Kinds of hearts in the Bible

God searches and knows all hearts

1 Samuel 16:7 

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

1 Chronicles 28:9 

“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

Jeremiah 17:9-10 

9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

10 “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”

Ezekiel 11:5 

Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon me, and he told me to say: “This is what the LORD says: That is what you are saying, O house of Israel, but I know what is going through your mind.

Luke 16:15 

He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.

Romans 8:27 

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

Hebrews 4:12 

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Hard

Deuteronomy 15:7

  If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother.

Psalms 95:8

 Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert,

Hebrews 3:8

 Do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert,

Mischievous

Proverbs 28:14

 Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

Proverbs 22:15

 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.

Romans 12:1 

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

Love is an act of your will

By Jon Walker

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34 NIV)

Fellowship — Love is an act of your will.

That may fly in the face of falling in love, or your notions of romance in the moonlight. Now, don’t get me wrong – there’s plenty of room for romance in God’s world, but it pales in comparison to how the Great Lover sacrificed to bring you into oneness with him.

That Great Lover, God Almighty, says we must choose to love one another. We’re to love other believers regardless of how we feel about them or how unlovable they may appear.

No matter how difficult it may seem, we’re to actively, consistently, and deeply love the believers God brings into our lives, our congregations – and our Bible studies.

Love is a command; our decision to love is an act of obedience. God considers loving one another so important that he told us we must do it. (1 John 4:21) It is a lesson so important that the Apostle John consistently describes love and obedience as synonymous: If you love Jesus, you will obey his commands. (John 14:15, 23-24; 15:12, 14, 17; 1 John 2:3; 5:3; 2 John 1:6)

Why is obeying connected with love? Because it reflects unity among believers, a oneness of spirit that is foundational to our union with God, a necessary element of all true and anointed kingdom work: “The message you heard from the very beginning is this: we must love one another.” (1 John 3:11 TEV)

Christ crushes the myth that love is based on feelings. He pushes the definition of love to a higher level – where behavior and beliefs combine into godly action. Love is no longer a schoolyard romance or a relationship dictated by compatibility. Rather, real love is – and has always been – a mother stumbling to her baby’s crib for the fifth time in one night, or a passenger giving up his place on a lifeboat to save someone else from a sinking ship. Love is Christ on a cross, dying for us – even while we were still lost in our sins. (Romans 5:8)

Jesus requires us to view other people as highly valued children of God, well worth of our time, attention, and energy. As members of God’s family, we must choose to love, not selectively choose who to love.

Love requires community. We cannot obey Christ’s command in isolation. We must be connected to other believers in order to “love one another.” Being in community with other Christians forces us to drop our “relationship fantasies,” where everyone we know is easy to get along with and every conflict is resolved in happy compromise.

God shaped each one of us differently, and he knows we all bring different perspectives and needs into any community. The hurts, habits, and hang-ups present in any group of believers create potential for conflict, but God’s design is to use that conflict to help us grow in Christ.

So what?

• Love carries high standards – Jesus says we are to be to one another what he is to us. The love of Christ is selfless, sacrificial, and submitted to the Father’s will. His standard of love is personal, reaching out to the undeserving, looking past their faults and into the desperate needs of their hearts. Relying on God’s grace, begin moving toward that standard.

• You cannot meet the standard – God’s standard is so staggering we can reach it only by relying on the spirit of Christ within us. To paraphrase Galatians 2:20: “It is no longer just I who loves, but Christ who loves in me. And this unlovable person that I now love, I love by the faith of the son of God, who loved this unlovable one first and gave himself up for this person I incorrectly see as undeserving of my love.”

• Love is more than the minimum – Our love is not to be measured by the minimum of what we can do, nor is it to be limited only to those who appear deserving. Our standard for real love is that God “… loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins … since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.” (1 John 4:10-11 NLT) How would your relationships with other believers change if you began to love them with the standard of Christ?

Some of the “One Another’s” of the New Testament

Instruct one another.

Romans 5:14 

Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

Greet one another.

Romans 5:16 

Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.

Serve one another.

Galatians 5:13 

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

Carry one another’s burden.

Galatians 6:2 

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Ephesians 4:2 

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Be kind and compassionate to one another.

Ephesians 4:32 

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Death

For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise mans too must die! – Ecclesiastes 2:16

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. – 2 Timothy 4:6-8.

We can do so with joy! While some view death as ending all, the Word of God does not agree—eternal pain awaits the fool; unending joy the wise will see.

Those who are prepared to die are prepared to live. Death is the last chapter of time, but the first chapter of eternity. What will the next chapter be for you?  It will be written sooner or later, either in heaven or hell. Remember, when your time comes to die, that is not the end your story is “to be continued”—but where? We will see Him.

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”…Revelation 22:1-4

As Christians, we know little of what is on the other side of death, but we do know little of what is on the side of death, but we do know one thing—our Master and Savior is there, and that is  enough! When the door opens, we shall pass through the gladness, for we shall see Him.

Yes, if we know Jesus as our Savior, when we consider our death, it is enough to know that we shall see Him.

Ready to go home: as life’s shadows lengthen, thoughts of God should deepen. Praying should come more easily. Communion with the Father in heaven should be as natural as breathing. Thoughts of seeing Jesus and going home should increasingly occupy our minds. That’s how we’ll know we’re ready to go home.

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain”…Philippians 1:21. For the Christian, the real story is heaven—endless life and joy with Jesus! “To live is Christ”, which means joyful service, as well as suffering and grief. But “to die is gain”. Then, the real story begins! When a Christian dies, he has just begun to live.

Friends, at death you won’t leave home—you’ll go home.

Wanted: Friends who don’t believe

By Jon Walker

“Be friendly with everyone. Don't be proud and feel that you are smarter than others. Make friends with ordinary people.” (Romans 12:16)

In The Message paraphrase, 2 Corinthians 5:20b is rendered: “Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.” That’s the message we’re to take to the world, yet often we limit our influence by seeking and maintaining friendships exclusively among other believers.

Jesus, on the other hand, sought out the lost, deliberately becoming friends with those who needed a friend in God.

The Bible says that when the Pharisees saw Jesus keeping company with the community’s great unwashed, “they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. ‘What kind of example is this from your teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?’ Jesus, overhearing, shot back, ‘Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.” (Matthew 9:10-13)

Jesus knew who he was, according to God’s design; Jesus knew whose he was, according to God’s truth; and Jesus knew his purpose for being here on earth. All this allowed him to relax and ignore what others thought or said about him.

It meant Jesus wasn’t worried when others accused him of being a friend of sinners (Luke 19:7) because he was doing exactly what the Father sent him to do: persuade men and women to make peace with God (2 Cor. 5:20).

Likewise, we’re to represent Jesus, speaking on his behalf to those still on the “outside.” Yet some of us are so isolated and disconnected from unbelievers that we rarely have any meaningful conversations with them. The tendency is that the longer we’re believers, the more insulated we become from unbelievers, and perhaps the more uncomfortable we become with them.

The result – we no longer have friends who are non-believers.

Jesus’ actions suggest that our witness to a non-believer starts with friendship: We earn the right to share the Gospel through relationship. The old cliché is a cliché because it’s true: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Those who have yet to become friends with God are just like you and me, looking for deep, true, supportive friendships.

The Apostle Paul encourages us to find common ground with non-believers: “I do this to get the Gospel to them and also for the blessing I myself receive when I see them come to Christ.” (1 Cor. 9:21-23 LB) Finding common ground is an act of friendship; it guides us to look for the positive instead of the negative in those outside the faith.

When Jesus met the woman at the well, he pointed to what they had in common rather than the things he could condemn. (John 4) As a result, she not only became friends with God, she brought her friends and family into the presence of Jesus.

So What?

• Do you know who you are? – This is critical for you to become friends with non-believers. Otherwise, you may overly worry about what others believers think of you, or you may drift into sinful behaviors because you become concerned about what non-believers think about you. Jesus knew who he was and whose he was, and Jesus knew God’s purpose for his life. This allowed him to relax and ignore what others thought or said about him.

• Love people, not their values – God loves people (John 3:16), but that doesn’t mean he loves the values of the world. The Apostle John warns us not to “love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father.” (1 John 2:15)

• Building friendships requires:

•          Courtesy: “Always talk pleasantly and with a flavor of wit but be sensitive to the kind of answer each one requires.” (Col. 4:6)

•          Frequency: You’ve got to spend time with non-believers in order to become friends with them.

•          Authenticity: “Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it.” (Romans 12:9)

• Be friendly with everyone – “Don't be proud and feel that you are smarter than others. Make friends with ordinary people.” (Romans 12:16)

Made to Know God

 By Billy Graham

God wants us to know Him—not just to know about Him, but to know Him in personal way.

Do you see the difference? I might know about you; I might have heard your name; I might have seen your picture; we might even have exchanged letters or e-mails. But I couldn’t really say that you and I were friends or that we had a personal relationship until we actually met and got acquainted with each other. Only then could I really know you.

The same is true with God. Although to all the latest polls, most people believe in God. They believe He exists, and they may even have some definite ideas about Him. But for most, God is distant and fuzzy, because they only know about Him. They have never met Him or come to know Him in a personal way, and they can’t honestly say they know He is the friend. And yet that is what He wants to be. He wants us to know Him.

This is a staggering truth. Think of it: The infinite, all-powerful, holy God of the universe wants to be your friend! He wants you to know Him personally and to discover what it means to walk with Him every day. He wants you to know He is with you, and He wants to have communication with you though His Word and through prayer. He wants to comfort you when you are upset or anxious and to encourage you when you are dejected or depressed. He wants to guide you when you face difficult decisions, and He even wants to correct you when you are about to do something foolish or wrong.

Human friends may fail us, but Gove never will. The Bible reminds us that “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24). That friend is God. Jesus said to His followers, “I no longer call you servants…instead, I have called you friends” (John 15:15).

God wants to be our friend, and for us to be His friends as well. But what has gone wrong? And can it ever be made right again?

200 Miscellaneous Commands from the Bible

      (35 to 41 out of 200)

            35

Cut off offending members

Matthew 5:29-30

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Matthew 18:8-9  

8 If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.

9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

            36

Deacons must be

1 Timothy 3:8-12 

8 Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain.

9 They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience.

10 They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons.

11 In the same way, their wives are to be women worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.

12 A deacon must be the husband of but one wife and must manage his children and his household well.

            37

Defraud not

Mark 10:19  

You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”

            38

Desire spiritual gifts

1 Corinthians 14:1  

Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.

            39

Desire milk of Word

1 Peter 2:2  

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

            40

Despise not prophesyings

1 Thessalonians 5:20  

do not treat prophecies with contempt.

            41

Destroy none with non-essentials

Romans 14:15  

If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died.

1 Corinthians 8:13  

Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.

Friend or vacuum salesman?

By John Fischer

We’ve all heard the story before, or perhaps it even happened to you.

You receive a visit from a friend you haven’t seen in a long time. You are overjoyed at the reunion and honored that your friend would see the relationship worth cultivating and would actually seek you out. Or it might be a person you are just starting to get to know, and there are encouraging signs of a potential friendship.

 In the course of a pleasant conversation, with the talk shifting randomly from one subject to another, you suddenly find you are discussing the virtues of various vacuum cleaners. You friend brightens at the topic because he’s recently had some great results with an amazing new machine that he extols with great pleasure. You are so taken by his excitement that you find yourself wanting to know where you might find one of these amazing vacuum cleaners since your old model has paled in comparison to his vivid description, and you’ve been thinking about looking into a new one anyway. It’s then that your new friend offers to solve all your problems by selling you one on the spot at a “one-time only, low, low price of $69.95.”

 Suddenly, you feel an awful knot in the pit of your stomach. It’s not unlike the feeling you had when you came home one day to find your house had been burglarized. You feel violated, used. And you feel stupid for trusting this person and making yourself vulnerable to his schemes. He’s not after a friendship; he’s after a sale.

 A believer’s mission to share Christ with people is one of the five great purposes for which we exist. But without the other four to balance it, we can end up peddling Christ with similar results. Even laying hold of a conversation with the intent of steering it in a particular direction can feel manipulative to a person.

 If I listen to the other purposes in this light, I remember that God is in control of everyone’s own road to discovery. I don’t make anyone see the truth, I am only witness to what I have seen and heard. My relationship with people is an end in itself, regardless of whether or not they are Christian or Muslim or Jewish or atheists. My purpose is to serve people, not sell them something. And maturity tells me that the Holy Spirit is my guide as to what to say and when, so as to not even worry about this or be overly conscious of my role in someone’s life as providing anything other than love and support.

 “We don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can.” (2 Corinthians 2:17 MSG)

Peace with God

Jesus Christ came to reverse the effects of the fall. He brings peace with God, peace to the human heart and peace between persons…the Bible Speaks of peace with God. Jesus Christ has made it possible for rebellious humans to be reconciled to God through his atoning death on the cross and his resurrection. “Therefore,” the Bible says, “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

From God’s point of view we are already at war with him. We need reconciliation; we need peace with God. Christ alone can change the human heart.

Where does war come from? How did it start? The first war was when Cain killed Abel. Why? Because sin was in Cain’s heart. The book of James answers the question of where war comes from; “Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” (James 4:1). That is why human solutions alone cannot solve in any lasting way the problems we face in our world. Only Christ can deal with our deepest problem. The deepest problem we face is the spiritual problem of the human heart that needs to be reconciled to God and forgiven of its sin. …Billy Graham

Object Lesson

A pastor went to see a man who didn’t attend very faithfully. The man was sitting before a fire, watching the warm glow of the coals. It was a cold winter day, but the coals were red hot, and the fire was warm. The pastor pleaded with the man to more faithful in meeting with the people of God, but the man didn’t seem to be getting the message.

So the pastor took the tongs beside the fire place, pulled open the screen, and reached in and began to separate all the coals. When none of the coals was touching the others, he stood and watched in silence. In a matter of moments, they were cold…the man got the message

Don’t ever try to argue with the Devil. He’s better at arguing than you are, having had thousands of years of practice.

You will never know what you’re good at until you try.

Being a Pastor is easy, if you can: counsel like Solomon, preach like Paul, work like Edison, and budget like Franklin.

 The true measure of God’s love is that he loves without measure.

Jesus loves me this I know,

For the Bible tells me so;

Little ones to Him belong,

They are weak, but He is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me (3)

The Bible tells me so.

The Concerns of a Christian

First, seek the kingdom of God –

 “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”…Matt. 6:33

Care for other Christians –

 “so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other”…1Cor. 12:25

Concern for all the churches –

 “Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches”…2 Cor. 11:28

Preaching the kingdom of God –

 “Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ”…Acts 28:31

Pray for everything –

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”…Philippians 4:6

Give cheerfully –

“Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver”…2 Corinthians 9:7

Practicing hospitality –

“Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality”…Romans 12:13 

Things to Preach – Part 1

Good tidings

Isaiah 61:1  

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

Luke 4:18  

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,

The Kingdom of heaven

Matthew 4:17  

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

Matthew 9:35  

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

Matthew 10:7

 As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’

Matthew 24:14  

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Mark 1:14  

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.

The Kingdom of God

Luke 4:43  

But he said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”

Luke 9:2 

And he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

Luke 9:60  

Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Luke 16:16  

“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

Acts 8:12  

But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Acts 20:25  

“Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.

Acts 28:31  

Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.