HOW ABOUT YOUR HEART is a title of a spiritual song often sung years ago by gospel quartets.

Fran and I began our ministry on a full-time basis in June 1956. We began as Youth Director and Associate Minister of the Flint Bible Temple. Sometime in that year we had a local men's quartet as guest musicians in our church, and they sang this song. It is really a simple song, as much good gospel music is; but it gets to the real issues of life and over and over asks the question,

I'm not sure these are the correct words, and I don't remember all of them. But keep in mind I heard this song over fifty years ago and much of what I learned then is irretrievably lost somewhere in my mind.

Since this month is valentine's month and hearts of some shape will be everywhere, I thought it would be appropriate to write on a Biblical view of the heart--the human heart as seen by God.

I. THE HEART BY DEFINITION

When the Bible speaks of the heart, it could be referring to the physical organ inside the body. However, it is most often referring to the spiritual heart inside the soul--the part of man that loves, hates, emotes, wants, wishes, wills, acts, etc. It refers to the moral significance of that part of human nature that is in control of the emotions, reasoning process and our will to act.

The Greek word for the physical heart is "kaardia;" translated into English it is cardiac. It is the chief organ of the physical life; and as such, it is easily understandable how it became the term for the entire thinking, feeling and acting part of man. It often significantly controls both the rational and the emotional drive system of human life. It is from this transition of the word for heart that we use to speak of the inner springs of one’s true self. What is in the heart comes to the top as surely as what is in the well comes up in the bucket. Jesus said, "Where your treasure is there will your heart be also", Matthew 6:21. Again, it is stated that as one thinks in their heart so he will become in his life, Proverbs 23:7. Everyone at some time assumes they are the exception to this divine declaration. But God remains true, and we often fall because what we think in our hearts will most certainly control the behavior of our lives. If the heart is good so will the life be, and the converse is equally true.

II. THE HEART BY DECEPTION, Matthew 15:19,20

If a river is polluted at its source, the whole river downstream will also be polluted. One result of the human fall in Adam's rebellion against God's right to govern is the human heart became deceptive. Theologically, we speak of this as the "universal depravity of all humanity." It means that not only all people "are bent to sin as the sparks fly upward;" but that every part of every man is destitute of spiritual life and in comparison to God-demanded righteousness, we stand helpless and hopeless without any eternal spiritual self-redemptive qualities.

No one likes this diagnosis of the spiritual side of man, but then no one likes a physical diagnosis of a damaged heart either. Sometimes we need a check-up on both the physical and the spiritual heart. (My physical heart stress test took place this afternoon, and I came out of the test with a "very good heart". My spiritual heart is always being checked and tested by the Holy Spirit of God and the Holy Word of God, and I don't always get as good a report spiritually as I did physically. Don't take a chance with either of your hearts.

III. THE HEART BY DESIRES

As a young pastor I was interested in getting over the fear of public speaking. I took a special course designed for this purpose that was paid for by the Mott Foundation. Even though the class was very worthwhile I didn't conqueror that fear. In fact, that fear is as present now as it has been for about 15-16,000 public presentations. I still pray the same prayer as I walk to the pulpit or lectern, "Lord help me just one more time!"

In that first day of the class I was handed a short note with a subject that I was to speak on spontaneously for three minutes. The note said, "There are two tragedies in life; one is to not get your heart’s desire and the other is to get it."

What we desire with our heart must be guarded. While our desires can be very good, honorable and even Godly, they by nature will tend to be otherwise, Matthew 5:28; II Peter 2:14.

One of the saddest lessons I learned as a young believer was that God would often give me the desires of my heart and like others it often resulted in sorrow. In the Old Testament God many times gave people the desires of their hearts but they were accompanied with a saddened spirit.

The heart must be guided, Psalms 73:10-17, 23-24. The Psalmist Asaph attempted to cleanse his own heart before God with his own methods, only to learn that he was still plagued daily by failures and pain. He found out that human resources remain "slippery places" which would always cast him down, and he ended in "desolation". It was not until he understood his imperfect relationship to God that he was able to write, "I am continually with thee: thou has holden me by my right hand, thou shall guide me with thy counsel and receive me into glory." 

The heart must be guided, "thou shalt guide me with thy counsel", Psalms 73:24.

IV. THE HEART BY DEATH

Unlike the physical heart, the spiritual heart will not improve with planning, exercise, religion, philanthropic activities and good intentions. In fact, in complete contradiction to the physical heart the spiritual heart has to die and be created new.

Without demeaning the value of Christian counseling, I still want to write that counseling can never do what only conversion can accomplish. Lecturing to a dead person about the need for them to get up and go is of no value. A spiritually dead person, Ephesians 2:1 and Colossians 2:13, is as incapable of acting favorably toward God for their redemption as a physically dead person is unresponsive. Both need to be acted upon in a miraculous manner if they are to become alive. This is clearly the message of Jesus when He explained the gospel to Nicodemus, who in spite of being a masterful religious leader still needed to be "born again" by the Holy Spirit.

The scripture also presents the healthy spiritual growth process as one in which the heart must die to the solicitational calls of the world. The Bible does not offer a twelve-step self-improvement program for sin. It just asks us to die to all the things incompatible to the holy character of Christ. Dying to sin is different than compromising with evil or becoming stronger than the evil itself. Some texts that teach this spiritual death and alive principle would include the following: Romans 6:2,11; I Peter 2:24; and II Timothy 2:11.

V. THE HEART BY DEDICATION, Joshua 22:5; I Samuel 12:22-24

The need for a new heart is culturally conditioned. It is possible to be so caught up in a world that calls for Christians to be like it that we fail to stay dedicated to Christ.

Fran and I lived in Rochester, Minnesota, for twenty-two years. Rochester is not only the home for the Mayo Clinic and 46,000 medically related people, but it is also the home for about 35,000-50,000 Canadian Honkers. These large birds take over some of the downtown area, but most migrate back north at the appropriate times. However, many have become so adjusted to the free food and constant care of Rochester that they decide to live there year-around. Sometimes a few stragglers will look up and see the others heading north and hearing their call will fly up and join them. Yet, sadly, many become so adjusted to being in a foreign land that they no longer even hear the call much less respond to it.

The Bible still teaches that the believers are "strangers and pilgrims" in this world, and we are not to make it our permanent residence. We are just passing through! Maybe the churches’ comfort level world is too great that even when Jesus comes again He will have to get our attention with both a shout, the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God,

I Thessalonians 4:6. It will take a lot to awaken believers who have made their beds with the wicked and asleep to the claims and call of God.

VI. THE HEART BY DETERMINATION, Psalms 57:7

I have often wondered why David was so blessed by God when the scriptures reveal his many failures--failures he records himself! I can come up with no better answer than what the Holy Spirit tells us, he "was a man after God's own heart", Acts 13:22.

There is an observation that comes with the study of the sacred scriptures; namely, God functions with a divine/human cooperative. God does not work in people's lives in contraction to their wills. He may guide our will and instruct us in right living; but in the final analysis, man is responsible to follow God. God often waits for our determination to obey Him before He directs our lives.

David said he had "fixed" his heart on God. "Fixed" implies he had set his eyes on a subject in a certain direction and would not look away. "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise," Psalms 57:7.

VII. THE HEART BY DESIGN, Acts 15:9

The word heart is a word used in the Bible for the physical, spiritual, and decision capacities of people. By design its actions are the deepest experiences of an individual. It can love, hate, believe, reject, hurt and help. It can even know and interact with God.

When used in a spiritual relationship to God the Greek word used in the Bible is "psuche", meaning soul or life, Ephesians 6:6 and Colossians 3:12. The heart can be wicked and hardened against even the belief in God and rejection of redemption offered free and prepaid at Calvary. Hardness of heart is "sklerokardia" used in Matthew 19:8, Mark 10:5, and other places.

God has so designed the heart (soul) of man as the part of a person that is capable of knowing, loving and serving Him. The original creation took place in three distinct actions: 1) God formed the body and shape of man (physical), 2) God breathed life into man, and 3) man became a living soul, Genesis 2:7. Adam was created in the image of God as a tri-part person having body and spirit, I Thessalonians 5:23. With the heart we can know, worship and serve God. We can do the will of God from the heart, Ephesians 6:6; and we can do so heartily, Colossians 3:23.

The ability to receive Christ as savior is an action of the heart, involving both the rational as well as the emotional part of man. It involves both a mental and a moral judgment. Understanding that Christ's death on Calvary is the only possible payment for our sin is insufficient for redemption. The mental knowledge must be accompanied with faith and trust that come from the heart, Mark 11:23, Romans 10:10, Hebrews 3:12.

The Apostle Peter explained the reception of the Gospel in the earliest day of the church by saying the gospel is to be believed, in order to purify the heart by "faith" as a result of God's grace, Acts 15:7-11.

The heart needs the gospel.

GAA- 1/26/2007(f)