A Spiritual Heart Transplant

If you've never experienced heart problems before, you may not realise how vital it is for living life. Of course you know you need it to pump your blood, and if it stops you're in big trouble. But what about for living day to day life. Even when it's still going, if your heart is failing you can only live a shadow of a life. Forget playing sport; getting out of bed can be an impossible proposition.

So imagine a person waiting for a new heart. They are dreaming of being able to get up in the morning without difficulty, to climb stairs, walk the dog, play sport, play with their kids - live their life!

One day they get the call - there is a heart. They receive the transplant and a new, healthy heart beats in their chest. Life is no longer off limits to them.

Now imagine that person goes back home and just lays in bed again. They could live now, but they don't. They are just happy to know their heart works, but they don't bother using it.

Someone died for them to gain life, and yet they make no use of it. Wouldn't you imagine they would want to make the most of the new lease on life they have been gifted with?

Doing nothing seems crazy in that situation. And yet we do it every day.

The symbolic heart in us has been transplanted with Gods heart. Jesus died and rose again to give it to us so that we could have new life, and life abundant!

And yet we go back to laying in bed. We go on as if we have received nothing out of the ordinary. Just happy to get to heaven. The heart of God lies dormant in our chests. We are missing out on the joy and fullness.

Perhaps it is because we have lived so long with the old heart that we don't quite believe that it is possible that we can actually live differently.

Perhaps that person with the heart transplant is afraid of disappointment, of failure, of life not living up to their dreams and expectations.

Perhaps that is what we are afraid of. If we step out in faith that this new heart really has transformed us, that the power of God is in us... Will we be disappointed? The weight of disappointment seems far worse than the unrealised, shadow of a life we are now living, so we stick with what we know.

It's time we stopped wasting the gift of life we have been given. Jesus died to give us a transplant, to transform us. But the difference is that he also rose again and lives with us, to give us the power to live the full lives we have dreamed of. Being a Christian is about more than just making sure we get to heaven in the end.

Far from being disappointed with reality, we will discover that a life lived for Jesus is far richer and more satisfying than we ever imagined!

The old life is gone—and see—a new life has begun! (2 cor 5:17)

I will plant a new heart and new spirit inside of you. I will take out your stubborn, stony heart and give you a willing, tender heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit inside of you and inspire you to live by My statutes and follow My laws. (Ezekiel 35:26-27)

To become a better prayer, you have to do more than pray.

While browsing Pinterest I saw a pin that said "To become a better runner, you have to do more than run".

I thought about that. To be a good runner, you obviously do have to run. A lot. But if you want to become a great runner, you have to do more training than that. You have to stretch and keep flexible and protected against injury. You have to do different types of exercises and drills to keep your muscles in shape, your aerobic and anaerobic systems firing, and your overall fitness level high. You even have to eat and drink the right things.

I wondered - is it the same in our spiritual lives?

I think a lot of people want to be better pray-ers. How often have you sat down alone to pray and given up after a few minutes of feeling like you are talking to the air? Or have you avoided praying out loud in a group because you feel inept? Or prayed out loud but worried over every stilted word?

How often have you really seen results from your prayers?

There might be some (or many) of us who will never be great runners, but we are all built with the capacity to be great prayers. It's what we were made for.

Adam and Eve were the first great prayers - but their prayer just looked like walking and talking with God. We were made for that - to walk and talk with God as father and friend. It's meant to be the most natural thing in the world.

Sin separated us. But Jesus was sent to bring God's kingdom to us here, and we have access to that now through the Holy Spirit. We are meant to be great prayers.

So what's stopping us? Why does it sometimes seem like we barely know how to walk, let alone run, when it comes to prayer?

I think we should approach it more like a runner. An athlete competing in the Olympics doesn't just front up to the starting line after just sitting on the couch for a few months before hand. Not if they want to win. And how much more do we have to gain than a temporary prize?

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

And we are fighting an uphill battle. That direct connection to God through prayer is going to be the last thing the devil wants you to have - he's going to make it difficult for you. Making prayer life unsatisfying and seemingly pointless in one of the best weapons in his arsenal.

Prayer does more than just let God know about our needs and problems - he already knows all that. Prayer helps us know God. We get close to his thoughts, and get to know his plans.

So how to we 'train' to pray?

It's not just about becoming more eloquent or verbose. That's like a person putting on fancy shoes and a fashionable outfit and expecting it to win them the race.

We do all the things that God has given us to exercise our spiritual muscles. We read the Word. We fellowship with others. We pour out love.

We continue to pray, even when it hurts. Even if it's just a few words of, "God, I don't even know what to say."

The closer we get to God, the more we hear Him, the better prayer will get. It will never be what it was designed to be until we see Jesus again, but it doesn't have to be the stale, painful exercise that many feel it is right now.

Prayer is powerful. Prayer goes deep. Prayer brings us right to the feet of God.

Exercise your muscles and have faith that God wants you to hear him.

The biggest defences around our biggest insecurities

It's funny how often the things we feel like we least have to worry about, turn out to be the things that trip us up. Did I say funny? I meant ironic and annoying.


It could be the old 'pride before a fall' - we stop paying attention because we think it's all ok, and it gets away from us.


But sometimes it's because we are fooling ourselves.


Have you ever heard someone boasting about their skills and talents? Telling you how great their life is? If you don't immediately dismiss them thinking they are conceited and just don't know how to be humble, you may get the sneaking suspicion that they aren't all as together as their bluster is trying to prove.


We do this to ourselves, and it's a lot harder to pick. You rarely ignore yourself for being boastful and blustery.


What do you find yourself justifying? For what aspects of your life do you find yourself coming up with convincing arguments about why it's all ok? What are the biggest obelisks of personal pride in your life, the things that you will hold on to no matter what anyone else says? The things you are tempted to pursue and continue, even if others don't like it? The things you to which you say 'they just don't understand'?


Chances are, if you have to have conversations with yourself about something, you're putting up defences. 


We build the biggest defences around our biggest insecurities. 


I have been learning how to examine myself this year - to pull apart all my thoughts on shopping (through Project 3:11), on travelling and other dreams I equated with my identity and worth, on family life, marriage and being a woman.


In all these areas there were things that I was guarding and protecting, putting up fronts to convince everyone that I was secure in who I was. The problem with putting up a facade of security is that behind the scenes you are denying yourself the chance to actually be who you are. Who God created you to be.


We often pick up things - experiences, beliefs, behaviours - that at one time made us feel a spark of confidence, of self worth, of meaning and purpose. They did it once, and so we carry them with us, continuing to pursue those things hoping they will continue to work.


They may have started as good things. The problem is, we turn the things - our talents, our dreams, our ideas - into the objects of our pursuit instead of the One who gave us those things. And while we are busy chasing things that rapidly lose any ability to define us like they once did - and were only a pale reflections to begin with - we are missing the chance to get the real thing.


What have you put the biggest defences around? What are you holding on to most tightly to make you feel secure in who you think you are, or are meant to be?


If it's anything other than your identity and worth in God, then maybe it's time to examine these idols.


For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 1 Corinthians 3:11-13


It's not easy. I notice some things that feel so ingrained, so embedded in the bedrock of my emotional foundation, that it feels horribly unnerving to even imagine dislodging them.


But the amazing thing is, I don't have to do it alone. In most cases, I don't even have to do it at all.


If we start trying to pull everything apart ourselves, we will just end up dismantling our lives and being left with rubble. But if we are willing to surrender to God, to open our inmost selves up to Him, then he will take those things that aren't meant to be there and remove them. He takes those things out with more precision than the most skilled surgeon.


There have been things in my life that I have felt like I was struggling with forever, that I was convinced I would struggle with forever - nothing I tried seemed to be able to change it - and then in one moment with God...it was gone.


And unlike surgery, there hasn't been more damage done. You don't have to lie for weeks in a hospital bed and hope you don't get an infection.


And what you realise is, that thing you thought was to big, too foundational, too ingrained to move without everything else crumbling - you were never actually relying on it after all. Your self worth and value wasn't built on it at all. It was a false foundation. All this time you were built on God; everything is resting on him.


Any time God takes something out of our lives, it's a paradox. Normally if you take something away, there's a hole, an emptiness, a lack. But with God, if he takes it away, that space is filled with more of Him. You realise that thing you thought was too important to let go of, that you relied on too much to give over, was actually making you feel less worthy, less satisfied, less whole.


If you look around your life and notice some whopping great defences, don't be afraid to look behind them. Let God in to those places and you won't regret it.


Without those, you give God more room to fill your life with His purpose. The real thing is always better than a pale imitation.


Lay it down. Aren't you tired of carrying that heavy burden all by yourself? Aren't you tired of trying to hold up those defences?


I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Romans 12:1 


My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:26


"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you". Ezekiel 36:26-27.

God OFTEN gives us more than we can handle

One of the misquotations of the Bible that frustrates me most is when people say "God doesn't give us more than we can handle". It's meant to be a comfort, to tell us that things will never get so bad we can't handle it. And, oh, I know it's meant to comfort us that God is looking out for us. But it is an ill conceived and misleading comfort.

Firstly, nowhere in the Bible does God promise life will never serve us more than we can handle. In 1 Corinthians 10 it says that God will not allow us to be tempted more than we can bear, and when we are tempted he will provide a way out. This means that there is always the choice not to sin.

This has nothing to do with handling hardships and trials, which is what is implied in the misquotation.

It is no wonder people accuse Christians of simply having a god and a religion to make us feel better about the things that are out of our control, like God is a cosmic comforter blanket, when we ourselves treat him so. Like God is there to make sure, once we are Christians, that life is easy and cotton wool wrapped from the harshness of the rest of the world.

The fact is, God regularly gives us more than we can handle. He gives us responsibilities and challenges that are way beyond what we are qualified to deal with.

And while he doesn't give them to us, he also allows to experience events and circumstances in life that are heavy enough to crush us.

The important thing to remember in this is, along with what he gives us and allows us to experience, he also NEVER leaves us. We are too weak to handle much of what life will deal us - but God is not. There will be much we are given that we can't handle - but God can.

We have a responsibility to not be cotton wool wrapped Christians. We should know the words of God well enough to not misuse them and misquote them.

Saying God won't give us more than we can handle simply makes the people who feel like they are being crushed think that there is something wrong with them; it causes disillusionment with a god they think must have abandoned them.

It perpetuates an idea that Christianity is about being a safe distance from the world, on a fluffy cloud free from pain.

And that it is up to us to be strong. That there is something wrong with us if we are in pain.


If Jesus' life is any indication - and shouldn't it be every indication - being a Christ follower is not about a painless, cushy life. How can we expect treatment better than Jesus himself received?

But that shouldn't frighten us if we know the Rock on which we stand. When we know the Word of God, we know God. God may not have promised freedom from hardship in this life, but he is and has promised many things. Immanuel - God with us. Redeemer. Jehovah-Jireh. Almighty. Shepherd.

We have a God who is good. Who will never leave us nor forsake us.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him out of them all.. Psalm 34:19

We will be given and experience more than we can handle. And why? Because the point is not to rely on ourselves, on our own strength, but on a God who has overcome it all.

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. (2 Cor 1:8,9, emphasis mine).

Spreading the good news

I used to hate the word 'evangelize'. To me it brought up images of super outgoing people getting in other's faces speaking at them about stuff they didn't want to hear.

For me it was kind of a personal prejudice - I have to admit I was envious of the people who had the self confidence and out-going personality that made conversation with strangers easy.

But I also wondered what it achieved. I wondered if sometimes it was counter productive.

I know how uncomfortable I feel when random people approach me trying to talk to me about stuff. Even if it's about things I care about - being surprised on the street is not normally the place I want to talk to about it. So I normally decline politely and keep walking. Or try to avoid eye contact completely. (I want to apologize to everyone I ever walked past who wanted to talk to me... I probably make it way more awkward.)

But I've kind of changed my mind. Please don't start approaching me trying to sell me anything. But when it comes to evagelism, I'm not so afraid of the word anymore.

I realised - do I want people to know Jesus? Do I believe God wants people to know Him?

Then it's not about me. It's about them.

Those people who are searching and needing to hear the good news. The best news. The only news that really matters.

And you know what, it's not random. I think that putting ourselves out there willing to speak means we are giving God permission to use us - and He knows those people who need to hear it and when.

Approaching random people and talking at them still won't work for anything. But approaching people who God has already been speaking to, or who are in some stage of a journey in knowing Jesus - that's not random.

It's possible, but I don't think we are going to get 'conversions' every time we speak to someone about God. I don't actually think that's even the aim.

But being unafraid to speak about Jesus means another step, another piece, another moment in someone else's life that may just be helping to point them in the right direction.

Like Esther, if we don't do it, someone else will.

Not all of us are gifted at it - some people will walk the city streets on a Friday night and talk to all sorts of people. For others, we can start with those close to us. Those we maybe walk by, or say hello to, or buy our coffee from every day. Or even our friends, who maybe know we go to church, or that we are some 'Jesus' person, but with whom we've never actually had a conversation about faith before.

Start as small as you like. But start. Start speaking the name of Jesus, who the world so desperately needs. Don't keep Him to yourself.

1 Corinthians 2:4
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power


Peace and joy. (Romans 5:1-11)

Jessie.


But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Habit Forming.

The way you start out is the way you'll continue. It's hard to change.

For several years we have been living in government housing because as teachers we can get subsidised rent in the country. It's great to have such affordable living, and we were happy to compromise on the quality. We can overlook stains on the carpet, faulty plumbing and other little defects because it's so cheap.

Plus it also temporary. We were in the process of building our own band new house, so we were saving all the newness and the care for that. We stuck with our $10 garage sale couches because we knew we were going to be getting brand new ones eventually.

But we also didn't worry about taking too much care with the old stuff. It didn't matter if it got marks or scuffs. What's one more stain on the already dirty carpet. What does it matter if we go a bit longer between vacuuming or washing the floor. And forget working hard in the garden, or washing the windows regularly at all. We weren't careless, but we didn't give it the same level of care and diligence that we might a new house, or a house that was our own.

The problem is that for three years now, we have got into lazy habits. Now we have our own brand new house and we expect the care and perfect housekeeping to just switch back on automatically. We work hard on keeping our new house as new as possible, but it's difficult now. We're not used to it. And this house is bigger, and it's all very white and clean. It's an effort to relearn all the habits that we let slip away.

We treat lots of things in our lives like that. Not least of all our spiritual lives. 

God is for us

If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31b

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

God is for us, not against us.

He never asks us to do anything that will harm us - just sometimes our definition of harm is different from His.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Imagine you are facing a difficult situation - you may not have to think too hard. You might ask God to take that situation away from you, but again, you probably don't have to think too hard to remember a time when he hasn't.

What are you waiting for?

We're taught to want things immediately, faster, sooner...now, now, now. We're impatient when things don't happen quickly, and if we have to wait for something we'll often take a different option rather than wait.

I get impatient if a webpage takes more than 10 seconds to load. And if it takes more than 30...well, you may as well forget it.

So when God says

No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come." Mark 13:32-33

So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. Matthew 24:43-44

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.  Romans 13:11-12

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2

this has been interpreted as soon. Our definition of soon. As in, "Ok, I'm ready, where are you?"

But we've been interpreting it as our definition of soon for 2000 years or so.

And I'm sure most of us can think of other times in our lives where we've felt like God was saying he was going to do something, something we needed to be ready for. So we got ready. And then waited. A day, a week, a couple of months. Then when nothing happened, we either got angry at God for not keeping his word, or angry at ourselves for thinking it was God when it wasn't.

Only to discover, maybe even years later, that God's timing wasn't ours. We waited a few months, he was working over a few years. Even a lifetime.

The world teaches us to be impatient, to want things fast and now. The eternal God's definition of now, of soon, is vastly different to ours.

God keeps reminding me of this. He keeps saying to me "What is one year compared to eternity? What is one lifetime compared to Forever?"

That's a frustrating thought when we're in the midst of something we want to change. But it's actually a comforting thought when we really think about it. We know God always keeps his word, so when we know he's not acting immediately on our terms, we can be assured he's got the bigger picture in mind. If God was like the ancient Greek and Roman gods acting on fallible human whims and impulses we'd be in a whole lot of trouble.

We can be thankful God is eternal and knows a bigger picture than we can ever comprehend. Sometimes we just need to be patient.

So why does he use words like 'Now is the time', 'Be alert. Be on guard', 'You must be ready' when he wants us to be patient?

Because patience is not necessarily passive. Patience shouldn't go hand in hand with idleness or complacency. He wants us to wait with expectancy.

So if you are waiting for something, wait with patience, but with hope and expectancy. Expect that God will do great things. For he will, and he already is, even though you may not know it. And it may not come in the form you imagine or want, but we can always be assured of God's perfect Love and Goodness. He will be everything you need.

Wait! Good things are coming! Wait! Never before has the word wait seemed so exciting and promising!

Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. Psalm 27:14

Virtual Jellybeans & Right Company

This verse was on my mind this week from the message we heard (watched) on Youtube this sunday - isn't it great how when you can't go to Church you can at least bring part of the church to you.

But it was discussing the verse that I've chosen for my memory verse this week, - 1 Corinthians 15:33 - and it really struck home with me. It has been a issue for me my whole life - choosing who I spend my time with, and the influence of some poor choices.

Recently I have made some decisions to spend less time with certain people, because I recognised that when I was with them I was gossiping and talking negatively about others, and I didn't want to do that.

It is difficult to talk about this topic sometimes without sounding elitist and like I'm looking down my nose at others who aren't as 'good' as me - but I want to make it clear that it's not that at all.

In the case of me gossiping too much, it wasn't the people I was with causing me to gossip - I was choosing to do that, and in some cases initiating it. But it was being with people that didn't discourage it, and would join in, that gave me a sense of freedom to say things I wouldn't say with other people.

So in many cases is not that others make us act in ways contrary to what we know God wants from us - it's often that what is permissable, allowable or approved with some people lets us act in different ways.

It is not to say you are meant to shun anyone - but think about who you are allowing close enough to have influence in your life.

If you are committed to walking with God, and living the life that he has set out for us, then it is much more beneficial to closely surround ourselves with people who point us in the right direction; people who have the same values and morals and beliefs as those we are aiming to live by; people who won't pull away from where we want to be, but will pull us up when we stray.

What a naked woman in National Geographic taught me...

Look in a National Geographic magazine every now and again, chances are you will see some naked people.  For these people, they are not being rude or provocative - that's just how they dress. A woman with her boobs exposed is just a woman. She's got a grass skirt on, she's fully dressed.

It shows you that things aren't inherently sinful - it's the way we look at them.

It's like alcohol - for some people they may like to have an occasional drink socially or with meals, and they would be fine with that. For others, even having one drink would be the road back to destruction if alcohol dependency is a problem for that person.

So whether it's alcohol, money, sex, shopping, movies... These things aren't automatically evil - they can be good or bad things depending on how they are used. And depending on where our hearts are when we use them.

So does that mean we can do whatever we like, as long as it's not a problem for us?

Not exactly - even if it's not something that God has commanded against, like cold-blooded murder, we shouldn't do anything just because we can. If we take the naked people in other cultures as an example - Just because they do it there and it's fine, still doesn't mean we'd do it here.

Walking around without clothes on here is considered rude, provocative and illegal. Here it would offend people and make us uncomfortable, shocked or embarrassed. And if we did it knowing we would get these reactions then we're not doing anyone a favour.

Its the same with everything else. First of all you are accountable to God - so you need to be sure you are right with him.  Nothing is totally inherently evil, but nothing everything is worthwhile either. And secondly, we should be caring about how we are affecting other people. We want to build each other up, not cause others to stumble exercising our right to do what we like.

1 Corinthains 10:23-24 & 32

I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. ... Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God-

1 Corinthians 8:13

So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live--for I don't want to cause another believer to stumble.