heart

A New Heart

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

Whether you’re a follower of Christ or not, odds have it that you don’t personally believe that you have a heart of stone. Yes there may be exceptions out there, but most of us think we have decent hearts on the inside.

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Prepare Your Ground (Hosea 10:12)

“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord until he comes and showers righteousness on you.” (Hosea 10:12)

Do you have any bitterness, anger, resentment, frustration, indifference, or apathy towards the Lord? Because if you do, you need to break up your unplowed ground, as these often serve as barriers to seeking the Lord. How can we hope to find, when we’re not in a place to seek? (more…)

I Must Decrease (John 7:18)

“He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.” (John 7:18)

A few weeks back I asked my 10-year old daughter to pray over me, as I was leading our church’s worship team to prepare for Christmas Service. Out of all of the wonderful things she prayed for, one of the things I remember vividly is when she said, “God, prepare Daddy’s heart so that he isn’t doing this to impress anyone, but that he is only doing this to worship You.” (more…)

Reflections of the Heart (Proverbs 27:19)

“As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.” (Prov. 27:19)

In Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus describes to us how we are to recognize a tree and its fruit, or in other words, a person and their heart. While he opens the passage pointing to false prophets, the same principle applies to all, especially to those claiming to be of God. (more…)