Waking the Dead Part 8

        In this battle called life we have all been wounded, but something much deeper has occurred than just wounds.  At some point or another I’m sure we have all felt like part of you wants to do something, but the other part doesn’t.  Part of me just wants to sit back in a service and not get involved while another part of me knows God has called me to be a leader and help run a service.  Part of me wants to dive into a relationship, but another part of me thinks that I’ll get hurt.  Don’t we all feel like a house divided sometimes?  I think we’ve just assumed all that stuff is our battle with “the flesh.”  While a lot of it is, there are places and emotions that we cannot seem to move beyond.  Everything is going along just fine, and then boom.  Something will suddenly bring you to tears or make you furious, depressed, or anxious and you cannot explain why.  It’s because we are not wholehearted.

                When Isaiah promised that the Messiah came to heal the brokenhearted, he was not speaking metaphorically.    Jesus came to heal our broken hearts because we have been damaged.  For some people this is really easy to admit and for others it would take some courage to admit they’ve been damaged.  I guarantee you there is something from your past that still haunts your memory and you wish would’ve never happened.  Whatever may have occurred, it influences your actions now in some way.  Even though we are a screwed up mess, God still loves us and is there to comfort us.  He can heal our broken heart.

                “For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.”  Matthew 13:15 This is a bit different from “I would forgive them” or “I would give them a place in heaven.”  Jesus offers true healing, the kind that cracks more than just the surface into our true selves.  (See Ps. 23:1-3, Ps. 147:3, Jer. 17:14, Mal. 4:2, and Luke 9:11 for more verses about healing) Recent Christianity seems to have forgotten that Jesus came to not only save us, but to heal us as we are now.  So right now, whatever you are doing, I want you to stop.  Stop and think for a moment on the fact that Jesus came to heal your heart.  How does that make you feel?

                The awesome power of God knows where the frightened places in our hearts are and He came to mend those rifts.  He brings His comfort and mercy to those times and places where we suffered the shattering blow.  God doesn’t force His way into our hearts, we have to let Him in.  “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” Revelations 3:20 He’s there knocking. “Will you let me heal you?”  The work of Christ in healing the soul is a deep mystery, more amazing than any open-heart surgery.  I’ve heard it described-and I love this description-that Christ is “holding the broken parts of my heart in his hands, and bringing them all together, holding them tenderly until his life brought a wholeness or a oneness to what was many pieces.”  Christ puts our hearts back together including the pieces that have been broken off by tragedy or assault.  It all starts with a  simple, yet earnest prayer: “Jesus, I want my whole heart back.”

                Walking with God leads to receiving his intimate counsel, and counseling leads to deep restoration.  As we learn to walk with God and hear his voice he is able to bring up issues in our hearts that need speaking to.  Some of these wounds were enough to break our hearts, create a rift in the soul, and so we need his healing as well.  This can be done with the help of another person who can listen and pray with us or Jesus can lead us to a quiet place, to restore our soul.  In order to get to this quiet place we have to unplug from everything.  We need time in the presence of God.  “Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.  I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.” Psalms 86:11-12 When we are in the presence of God, removed from distractions, we are able to hear him more clearly and He can open these broken places in our hearts and begin to heal us.

                In our own lives we have mishandled these places in our hearts far too often.  We push them down with something that will bring us comfort besides God’s healing.  That’s where his forgiveness comes in.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 Our sins give the Enemy a certain claim on our lives and when we renounce our sins, we are renouncing this claim.  “This often comes in the form of “agreements”-Satan has suggested something to us, and we have said, “Yes.”  He might have said, Don’t ever trust anyone, or Your heart is bad-never show it to anyone, or You are dirty…lustful…addicted and never will get free.”  Whatever we have agreed with, we must renounce those agreements because it is not the real us. 

We have been cleansed on the cross and the Enemy should flee from us.  How’s that a picture for you?  How long have we thought about fleeing from temptation and the things that we’re surrounded with constantly.  We should pray that the Enemy would flee from us.  “Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7  Then we should ask Him to put back the pieces of our heart together.  Our job is to listen and follow where He is leading and welcome that part of our heart back.  You know the part that you sent away?  The part of yourself the Enemy convinced you was no good?  We should welcome back the despised, forsaken part just as Jesus embraces it.

Brokenness is what keeps so many people from walking the path that God has in store for them.  As long as we have unhealed places within us, these rifts in our soul, we will find it next to impossible to live in freedom and victory.  No matter how disciplined you think you are, unless God heals these places in your heart, it will not work.  Without the healing of God and his deep restoration, Christians will never live a life fully alive.  Maybe you’ve been trying to live your life giving 95% to God and there’s still some part of you that is broken and needs healing.  If that’s the case, don’t wait another moment to give it up.  Get alone from society and spend some time with God.  Pray, earnestly, for your whole heart back because this isn’t a battle for the weak of heart.  The time for relying on ourselves and doctrine is the past.  We need intimacy with God and our whole hearts.  If there is any prayer requests you have don’t hesitate to let me know.  My next blog won’t come till after Christmas so Merry Christmas!

In Love,

Bill 

Waking the Dead Part 7

               The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis is an awesome series, mainly because Lewis is such an awesome author with an incredible testimony.  In The Horse and His Boy, Shasta is walking in darkness and can hear the breathing of something right behind him.  This turns out to be a lion, Aslan, and when Shasta learns that it was a lion he starts freaking out.  The Voice speaks to him and tells Shasta that all of the lions he had been seeing were just him.  Shasta gets mad at Aslan for all the crap he had to go through with him around and blamed him as the cause of it.  Aslan then goes on to explain how it was because of him and his presence that Shasta was even alive still.  It’s an awesome picture if you think about it.  Shasta is walking in darkness and all he can feel/hear is the breathing of this lion on him.  This same lion is there protecting and watching over him, doing things that Shasta can’t comprehend at the time.  This has to be one of the best pictures of God that I’ve read.

                Everybody has their own story with their own struggles, fears, dreams, hopes, and failures.  What if we had this image of God, standing right beside us, breathing down our necks saying, “Tell me your sorrows.”  One of the many reasons why God is awesome is because He’s a Counselor.  If you told some of your friends they need a counselor, they might get offended.  (I do not recommend doing so) I’m not afraid to admit that I need this Counselor though.  Life is hard sometimes and it sucks.  We hold on to the purpose of our Christian life which is that our hearts can be restored and set free.  Restoring our hearts if far from easy though and it will be a process, a process with much counseling needed. 

                We’re told to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart…” (Proverbs 3:5) but we find that one of the hardest things to do.  I know I don’t trust other people easily, not with important stuff anyways.  It seems like it’s second nature to worry about things.  And loving others deeply, how often does that happen?  We get angry at, resentful, or indifferent to the people we once loved.  We can overcome these things with our new, good heart though.  “For it is with your heart that you believe…” Romans 10:10 Our deepest convictions, the ones that truly shape our lives, come from our hearts.

                God wants to walk beside us through our deepest hurts.  I personally have had an incredibly easy and blessed childhood but I know many Christians who have had otherwise and they still feel pain from that.  The pain from their childhood may still be there under the surface and you know what?  We keep blaming ourselves for the mistakes from our past.  It’s a huge weight that we’ll never be truly able to let go of unless we give it up to God.  It wasn’t entirely our fault in the first place, the Enemy is set against us.  He was hell-bent on keeping you from the Truth and now that you know the Truth he wants to convince you that you are no good because of your past.  He wants to tell you that you are no good and it is all your fault.  Even in a crappy situation like that, we have our Counselor standing beside us, guiding us, and whispering, “You are good because I have made you good.  This is not your fault.” 

                Peter was known as one of Jesus’ closest friends.  He had special experiences with Him all throughout the Bible.  I can only imagine how bad he felt after denying Christ 3 times.  It must have been devastating for Peter.  When Jesus and Peter are reunited after the Resurrection, Jesus asks Peter 3 times if he loves Him.  Peter is hurt by the questions, but Jesus makes His point.  If Jesus left the matter unaddressed then Peter would have felt doubt or shame every time he preached the Gospel or a nagging guilt every time he prayed.  It would have been easier to put the whole situation behind him.  Denial is a form of coping for many Christians, but not with Jesus.  He wants our lives to be full of truth, and to get it to that point he’s got to take us into our inmost being.   The things that hurt us most in life are often invitations to go into this place with God and hear what He has to say.  This is another way of not just knowing, but experiencing that your heart is good and matters to God.  Whenever a situation brings you to your knees and you think it’s all your fault, ask God to show you that you’re good.

                God is not only the Counselor.  He puts people in our lives to help counsel us as well.  I used to think for the longest time that nobody really cared to hear about my problems because everybody has them.  I would share mundane things, but not the real me with people because frankly it’s a bit unnerving to fully expose yourself.  That’s all changed though.  It’s not emotionally healthy to keep everything bottled up inside and God has put people in our lives to help counsel us as well.  That might be a close friend or an adult who you admire or somebody else for all I know.  In every great story, the hero or heroine had someone older or wiser they could turn to though.  Neo had Morpheus, Dorothy had the Wizard, Frodo had Gandalf, and Harry had Dumbledore.  God did not create us to face life alone.  He is there and I bet someone else in your life would be willing to fight right along-side you as well.

                Maybe the world has been wrong about you or you have believed the lie that you are no good.  You matter to God deeply and you are good!  You are more than likely going to screw up at some point, but God is there counseling and guiding us through life.  We just have to continue fighting the lies the Enemy tries to put in front of us and listen to Truth.  My prayer is that you rely on God for counseling because there is no one who is a greater comfort.  I seriously wouldn’t be able to make it through a day without it.  If you have anything you would like me to pray for just let me know.

In Love,

Bill Bouillon

Waking the Dead Part 6

               I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like I need someone to guide me through life.  The weight of everything is just too much to bear sometimes and it can be suffocating.  Maybe you think you don’t need a guide and can handle this all on your own.  If you’re a Christian, you can choose to live in a world that is fairly neutral and get by with the Christianity of tips and techniques.  Or you choose to wake up to a world that is full of spiritual warfare and is hell-bent on blinding others from the Truth. If that’s the case, then we’re going to need a Guide.  A really good one.  Luckily this has already been promised to us.  “You have made known to me the path of life...” Psalms 16:11a

                One of the coolest things about God is that while He is the Creator, Alpha, Omega, Comforter, Father, etc. He is someone we can talk to.  Probably the ultimate goal of Christianity, in my opinion, is intimacy with God.  A church could have programs set up to help you live by principles that bring honor and glory to God, but they can’t teach you how to be intimate.  This is something we all have to accomplish on our own.  “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers!’”Matthew 7:23  Jesus called some people out who were doing things in His name, living a “Christianly life.”  He says He never knew them though because they lacked an intimate relationship with Him.  I can’t sit here and tell you can be intimate with God by doing this, this, and this.  You have to walk beside Him, daily, in order to figure that out.  Only by walking with God can we hope to find the path that leads to life and that is what it means to be a disciple.  A Christian.  A follower of Christ.  Not ideas about Him, not principles. Him.

                After we become a Christian, we have a good heart. (See my other posts if you disagree with this) A lot of Christians haven’t learned how to live from their hearts though.  This is a very dangerous thing too because if we go to war with an untrained heart, hurt and ruin could follow which would lead us back to the gospel of Sin Management and that’s not the kind of life we want to lead or the kind of life that God has created us to lead.  In order do this we have to “train.”  We need to practice seeking wisdom from God and having intimacy with Him in our daily lives.  If you were a general about to enter a war-zone you would definitely be doing as much strategizing about what you were about to do as you possibly could.  Why should we not treat life the same way!?  We must study His Word with the intensity of someone about to storm the beach of Normandy on D-Day if we hope to fight this battle victoriously.  We must walk with Him intimately.

                As important as wisdom is though, we cannot live by it exclusively.  God doesn’t always work in the most logical sense to us.  It didn’t make sense for Gideon to trim his army from 32,000 to 300 men or for Joshua to march around Jericho and yell at the city to make it collapse.  Both of these men trusted God though because they walked intimately with Him and listened to Him.  A lot of churches these days make their decisions based on principles and expedience but they are devoid of the supernatural.  Where is the living God at in this case?  We can only find Him if we truly seek for Him and listen to His voice.  How can we listen to His voice?  Scripture would be an obvious choice, but so many of us fail to read it or study it thoroughly.  (I am in no way trying to undermine the importance of reading Scripture btw) That isn’t the only way He speaks to us though and that is why so many people fail to recognize the voice of God.  He speaks to us through our situations and the people around us as well.

                “The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.  The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”  John 10:2-4 It’s funny how the analogy of a sheep compared to us is so true.  I don’t know about you, but I am so dumb sometimes.  I let myself fall into temptation, walk straight into it, think I know what’s better, or just don’t trust God.  Yet He is my Shepherd and will fight off bears for me and bring me back to the flock to watch over me.  This whole semester God has been trying to tell me that He is in control and I just need to follow in His steps and watch Him work because He’s got this.  He speaks to me all the time through different circumstances and experiences and other times He speaks by just creating a peace in me about something particular that I know only He can bring.  What He tells me doesn’t always make sense and it doesn’t have to.  Part of the journey is trusting in God above all else.

                Our hearts are key when we try to listen to the voice of God because this is the dwelling place of God.  How can we distinguish what’s pulling on our hearts when so many things are vying for our attention?  You must first remember that your heart is good.  If you are feeling angry, jealous, lustful, etc. then it is your flesh speaking and not your heart.  We must reject this because it is not of God.  Your flesh is going to try to use your freedom to get you to do things you shouldn’t do.  Anything that brings discouragement, accusation, or condemnation is not from God.  Neither is confusion, or anything that would cause you to disobey something that you know.  The Holy Spirit will tells us when we do something wrong, but it is never condemning.  “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Romans 8:1 His convictions bring a desire for repentance.  “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” 2 Corinthians 7:10

                Most Christians and even non-Christians view the Bible as a book for Christian principles for how to live and leave it at that.  If God had intended His Word to be a book of doctrine He would have wrote it like that.  Of course we learn a ton about Christian doctrine and character in the Scripture, along with a great deal of wisdom.  But if you flip it from cover to cover you’ll notice it’s a giant storybook of men and women who walked with God.  When you read God’s Word, don’t view it as a manual of Christian principles but rather a testimony of God’s friends on what it means to walk with him through a thousand different episodes.  When you are at war, when you are in love, when you have sinned, when you have been given a great gift-this is how you walk with God.

                Having an intimate relationship with God is something that isn’t easy.  There are days when I get lazy and hardly pray at all or I just go through a busy day and ignore the people around me.  God is calling out to us and desires to be close to us though!  As screwed up as we are, He has made us beautiful and I want to know this King who loves me so.  I pray that your relationship with God won’t be the same after reading this.  Don’t try and live a life of principles because it is ultimately lacking a personal relationship that is the greatest gift ever given.  Let me know if there’s anything I can pray for you, don’t hesitate to do so.

In Love,

Bill

Waking the Dead Part 5

              One of the best parts about myths is the point where the hero/heroine is revealed in their glory.  In Cinderella, it happens when the prince puts the slipper on Cinderella’s foot and recognizes her for who she is.  In The Lord of the Rings, it happens when Aragorn finally arrives to the Battle of Minas Tirith on the enemy’s ships.  This theme also occurs throughout the Bible.  Joseph, who was sold into slavery, is recognized by his brothers as the second highest man in the kingdom of Egypt.  Even Jesus fits this mold.  I mean, who would care about a carpenter’s son from Nazareth.  Let me be the one to tell you that you have a glory that you may have never realized too.  You may doubt me on this.  “I’m too screwed up Bill.  I’ve done certain things so God couldn’t possibly use a person like me to accomplish something incredible.”  This is a lie I hope you have realized after reading my other blog posts.

                There is a glory to your life that the Enemy fears.  Things are not as they seem because we are not as we seem.  We were created to reflect God’s glory because Christ came to give us back our hearts and set us free.  “The glory of God is man fully alive.”  If this is true, then the opposite shouldn’t be true.  We were not created to sulk around in a cellar weighed down by shame and guilt.  Guilt is not from God people!  We are destined to live with an ever-increasing glory.  Your heart bears this glory and it is needed. Now.  This is the desperate hour we have been called to.

                Something a lot of Christians struggle with, me included, is that we think there’s nothing good in us.  We think that we are no-good wretches, ready to sin at a moment’s notice, incapable of goodness.  This is completely unbiblical!  Most Christians will refer to Romans 7:18a, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.”  There is an important distinction though.  There is nothing good in your sinful nature.  That’s not the real you though! You are good and if you don’t believe me, you obviously haven’t read my other blog posts.  “Well, then, if this is all true, why don’t I see it?”  Exactly.  This is the point I have been trying to make clear.  The fact that you do not see your good heart and glory is only proof of how effective the assault has been.  We have been living under a veil for far too long.  It is time we come alive.

                “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”  2 Corinthians 3:16-18  We’re going to think mythically, again, for a moment.  A lot of the Lion King can relate to Christianity.  There was a beautiful kingdom that was taken away by the enemy.  Simba was blamed for the death of his father and after years of losing heart he comes across a wart hog and a meerkat.  One night Simba dreams:

Mufasa:  Simba.

Simba:  Father?

Mufasa: Simba, you have forgotten me.

Simba:  No!  How could I?

Mufasa:  You have forgotten who you are, and so forgotten me.  Look inside yourself, Simba…you are more than what you have become.

Simba:  How can I go back?  I’m not who I used to be.

Mufasa:  Remember who you are.  You are my son, and the one true king.  Remember who you are.

                Simba is then finally able to throw off the veil of shame and self-reproach to take back the kingdom that is rightly his and we have been called to the same.

                Think of your favorite character you read about as you were growing up or even your favorite character from a book you love to reread now.  What draws you to this person?  More than likely, even through all the crap they go through, you still see their true selves shine through.  You see their character.  We are just the same!  They have a glory that you are attracted to and we have that same glory if we would remember who we truly are.

   “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”  Marianne Williamson

   Maybe you don’t believe this quote.  If you don’t, I challenge you to read it multiple times and pray about it.  Do you fear your own glory?  If you think this is prideful let me tell you it is NOT prideful to embrace the truth that you bear the image of God.  We are able to walk in humility because it is a glory given to us, nothing we do deserves it.  I think the main reason we fear our own glory is because once we let others see it, they will have seen the truest us.  “We can repent of our sin.  We can work on our issues.  But there is nothing to be done about our glory.  It’s so naked.”  It can be a bit awkward shining when everyone else is not.

   Living with your glory is the only loving thing you can possibly do.  You cannot love another person with a fake you.  You cannot love while you are still in hiding.  It will take courage to do so, but remember you have your heart and it is good!  Christ is greater than he who is in the world!  Maybe you know somebody who lives with this glory radiating out of them and you are deeply impressed with it.  You can do the same thing by being the glory that God has created in you.  We must admit we have a new heart and a glory from God, embrace this truth, and live with it.  Be what He meant you to be.  Come fully alive because it is a risk worth taking.


               Don’t be afraid to let God’s light shine through you.  Love on someone hurting, pray for your lost friends, give up your time to be with somebody, be intentional in your conversations with others.  Come alive.  I pray that you won’t be ashamed of the glory God has created in you.  Let it consume you.  If you have anything you would like me to pray for or something you would like to talk about don’t hesitate to do so. 

In Love,

Bill

Waking the Dead Part 4

               I am going to start this post by asking you to think mythically again for a moment.  The original Beauty and the Beast is a fantastic tale because is talks about a transformation.  Something as hideous as the Beast becomes the most beautiful thing once it goes through its trial.  The reason why we like this story is because of the awesome truth in it.  We are fascinated by tales of transformations because it is the secret to Christianity.  We are born again and become a completely new person.  How many Christians truly believe this though?  Most Christians would agree that their name is written down in heaven and they are forgiven.  Maybe they’ve changed the way they act a bit, their temper is a bit more under control, and their beliefs are different.  Transformed seems a bit much to describe them though, perhaps forgiven and on their way would be a better description.  Even though they’re a Christian they still believe that their heart is wicked.  Is this what the Bible teaches though?

                God created us to reflect His glory, but three chapters into the Bible we already screwed that up.  By the sixth chapter God had enough and decided to almost wipe us out.  “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.”  Genesis 6:5  God looked into our hearts and all He could find was evil.  If we were completely honest with ourselves we would admit that we are not what we were meant to be.  Don’t shift the blame onto something else.  Instead, try to compare your life to that of Christ.  There’s no way we can compare to that.  We can admit that something needs to be done about our lives.

                “But the usual remedies involve some sort of shaping up on our part, some sort of face-lift whereby we clean up our act and start behaving as we should.  Jews try to keep the Law.  Buddhists follow the Eightfold Path.  Muslims live by the Five Pillars.  Many Christians try church attendance and moral living.  You’d think, with all the effort, humanity would be on top of things by now.  Of course, the reason all those treatments ultimately fail is that we quite misdiagnosed the disease.  The problem is not our behavior; the problem is in us.  Jesus said, ‘For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.’  Matthew 15:19  We don’t need an upgrade.  We need a transformation.”

                I think Christians, for the most part, understand salvation but they do not understand Christianity.  We have been ransomed by Christ.  Our treachery is forgiven and we are entirely pardoned for every wrong thought, desire, and deed.  This is awesome and something that will set you free….for awhile.  Most of us find this feeling fleeting because we have to ask for forgiveness again and again and again.  We truly believe that something must be wrong with us even though we’ve been redeemed and most the time we end up feeling guilty.  I know I have for the longest time.  How can we possibly live up to something that we know we’ll fail at again and again?  I am a shadow of the person I was meant to be, yet I am forgiven.  One day this hell on Earth will end and I will join the angels in the choir, definitely Bass II for me.  This is what is meant by salvation.

                “The good news is…that is not Christianity.  There is more.  A lot more.  And that more is what most of us have been longing for most of our lives.”  The Cross didn’t just do something for us; something profound happened to us in the death of Christ.  “The death he died, he died to sin once for all….In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  Romans 6:10-11  God understands that the root of all our problems arises from the heart and He went straight for it.  We have been far more than just forgiven.  God has removed our heart of stone.  It has been set free and there is even more.

                A lot of people may assume that the Cross is the total work of Christ.  The Resurrection is just an afterthought to them.  It is just viewed as the extra point after the touchdown.  What image comes to mind when you think of Christianity?  For a lot of people, it is the Cross.  The crazy thing about the Cross is that it wasn’t used as a symbol by the early Christians.  It wasn’t even seen in Christian churches until 400 A.D. and even then it wasn’t prominent.  What did the early Christians use as a rallying point then?  “They (the Pharisees) were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.”  Acts 4:2 “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.”  Acts 4:33a “They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.”  Acts 17:18c

                The early church and personal friends of Jesus focused on the Resurrection, healing, and miracles because those are the things God wants us to focus on.  THEY ARE THE POINT.  This is why Christianity is so incredible.  Life, real life, the power of God to restore you.  This isn’t the story of a dead God.  The power of the Cross comes from the Resurrection.  With that resurrection comes something special.  Ever since Adam first sinned in the Garden, all of his descendants were born with a sinful nature.  Because of Christ and the Resurrection, we are born again into a new nature and a new life.  We don’t have the old self any longer.  I’m not saying that we aren’t going to sin again or that life will be easy, far from it.  What’s so awesome now is that sin doesn’t have that same hold over us.  We have a NEW heart.  “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”  Ezekiel 36:26  What are the implications of this?  Your heart is now good.

                What if Christians came to the point to where they really understood this?  Stop for a moment from reading this and think about it.  Seriously, take your eyes off the screen and think.  If you were honest with yourself and with God, you know that your heart is different and it is GOOD.  This is why Christians can never be the same, because we aren’t!  This knowledge has the power to change Christianity and it the last thing the Enemy wants us to know.  This is freedom and this is life.  Stop living a life you feel is shackled down by sin and guilt, which are not from God.  You are a new creation and you are good, no matter what your friends, family, or media may tell you.  Live life with this confidence because of what Christ has done through the Resurrection and live differently. 

Thanks for taking time to read this and I pray that it will impact you or challenge your thinking in some way.  I have been silent for far too long and now is the time for action.

In love,

Bill

Waking the Dead Part 3

                Here is a continuation of my journey through “Waking the Dead” by John Eldredge.  I hope you find this as enlightening and I do.

                Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”  The tin man from the Wizard of Oz understood just how important the heart is.  His body had been turned into complete tin and he lost his heart in the process.  He had been standing around a whole year before Dorothy came by and gave him some oil.  He said, “It was a terrible thing to undergo, but during the year I stood there I had time to think that the greatest loss I had known was the loss of my heart.  While I was in love I was the happiest man on earth; but no one can love who has not a heart, and so I am resolved to ask Oz to give me one.”  The Enemy knows how vital your heart is and he is bent on its destruction.  If he can disable or deaden your heart then he has foiled God’s plan of creating a world where love reigns.  For far too long we have seized upon efficiency, busyness, and productivity as the life we live.  We are sleepwalking and in order to find the right way we must return to the heart.

                The heart is central to EVERYTHING.  The fact that we need to be reminded of this shows just how successful the Enemy has been at making us forget the life God has in store for us.  I challenge you to find another topic that’s mentioned more in the Bible than the heart.  Jesus said the greatest commandment was to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  Matthew 22:37 “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  1 Samuel 16:7 “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Luke 12:34  “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”  Matthew 15:8 We all know the heart can feel so many different emotions, both good and bad.  It can be merry, cowardly, valiant, proud, whole, divided, upright, perverse, and so much more.

 In Proverbs 4:23 we are urged to “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”  It is the very center of our existence, that which separates us from other species.  Why are so many people dissatisfied with their jobs or their life?  Why do so many marriages fail today?  Why are so many people struggling with depression, discouragement, and addiction?   It’s because they’ve lost their heart.  God places the heart as the central of the Bible and He placed it in the center of our bodies for a reason.  In order to live a life fully alive we must make our heart central again.

Now I am going to make a distinction between your mind and your heart.  Your heart knows and wrestles with realities: God has heard your prayer, your best friend is getting married tomorrow, you are now and always have been loved.  Your mind processes information and abstractions:  water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, 2+2=4.  The mind takes in and processes information, but for the most part it remains indifferent in our lives.  Your mind may tell you it’s 2 a.m. and your roommate hasn’t come back to the room.  Your heart wonders if this is cause for worry or not.  “The heart lives in far more bloody and magnificent realities of living and dying and loving and hating.”  Sometimes extremely intelligent people live detached from life because they live with their mind.  People confuse them because they can’t comprehend the emotions others are experiencing. 

Some people would equate their heart with emotion and let it make a wreck of their lives without stopping to consider whether it was a good idea to do so.  Equating heart with emotion is the same nonsense as saying that love is just a feeling.  While to some extent it is, it is also so much more.  Could you imagine the emotions Jesus experienced before He went to the cross?  He was man so he was definitely afraid, probably even more so knowing that the fate of the world was laid on His shoulders.  “But in the hour of his greatest trial, his love overcame his fear of what loving would cost Him.”  Emotions are the voice of the heart, a voice.  A mind may stay detached, but we experience life and its fullness through our hearts which can express itself in many ways.

For every decision we’ve ever made we will give our stated reason for doing it and then we’ll have our real reason which is our motive.  You may flatter your teacher or boss because they’re about to grade your test or give you a review.  You remembered your anniversary because you love your spouse or because you were afraid of the consequences of not remembering.  What’s unnerving about the Day of Judgment is this: “He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.”  1 Corinthians 4:5b 

This was the point of the Sermon on the Mount.  In Matthew 5:20 He said, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will not enter the Kingdom of God.”  How could we possibly live up to the “model citizen” that the Pharisees were?  On the outside they were “model citizens”, but on the inside they were the biggest hypocrites.  Everything they did was to impress others by their righteousness yet their hearts were far from God.  “A person’s character is determined by his motives, and motive is always a matter of the heart.”  God doesn’t judge us based on our looks, intelligence, or our money; He judges us by our hearts. 

Repeatedly throughout the Gospel Jesus refers to the heart as the place where we do our deepest thinking.  The Great Modern Mistake is that “the mind equals reason and the heart equals emotion.”  This is complete crap.  Solomon is remembered as the wisest man to ever live and when God gave him the choice of anything he wanted, he asked for a wise and discerning heart.  Our deepest thoughts are held in our hearts.  Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God…it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”  It did not say the feelings of the heart; it said the thoughts and attitudes.  If you have a fear of heights, no amount of reasoning will convince you to go bungee jumping.  It isn’t a rational fear, but rather something you can’t really explain.  “It is the thoughts and intents of the heart that shape a person’s life.”  “For if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified…” Romans 10:10-9  Saving comes from the heart and is the dwelling place of our true beliefs.

Our heart also stirs many things inside of us such as memories, creativity, and most importantly courage.  It takes courage to love, to trust someone with your life, to believe in what you can’t see, and to follow Christ.  “He shall say: ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies.  Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them.’”  Deuteronomy 20:3  “Success or failure can be pretty well predicted by the degree to which the heart is fully in it.”  The battle for our hearts is going to take everything we have.

Many people have wondered what the purpose of living is and how they can be truly happy.  Jesus flat out told us this in Scripture: love God and love your neighbor.  It’s amazing that this is such a simple thing yet we keep searching for other stuff to fill our lives.  Let me ask you a question “Is it possible to love without your heart?”  I really don’t believe it is and it is essential to fight for your heart.  Especially in the past century, humans have become extremely efficient. How much have we grown in love though?  Honestly, we’ve probably grown away from love and that’s why people are so unsatisfied.  To listen to God, you must listen with your heart.  To love God, you must love Him with all your heart.  You won’t live the life God has in store for you if you don’t live from the heart.

I keep on talking about your heart, but perhaps you are still a bit confused on what exactly your heart is.  Every time you hear the word heart in the Bible, you should think of it as saying “me.”  My heart is me.  The real me.  Your heart is you.  The deepest, truest you.  Christ didn’t come into this world to die for an idea, He came to die for a person, you.  Ask people why they think Christ came into the world and you could find a ton of answers.  “He came to bring world peace.”  “He came to teach us how to love.”  “He came to die so that we might go to heaven.”  While these answers have a partial truth, they still miss the point.  Jesus quoted from Isaiah this “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.”  Luke 4:18

I’ll put that into plain English for you.  “God has sent me on a mission.  I have some great news for you.  God has sent me to restore and release something.  And that something is you.  I am here to give you back your heart and set you free.”  This is why the glory of God is man fully alive.  The fact that we’ve overlooked this truth for so long is just plain evil.  The war we are in would explain such a great loss.  This is the last thing the Enemy wants you to know.  “Make them so busy, they ignore the heart.  Would them so deeply, they don’t want a heart.  Twist their ideology, so they despise the heart.  Take away their courage.  Make intimacy with God impossible for them.”  This is the Enemy’s strategy and we need to be aware of it if we’re going to fight it.  Without your heart you can’t have God, love, faith, purpose, or life.

If you have any questions, prayers requests, or just want to talk, that’s what I’m here for.  My hope and prayer is that you will live from the heart and fully alive.

In love,

Bill