The Feet Follow the Heart

Mom said it rather tersely, “Straighten your face!” I heard other parents tell their kids, “You need to change your face!”

These strong words were spoken when one of us kids had worn a sad face too long or we were simply pouting (a silent fit of anger). Have you ever wondered how effective this form of correction was? Did this type of correction bring about the desired response? Were the parents who demanded a ‘straight face’ only interested in seeing a face that was not sad or angry? Or was there a more noble desire? Did our parents really desire a change of heart?

Now, as an adult reflecting on my ‘straighten your face’ experiences, I have considered other disciplinary actions. I have asked myself:

• What is more important, a pleasant face, or a heart with the right attitude?
• Is it better to have acceptable behavior, or a heart that desires to do right?
• Should I teach my children to merely refrain from vulgar speech or train their hearts to think pure thoughts that generate wholesome speech?

We all understand that it is the attitude and disposition of the heart that affects one’s face, affects one’s behavior, and affects one’s speech. We all know and teach that Jesus desired a response from the heart, not mere external obedience.

People can fake the externals. People can put on a show by displaying a happy face, maintaining culturally acceptable behaviors, and acceptable speech. Yet, even with the outer display of goodness, the heart can be rotten.
Jesus rebuked the hypocritical Pharisees of his day saying:

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

— Matthew 15:8 (NIV)

Parents, this is surely not the result we desire when we correct or discipline our children. We want their hearts to change.

• God wants people with changed hearts.
• Jesus wants people with changed hearts.
• Parents want children with changed hearts.

Did you know that that is what repentance is really all about!?

At the heart of the New Testament word repentance is the idea of a changed mind or changed heart. God knew, and we intuitively know, that changed behavior without a changed heart is hypocritical. In contrast, a change in one’s thinking/attitude will naturally result in changed behaviors. Changed behaviors that are the result of discipline are known as the fruit of repentance. Repentance is always about the heart, about changing one’s perception to truth.

Whether we are correcting our children, or conversing with an unbeliever, or reflecting on our own lives, we must recognize that God desires the heart. We can demand behavioral changes; but even an animal trainer does that.

When the direction of the heart is changed, you can rest assured, the feet will follow.

Mark Stinnett

April 21, 2024

How Do You Love God?

The last four blog entries have been about different aspects of the Greatest Command:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.
—Mark 12:30 (NASB95)

As a teen we had a few cliché answers when asked about heart, soul, mind and strength:

• Heart = Emotions
• Soul = Inner being (whatever that is)
• Mind = Intellect
• Strength = Physical

Those associations might carry an element of truth, but they didn’t translate to daily life. I wish someone had pointed us to the example of King Josiah! (See last week’s blog entry.)

Now, did you notice the extreme repetition?

Jesus could have given us the short list: heart, soul, mind and strength. Yet, the repetition of and places emphasis on every single element in the list. Love God with all your heart…
   ...and that’s not all; there’s more...soul…
   ...and that’s not all; there’s more...mind…
   ...and that’s not all; there’s more...strength.

And it is not just that you love God with your heart, soul, mind and strength, but...

• ALL your heart and...
• ALL your soul and...
• ALL your mind and...
• ALL your strength.

So, how does that translate to daily life?

First, love is not a mere emotion. Love is a conscious choice desiring a relationship.

The one who loves God has made a conscious decision to pursue a relationship with God. He will do whatever it takes to initiate and maintain that relationship. It is an intentional decision that becomes the filter through which all perceptions, thoughts, life decisions, purpose, daily choices, speech and behaviors pass. It is a resolute and determined choice that generates a deep conviction that cannot be shaken.

Your love for God governs your relationship with family, not vice versa. God rules in your choice of career and the individual jobs you take, the friends you make, the way you spend your money, and even the way you vacation.

The threat of losing your relationship with God keeps you from being lax about sin. It cools your anger, encourages patience, curbs coarse language, removes envy and jealousy, dampens temptations to lie, steal, cheat, gossip and lust.

Your love for God gives you energy in life. He motivates you to get out of bed, to look at each new day with awe and wonder, to enjoy life in contentment without coveting the lives and possessions of others. Your love for God gives you purpose in your dead-end job, in your unfulfilling relationships, and in your mundane life.

Your love for God turns your listless daydreaming into thoughtful actions for others. Your love for God doesn’t let youth hold you back, doesn’t let the busy years exhaust you, and doesn’t let age wear you down. Regardless of your age, health, income, position, education and all else, your love for God moves you to love others.

Your love for God compels you to bow in awe and to stand in praise. You listen to Jesus because you love God. You embrace God’s people because you love God and they love God. Your love for God defines you, and you don’t worry about what other people think or how you look.

Your love for God gives you insight into this life and a vision of hope that peers into eternity!

Mark Stinnett

April 25, 2921

Do You Love God With All Your Heart?

Jesus said that the greatest commandment is:

You shall love the Lord your God 

     with all your heart, and 

          with all your soul, and 

               with all your mind, and 

                    with all your strength.
                         —Mark 12:30 (NASB95)

When God first gave this command to Israel, He said two things that help me better understand heart. The text is in Deuteronomy 6, and Moses told the people the reason for God’s instruction.

So that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God…. (v. 3)

Not only is fear of (reverence for) God found in the heart, but also fear of enemies and anxiety over life’s uncertainties. Kindness is in the heart, but also stubbornness. Courage is there, along with dread; gladness and also sadness. Pride is in the heart, so also, humility.

These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. (vv. 6-7)

Is God’s word on your heart? 

For that to be true, God’s word must be given the highest level of importance. If God’s word is on your heart, you will be attentive to God’s commands and will actively pursue God’s instruction in obedience.

In the heart a man is stirred to act, strengthened with conviction and filled with integrity.

The kings of Israel were often compared to David, who served God with a whole heart. Yet Solomon’s heart was turned away from God because of his many wives.

The one who loves God with all his heart longs to know God, desires to know His expectations, and follows without apology and without question. It is not that he cannot think for himself or apply reason to God’s word. Nor is it that he has complete understanding. Yet, his convictions are rooted in God’s instruction, and they define his perceptions and attitudes.

God’s instruction is not a goal to achieve, but a path to walk. It is a path walked with awareness, intent, confidence and unwavering commitment. It is a path walked with passion:

• King David could not contain his joy when the ark of the Lord was returned to Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 6:14-16)
• Isaiah was moved in his heart to take God’s message to His people. (Isaiah 6:8)
• Jeremiah could not contain God’s word within his heart. (Jeremiah 20:9)
• The first Christians poured out their hearts through generous gifts for fellow believers who were in need. (Acts 4:32-37)
• Some Christians showed heart by suffering persecution, even death. (Hebrews 11:32-40)

To love God with all your heart is to set Him above all other things in life.

Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 

—Hebrews 12:1-3

Do you love God with all your heart???

Mark Stinnett

March 28, 2021

Aren't You Glad You Can Eat Bacon?

I like bacon! I am so glad Jesus “declared all foods clean.” (Mark 7:19)

Do you think that was God’s expected response, “Yippee! I like bacon!”?

(Probably not.)

The laws about food in the Law of Moses can seem puzzling, especially since Christians are not restricted in their eating choices, at least, not restricted morally or religiously.

Pages and pages have been devoted to explanations of God’s imposed food restrictions on the Israelites. Some have explained the health benefits associated with God’s laws of cleanliness. One scholar, reasoning that pork is the finest of all meats, suggested that it was a test that God devised to see if Israel could refrain from such a delicacy. He failed to recognize that pork was not the only prohibited food. Not only that, not everyone would agree with his subjective assessment about pork. 

It is really about food???

Perhaps we’ve missed something.

In many ways the Law of Moses seems to have been behavior-oriented while the teachings of Jesus were different. Yet...I wonder...

When Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount He would say, “You have heard it said...but I say to you….” Many people today have mistakenly thought that Jesus was teaching something new. That is not the case. He had just said…

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law of the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 
—Matthew 5:18

He went on to say that the righteousness that God expected was not like the teachings of the Pharisees. They were so exacting in the literal obedience to the Law of Moses they created more restrictive laws that were precise and incredibly demanding. They had missed the point.

Paraphrasing, Jesus then taught: You have been taught, ‘Do not commit murder,’ but I tell you that whoever is angry with his brother is guilty. 

Jesus was not creating a new ‘anger law’ in place of the old commandment about murder. Rather, He was teaching the people that anger was the root of murder in the first place. Had they stopped and pondered the command, “Thou shalt not murder,” they would have reasoned that to avoid murder they must first deal with the anger of the heart. Murder is the conclusion of something that began in the heart: anger. Deal with the problem of anger and you’ve solved the murder problem.

The same path of thought applies to the other laws that Jesus addressed in Matthew 5:21-47.

• Adultery: Begins in the heart as lust. It is a desire in the heart that treats a person as a mere object of sexual satisfaction with little or no consideration for his/her humanity.
• Divorce: Begins in the heart with an unwillingness to sacrifice. It is a desire in the heart that makes selfish demands without consideration for commitment and relationship.
• Lying: Begins in a heart that fears or hates truth. It is a desire to manipulate circumstances by creating a false sense of reality. Lying is never sacrificial. Even when it protects another person, it is a purely selfish means of satisfying oneself.
• Vengeance: Begins in a heart refusing forgiveness. It is a desire to exact justice, yet ultimately justice on one's own terms. It fails to consider others as souls in needs of a Savior. It fails to consider God's justice.
• Hate your enemies: Begins in a heart of arrogant selective love. It is a desire to keep others out of one's own circle of acceptance. It fails to consider God's boundless (boundary-less) love.

Israel should have looked at the laws of God and found the core issue that made these things offensive to God, a heart in opposition to the very character of God. 

How do I know this?
Jesus taught that whatever comes out of the heart condemns a person. Go ahead and look it up. It is in Mark 7:20-23. It is right after Jesus “declared all foods clean.”

So, what about all the food laws and laws about cleanliness? God was teaching Israel about His own purity. 

To have a relationship with God, a person must be pure, just as God is pure in His divine character. And purity begins in the heart.

When you read the Bible, do you see God, or do you see rules...or just bacon???

Mark Stinnett

February 23, 2020

Refined

   The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, 
   But the LORD tests hearts.
   --Proverbs 17:3

The refining pot is not used to figure out whether the silver is really silver. Rather, it is used with fire to purify the stuff that is already there (i.e. silver).

The furnace is not used to figure out whether the gold is really gold. Rather, it is used with fire to purify the stuff that is already there (i.e. gold).

The Lord knows your heart, and he purifies by fire what is already there. That means that he challenges our faith and is even willing to bring difficulties into our lives to purify the stuff that is already there.

Life’s difficulties test our hearts, refining what is already there. Life's trials are uncomfortable and can make us feel weak. Yet, when we endure the trials, we can know that God has been cleaning out the stuff that drags us down and makes us weak. He is purifying the good stuff that is already there.

Now, here's an encouraging thought...

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.     --James 1:2-5

God is so wise. He refines his people.
Do you know why a person can find joy in the trials of life?
God is purifying you to be something in the future that is more beautiful and more precious than what you are today. He is transforming you into His likeness!

No Excuses

The boys did not know there were shallow places where they were diving. They buried their friend.

The driver did not know that there was a hairpin turn at the bend in the road. Three were lost.

The young boy did not know the gun was loaded, and his mother cried.

The realities of our natural world are often seen as brutal. It is so sad when young people ignore advice or take dangerous risks not knowing the likely consequences. It is not a comforting statement, but real, "Ignorance is no excuse."

We are well aware of this reality because of our own experiences or those we hear and read about. The laws of nature are unforgiving.

It is common, however, for people to look at society and morality and spirituality and think that things are different.

     If you say, "See, we did not know this," 
     Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? 
     And does He not know it who keeps your soul? 
     And will He not render to man according to his work?
     --Proverbs 24:12

There are consequences for actions in society and in the natural world...
and there are spiritual consequences for the choices we make.

Ignorance is no excuse.

I Really Fooled Myself

Humans are visually oriented. We generally picture a person’s face in our mind when we hear their name. Yet we understand that a person is much more complex than their face or the physical form that we see.

Many readers will remember the familiar Bible story of the anointing of King David. God had instructed Samuel, the high priest, to go to the home of a man named Jesse in order to anoint the next king over Israel. After Samuel arrived, Jesse brought his sons to Samuel.

Samuel looked at the oldest son of Jesse, Eliab, and was sure that God had chosen him. However, Samuel became confused when God rejected Eliab and six of his brothers. Ultimately, young David was called in from tending sheep. He was God’s choice.

God instructed Samuel, “...for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

(Read about it in 1 Samuel 16.)

We get it. God sees the inner person.

Unfortunately we sometimes fail with regard to our own selves. Not only are we sometimes tricked by the outer ‘shell’ of others, we can easily fool ourselves about ourselves. Solomon wrote:

     All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, 

     But the LORD weighs the spirits.

     --Proverbs 16:2

People are expert at justifying and rationalizing and explaining things to themselves. When things go wrong, we often rationalize and consider ourselves an exception (i.e. not guilty by virtue of good intentions). In general, people tend to behave as if they are right in their thinking, their decisions, and their behavior; always ready to go on the defensive if anyone challenges.

God cuts through all the exterior. He is not impressed with the outer shell and he is not fooled by the mental gymnastics of our internal rationalizations. God pierces through to the spirit and weighs, that is, evaluates the inner man.

We are completely laid bare before God.

Find confidence and peace in this reality.

• God is just. You cannot fool God. So, God will be just with you.
• God knows you better than you know yourself...and he still loves you.
• If you are not friends with God, he knows. Don’t fool yourself. Make peace.

Be wise.

Why Some Believers Hate God

Who in their right mind would be filled with rage against God?

The atheist would not rage against God; he doesn’t believe in God. So, this question must be directed to those who claim some degree of faith in or acceptance of God. So, who in their right mind would be filled with rage against God?

Isn’t it God who created the world?
Isn’t it God who created mankind?
Isn’t it God who breathed life into living things?
Isn’t it God who makes the sun shine and the rain fall on all men?

Who would rage against God . . . ?

   The foolishness of man subverts his way,
   And his heart rages against the LORD.
   --Proverbs 19:3

Here are a few important words in this proverb:

Foolishness - This describes the way of the fool first seen in Proverbs 1:7 who lacks understanding and discernment. He does not consider the consequences of his choices.

Subvert - means to twist or pervert.

His way - refers to one’s “way of life”; how a person thinks and conducts himself in general.

Rage - This anger word refers to an ongoing anger that affects one’s disposition (not just a flash of anger); vexation.

The proverb describes believers of our day who are filled with anger when they hear that God does not approve of their way of life. They are the sexually immoral who insist that the Bible does not condemn their lifestyle. They are the individuals who stand against anyone who would have the audacity to speak against their behavior. “Do not judge me,” they cry. They are the ones who cannot allow for biblical truth to contradict their established conclusions about life.

They are people who want to claim a belief in God, yet they discredit the simple teachings of the Bible. There seems to be something about God that appeals to them (perhaps, mercy and grace), however they have no intention of changing their thinking and behavior from their current way of life.

Because they lack understanding and discernment they have twisted the path of life on which they walk. They lack true knowledge of God. So, when they are confronted with the glaring reality of God’s unchangeable holiness, they refuse to accept the reality of their sin. Then, as a result, they lash out in rage against God.

It would seem that Solomon wrote this proverb for our day. It gives us insight into the mind of many in our society today who claim to be religious, even claim to believe in Christ, yet refuse God's divine revelation of scripture.

Be on guard. Do not let the foolishness of our age twist your way. Do not be influenced by those who rage against God!

Be wise.