Heart Failure

Hard Hearts Lead To Heart Disease!
I began researching the idea of a hard heart and discovered quite an amount of material. In examining the scripture of course the first person that comes to mind with a hard heart was the Pharaoh in the times of Moses. Actually the word says that God hardened his heart so that he would not let the people of God go and this ultimately ended up in his demise. But it is easy to define from this story what a hard heart is.
Basically we find a hard heart is an unwilling heart. It describes a person that will not listen to reason and mostly basis decisions on what is good for them. They do not consider others but only what is best for them.
Jesus even spoke of people with a hard heart frequently. He made mention of the fact that those that let their heart get hard or callous will not be able to hear or see clearly. That is definitely not the way I want to live. As a matter of fact I believe we can find that many relationships in life are destroyed because of hardness or unwillingness to forgive and love the way Christ loved us. Our stubbornness can actually separate us from the LIFE of God! Wow now that is reason enough to take a closer look at our lives and make sure our heart is pliable, teachable and reachable.
You see our hearts hardened through the course of life over little things that build inside us. We let things get to us and we finally get to a point that we become callous in that situation.
You can lose compassion over time and all desire to forgive or be merciful due to a constant bombarding of similar circumstances. Have you ever said in a situation " i don't care anymore what happens". Your heart has closed in that area. We lose our direction and sight. We lose understanding.
We have to allow the Lord to help us keep an open sensitive heart. Let's not lose hope or faith by letting our hearts stop caring. Let's keep some simple basic truths alive in our life like; repentance, forgiveness, mercy, and love. Don't be robbed of true life by allowing your heart to get hard or stay calloused. Let's fall on our knees before our Father and let Him take from us the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh!
Scripture References you can study:

• Mark 8:17-18
• Acts 28:26-27
• Ephesians 4:17-18
  
• Matthew 13:15
• Matthew 19:8
• Hebrews 3:7-15

Darlene, my wife, and I just returned from a ministry trip back into Mexico. What a refreshing time as we revisited with people and ministered that we have known for many years. It brought deep satisfaction to see many lives touched by the power of the Lord. He is such an awesome, real God.

I was reminded of the power of salvation once again during this time. As I witnessed dozens of people give their lives in complete surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ I realized how amazing it can be to come into a personal relationship with the Lord for the first time.

As I watched people receive the Lord into their hearts for the first time I could actually identify the power of God that was flowing into their lives at that moment. You could see it on their faces. The peace and joy that swept over them for the first time. It was real. It is one thing to talk about the bible or Jesus but still a totally different thing to experience it. I could literally see burdens falling off their lives and their countenance change in an instant.

Let's not forget how awesome salvation is. How awesome it is to walk with the Lord Jesus. He really does lift our burdens and bring peace and joy to our lives. it doesn't matter what is going on in our lives, He meets us at that moment and brings eternal life into our being.

I was so refreshed while witnessing the power of salvation once again. It filled my life. And even more so it reaffirmed purpose in life. Too many times we get caught up in things we have to do and forget the eternal purpose for which we were created. Remember He created us and wants to spend eternity with us. Don't you want to spend it with Him for all He has done? And more than that, don' t you want to share such a great salvation?

Wake up! Hey don't look at me. I didn't invent that statement. God did. He said it numerous times throughout the letter He wrote to us being the bible. In particular He says it in Isaiah 52. He is speaking to His followers, disciples. He is telling us to wake up and be aware. Be prepared.
Here is another way to think about it. God has provided through His Son, Jesus Christ, everything we need to LIVE. We must be aware of not only everything He has provided, but also how to appropriate for our own lives what He has given.
I am reminded of a very strong eternal statement made by our saviour on the cross. Just before he gave his last breath he said "it is finished". Now when he said it is finished I believe he meant exactly that. He had completed the work. He had conquered the last enemy, death. Now everything God wanted to give to us could be ours and nothing can keep us from it. Wake up and begin to see not only all that God made possible but begin believing it for yourself. Begin to know once again the splendor and strength that is yours. Clothe yourself with these tremendous truths. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Remember God chose us to be His own.
Wake up and see His great provision for life. Wake up and hear His Words of hope and faith.

Most likely all of us know that our minds are where we fight the major battles in life. It is not so much in other things. We have to deal with our thoughts constantly. It is of no surprise then that the Word of God tells us so much about thoughts. One important conclusion that we can come to as we read God's Word is the truth that our minds need renewing. We are in great need of seeing (and thinking) like God does. It takes us out of being defeated or depressed and many other things that effect us daily in life. We can change the way we think to be in agreement with the victorious mindset of the Lord. It is a process and will take time. But we can do it one day at a time.
There is one story where Jesus is traveling and comes into a new area where there is a man that is demon possessed who terrorized the region he lived in. This man is pretty much crazy and violent. His mind is way off. Much further than most if not all of us. As Jesus comes into this picture he confronts the legion of demons in this man and casts them out. The result is that this man is sitting at the feet of Jesus in his RIGHT mind! And all the people that came near were afraid! It is amazing to me that the same people that were terrorized by this man are now afraid because he is in his right mind! Maybe getting in our right mind, God's mind, thoughts, ways, will also cause the enemy of our minds to be afraid. Very afraid!!
Let God's Word wash your mind, thoughts, and all that you are.

Little by little. That is such a strong principle in life. Things change for the good or the bad little by little. When a crisis or problem arises so many times we wonder how we got to that point. The answer is little by little. It happens in relationships, personal growth, personal destruction, well you get the idea.
you see there is strong principle that the Lord has established for our lives. We are to live by this principle if we want to see true lasting growth. As a matter of fact He teaches us through the Israelites that even when He promised them all the riches and blessings of the promised land that the Lord put a major condition on it. You guessed it! Little by little they would possess the land. Not all at once but bit by bit, battle by battle. They were overwhelmed as they saw the strong fortified cities and strong peoples that they would have to confront. But God didn't ask them to take it all at once. That was too much.
Even though we want all that God has for us it is important that we don't try to get it all in a day. That is how we burn out spiritually so many times. We want to rest in the blessings without breaking a sweat. It doesn't work. We are going to have to fight for all He has prepared.
Lay your hands on eternal life! Go after it. Make an effort to receive by entering into the battles of life.
Our souls are in need of all God has for us. He wants us to have it. But we need to work in conjunction with His power little by little taking possession of it all. So start today. Add something to your life that little by little will be seen one day.

I saw a couple of skits that I thought were worth watching so here are the links. Yes I cried and laughed. They were that good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXut0HxncvY God's Chisel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Pju_bjlWo Coffee for Dad

We Are Able

We are able. That is what Caleb said to the nation of Israel upon returning from an exploratory trip to see first hand what God wanted Israel to have. With the exception of Joshua, the other 10 princes had a different opinion. You see they were only able to see who they were and what they were capable of doing. They left God out of the equation.
Don't we do that often in our lives. Leave God out of the equation. We work and do in our own ability. It is only when we see an impossible task that we consider the Lord in the situation or we attempt to include Him. But in general we base our future on our ability.
If we could only understand a simple truth. Well actually several simple truths. But here is the first one. God doesn't show us what He doesn't want us to have! And along with that if He wants us to have it then the ability to have it does not lie in our strength.
That is what Caleb understood. He knew that whatever battles or difficulties they would encounter would be met because God was giving them all they saw. The Lord didn't tell them in Numbers 13 to go check out the promised future(land, benefits, goodness, etc.) that He had provided to see if they could take it. He already gave it to them! He just wanted them to taste and see!
We are able. Listen to that phrase with the understanding that it is we with God! Not just in our power but in His. We are able to conquer. We are able to be set free. We are able to succeed. Be set free, change, have victory over sin, live in peace and joy, etc.............
Stop counting on yourself and thinking it is up to you. Start trusting in what God has provided and enter the battlefield to take possession of all He has prepared for you. It is time to acknowledge that we are able!