Addiction and Grace

Greetings All!

Sitting in my office, my eyes scanned the book shelves and fell upon one particular book: "Addiction and Grace" by Gerald G. May, M.D.  It's an intriguing title, because those two words describe the universal struggle and only remedy for humanity.  Don't let the length deter you!  Some spiritual journeys can't be condensed to a paragraph or two!   It's a worthwhile read for anyone, but especially for those trying to help and love people trapped by addictions -- which as he points out, includes all of us to varying degrees.  The "Introduction" is from years of study, experience and reflection.  It is followed by his own "Personal Testimony."  I found what he says very helpful.  Enjoy.

Introduction:
     "After many years of listening to the yearnings of people's hearts, I am convinced that all human beings have an inborn desire for God. Whether we are consciously religious or not, this desire is our deepest longing and our most precious treasure. It gives us meaning. Some of us have repressed this desire, burying it beneath so many other interests that we are completely unaware of it.  Or we may experience it in different ways -- as a longing for wholeness, completion, or fulfillment. Regardless of how we describe it, it is a hunger to love, to be loved, and to move closer to the Source of love...  Modern theology describes this desire as God-given. In an outpouring of love, God creates us and plants the seeds of this desire within us. Then, throughout our lives, God nourishes this desire...

     But something gets in the way...  We become addicted to other things....  A self-defeating force that abuses our freedom makes us do things we really do not want to do (Romans 7:15)... Moreover, our addictions are our own worst enemies. They enslave us with chains that are of our own making and yet paradoxically, are virtually beyond our control.  Addiction attaches to desire and enslaves the energy of desire to certain specific behaviors, things or people. These objects of attachment then become preoccupations and obsessions They come to rule our lives. The word "attachment"... comes from the old French "atache" meaning, "nailed to."  Attachment "nails" our desires to specific objects or things -- alcohol, narcotics, ideas, work, relationships, power, fantasies, money, moods, and an endless variety of other things...  Addiction makes idolaters of all of us, because it forces us to worship objects of attachment, thereby preventing us from truly loving God and one another... It is the absolute enemy of human freedom and the antipathy of love.  Yet, in still another paradox, our addictions can lead us to a deep appreciation of grace. They can bring us to our knees....

Personal Testimony:

     It was in working with some of the most tragically addicted people -- those enslaved to narcotics and alcohol -- that I began wondering about addiction and grace. It was there also that I began to recognize my own addictedness. Most importantly, it was in the course of that work that I reclaimed my own spiritual hunger, a desire for God, and for love that many years had tried to repress.

     As nearly as I can recall, the repression of my spiritual desire began shortly after my father died. I was nine at the time.  Prior to that, I had had a comfortable relationship with God. As with all children, the earliest years of my life were "simply religious." In the innocent wonder and awe of early childhood awareness, everything just is "spiritual."  My religious education had given me a name for God, but I hardly needed it. I prayed easily; God was a friend.  In a reaction typical for a nine year old, I expected God to somehow keep me in touch with my father after his death. I prayed for this, but of course it did not happen. As a result, something hurt and angry in me, something deeper than my consciousness, chose to dispense with God. I would take care of myself. I would go it alone. My wanting -- my love -- had caused me to be hurt, and something in me decided not to want so much. I repressed my longing. Just as my father faded from my awareness, so did God, and so did my desire for God.

     During college, I fell in love with literature and philosophy. In retrospect, I think this was my desire for God resurfacing again as a search for beauty and truth. I even tried to go to church on occasion, but I wasn't consciously looking for God. By then I was searching for something that I could use to develop a sense of mastery over my life, something that would help me go it alone. In medical school and psychiatric training, I tried to make a god out of science. Science seemed learn-able, master-able, and controllable.  Throughout, I resisted prayer and rebelled at religiosity in others. Such things seemed immature; they were signs of weakness. I wanted to be autonomous, although I wasn't completely sure what that word meant. 

     I was in the Air Force during the Vietnam War.  Much in the Vietnam experience I had to repress. But much of it I could not repress. In a way, the tragedy of Vietnam woke me up a little.  Afterward, I took a position as director of a community drug abuse clinic.  With all the energy that might be expected of a young doctor, I applied my best psychiatric methods to the treatment of addictions. None of them worked. I was able to help people with their emotional and social problems, but but they remained addicted to chemicals. Since so much of my desire for meaning and wholeness had become attached to professional success, and I was not being successful, I started to become depressed. A colleague called it, "a normal professional depression."  He went on to say, "All decent psychiatrists experience such depressions when they can't cure the people they treat.  If you didn't feel depressed, it would mean you didn't care enough."  It was some consolation. But not much.

     Then one day in the middle of this depression I was casually introduced to a faith healer at a conference in a nearby town.  I did not believe in faith healers, but as we shook hands she paused, holding my hand, and told me she thought I was meant to be a healer too, but, "I wouldn't take my dog to you, because you think you are the one that has to do the healing."  These are not words one might expect to be helpful for a depressed person.  But they struck me deep and well.  In my search for self-determination, I had also been trying to command the very process of healing. It was obvious that some change in attitude was called for. I still wasn't certain, however, what form that change should take.

     At about that same time, I embarked on a little informal research. I identified a few people who seemed to have overcome serious addictions to alcohol and drugs , and I asked them what had helped them turn their lives around so dramatically. All of them described some sort of spiritual experience. They kindly acknowledged their appreciation for the professional help they had received, but they also made it clear that this help had not been the source of their healing.  What had healed them was something spiritual. They didn't all use religious terms, but there was no doubt in my mind that what they spoke of was spiritual.

     Something about what they said reminded me of home. It had something to do with turning to God.  As a result I relaxed a little. I honestly considered there might be some power greater than myself involved in healing, and that I might be better off cooperating with that power instead of trying to usurp it.  I also set about trying to understand more of what constituted "spiritual experience" and why it had been so helpful to these addicted people... I described these spiritual experiences to some clergy friends. Most of them didn't seem to understand what I was talking about. The least helpful friends tried to give me Freudian explanations.  "Why, it's simply a narcissistic regression of the ego to a state of infantile dissociation in order to avoid reality issues that have stimulated unacceptable libidinous impulses."  They said such things as if I should have known them already. But the problem was I did know them already, and knowing them didn't help... 

     I studied Eastern religions, psychic phenomena, psychedelic drugs, biofeedback, all the great stew of psychological pop and pap that was percolating across the nation at the time. I read Alan Watts and Baba Ram Dass. I mediated every day. From a comfortable distance I watched the charismatic renewal in Christian churches, and from an equal distance, I sensed something powerful I couldn't understand in Alcoholics Anonymous. One evening about six months after my quest began, I was diligently practicing a form of Yoga meditation that encouraged the free coming and going of all thoughts. It is a method that might be described as the opposite of repression. In the freedom I gave to my mind, one of the thoughts that came was prayer. It was, in the beginning, the prayer of a nine year old, embarrassingly immature. "Dear Jesus, help me." I would have stifled it immediately had   it not been dutifully allowing all my thoughts to come and go. It was a sad and painful thing just to let that prayer happen, but it did. 

     As months and years passed, the prayer grew, and with it, my awareness of my desire for God.  I realized my exploration was less a professional research project and more a personal spiritual journey. I was not in control of my life. I needed as much of God's grace as any of my patients did.  With that growing realization, my spiritual desire seemed to pick up where it had left off some 20 years earlier.  Now it was out in the light again, and I gradually became able to reclaim it as my true hearts desire and the most precious thing in my life." 

     When I read testimonies, I seek to compare my own journey to the paths others followed.  There were places where my path crisscrossed that of Gerald May.  That may be true for others who were children of the 60's, 70's and early 80's.  The tendency to look to other "saviors" before we return to the One who truly is, is not uncommon.  How right he is when he says, "Addiction attaches to desire and enslaves the energy of desire to certain specific behaviors, things, or people. These objects of attachment then become preoccupations and obsessions. They come to rule our lives."   And once they do, only God's all powerful and relentless grace can liberate us from those addictions and restore us to sanity and the freedom to follow Him. To root out those idols which are, "the absolute enemy of human freedom and the antipathy of love."      

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Our True Identity in Christ Jesus

Greetings All!

     This week's thought has to do with who we are in Christ.  It underscores our true identity in Christ Jesus and can help us when we "feel" otherwise. We often have a heavy (even sad) sense of who we feel we are, or how we "think" God must view us, so it's good every so often to be reminded what God says about us, and how He views us in Jesus.

     The list below itemizes in "first-person language" who you really are and what you enjoy in Christ.  You can’t earn these qualities. They are a gift of God's grace to you as His blood-purchased and Spirit-born child. These traits are yours simply because you were born again into life with Christ. There is nothing you can do to make these characteristics more true of you, though you can make them more meaningful and productive in your life by simply choosing to believe they are true of you (After all, to believe them is to believe the Gospel).

     One of the best ways to grow and mature as a believer is to continually remind yourself who you are in Christ and what things are yours by virtue of being His child.  The more you understand and affirm who you are in Christ, the more your life and behavior will reflect the reality of your true identity in Him.  So, believer, take a moment to see if how you view you lines up with how God views you!  Enjoy!

I am a child of God (John 1:12).

I am a branch of the true Vine through whom the life of Jesus flows (John 15:1, 5).

I am a friend of Jesus (John 15:15).

I am justified (pardoned and counted totally righteous in God sight) because of Christ (Romans 3:24)

I am no longer a slave to sin, God has broken it's dominion or oppressive rule over my life (Romans 6:6, Galatians 5:1).

 I am free from any and all divine condemnation (Romans 8:1).

I am a fellow heir with Christ, loved as fully by God as Jesus Himself (Romans 8:17).

I am entirely accepted and acceptable in God’s sight because of all Jesus did for me (Romans 15:7, Ephesians 1:6).

I am a saint, washed and set apart for God (1 Corinthians 1:2, Ephesians 1:1, Philippians 1:1, and Colossians 1:2.)

I am righteous, sanctified and redeemed, because Christ Himself has become for me my righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30).

I am a temple of the Holy Spirit who has come to dwell in me (1 Corinthians 6:19).

I am joined to the Lord Jesus and one with Him in spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17).

 I am a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

I am the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

I am one with all who are in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).

I am no longer a slave, but a child and an heir who's soul cries out, "Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6-7).

I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 1:3)

I am one chosen before the creation of the world to be holy, and blameless before God (Ephesians 1:4).

I am redeemed and forgiven for all my sins by the grace of Jesus (Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 2:13).

I am one who God predestined in love to be a grace-adopted child in His family (Ephesians 1:11).

I am sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:13).

I am alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5, Colossians 2:13).

I am God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works (Ephesians 2:10).

I am a member of Christ’s body and a partaker of His promise of love, care, provision and salvation (Ephesians 3:6, Ephesians 5:30.)

I am a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20).

I am complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10).

 I am chosen of God, holy and dearly beloved (Colossians 3:12, 1 Thessalonians 1:4).

     Should you struggle to accept these things are true of you, pause and remember: These are not earned rights, privileges, or positions, they are yours as a gracious and free gift through Jesus.  Read and re-read them if you must, and if you struggle, pray that God might so impress and imprint them upon your soul that they become a given and accepted part of your self-awareness and identity in Jesus.

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Dear Christian Man, Why Are You So Lonely?

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes to you from Nick DeCola & Ross McCall, and was taken from their blog site "Cru."   It's about men needing male friendship -- what is necessary for that to happen, and what prevents that from happening. And you don't have to be a man to benefit from what is said here!   You may be a wife, brother, sister, child, or teenager soon to be heading into manhood. Or you may have a son, husband or friend who looks down, or feels lonely, and needs male friendships to help him grow,  become more connected, and find more joy and purpose through meaningful relationships with other godly or Christian men. If so, this article is worth a read.  Enjoy.

Dear Christian Man, Why Are You So Lonely?

     Enter the search terms “loneliness” and “men” into Google and notice many options it gives you. Millions. Major media outlets including the Boston Globe, New York Times and Huffington Post have all published studies on the phenomenon of male loneliness and its potential to become a health crisis…  So, what is coming between Christian men and the sense of brotherhood they long for?

Vulnerability scares men more than skydiving.

     Men are the masters of saying a lot without giving much away.  Many men want great friendships without any risk factor. Sharing an area of struggle or telling someone that you want to get to know them better feels risky. It is risky.  People can misunderstand us, judge us or otherwise disappoint us. If we’re honest, we’ve all known some form of rejection in our lives and we’d prefer to avoid that in our future. But the ability to be our authentic selves, our good, bad and ugly selves, is impossible without vulnerability.  Too many men’s events are full of talk about how we can be warriors for God while ignoring the realities of men who are losing their battles. Our common enemy loves to see an isolated Christian, and many are hiding in the corners of our gatherings or choosing not to come.  If this is you, you’re not alone. If you’re unsure who you can be real with, ask God to point you in the right direction.

Men don’t see each other in 3D.

     If you only see friends once a week for a Bible study, are you doing life together or checking boxes? Information alone doesn’t change our beliefs or lead to transformation. Biblical truth experienced through meaningful relationship is a recipe for life change.  Snake hunting in the Everglades. Eleven hours binge-watching HBO’s “Band of Brothers” in camouflage clothing. Monday night football. Coffee and acoustic music… Do something together with no obvious spiritual value. Having fun is a spiritual activity because it lowers the defenses we often put up in small group settings and allows people to see another side of us.  Far too often we paddle in shallow honesty while craving the deeper waters of transparency and vulnerability.

     Accountability is a popular term among Christian men. If we say it enough times each week we must be doing something right – right?  The danger is that we fall into the trap of attending a weekly men’s group and confessing the same thing without committing to whatever it takes to change. It’s not authentic because it lacks the courage to look at what’s driving our behavior…  Are you willing to let others ask you questions you don’t want to answer?  Are you willing to ask someone those questions?  You might have to put your superficial friendship on the line to reach for something better, but if nothing changes, nothing changes.

Men search in vain for the “right” small group.

     Men’s groups and events abound. We often look for the perfect group based on our stage in life and our first impressions of other people in the group. But this presents two problems. We won’t feel safe with people until we’ve been through something with them. And once the perfect group includes someone as imperfect as you, it’s days are numbered. Deeper friendships take more time than we’re used to giving anything these days. They also involve working through conflict, which we try to avoid at all costs.

Men have lost the art of living for others. 

     The paralytic in Mark 2 could never have had an audience with Jesus without his four friends tearing a hole in the roof and lowering him down.  They went the extra mile.  Do you ever feel paralyzed in your life as a Christian man?  Do you know others who fit that description?  What lengths will you go to for each other?  It might be taking calls in the middle of the night, or offering to have your friend live with you while they work through something. It might be something much simpler. What’s certain is that you’ll need to do more than “like” your friend’s Facebook posts, but so will they. This pursuit of deeper relationships is how you really want to live because it’s how you were designed to live.

Men cannot become their truest selves alone.

     Many of us have had mixed experiences with male role models growing up, but if we choose to avoid pursuing male friendships we stand no chance of healing old hurts. Those open wounds will wait patiently for the chance to hit you with a sucker punch.

     At one point in my early 20's a former girlfriend nicknamed me "Desperado" after the man spoken of in the song by that name. You know, the one "out mending fences for so long" who needed to "let somebody love [him]."  I assume it was because I wouldn't let anyone get too close to me.  Of course, the rugged, independent, individualist male image isn't as prevalent in society as it used to be (John Wayne and the Marlboro Man are known to very few today), but a degree of the image still lingers in the background of the male psyche to urge men to go it alone or think they really don't need deep male friendships.

     I was once one of those men. But I've gone through enough to realize it's not healthy, nor was it ever God's intended purpose that men isolate themselves and try to go it alone. In fact, that can be as bad as friendships with men who are bad influences. It can often get us into trouble and leave us with much pent-up stuff brewing inside.  Jesus established deep relationships with the inner three (Peter, James, and John) and very solid relationships with the other nine.  And though they had their moments of disagreement and relational friction, other than Judas they were there for each other and had each other's back. Even when Jesus sent the disciples out it was never alone -- but "two by two."  We would do well to heed His method and example!

In the Bonds of Christian Fellowship, Pastor Jeff 

Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands -- People In Need of Change Helping People In Need of Change

Greetings All,

   As promised in my last thought, this thought will deal with some of the keys to true heart change (and thus life change).
     





   It comes to you from the same book as last week, Paul David Tripp's -- "Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands -- People In Need of Change Helping People In Need of Change." 
     If you have ever found yourself struggling with a sin that never seems to go away, or one where you seem to gain victory over it for a while, only to have it resurface as strong as ever when you go through stressful situations or encounter similar temptations, it is likely because you are simply seeking to control your environment, or outward behaviors, without casting down the internal heart-idols that feed those behaviors. Tripp explains how this works. Enjoy.

The Heart of the Matter 

     "Though the Bible has much to say about the heart, few Christian books on marriage and family, communication, conflict resolution, or even discipleship focus on it. These practical books seldom display an understanding of the centrality of the heart and how it operates... An interesting Old Testament passage can help us do this.  "Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me. Then the word of the LORD came to me: 'Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all? Therefore speak to them and tell them, 'This is what the sovereign LORD says: When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet, I the LORD will answer him myself in keeping with his great idolatry. I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols.' "  (Ezek. 14:1-5).

     These elders of Israel have come to the prophet Ezekiel with questions they want to ask God. It would seem they are doing the right thing. But God recognizes that there is something wrong with them... They have idols in their hearts, a more personal and fundamental form of idolatry than ritual religious or cultural idolatry. An idol of the heart is anything that rules me other than God. As worshiping beings, human beings always worship someone or something. This is not a situation where some people worship and some people don't.  If God isn't ruling my heart, someone or something else will.  It is the way we were made...

     Sin is fundamentally idolatrous. I do wrong things because my heart desires something more than the Lord. Sin produces a propensity toward idolatry in all of us. We all migrate away from worship and service of the Creator toward worship and service of created things (Rom. 1:21-25). This is the great spiritual war beneath every battle of behavior -- the war for control of the heart...  The deepest issues of life are issues of worship. Worship is more fundamental to our essential nature than the pain, pressures, or pleasures of our experiences. What we worship determines our responses to all our experiences. Sin is much more than doing the wrong thing. It begins with loving, worshiping and serving the wrong thing. Sin in some way always involves idolatry.

     The Ezekiel passage gives God's response to the elders. Because these men have idols in their hearts, God says he is going to answer them "in keeping with their great idolatry."  What does this mean?  God is saying, "Because you have idols in your hearts, the only thing I want to talk about is your idolatry."  Why?...  Why would God refuse to talk to them about anything but their idols? A crucial phrase explains God's response and reveals much about how the heart functions: "These men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces" (Ezek. 14:3). Imagine that someone places his hand up to his face so that he is looking through his fingers. What will happen to his vision? It will be seriously obstructed, and the only way to clear it is to remove his hand.  In a similar way, an idol in the heart creates a stumbling block before the face.  Until the idol is removed, it will distort and obscure everything else in that person's life. This is the principle of inescapable influence: Whatever rules the heart will exercise inescapable influence over the person's life and behavior.

     I once counseled a successful executive from New York City. He was the most controlling man I ever met.  He had been married for thirty years and handled all the financial, parenting, and decorating decisions of the family. He was so obsessed with control that he would rearrange his wife's clothes closet according to his prescribed plan (blouses, skirts, pants, and dresses, in graduated shades of color)! Now imagine that I did not know all this as I spoke to his wife. His controlling tendencies would not be in my mind as I listened to her complain that she and her husband never talk and that many conflicts are left unresolved. What would happen if I rolled up my counselor's sleeves and gave her husband good biblical instruction on communication and conflict resolution? Would this lead to changes in his marriage?  The answer is no, because he would use his new understanding and skills to get what his heart worshiped. Because my counsel would not have addressed this man's idols of the heart, it would only produce a more successful controller.  As long as the desire for dominance ruled his heart, he would use whatever principle and skills he learned to establish even greater control over his family.

     If we fail to examine the heart and the areas where it needs to change, our ministry efforts will only result in people who are more committed and successful idolaters. This is why God will only answer the elders of Israel in keeping with their heart idolatry. If they do not change there, whatever God tells them will only be used to serve the idols that rule their hearts...

     Idols are god-replacements... They command my daily devotion, shape my daily routine, and guide the way I interact with life, though they have no power whatsoever to deliver...  God's Word alone insists that we are always serving God or some aspect of the creation, and whatever rules our hearts, will exercise inescapable influence over our lives and behavior...  This is why the principle of the Ezekiel passage is so important, and why the focus of God's transforming grace is heart change. Our spiritual battle is a war for the heart. When that is won people will behave in ways that please their Creator. God will never be satisfied with the crumbs of externalism."

     Trying to change our external behaviors without repenting of, or dethroning the idols that feed our desire to do sinful things, is a venture in futility. It's like trying to cool down a boiling pot of water by fanning it, while refusing to douse the fire that heats it from below!  Quench the fire -- get rid of the fire -- and the pot will cool by itself. Unfortunately, though, many Christians (ignorant of their idols) don't even see the fire that making all their efforts at external control useless. They don't know what their idols are.

     So, if you do have a sin that you never seem to be able to conquer, it's likely because you have never dislodged the idol (or idols) that feed it. In fact, its the sins we struggle with the most that indicate the presence of a firmly entrenched heart-idolatry (ie: a respect idolatry, performance idolatry, perfection idolatry, control idolatry, wealth idolatry, beauty idolatry, popularity idolatry, tranquility idolatry, prestige idolatry, family idolatry, competition or sports idolatry, sensuality idolatry and so forth)!

     And what's the cure?  Pray, ask God to help you identify your idol(s), repent for overvaluing them or placing them on a plain of value higher than God, and then turn away from them.  Sweep them off the altar of your heart and repent for ever having let them gain such an elevated place there. Only then will you see true heart change. And remember, if you inquire of the Lord, while harboring idols in your heart, the only thing He will speak to you about is those idols -- for until they are removed (like that hand from in front of your face) you won't be able to see clearly, or respond rightly, even if He does speak to you and grant you knowledge of other things.

That we might experience true deliverance and heart change, Pastor Jeff 

Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands

Greetings All,

   








Today I received a package in the mail from a friend in Florida. It contained two books. After opening it I immediately started looking through each one and found this "thought' which I share with you today.  It comes from a book entitled: "Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands."  The author is Paul David Tripp, a lecturer at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, PA.
     It has to do with how true change takes place in anyone's life, and how that change is really impossible apart from changing a person's heart. For true change, as he points out, is not simply a matter of behavior modification, but deep heart-transformation.  Enjoy.

"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.  

Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick pigs from thorn-bushes or grapes from briers. The good man brings things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of evil stored up in his heart. For out of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaks."  Luke 6:43-45

     "If you want to be a part of what God is doing in the lives of others, you need to know how God designed human beings to function. Why do people do the things they do?  Why can your toddler be so contrary?  Why did your friend get so upset in the middle of the conversation?  Why is your teenager so angry?  Why is Amy so swallowed up in depression and despair?  Why would a man risk his family for twenty minutes of sexual pleasure? Why do you get angry in traffic?  Why is that once-romantic couple now engaged in guerrilla warfare?  Why is Bill so driven in his career? Why is Sue so critical and controlling? Why does George speak so bluntly and unkindly?  Why is your daughter afraid of what her friends will think?  Why does Pete refuse to talk?  Why do people do the things they do? The simplest and most biblical answer is the heart...

     The Bible uses the word "heart" to describe the inner person... or your spiritual self (Ephesians 3:16).... [The heart] encompasses all the other terms and functions used to describe the inner person -- spirit, soul, mind, emotions, will, etc.  These terms do not describe something different from the heart, Rather, they are aspects of it... The heart is the real you.  It is the essential core of who you are.  For example, when you say you are getting to know someone, you are not saying that you have a deeper knowledge of his ears or nose!  You are talking about the inner person, the heart. You know how the person thinks, what he wants, what makes him happy or sad. You can predict what he is feeling at any given moment. Because the Bible says your heart is the essential you, any ministry of change must target the heart...

     Sin, for instance, has its roots in the evil stored up in the heart (Luke 6:43-45). In Christ's example (in that passage) the roots of the tree equal the heart. They are therefore underground and therefore not as easily seen or understood.  Jesus' point is that a tree has the kind of fruit it does because of the kind of roots it has -- we speak and act the way we do because of what is in our hearts... In many ways we deny this connection and blame people and circumstances for our actions and words.  Here Christ calls us to accept responsibility for our behavior. He calls us to humbly admit that relationships and circumstances are only the occasions in which our hearts reveal themselves. If my heart is the source of my sin problem, then lasting change must always travel through the pathway of my heart. It is not enough to alter my behavior or change my circumstances. Christ transforms people by radically changing their hearts. If the person's heart doesn't change, the person's words and behavior may change temporarily because of an external pressure or incentive. But then the pressure or incentive is removed, the changes will disappear...This often happens in personal ministry. From a distance it looks as if the person has really changed...But the changes don't last and in six weeks or six months, the person is right back to where he started. Why?  Because the change did not penetrate the heart, so changes in behavior were doomed to be temporary. 

     This is what happens to the teenager who goes through the teen years fairly well under the careful love, instruction and oversight of Christian parents, only to go off to college and completely forsake his faith.  I would suggest that in most cases he has not forsaken his faith. In reality, his faith was the faith of his parents; he simply lived within its limits while he was at home. When he went away to school, and the restraints were removed, his true heart was revealed. He had not internalized the faith. He has not entrusted himself to Christ in a life-transforming way. He did the "Christian" things he was required to do at home, but his actions did not flow from a heart of worship.  In the college culture, he had nothing to anchor him, and the true thoughts and motives of his heart led him away from God. College was not cause of his problem. It was simply the place where his true heart was revealed. The real problem was that faith never took root in his heart.  As a result, his words, choices, and actions did not reveal a heart for God.  Good behavior lasted for a while, but it proved to be temporary because it was not rooted in the heart.

     Christ's illustration in Luke 6:43-45 establishes three principles that guide our efforts to serve as God's instruments of change in the lives of others: 

1.) There is an undeniable root and fruit connection between our heart and our behavior. People and situations do not determine our behavior; they provide the occasion where our behavior reveals of hearts. 

2.) Lasting change always takes place through the pathway of the heart. Fruit change is the result of root change -- and the root is the heart...  Any agenda for change must focus of the thoughts and desires of the heart.

3.) Therefore, the heart is our target in personal growth and ministry. Our prayer is that God will work heart change in us and use us to produce heart change in others that results in new words, choices, and actions."

     If you would like to know how that change takes place, tune in to next weeks' thought. Yes, that's right -- this is my first "to be continued" thought for the week! Until then you may want to consider if you are one of those people who appear to change when things get more peaceful and situations are less tense, but go right back to the old you when those things or situations become tense again. If so, then chances are you are only engaging in behavior control or behavior modification and not true heart change .... which we will look at next week.

Yours in the bonds of Christian fellowship, Pastor Jeff