Stone Hearts to Flesh [part five]

{Ezekiel 11:19 - I will take from them their hearts of stone, and give to them hearts of flesh.}

Love One Another.

Something so simply put should be easy, shouldn't it? But too often we fumble - I fumble - over loving others. I get annoyed with them, become selfish, get tired of them, don't understand their humor, am hurt by them...I hold grudges and have petty arguments. Typical female, right?

But you know what? When I start to view others as God would view them, loving them becomes the most incredible thing in the world. A thought on that : God loves others in the same way that He loves me. God sees others the same way He sees me.

Shocked much?

When that key was shown to me, I about fell off my rocker (figuratively speaking, because I wasn't on a rocker - and even if I had been, the arms on my rocker are so long that there is NO way one could actually fall off it.). It makes sense though, because how can you have a heart of tender flesh if there is not love for the world in it?

So what does love for others look like? I'm going to take you to a well known passage of scripture, but maybe with a new light on it.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  

Love never fails.
 

This is the kind of love Christ is talking about when he says "Love One Another" in John 13:34-35.

And it looks like a blanket.

No, seriously! Love is like a blanket. It takes the verb and actively wraps itself around someone; the patches that make up the blanket are each of these traits in the verses from 1 Corinthians. If your heart is lacking one of these traits in its love, then your blanket has a hole in it - and what good does a blanket with holes do on a cold day? Not much. Not much at all.

When you think of your love for another person, or a group of people, try to picture a blanket wrapped around them. Point out the areas where you're lacking in your love, and work at patching those holes! I have a collection of many 'blankets' in my life, some of them are spotless and neatly pressed - others are sadly ragged and dirty. It is something I've been working at fixing.

Love one another, actively, and completely.
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So to recap:

A Heart of Stone                                                       
 *is standing still                                                        
 *is apathetic to the story of the Gospel                     
 *looks only at the person they were                         
 *withholds complete love from others                        

A Heart of Flesh
 *is growing in their Faith
 *finds joy in the story of the Gospel
 *is grateful for the person God has made them
 *wraps others in a warm blanket of love


Will you let God take your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh?

Stone Hearts to Flesh [part four]

{Ezekiel 11:19 - I will take from them their hearts of stone, and give to them hearts of flesh.}

 

Perhaps the hardest answer for me to grasp, was how to see myself as God sees me:

A guilty criminal - who has received full pardon.
A hopeless cause - whom he adopted into his family.
A mangled heart - that he took into his hands, and used to create a masterpiece.

Before you can understand how God sees you now, you have to understand how God saw you then.

Then, you were a guilty criminal.

You're in a dungeon cell. Captured by the weight of your sin. Satan is holding you as his own, a prisoner. You are guilty. There is no chance for you to stand clean in front of any jury.

Then, you were a hopeless cause.

No one was able to get you out of your prison. You were unable to break the habits of your sin. In fact, you did not want to get out - not really.

Then, you were a mangled heart.

Your sin, your bitterness, your pain had twisted the spirit given to you. It cast a deep shadow over any speck of light that might once have been there.

But God in his perfect love has looked past all of that. He sent Christ into the prison to pay the ransom, and take the punishment we deserved. When God looks at us - he sees Christ; not the mess we once were. He led us from the jail cell, into the very presence of Himself. He has called us his own. God has taken our broken, bleeding, crippled spirits and said "This, this is beauty. This is lovely. This is mine. Mine to love."

How do you see yourself? When you look in the mirror, who's reflection are you seeing?

The world will say you are ugly, plain, fat, too skinny, weird, unimportant...

But when you choose to see yourself as Christ sees you, as God views you, things change. The reflection becomes beautiful, unique, hopeful, strong...His.

Romans 9:22-26 says it all:

"What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath - those headed for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy , whom he prepared in advance for his glory - even us whom he called, not only from the Jews but also the Gentiles? As he says in Hosea:
 

'I will call them 'My People' who are not my people; and I will call her 'My Love' who is not my love.'

and,

'In the very place where I told them 'You are not my people'; I will now call them 'My People'. "

Let it sink in for just a bit.  We are the objects of God's mercy. We were headed for destruction, and yet he cared for us with patience, and showed us his glory. He calls us His People. He calls you His Love.

We are no longer Prisoners of Sin - we are Objects of Mercy and Love.

 

 

 

 

 

Stone Hearts to Flesh [part three]

{Ezekiel 11:19 - I will take from them their hearts of stone, and give them hearts of flesh.}

In the last post, I wrote to you that Salvation is not the end, and that growth is rewarding (even though it is sometimes painful). This post is concerned with how to begin growing - how to take that step forward in our walks with Christ, and take in all of the character He has in store for us.

Do you remember the day you first realized what Christ did for you? The moment when you fell in love with Him, and asked Him to take over your life?

One hot summer's day (June 28, 2006) there was a young girl at a Christian summer camp. She was surrounded by the friends she had made throughout the week, everyone was laughing and talking, but she knew something was missing. From early in the week she had felt a knot in the pit of her stomach every time someone brought up Jesus. It wasn't that she didn't know what they were talking about, she knew the answers to every question they had asked her and felt confident in her knowledge of the Bible. The problem was all this talk about Jesus being the Lord of your life. The ONE person you follow forever. The ONLY master you serve.

She wasn't sure she had put Jesus in that place in her life. But she wanted that to change.

I was the little girl, 11 years old, who accepted Christ that night. And I can remember being so thrilled about the decision, that I went to all of the friends I had made to be sure that they knew just how important it was to make Christ your King.

Christ was my First Love. And during my time in the complacent church, I saw that I had turned away from the Love I had received in Him - the only love worth having. I had begun to worry more about my own material condition - about how I looked, acted, who liked me, whom I liked - than the condition of the Kingdom. More than the sacrifice Christ was. More than His power. More than His Love.

The root of the problem? I had become more interested in what Christ could DO for me, than what Christ already DID for me. I let the blessings overpower the source. Let's check out 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 15: 3-4

"For what I [Paul] recieved I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, [and] that he was raised on the third day according to Scripture"

FIRST IMPORTANCE. The news that Paul is 'passing on' is to be regarded as the most important information above all others. What news?

Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

Christ was buried - He was not coming back.

Christ did come back - He rose after three days according to the Scriptures.

Why then, if this is to be of first importance, do we focus so little on the Gospel of Christ? Why are we so intent to share the blessings of Christ - but not intent to appreciate the sanctification of Christ?

I think part of the reason is because we no longer see the Gospel as active in our lives. We have stopped looking for the action, stopped thanking God for His gift. In the words of my friend Marc:

"...Don't tell me about what I need to do. Tell me about what Jesus did! It is the gospel that creates lasting change in our hearts! not a list of do's and dont's."
 

Faith is not about living right. Christianity is not about blessings. Being with God is not about looking pretty and carrying a cross around your neck.

Love. Gratefulness. Amazement at what God has done - He came to the filth that surrounds us, and died.

Remember that First Love. Remember that Joy. Remember His Sacrifice. Only by holding onto the message of the Gospel, will we ever be able to move forward.