Thoughts from the heart.

What does our heart contain? Is it a litmus for making tough decisions, a reservoir for courage and vigor, or a beautiful chest for our emotions? What if our hearts contained a picture that expressed exactly who we are and everyone could tell? How would we feel being that exposed, that naked, and that undone? How would you feel when the God of the universe saw your picture…?

How many colors or layers do we use to try and spruce up, touch up, or cover up the true picture of our heart with? I know myself my pallet is full of colors to hide who I truly am. I cannot be exposed to the world; I cannot allow others to see the picture my heart truly paints. Christ confronts this very thought when he states,

“A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad. You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.” -Matt. 12:33-37

Christ is talking to the religious leaders of his day here, men whose pallet runs just as colorful as mine. They were very good at the touch up. However Christ says you will be known, your picture will be seen, it will flow from your lips and you cannot stop it. These are powerful words spoken with absolute accuracy and sobering reality. The prophet Isaiah was a man who had the picture of his heart revealed to him before the one and only sovereign God. Isaiah stands before God in heaven (Isa. 6:1-7) and what we learn is that Isaiah is absolutely devastated by what he realizes to be the picture of his heart. It says,

“Then I said, ‘It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people of filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.’”

Isaiah knows what is truly in his heart (it flowed from his lips and they were filthy) and his despair is doubled by the knowledge of what is in his people’s hearts. He knows that he cannot stand and live before the Lord of Heaven’s Armies with such a heart and unclean lips. The Prophet Isaiah is just like me; my heart is filled with jealousy, pride, lust, and hate. We see and know what our picture looks like every day. The hardest part is having our picture exposed. It can be crushing when our friends see it, but it is devastating when the Lord sees it. He sees my painting every moment of every day and yet he restores me just as he did Isaiah and he paints a new picture of my heart, one that rescues me from the shortcomings of my own artwork.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.”

-Psalm 51:10

A great hope found in greater love

I Celebrate the Church by Ann Weems, revised

I celebrate the church of Jesus Christ, where two or three or
thousands can gather together in the Lord's name, and touch
this world with the amazing good news that God is real and
that through Christ his love reaches out to all people.

I hear God's voice in the vision of men and women who call us to
a better way, a higher hope. For God works miracles in common
clay pots, Changing caterpillars to butterflies and water to wine,
Changing seeds to oak trees and night to day,
Changing winter to spring time,
Changing lives from ordinary to abundant.

We as God's celebrants move through this world together
listening for God's music, responding to God's word,
Praising God with clapping hands and moving feet,
Praising God with justice and mercy and humility,
Praising God with changed lives.