my garden and flower beds are bursting with blooms in the spring sunshine. The lake behind our property is sparkling like diamonds in the sun and the ducks, egrets, osprey, sand cranes and song birds are calling to each other. The little Anole lizards are sunning themselves on our pool screen, the males showing off for the gals, with amusing pushups and throat puffing.

I’ve already had time to exercise, get into God’s word and spend some time in conversation with Him. I have things swirling in my head that need to be written, several sewing projects to complete, a stack of books to read, some things that need to be organized and a few new recipes I’d like to try. There’s laundry to do, floors to sweep, bathrooms to clean and when Jon decides to come out of his room I will need to spend a few hours convincing him to get in the shower. There’s plenty to do, much to be thankful for and no time to pout or be miserable about what could or should be on such a gorgeous day!

I’ve come to realize that God sometimes calls us down a different path than those around us. Our life may not look like everyone else but He still has a plan and a purpose in it. We may not understand all the whys or hows, but His sufficient grace is great enough to change our heart from one that whines, kicks and complains, like an unhappy toddler not getting what she wants in a toy store, to one of peace and contentment in our circumstances.

If contentment comes only when conditions surrounding me are pleasant and bursting with abundance, accomplishment, accolades, fun, happiness and warm fuzzy feelings, I’m in big trouble. 1 Thessalonians 5:18, tells us we should be thankful IN all things. I’m glad Paul didn’t say we had to be thankful FOR all things, that’s too hard to do. The more I practice thankfulness the easier it becomes. My contentment meter registers less and less like an over-active earthquake seismograph, emotions level out and peace reigns once again. It’s a beautiful thing!

There is a loud and annoying bulldozer in the lot next door grading and leveling for a new house soon to be built, and my hubby called asking me to look up a restaurant on Google maps where he and the rest of the staff can all go for lunch together, but today I will choose to ignore that as well.

Proverbs 14:30 says, “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.” Don’t know about you but I want life, health and peace flooding over me-inside and out.

I’m going to go make myself a salad and choose God’s plan for my day, for my life. I may need His help to start over again tomorrow, but on this day I choose contentment.

John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Heart Attack!

A few days following the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting, I went to the post office to mail a CD and buy a book of stamps.  As I  placed my small, bubble wrap lined, mail envelope on the counter, the clerk asked the usual,  “Does your package contain anything liquid, perishable, fragile or potentially hazardous?”

“No,” I smiled, ” it’s just a CD. Nothing dangerous in there.”

By his demeanor, I could tell the guy was in a grumpy mood, but it was his response that revealed how troubled he was about the recent tragedy. 

 “We’ll you never know now days. Could be instructions on how to build a bomb or take out a theater full of people on a DVD.”

“I suppose that’s possible, but I don’t know much about guns and nothing about bombs. This is just a Microsoft program for a friend’s computer,” I assured him.

He weighed the envelope, “It seems like people can take each other out with anything if their mind is set on it, guns, bombs, razor blades, it doesn’t matter.I don’t know what’s wrong with people anymore. There’s gotta’ be something that can be done about it”

He stamped the postage on the envelope so hard I hoped he didn’t break the CD inside. 

“There is, ” I said as he pulled a book of stamps from underneath the counter. He stopped midway, staring at me, waiting for me to continue. “This isn’t a gun or bomb problem, this is a heart problem.”

His gaze changed from curiosity to perplexity and I went on, “The only thing that can really fix a person is a heart change and the only one who can change a person’s heart is Jesus.” 

Immediately his expression went dark and the conversation shut down like an off switch had just been tripped. He shoved the stamps toward me, grabbed my money and slapped the change with a bang back on the counter, then turned around and walked away. There was no, ‘Can I get you anything else today?’ or ‘Have a nice day, Ma’am.” None of that for me!

I left there with a greater realization of how offensive Jesus is to some. He is not always the answer people want to hear. Though the existence of sin in the world requires the rule of law for maintaining justice, controlling outward behavior with more rules and regulations rarely gets to the root of our dilemma. That’s like putting a bandaid on a tumor. Jesus dealt with this problem constantly during his earthly ministry. He never danced around the perimeter of an issue but always went right to the heart of dealing with our brokenness.

Anytime our country is overrun by the wicked plans of men, media pundits and government officials want to guarantee us that it will never happen again. I don’t believe that’s possible. Jeremiah 17:9 says, ” The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”  A person’s actions display what is in his heart, whether good or evil. Proverbs 23:7 states, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

Our nation is having one ‘heart’ attack after another and emergency intervention is desperately needed. We are under attack by people whose hearts have been overtaken by great darkness.  Other tragedies, the senseless slaughter of little children in a Connecticut school and the recent bombing of innocent bystanders at the Boston Marathon, give credence to that fact. 

The price of man’s sin is always death (Romans 6:23) but God gave all of us a way out in the gift of His son, Jesus, and has set us into this historical time to be light in the midst of darkness.  So what can we do? 

~We must be certain our own heart is right before God. Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me..”

~We must know God’s word in order to stand firmly in times of despair, doubt and temptation. Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

~We must pray continuously for our nation, state, leaders, churches, family, friends and not give up. Luke 18:1 “…men ought always to pray and not to faint [lose hope].”  We must also pray for our enemies even though it is not easy to do. Matthew 5:43-44  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,”

~We must overcome fear of current events with a sound mind and the power of love.  2Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

~We must be ambassadors of Christ’s love one person at a time, living the Good News of the Gospel within our world of influence. 2 Corinthians 3:2-3,”You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, recognized and read by everyone. It is clear that you are Christ’s letter..not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God—not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.”

Counter attack the forces of evil with a heart full of Jesus, love and truth and give our nation a heart attack that will do it some good.

Luke 24:46-47 ‘[Jesus] said to them, “This is what is written: the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and a change of heart and life for the forgiveness of sins must be preached in his name to all nations..’