Rosalind and I are very grateful that only our Cutlass was totaled yesterday and no one was injured. You can see the car by going to the church website. You can either click on all the blue lines at the bottom of the email or go to faithsonoma.com, then to “contact us,” then to my name “Tim’s” on Tim’s mobile and just click on it. I looked down for a moment at my radio, looked up to a decelerating car on 12 making a right hand turn onto Cavedale road. I slammed on my brakes and just managed to nick him before slamming my mint station wagon into the embankment. I remember paying close attention to the speed limit seconds before the accident to make sure I was obeying the law. (I’ve had problems with this as you know). What to learn from this?
Yes, any split second you take away from concentrating on driving can result in disaster. Keep your eyes on the road. Stay focused on the task at hand. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
The big lesson for me though is this: God sovereignly allows things to happen to us that help us really know what is in our hearts. To know what is our true “heart throb” is so eternally important. We can be fooling ourselves into thinking that Jesus is really our essential source of joy, security, satisfaction, self worth, when really, buried deep in our hearts, is what we are really holding on to for dear life. When our Heaven Father removes something from us, or heats up our lives in some way, He actually gives us the priceless opportunity to find out what is really in there.
Here are some key Scripture on this:
In Deuteronomy 6 Israel’s God commands his redeemed that He alone should the treasure of our hearts, 4 “Hear, O Israel
Then in Deuteronomy 8 the Lord informs his people of the purpose of that wilderness experience: 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
“I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
Jesus reminds us in the beginning of his most famous sermon that only the pure in heart will see God (Matthew 5 : 8
In Matthew 6 , Jesus gives us one of the most common things our hearts tend to latch on to: 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
In Matthew 12 , Jesus connects our mouths with the condition of our hearts: For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
In Matthew 15 Jesus quotes Isaiah 29 to get the super religious to take a deeper look at their spiritual condition:
“ ‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
While we are commanded to circumcise our hearts, Jeremiah tells us how impossible it is to actually change them:
…the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. (Deuteronomy 10 )
Can the Ethiopian change his skin
or the leopard his spots?
Then also you can do good
who are accustomed to do evil. (Jeremiah 13:3 )
But in Ezekiel we learn that God is all about exerting his loving covenantal power to change his people’s hearts:
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
26 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.
27 And I will put my Spirit within you,
and cause you to walk in my statutes
and be careful to obey my rules. (36)
And the writer to the Hebrews picks up that glorious promise in Jeremiah that the updated covenant sealed by the blood of Christ has internal power to transform our hearts rather than merely imposing upon us external law that, because of the weakness of our hearts, can only condemn us:
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people. (Hebrews 8 quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34 )
So, any inkling to turn to God in times of loss or stress is evidence of God’s heart-changing redeeming work in us.
Philippians makes this clear: 2 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
The loss of my car is a small thing compared to what Christians are facing in the Middle East . Even secular magazines are picking up on this horror. Click on http://www.thedailybeast.com/videos/2012/02/06/the-war-on-christians.html for recent news. But for any Christian, every loss can be viewed as the golden opportunity to find out what the heart really trusts, treasures, and obeys, and if it’s not Jesus, cry out to him for that deep change that He alone can grant.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (John 14 )
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you. (psalm 119:11)
Full of thanks,
Pastor Tim
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