The Heart of the Matter

by Carolyn Porter

For the past six weeks I have been helping to care for my brother-in-law who is recovering from a hip fracture. A cursory glance reveals a somewhat frail, 84-year-old man who is quite deaf and suffers from moderate dementia. But I know him as a very gentle, intelligent and honorable man whom I esteem highly. As I look at him and the other patients in the rehab facility, I am reminded that what one sees on the surface doesn’t always reflect the true nature of the person.

Even the godly Old Testament prophet Samuel had to learn this lesson when he was sent by God to anoint the next king of Israel after Saul. Samuel thought he knew whom God had chosen, but God reminded him that “…man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart”  (1 Samuel 16:7).

Although we may fool others about the true nature of our hearts, God is never fooled. In fact, God declares, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9).  It cannot be reformed by our efforts; our hearts must be redeemed by God’s grace. Then after we have come to Christ for salvation, God wants us to cooperate with Him as He seeks to transform our hearts to be like His.

The biblical meaning of “heart” refers to one’s mind, will and emotions. God commands us to think about those things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and of good repute (Phil.4:8). The more we read and study the scriptures, the more we come to realize how corrupted our minds are by the world’s values. As the computer adage goes: “Garbage in/garbage out.”

The heart of man also encompasses the will of man.  Our wills provide the determination to carry out our thoughts.  Having godly thoughts is commendable, but living them out day by day requires dogged perseverance that comes from a will surrendered to God. Wishing won’t make it happen.

The heart of man also includes our emotions—what we love/esteem and what we hate. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our hearts and to love others as ourselves. How do we turn from our natural self-centeredness and put God and the welfare of others first? We can do this only by immersing ourselves in God’s Word, persistent prayer and cooperating with the Holy Spirit as He uses circumstances to mold us into His image. Here is a tip I learned a long time ago: When you don’t want to do God’s will, pray for the will to want to do His will.

God says, “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16)  Let us pray that our hearts (mind, will and emotions) will be changed day by day to be more like His so that we may be honorable vessels in His service.

Suffering From Hearing Loss?

by Carolyn Porter

When my sister and I were children, our austere German father had a favorite saying: “Keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut.”  Though it may sound a bit harsh that admonition contained  a great deal of wisdom. What my dad was trying to convey was that we needed to be less preoccupied with our own thoughts and words and more attuned to what was happening around us.

The more I read Scripture, the more it becomes evident that throughout history, God has been trying desperately to communicate with man.  Unfortunately, man’s problem is that he is often hard of hearing, not physically but spiritually.  We are all more inclined to listen to the advice of others than to the God who created us and loves us.

In Luke 8:18 Jesus tells His followers: “…pay attention how you hear.  To those who listen to My teaching, more understanding will be given.  But for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them” (NLT).

In other words, how well we listen to God will determine our spiritual maturity.  In our current series Experiencing God, we are learning that our heavenly Father desires to have a close, loving relationship with us, and that  we  need to be sensitive to where He is working so that we can join Him in His work.

Indeed, the success of our whole Christian life hinges upon how well we listen to God.  When an individual goes to an ear specialist, one of  the first things  the doctor checks for is buildup of wax in the ear canal.  Just as excess wax in our physical ears can impair our hearing, there are barriers to hearing spiritual truths as well.  One of these impediments is harboring sin in our hearts.  When we refuse to give up some pet sin in our lives,  the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit becomes increasingly hard to hear.  Busyness is another ear clogger as we allow the responsibilites and cares of our lives to drown out the voice of God.  Even good things can dull our hearing when we care more about our favorite hobbies than listening to God’s Word and spending time in prayer.

The last part of Luke 8:18 is a shocker: Jesus said that even what we think we understand will be taken away from us if we refuse to listen well to God.  How tragic to lose what spiritual wisdom we may have gained in the past because we refuse to listen in the present!  O Father, may it be our heart’s cry this year to live so close to You that we will be sensitive to Your voice and obey readily when You invite us to join You in Your work.

The Joyful Harvest

by Carolyn M. Porter

I always loved harvest time on the farm when I was a child.  It was an exciting time, filled with a sense of urgency to get the crop in when it was at its prime and before inclement weather could interfere.  Harvesting the oat crop was especially a highlight because it occurred in midsummer and consumed so much of our time and energies.  We did the harvesting ourselves, just my parents, my sister and I.  My father would drive the tractor while I sat on the binder which cut and tied the grain into bundles. I was responsible for dropping the bundles in designated places on the ground.  After cutting the grain, all four of us would “shock” the bundles of grain which meant setting them up, eight bundles at a time, like teepees to dry in the summer sun.  When they were dried sufficiently, we would “pitch” the bundles onto a wagon to be taken to the threshing machine which would separate the heads of grain from the straw and store them safely in the barn for use the following winter as food and bedding for the animals.  The successful completion of the harvest gave us a feeling of great joy and satisfaction in a job well done.

Ancient Israel also celebrated its harvests.  Pentecost, which occurred 50 days after the beginning of Passover, was a celebration and thanksgiving for the early spring harvest.  In New Testament times, Pentecost became the commemoration of the day when the early believers received the Holy Spirit, enabling them to testify powerfully to the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ.

When Jesus was still on earth with His disciples, He told them to observe that the fields were ready for harvest. He wanted them to realize the urgency of the task He had for them to do–to spread the good news of the Gospel to their world.

God has left each one of us believers here on this earth with the same task: to testify to the great salvation available to the individual through Christ our Lord.  There is always a sense of urgency when it is harvest time.  The crop can pass its prime if harvested too late, or a heavy storm can devastate the ripe crop in a matter of minutes, causing great loss.  So it is with the spiritual harvest. If we procrastinate, a person’s openness to the gospel may have passed, making it difficult to reach him for Christ, or the circumstances of life and/or death may take that person out of our sphere of influence forever.

Let us sense the urgency of the task we have as workers in the harvest field.  We must be daily, hourly, about our Father’s business.  We are in the last days, and many have not yet come to Christ for salvation.  May we be found faithful as ready and willing workers in God’s harvest field.

Truth or Consequence

by Carolyn M. Porter

The Pharisees detested Jesus.  They spied on Him in order to catch Him in some doctrinal error against the Mosaic Law or in a treasonous act against the Roman government.  The Pharisees had declared war on Jesus, and they were determined to pursue Him to His death.

Why did they hate Jesus so?  The Gospel narrative reveals that Jesus was a threat to their power and prestige as religious leaders.  They lorded it over the people by insisting on strict adherence to the Mosaic Law and its manmade traditions in the tiniest detail.  Jesus, however, accused them of keeping the letter of the Law but neglecting the weightier matters of justice, mercy and faithfulness.  Jesus exposed their hypocrisy, comparing them to “whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matt. 23:27 NASB)–a scathing insult to any Jew, but especially to the Pharisees who prided themselves on being ceremoniously clean.

John 1:17 says that “…the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” (NASB).   The Pharisees were well versed in the Law, but they didn’t know what to do with Jesus, whose life and words revealed the blazing truth of God’s holiness and man’s utter depravity.  Jesus was the embodiment of God’s grace; to accept Him as their Savior meant to receive the Father’s free gift of salvation.  It meant that the Pharisees had to humble themselves by admitting they couldn’t save themselves by their own merit or good works.

Jesus was also the fulfillment of the Law.  When He, the sinless Son of God, died on the cross He became the perfect sacrifice for our sins.  From that point on the Jewish rituals of animal sacrifice for sin became obsolete.  And thus the Pharisees were potentially in danger of joining the ranks of the unemployed.

How is it with you?  Do you persist in trying to earn your way to heaven by your own good works, or have you come to realize your utter inability to become right with God on your own terms?  Have you accepted the free gift of salvation that God offers through His Son?  For those of us who have come to know Christ as our Savior, we need to ask ourselves a different question:  Am I living a life of truth by obeying the Lord’s Word, or am I a hypocrite—appearing outwardly religious but still living life on my own terms?

We need to accept the truth or suffer the consequences.  To deny that we need God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ is to condemn ourselves to an eternity without God.    To be a believer in Christ yet live life on our own terms is to consign ourselves to a life of spiritual barrenness. May God help us daily to make the right choice.

 

Sitting on His Lap

by Carolyn M. Porter

Imagine that you, a five-year-old, are with your parents and others who have come to see Jesus.  With your parents’ encouragement, you toddle up to Jesus. Welcoming you with open arms, He picks you up and  puts you on His lap.  One of Jesus’ disciples tries to shoo you away, but Jesus rebukes him.  Jesus tells the people around Him that the Kingdom of God consists of little ones like you.  You don’t understand what He means, but His smile and embrace are so warm, you feel right at home in His presence.

What was Jesus trying to convey to His audience when He said that the kingdom of God consists of people who are like little children?  First of all, as a small child, you are dependent upon others.  You have no problem running to your parent to ask for whatever you want or need.  However, as you grow older, you will tend to pride yourself on your self-sufficiency.  In the spiritual realm, however, that attitude is dangerous.  God wants us to come to Him as a child coming to his father, telling Him our needs and asking for His help and wanting His guidance.

Secondly, as a young child, you realize that you are quite inexperienced in the ways of the world.  You know that you need to learn many things in order to survive and to succeed. The  Scriptures say that God resists the proud but gives grace (His abundant enabling) to the humble. In order for God to be willing to help us, He requires that we ask with true humility.

Innocence is another quality that you have as a young child.  You trust your parents as good, dependable and safe providers.  As you grow older, however, you will probably become more cynical and distrustful of others, including God.  But the Scriptures say that God is always good, He is trustworthy in every situation, and He always keeps His promises.  In order to have this childlike trust in God, you and I need to come to know Him in a very personal way.

Lastly, as a five-year-old, you crave fellowship with your parents.  As any frazzled mother will tell you, her small children clamor constantly for her attention as she tries valiantly to complete her household chores.  Our heavenly Father does not have the limitations of earthly parents.  He is never too preoccupied or stressed to listen to us when we call upon Him in prayer.

Let’s look again at that picture of you reveling in the arms of Jesus.  Does it describe the kind of relationship that you and I have with God?  Let’s take out God’s Book today, figuratively climb up into His lap and get to know Him better—the One who created us and who wants to be our heavenly Father and our Savior.

The Visit of the Magi

by Carolyn M. Porter

Christmas had come and gone for Joseph, Mary and Jesus.  In fact, a year or more may have passed by the time the Wise Men arrived in Jerusalem looking for the newborn king. How surprised King Herod and the religious elite must have been to hear how far these foreign dignitaries had traveled to pay homage to the Christ child.  After the scribes and chief priests directed the wise men to Bethlehem, they traveled the last eight miles to visit the family there.

Why do you suppose God included this passage in His Word?  Perhaps God wanted us to know to what great lengths He will go to capture someone’s attention.  He even sent a unique star to these pagan astrologers to guide them to the Christ child.  Even today, we hear accounts of God reaching down to Muslim people who have no access to the Bible, bringing them to authentic faith in Christ through dreams and visions.  What about you?  Have you been aware of the ways in which God has touched your life and tried to reveal Himself to you?  Have you responded in faith to this God who seeks to bring you to Himself?

God also wanted us to know that Christ came to save the Gentile as well as the Jew.  This was an utterly foreign concept to the Jewish people who tried to avoid the larger Gentile world as much as possible. They didn’t care that the rest of humanity was perishing without the knowledge of the one true God that they were privileged to worship.

God had led a foreign delegation to King Herod’s doorstep to inquire about the new Jewish King, yet the chief priests and scribes seemed oblivious that something of great importance had happened right in their midst.  They didn’t even bother to travel the eight miles to Bethlehem to investigate.  Herod, on the other hand, wanted to find Jesus to murder Him because He was a threat to his rule.  How about you?  Do you ignore God’s Word and the Savior it exalts because you are too busy with your own concerns to consider His claims on your life?  Or are you like Herod, not wanting Him to become your sovereign because you want to rule your own little kingdom?

As we close out the old year and move forward into 2011, let’s ask God to liberate us from our comfortable cocoons and give us a heavy burden for the lost. Let’s pray that speaking for Christ will become a passionate way of life.   But where do we start?  We can begin by making a list of our relatives, friends and acquaintances and praying regularly for them.  Let’s also start praying for the thousands of foreigners who have come to live and work in the Chicago area and make an effort to connect with some of them.  Perhaps God intends to use you and me to bring many of them to Christ!

 

Mary Visits Elizabeth

by Carolyn M. Porter

After the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to announce that she would bear the long-awaited Messiah, Mary hurried to visit her cousin Elizabeth.  She turned to the one who would most likely understand her situation.  After all, the angel had said that the elderly, formerly barren Elizabeth was experiencing a miracle pregnancy of her own!

Mary and Elizabeth were both godly women.  God knew that He could trust each of them to fulfill the task He had for them.  Mary, who was probably just a teenager, accepted Gabriel’s news with profound faith and a willing heart.  The elderly Elizabeth too had served God faithfully through the years although God had never answered her prayers for a child of her own until now.

Both women exhibited great humility.  Mary spoke of her low estate as a bondslave to God, and Elizabeth was humble enough to salute Mary as the mother of her Lord.  Though far older than Mary and having the status of the wife of a Jewish priest, Elizabeth did not resent the fact that Mary would be the mother of the Messiah and not her.

We can imagine that both women joyously planned together for their children’s future, yet deep within they could have been experiencing gut-wrenching anxiety:  Mary, because she would undoubtedly experience scorn and unbelief from family and townspeople, and Elizabeth, because she would bear and raise a child in her old age.  The Scriptures, however, reveal nothing but praise to God and joyful expectation of His plans for them.

Mary and Elizabeth can teach us much about living a joyful, victorious life as a believer.  When God wants to use us, do we live so close to Him that He can trust us with His plans, or are our minds so cluttered with this world’s affairs that He cannot even communicate with us?

Do we accept God’s will with faith and an obedient heart, or do we hide in unbelief and fear when He invites us to join Him in His work?

Do we seek the counsel of godly people to help us face the uncertain future, or do we run to the world for advice because God’s plan seems so improbable and inconvenient?

At this Advent season, let us delight ourselves in God as Mary and Elizabeth did.  Let us be much in God’s Word and commune moment by moment with Him in prayer so that, when He asks us to do some task for Him, we will readily and joyfully obey.  Then we will become strong, faithful followers of God as Mary and Elizabeth were, and we can sing with Mary:  “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!”  May this be our experience this Christmas season and into the coming year.

The Pillar of Creation: I Believe in a Creator God

by Carolyn M. Porter

Nothing delights me more than observing an exquisite flower or a playful animal in the wild.  I have always found the natural world enjoyable and intriguing.  As a child   I had no trouble believing in a Creator.      In fact, I spent many happy times singing praises to Him for His creation.

In my college years, however, my faith in an Intelligent Designer wavered.  In fact, my freshman philosophy class left my childhood faith in tatters. But in my junior year I came face to face with the claims of Jesus Christ through the study of God’s Word.  It brought me full circle to faith in a Creator God.  Why?

The Bible states that the earth declares the glory of God. It is true that the universe fairly shouts the orderliness of creation.  In fact, mankind would be hard pressed to make any scientific progress if he could not count on the unchanging laws of the universe. The orderliness of nature points to an ultimate Lawgiver who designed and maintains the universe.

Equally compelling is the evidence of the irreducible complexity of the living cell which is considered to be the elemental building block of all living things.  Evolution teaches that all things developed from a single cell, yet the more we discover about the natural world, the more complex we find even the simplest structures to be.

Another reason that I believe in a Creator God is the existence of moral law.  Although societies differ in their moral codes, everyone has some concept of what is right and wrong.  Just ask any individual if it would be morally right to steal from him or to murder him!   If we are just the products of random chance, there is no meaning to the terms right and wrong.

I have come to believe in the inerrancy and truth of scripture and that it is God’s Word to humanity.  The integrity of the Bible is attested to by many reliable historical documents and archaeological finds.  The Bible points to a Creator God who desires to have a personal relationship  with the creatures He has designed in His own image.

The ultimate reason, however, that I believe in a Creator God is that life without Him would be meaningless.  If my existence resulted from random chance, then my life has no purpose.  But God’s Word teaches me that my life purpose is to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever.  Not only do I have physical life now, but I have an immortal spirit that He has chosen to redeem so that I may spend eternity with Him!

As the Apostle Paul declared: “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?  Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again?  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:34-36).

Not Just Somehow But Triumphantly

by Carolyn M. Porter

As a young child, I faced many trials because I was very good at losing things. When I was about 5 years old, my father allowed me to play with a hammer and a few nails on the floor of the haymow.  He cautioned me to be very careful not to lose any of the nails because they could cause a flat tire, or a cow might accidentally ingest the nails while eating hay.  A short while thereafter– you guessed it–I misplaced one of the nails.  Frantically I prayed to God to please help me find it, and He did!  I have never forgotten that first dramatic answer to my prayers.

As a young adult, I remember hearing a wise pastor say, “You are either facing a trial now, or you will face one soon, so you had better get prepared for it.”  I determined from that point on to prepare myself so that I would be able to bear my trials victoriously.  Over the years, I have faced many trials–financial worries, chronic illness, wrongful accusations from loved ones, work woes, utter loneliness.  I learned that God is not only concerned that I bear my burdens, but that I handle them with the right attitude.

I recently read an article by Pastor/Evangelist Greg Laurie called “Lord, Prop Us Up” which sums it up much better than I could:

“Every time I am asked to pray, I  think of the old fellow who always prayed, ‘Lord, prop us up on our leanin’ side.’ Someone asked him why he prayed that prayer so  fervently.  He answered, ‘Well sir, you see, it’s like  this…I got an old barn out back…it’s gone through a lot of  storms, and it’s stood for many years. But one day I noticed it was leaning to one side a bit. So I went and got some pine poles and propped it up on its leaning side so it wouldn’t fall.

“Then I got to thinking about that and how much I was like that old barn. I’ve been around a long time.  I’ve withstood a lot of life’s storms. But I find myself leaning to one side from time to time, so I like to ask the Lord to prop us up on our leaning side, ’cause I figure a lot of us get to leaning at times.

“Sometimes we get to leaning toward anger, leaning toward bitterness leaning toward hatred, leaning toward cussing, leaning toward a lot of things that we shouldn’t. So we need to pray, ‘Lord, prop us up on our leaning side, so we will stand straight and tall again, to glorify the Lord.’”

God allows trials in our lives to mature us and make us more like His Son.  God is always ready to “prop us up” and give us abundant grace to weather our trials. May we learn to appropriate His grace to go through our trials, not just somehow, but triumphantly.

A Rowdy Remembrance

by Carolyn M. Porter

Hissing, boos and the din of noisemakers punctuate the air whenever Haman’s name is mentioned during the reading of the book of Esther in the synagogue during the celebration of Purim.

The word Purim comes from the word Pur which refers to the casting of lots by the evil Haman to determine the day to massacre the Jews throughout the Persian Empire around 475 BC.  Although Purim was considered a minor festival in ancient times, it has been elevated to a major Jewish holiday, given the uniqueness of Jewish history.  Over the centuries, Purim has become a joyous affirmation of the survival of the Jewish people against all odds.

So what significance does Purim have for us in the 21st century?  First of all, the survival of the Jewish people from ancient times is a miracle of God.  Since the time of Abraham, the Jews have been God’s chosen people.  Through them, we have the Old Testament which teaches us about God.  He promised Abraham that through his seed all nations of the world would be blessed.  Jesus Christ fulfilled that promise because He came not only to be the Jewish Messiah, but to be the Savior of all those who would put their trust in Him as God’s Son.

The story of Esther is unique because God’s name is never mentioned, yet we see Him working throughout the saga to deliver His people through Mordecai and Esther.  Esther is a woman of great beauty both physically and spiritually.  She is devoted, disciplined and mature.  Through the encouragement and instruction of her cousin Mordecai, she comes to realize that perhaps she was elevated to the throne as queen in order to save her whole race from extinction.

Mordecai is like a father to Esther, a loyal citizen of Persia, and a man of principle.  He refuses to bow to Haman, a very arrogant, evil man who is a descendant of the Amalekites, an ancient enemy of the Jews.  Together, Mordecai and Esther courageously expose Haman’s demonic plot to exterminate the Jews.  They devise a plan, approved by the king, to allow the Jews to defend themselves against their enemies.

The plan to denigrate, threaten and then kill a group of people is not uncommon.  We have seen it happen throughout history.  In our own time we see the rise of evil forces against Christians in many parts of the world today.  But we can take heart that the God of the Hebrews is our God also, and we can entrust our lives to Him.

Like Mordecai, we need to imbue our children with their true spiritual identity as God’s people and teach them by example how to live disciplined, mature lives.  Like Esther, we need to live out the spiritual truths we have been taught and take a courageous stand against evil.  As His redeemed people, God has a plan for each of us “for such a time as this.”