Thoughts for another day

Nov. 29, 2012.

Today's verse: Eze. 11:19. And I will give them one heart [a new heart] and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony [unnaturally hardened] heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh [sensitive and responsive to the touch of their God], (Amplified Bible – copyright acknowledged)

(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

Ah, the sad story of man…he veers to the sinful as he moves on in life.  His direction is never toward God but always toward the other shore.  He's the quintessential follower of darkness and this, even as he seeks light, for the god of the world has blinded his mind (2 Cor. 4:4) and we know that Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin (Gal. 3:22). The only solution is the Lord Jesus Christ for He alone is God and only He can bend the slant of man's heart toward good.

No matter how much we try to be good, we constantly fail for our nature is sin and our direction isn't the narrow path, yet, when we come to the Lord, we're filled with hope for Jesus Christ is the Way and when we walk, lifted by His power, we walk with Him and He then changes us.  He gives us a 'new heart' so we can be one with the saints and He etches a new spirit within us.  He takes away our stony hearts - stony by the layers of rock like sin piled on it, which increases our desire to go against God every moment of our lives.

Our struggle with sin isn't a onetime struggle either.   It's constant and can lead to great exhaustion, particularly when we fall and offend our Precious God.  But in that fall itself, comes the awesome Grace of God which bends to pick us up.  There is a sweet sound about our rise from the fall propped up by Grace and the refrain can be heard from heaven's ramparts; for I believe there's great joy in heaven in the repentance of one sinner.  That sinner could be me or you and we could receive a heart of flesh to behold the God who loves us and obey His statutes.  Let's rise from our webs of deceit and despair and move unto the Lamb of God, who has loved us and died for us.