Tag Archives: human heart

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry

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I am often asked in conversations with people outside of Christian faith why I am a Christian. Sometimes, before I am finished with an explanation, a litany of offenses associated with Christianity pours out as evidence against believing: all the bloodshed and religious wars, the Inquisition, anti-Semitism, etc. I actually don’t mind these kinds of critiques or questions. They are very important, and it would be foolish of me to pretend that the record of Christendom in the world was spotless. Much has been done in the name of Jesus by those who claim to be Christians, for which there should be collective shame.

Sometimes my honest acknowledgement of historic faults isn’t enough for my skeptical friends. Next, they scrutinize the Bible. Who wrote it? Can we trust it? How do we know it is God’s word? When it comes to the Bible, I also understand why these kinds of questions are raised. There are some fairly difficult passages, culturally specific events and contexts that can make the work of translation and understanding in this contemporary time—let alone for those who are completely unfamiliar with it—complicated at best. Again, it would be untruthful if those who studied the Bible pretended to understand everything within its narrative perfectly or completely.

One thing that is not difficult to see or understand, however, is all the humanity on display throughout the biblical narrative. Even the most ‘heroic’ or ‘epic’ of biblical characters are shown with their flaws and their weaknesses on display as much as their strengths. For example, Israel’s great deliverer Moses is called long past his prime and after having been exiled from the royal life in Egypt. We find him tending sheep in the middle of the wilderness. By his own admission, he is not a great public speaker, likely suffering from a speech impediment, and he struggles with his temper; he had killed an Egyptian and struck a rock with such force and violence that he was not permitted to enter the Promised Land. King David, the great king of Israel, was actually the youngest of his family when he is anointed as king. He is tasked to keep the flocks. The first born son was the normal and rightful heir to inheritance and leadership. He committed murder and adultery, conducted a census against God’s specific prohibition, yet he is the one described as a ‘man after God’s heart.’

David likely penned most of Israel’s psalter—a psalter still used in both Jewish and Christian worship today. In this psalter, the record of human emotions, human experience, and human questioning is on display. These are the psalms of sacred worship even as they are the deepest cries of the human heart.

There are the twelve disciples; humble fishermen without much education who lived and learned from Jesus, himself. Despite their proximity to Jesus for three years, one would betray him, another would deny having even known him, and all of them would flee from him in his greatest hour of need. Even while having access to this great teacher, they often failed to understand his teaching. The apostle Paul, who penned most of the New Testament letters, was formerly a murderer of Christians and a legalist of legalists. Even though he is the first apostle of the early Christian movement, he couldn’t prevent a disagreement between himself and his fellow worker, Barnabus over John Mark from separating them.

In dealing with skeptics, there might be the temptation to overlook the humanity in the Bible. Perhaps it causes embarrassment, or creates fear that Christianity somehow doesn’t ‘work’ in transforming lives. I don’t see it that way at all. In fact, time and again when I have struggled with doubts in my faith, I am reminded of all the human individuals used by God as witnesses to the greatness of God’s love and redemption. It is one of the first things I point out in proclaiming the trustworthiness and faithfulness of the Biblical record, and indeed of Christian faith. For, unlike any other sacred text, as lofty and as grand as their epics might be, or as poetic and beautiful as their text reads, they do not show the full portrait of humanity on display as the Bible does; their heroes are not broken, but elevated humans and demi-gods.

So it seems worth asking: What kind of God, indeed what kind of religion, takes fallen and broken human beings and includes them in the plan of salvation? As the apostle Paul proclaimed of his own ministry; “for God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness, made the light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Cor. 4:6-7).

Skeptics and critics of Christianity might still have well-reasoned arguments, and legitimate issues to raise with the faith (and with the faithful), but one thing that cannot be denied is that the God on display in the Bible is not afraid of our humanity, nor does that God shy away from using those who many might consider undesirable. It is this common humanity—on display in my own life so frequently—recorded in the narrative of Scripture that keeps me believing in its truth and relevance.

And if that weren’t all enough, Christianity proclaims a God who valued humanity so much that in Jesus God took on flesh, becoming human. He took on his own jar of clay and in so doing gifted all of humanity with immeasurable treasure.

 

Margaret Manning Shull is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Bellingham, Washington.

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – God’s Transforming Word

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John MacArthur

“The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul” (Ps. 19:7).

God can transform you through His Word into the person He wants you to be.

Many today doubt the power of Scripture in dealing with the deeper aspects of the human heart and mind. The Bible may be helpful for certain superficial or “spiritual” problems, they say, but it’s too simplistic and inadequate for the more complex psychological issues of modern man. The truth is, however, the best psychology can do is modify external behavior. It cannot redeem and transform the soul. Only God can do that through the power of His Word.

That’s the truth behind Psalm 19:7, which calls Scripture “the law of the Lord,” thus emphasizing its didactic nature. It is the sum of God’s instruction to man, whether for creed (what we believe), character (what we are), or conduct (what we do).

The law of the Lord is “perfect.” That represents a common Hebrew word that speaks of wholeness, completeness, or sufficiency. Commentator Albert Barnes wrote that Scripture “lacks nothing [for] its completeness; nothing in order that it might be what it should be. It is complete as a revelation of Divine truth; it is complete as a rule of conduct. . . . It is absolutely true; it is adapted with consummate wisdom to the [needs] of man; it is an unerring guide of conduct. There is nothing there which would lead men into error or sin; there is nothing essential for man to know which may not be found there” (Notes on the Old Testament: Psalms, Vol. 1 [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974], p. 171).

Man’s reasoning is imperfect, but God’s Word is perfect, containing everything necessary for your spiritual life. It is so comprehensive that it can restore your soul. That is, convert, revive, refresh, and transform every aspect of your being to make you precisely the person God wants you to be.

Don’t look to impotent human alternatives when God’s Word stands ready to minister to your every need. Spiritual warfare is fought with spiritual weapons, not fleshly techniques, theories, or therapies (2 Cor. 10:4).

Suggestions for Prayer; Ask God to keep you focused on His counsel regarding every situation you face today.

For Further Study; Memorize 2 Corinthians 9:8 as a reminder of God’s super- abounding grace to you.

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Giving Godly Counsel

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John MacArthur

“Concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another” (Rom. 15:14).

Scripture is the source of godly counsel.

In recent years the question of who is competent to counsel has become an important issue in the church. Many pastors and other church leaders have curtailed their counseling ministries or stopped them altogether. They’ve been made to feel inadequate for not having formal training in psychological counseling techniques.

Behind this movement away from pastoral counseling is the subtle implication that the Holy Spirit and Scripture are incapable of addressing the deepest needs of the human heart. It is claimed that only secular psychology dispensed by trained analysts can do that.

But the truth is, the heart of man is “more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). No one. That includes humanistic counselors. Verse 10 says, “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind.” Only God can understand the human heart.

David prayed, “O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways. . . . Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence?” (Ps. 139:1-3, 7).

Only God knows what’s in a person’s heart. Only His Spirit working through His Word can penetrate one’s deepest thoughts and motives to transform the heart and renew the mind (Heb. 4:12; Rom. 12:2).

Professional psychologists are no substitute for spiritually gifted people who know the Word, possess godly wisdom, are full of goodness, and available to help others apply divine truth to their lives (Rom. 15:14).

When people come to you for counsel, the best thing you can do is show them what God’s Word says about their problem and how it applies to their situation. But you can’t do that unless you know the Word and are allowing it to do its work in you first. Then you’ll be in a position to counsel others more effectively.

Suggestions for Prayer

  • Thank God for the wise and all-sufficient counsel of His Word.
  • Reaffirm your commitment to share it at every opportunity.

For Further Study

According to Psalm 119:24, on what did the psalmist rely for his counsel?

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Making a Name

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Ravi Z

English author Samuel Johnson once wrote, “There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart, a desire of distinction, which inclines every man to hope, and then to believe, that nature has given himself something peculiar to himself.”

I was startled by the clairvoyance of an editorialist who once connected these sentiments with America’s escalating fascination with book writing. His comments put flesh on the motive often hidden behind the guise of individuality. “The search for personal significance,” he explained, “was once nicely taken care of by the drama that religion supplied. This drama, which lived in every human breast, no matter what one’s social class, was that of salvation: Now that it is gone from so many lives, in place of salvation we have the search for significance, a much trickier business.”(1)

Though the author does not necessarily articulate a sense of loss in regards to the replacement of one pursuit for the other, his thought process is helpful. As religion continues to be eclipsed, particularly in the West, as a provider of significance, humankind is left searching for other sources. From the increased interest in book writing, to social networking, to extreme sports and hobbies, it is a quest clearly observed. Nonetheless, the quest to find significance apart from God is hardly a modern phenomenon. The desire to make a name for oneself is as old as the hills upon which we have built our grand towers and conquered great cities. The drive to define significance on our own is as ancient as the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel. The aspiration is nothing new; book writing is just one more outlet.

But what is interesting, in terms of understanding human history and behavior, is that we should have this longing for significance in the first place. If we are merely products of a wholly indifferent materialist universe, why are we not more at home with our own insignificance? Why should we seek a transcendent sense of meaning at all? Unless, indeed: there is something about us that is neither temporal nor insignificant.

Within the Christian worldview, the cry of the heart for personal significance is a cry the Christian has owned and contended with.  When a person answers the call of the Lord to “come and follow,” she admits she has found in the person of Christ an answer to a cry she was incapable of answering personally. When Jesus proclaimed, “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” he was stating something essential for the one searching for significance. Knowing who we are and what we need is the starting point for what we will become. The quest for personal significance commonly among us today reverses this, telling us that we must first become something in order to meet our own needs and make a name for ourselves.

Christ is the one in whom our lives find their greatest significance because he is the only one who accepts who we are and offers us what we need. Is my search for significance really panning out? Will writing a book or climbing the corporate ladder really hush the cry within me? What if attempts to define life’s meaning apart from God will always be empty? For significance, like life itself, is not manmade.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) Joseph Epstein, “Think You Have a Book in You? Think Again,” The New York Times, September 28, 2002.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – “More . . .”   

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greglaurie

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart. —Ecclesiastes 3:11

When my granddaughter Stella was very little, she made good use of the word more when she really liked something. Her favorite food was quesadillas. No matter what time of the day — breakfast, lunch, or dinner — she wanted quesadillas. Only she called it a “dilla.”

“Stella, what would you like to eat?”

“Dilla.”

And usually when I would give her one, she would then say, “More.”

It was the same when I read her a Bible story before bedtime. As soon as I finished the story, she said, “More.” So I read her another story, and at the end she said, “More.” So I did another. “More.” And another. “More.” And on and on it would go.

Quesadillas and stories about Jesus are good things, and to this day, we’re always happy to supply Stella with all she wants — of both. Sometimes, however, this desire for “more” can create problems for us — especially if we’re craving more of the wrong things. (Like ice cream or Krispy Kreme doughnuts.)

Deep down inside we’re all like little Stella, saying, “More.” We always want a little bit more out of life — the newest, the latest, the freshest, the coolest. We want more. That is the way God has wired us. But here’s the problem: as much as we see, taste, and experience life, it always seems like it just isn’t quite enough.

Do you know why that is? As we read in today’s opening verse, God has placed a seed of eternity deep in our innermost being. In our heart of hearts, there is a recognition that this world won’t be able to deliver on its promises. No matter what this world gives us, we find ourselves wanting more: More life. More hope. More joy. More peace. More satisfaction. And, ultimately, more of the presence of God Himself.

In heaven, those desires will be fulfilled in a way beyond what we can imagine. But until that day when we cross over to the other side, He willingly gives us more and more and more of Himself. And that’s the closest thing we have to heaven on earth.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Does Religion Poison Everything?

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Ravi Z

A common claim made by many atheists is that religion causes evil, suffering, division and war. For example, at the Munk Debate in Toronto in 2010, Christopher Hitchens argued this very point against Tony Blair. Religion, Hitchens claimed, causes sectarianism, division, strife, disagreement, war, poverty and a host of societal evils. In his best-selling book, God is Not Great, Hitchens even wrote that “religion poisons everything.”

How might a Christian respond? Well, first, I’d point out there’s a major problem with Hitchens’ argument. You could remove the word “religion” from his statement “religion poisons everything” and replace it with many other words. Politics, for example. Politics causes division, bloodshed, argument, and war. Politics poisons everything. Or what about money? Money causes crime, resentment, bloodshed, division and poverty. Money poisons everything.

You see the problem is that atheists like Christopher Hitchens have built their worldview on the idea that human beings are essentially good and that the world is getting better—a kind of naïve utopianism. But the world isn’t like that, is it? Rather, it seems to be the case that whatever human beings lay hold off, they use to cause damage. That applies to money, politics, government, science—and religion. The problem is not with religion or politics, the problem is not out there somewhere, the problem lies in here, in the human heart.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Russian novelist and political commentator, who survived the Russian gulags and wrote with amazing insight into the human condition, once famously said this: “The dividing line between good and evil runs right through the middle of every human heart.” What the world needs, as an answer to violence and injustice, poverty and pain, is not a clever philosophy, not a religious system, not a new politic, not more money, more education—none of these will fundamentally change anything. Rather, it needs individual transformation, a radical transformation of the human heart. Only Jesus Christ offers that possibility if we are willing to surrender our lives to him.

I often find it interesting to point out to my atheist friends that Jesus himself was also anti-religion. He regularly clashed with the religious leaders of his day because he saw empty religion as powerless, damaging, and enslaving. Ultimately that stance led to his crucifixion. And Christians, of course, cannot talk about suffering and evil, pain, and violence, without talking about the example of Jesus, one to whom violence was done. His example has inspired millions if not billions of Christians to give sacrificially, to love their neighbors, to engage in peace making. One of the most powerful recent examples was the Amish School Shooting in 2006. Not only did the families of the victims publically forgive the perpetrator and offer pastoral support to his family, they set up a trust fund to help the wife of the shooter, who had killed himself too. Only Jesus Christ offers the transformative power that makes that kind of choice possible.

Andy Bannister is a member of the speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Toronto, Canada.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Is It Possible to Change Ourselves?

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greglaurie

We like the idea of change, of starting over again, of becoming someone different than we are. Sometimes we move to a new place, thinking we can escape our problems. Sometimes we think if we had some new friends or get married that life will be better. Then we think if only we had kids things would be different.

Others think a change in their appearance will do it. A survey revealed that 80 percent of American women are dissatisfied with their appearance. And research has also shown that the more time people spend consuming media, the more unhappy they are with their bodies. They think that if they could look like someone in a magazine, it would meet the deepest needs of their lives.

If you think you would be happier if you were really handsome or strikingly beautiful, consider this statement from actress Halle Berry: “Being thought of as a beautiful woman has spared me nothing in life. No heartache, no trouble. Love has been difficult. Beauty is essentially meaningless and it is always transitory.”

A professor of sociology said, “The demand for instant identity transformation has never been so pervasive. People want change, and they want it instantly. From fame to the instant thrills of Botox or liposuction, the capacity to reinvent ourselves has become fundamental.”

But can we really reinvent ourselves? Can we really change? Here is the answer: No. You cannot change who you are on the inside. You can change your appearance. You can change your location. You can change your relationships. But you can’t change yourself any more than a drowning person can save himself.

Sometimes it is said the answer is within, but the reality is the problem is within. And that problem inside of you and inside of me is called sin. We have all sinned. And we can’t change our essential nature. The Bible says, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9 NLT). There is only one person who can change the human heart, and that is God. God can change your life. It is possible.

There is a story in the Bible about a woman who got caught committing adultery. Some religious leaders found her and decided she ought to be executed for this. We don’t know what happened to the man she was with, but apparently he walked away free. But they brought this woman to Jesus and threw her down at his feet. Now, they didn’t really care about this woman. What they really were trying to do was to trap Jesus. They wanted to know what he would do.

They said to him, “This woman was caught in the act of adultery. The Law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” (John 8:4–5) Now, Jesus was on the horns of a dilemma here. If He said, “Stone her,” he would have been justified, technically, but that would have been pretty harsh. If he said, “Let her go,” then he would have been seen as being too lenient.

So what did he do? He looked at them and started writing in the sand. What was he doing? I don’t think he was playing tic-tac-toe. I think he wrote something significant. And when he was finished writing in the sand, he stood up and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” (verse 7). Then he stooped down and started writing again.

We don’t know exactly what Jesus wrote, but I think he probably wrote the names of the religious leaders next to the commandments. Yeah, Caleb, I know what is up with you. . . . Hey, Joshua, I know where you have been. . . . Eliezer, I know all about you, buddy. And then they left, from the oldest to the youngest. And why did they leave in that order? I think it’s because the older guys had more sins they had committed. They got busted. Instead of condemning the woman, Jesus condemned the self-righteous condemners.

Then Jesus said to her, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more” (verses 10–11).

Some might say, “How could Jesus pardon her? She was caught in the act. She wasn’t even a believer.” But I think she was. Why? Because she believed. I am not sure exactly when she believed, but probably right before she said, “No, Lord.” How long does it take to believe in God? Only an instant.

Jesus said four things to her that were very important.

Her sins had been forgiven. He said, “Neither do I [condemn you]. Go and sin no more.” God can forgive you of all of your sins. And not only will he forgive them, but he will forget them. They will be behind you. The Bible says it will be like they are buried in the depths of the sea (see Micah 7:19).

She did not have to fear the judgment day. There is a day of judgment coming when everyone will stand before God—the rich and the poor, the famous and the unknown. And the question in that final day will not be whether you lived or a good life or were a nice person or whether you recycled. The question will be: What did you do with Jesus Christ?

She had new power to face her problems. “Go and sin no more,” Jesus told her. God will give you the power to be the person he wants you to be.

I never wanted to be a religious person. I never wanted to be someone who went to church. But when Jesus started changing me, I said to God, “I don’t even know how to pray. But I will say this: if you are real, then you will have to make yourself real to me.” And he started changing me. He will start changing you too. You will see.