beLIeVING Heart part 1

Saturday night we set sail together on a voyage that will lead all of us to a deeper understanding of our heart. Yeppers, the ol thumper, the ol ticker. We will frame our time around the questions that the religious leaders of the day would often ask Jesus. And we realized that through our lives, our hearts can become diseased by empowering unbelief and this unbelief manifests itself into many shapes and forms. So we had a heart implant. yes, we placed ourselves on the gurney, we waived our rights, we have stated we no longer desire to live in unbelief, we desire to learn together how to love God with all of our heart and Jesus walked in and has placed HIS heart into our being. YES the great Physician has completed the heart implant and we are now geared to beLIeVE in the new….yet how?

That is what we will continue to learn together as we set our sights on the week ahead. This coming week we will pick the conversation back up where we see these questions being asked to Jesus:

“what is the greatest commandment” or how do i inherit (key word) eternal life? or sometimes the question would come out:

“One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: ‘Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus replied, ‘What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?’ The man answered, ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ‘Right!’Jesus told him. ‘Do this and you will live!'” Luke 10:25-28 NLT

Look at Jesus’ statement in verse 28 (bivo paraphrase)…it would be like a gameshow host saying YES, that’s correct, the corny music blarring all over the place, balloons falling and yet there is the rest of the statement….do this and you will live…uh do what? We aren’t told too much about this particular religious leader who was having this conversation with Jesus, yet whatever the motive for him approaching Jesus, he (the religious leader) left there scratching his head. you see, Jesus then told him the parable of the good samaritan after the religious leader jumped the love God with all your heart to ask “who is my neighbor?”……you ever wonder if this guy and others love God with all of their heart?

Romans 10:10 – “for it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved…”

starting to see now why Jesus would answer questions with parables.  The parables would help show the folks he was chatting with where their heart really was aligned or what their heart was actually loving…..oh the key word above inherit…fits real nice in the next verses in Romans when we are told that by our believing (trusting) in Jesus Christ then we will never be put to shame! ITS A GIFT…we cannot earn HIS GRACE…just accept through empowering belief….

that does empower me to desire to love HIM with all of my heart!

love em up!