My Heart - Christ's Home?

"Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.

 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with Me" (Revelation 3:20).

                      Thoughts from Charles Spurgeon --

 "Are you saying, 'I wish that He would live in my heart and make it His dwelling place forever'?

Open the door, beloved, and He will come into your soul. He has been knocking continually.  He wants to eat with you because you provide the home, your heart, and you with Him because He brings the meal.

You would have an empty table if He did not bring the food.

Fling wide then the doors of your soul. He will come with that love you long to feel, that joy you seek to revive your spirit, and that peace to restore your life. Only open the door to Him, drive out His enemies, give Him the keys, and He will live there forever. What wondrous love that brings such a guest to dwell in such a heart!"

     It's time to make your heart Christ's home! (Ephesians 3:17).

[Remember, you have to open the door yourself -- the latch is on your side -- and invite Him in....and there is only room for One - it is not a lodging house!]

The Real Challenge

Yes, The Real Challenge!

Psalm 19:14 -- "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to You,  my Rock and My Redeemer."

  The first part, about my words (all of them?) seems really hard. But the second part seems almost impossible -- my secret thoughts, casual wonderings, mental impulses - how can we make them acceptable to our holy Father God? 

   I remember once someone shared a brilliant thought: 'You can't keep birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building nests in your hair'! 

   So simple! Yes, sinful thoughts, fueled by envy, anger, hatred and pride, can assault our thoughts. But we can stop them at their first appearance by immediately turning our thoughts to honor and glorify God. 

   Turn to Him with words and thoughts of praise and gratitude. Thank Him for His forgiveness, for His Spirit that is re-creating us into His image, for His righteousness that now covers us because of what Jesus did. (We can tell Satan to shut up and we can start talking to God!)

  Turn the negative unholy thoughts that dishonor God into positive holy thoughts that glorify Him!

   It works -- for sure -- but we have to be vigilant and move fast!

The Miracle We Already Got - Frederick Buechner

For what we need to know, of course, is not just that God exists, not just that beyond the steely brightness of the stars there is a cosmic intelligence of some kind that keeps the whole show going,

but that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-by-day lives who may not be writing messages about Himself in the stars

but in one way or another is trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around down here knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world.

It is not objective proof of God's existence that we want but the experience of God's Presence.

That is the miracle we are really after, and that is also, I think, the miracle that we really get.

                          -- From The Magnificent Defeat,
                                              by Frederick Buechner

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  

I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep in the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge

-- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

                                    Ephesians 3:14-19 

                 

But does He really like me?

I know God loves us all.

               I know He loves me.

In spite of all these years of trusting God for my forgiveness and thanking Him for making me a part of His family, I still sometimes wonder, "But does He really like me?"

I remember my mother saying to me, "Yes, you know I love you...but I just don't like you right now!"

As I recall her words, they were certainly justified!
I was not displaying lovable conduct at the time.

Now I think I have brought that idea into my adult life.

Sometimes I wonder, "But God, how can You like me today? I have not behaved in a godly way. I know I disappointed You several times. I keep pestering you with selfish requests.  You must be displeased with me. I keep worrying about things I know You said You would take care of....I am anxious and difficult to reason with...how can You stand it?

This is about sin - not someone else's sin against me and not about my sin against another. It is about my own sin against God, against my Father.

That sin, daily, I am afraid, brings a sense of guilt and deep regret.

I think I know the answer. It's about the gospel -

Too often we are short-sighted when it comes to the good news - we think of it gratefully as bringing us into God's family, as the door that brings the unsaved into His kingdom, but fail to realize the gospel is what we need every day.

We need to preach the gospel - the good news of God's forgiveness - to ourselves - every day!

It's not a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It's not for the unbelievers only.

This is what I forget:

     Not only has God forgiven us our sins, He also
     credited us with the perfect righteousness of
     His Son. This is what we call the "Great
     Exchange" - He took away our sins and gave us
     righteousness. This forgiveness includes all sins --
     past, present and future - ALL OF THEM!

PAST - We have been saved (freed) from sin's guilt

PRESENT - We are being saved (freed) from sin's power

FUTURE - We will someday be saved (freed) from sin's very presence.

HAVE BEEN - ARE BEING - WILL BE

Past -  Present - Future

     There is nothing I can do to make Him love me
     less and nothing I can do to make Him love me
     more.


His love is not only eternal, but day to day - He is always waiting for me to return to Him, to run into His arms and seek His love and compassion for our frail, misguided attempts to lead the life He wants for us.

An old popular pioneer hymn, written about the time of the American Revolution, proclaims it:

I will arise and go to Jesus,

He will embrace me in His arms.

In the arms of my dear Savior,

O, there are ten thousand charms.

Why would our loving Savior, who brought us into His family, foreseeing our earthly journey before us, knowing we would constantly fail, not also keep loving us day to day? Yes, loving us, and liking us....day in and day out...always waiting for us to return to His arms.

Every morning when we awake, every evening when we fall asleep, and throughout the day.....let's preach the gospel to ourselves!


Remember 1 John 1:9 was written, not to unbelievers, but to Christians:

           If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
           and will forgive us our sins and purify us from
           all unrighteousness.

That's really good news!

      

How to Get Ready for Church

I get my hair done on Saturday and make certain my clothes are ready, preparing to go to church Sunday. But I don't seem to be  as concerned about preparing spiritually to join my church family in worship of our Creator God of the Universe! 

I fix my hair, but not my heart! I clean my clothes, but not my soul! How silly is that! 

Before there can be honest, true worship, there must be honest, true hearts.

Max Lucado talks about preparing our hearts for worship through cleansing our hearts of sin as we prepare to come before our holy, sinless God, and it begins with confession:

"Confession does for the soul what preparing the land does for the field.

Before the farmer sows the seed he works the acreage, removing the rocks and pulling the stumps. He knows that seed grows better if the land is prepared.

Confession is the act of inviting God to walk the acreage of our hearts. 'There is a rock of greed over here, Father, and I can't budge it. And that tree of guilt near the fence - its roots are long and deep. And may I show You some dry soil, too crusty for seed?'

God's seed grows better if the soil of the heart is cleansed.

Confession invites the Father to work the soil of the soul, digging and pulling, preparing the heart to produce fruit."

                          So now we can get ready for church!