Ch. 12 - Life With a Well-ordered Heart - (Developing Your Own “Rule of Life”)

 It was almost 13 years ago when my dad had his heart attack. He was gone there for a minute or two, but the good doctors brought him back. It is quite unsettling to see your dad of 47 years of age have a heart attack.  He made some lifestyle changes and is in much better health now. However, the age of 47 is fast approaching for me. I can count it down on one hand. With a family of five to take care of, I think about the health of my heart a lot more than I did 5 or 10 years ago. I thought when I hit 40, I’d make some diet changes and get in the best shape of my life, but that didn’t happen. Then 41 came and went, and I still haven’t made the changes to my health that I want to. What am I waiting for? I don’t know. I’d like to think that 42 will be different. I want it to be. I need it to be. But will it?

 The condition of our physical hearts is obviously important.  If we neglect it, we run the risk of a heart attack and death. However, what about our spiritual hearts?  What happens when we neglect it?  Do we run the risk of a spiritual heart attack? Oh yes we do!  It's what the Bible calls a hard heart. Some symptoms of a hard heart are: a lack of a willingness to forgive, a lack of giving, la ack of Christian fellowship (more than just church attendance), finding yourself angry often, a negative attitude (often criticizing), and finally an increase of sin in one’s life as opposed to a continual decrease. These are not all the symptoms, but these should be major warning signs that the spiritual condition of your heart is in jeopardy of a cardiac arrest.

 If you have any of these symptoms, then you need to read this week’s chapter by Ortberg, The Well Ordered Heart. However, I would venture to say you if you have very many of these symptoms then haven’t been practicing these spiritual disciplines laid out in this book. You can’t just read this blog or the book and not put it to into practice. You can’t just attend church and read the Bible and not put it into practice. Just reading won’t help your heart anymore than reading a health and fitness magazine will help the health of your physical heart.

 1 Timothy 4:7b-8 (NIV) - train yourself to be godly. ⁸ “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”

 Now that I am approaching that “heart attack age” I have more of urgency than ever to do something about my physical heart health.  But I’ll admit, sometimes I have neglected my physical health at the expense of keeping my spiritual heart healthy. You see, the consequences of a physical heart attack are death and while that would be sad for my family, ultimately it means I get to see Jesus and begin my eternal life. Conversely, if not treated, the consequences of a spiritual heart attack are eternal!!! Therefore, you might be able to wait until after the holidays to get back in physical health, but don’t let another moment go by without dealing with your spiritual heart health. Remember, God’s plan to deal with your heart is pretty amazing: Ezekiel 11:19^(NIV) says,  “ I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh”. Basically, what God does when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and we commit our lives to follow him, He gives us a heart transplant. And it’s not just any old heart.  He actually replaces our old crappy corrupted heart with His Heart. However, we must take great care of this heart!

In this chapter, Ortberg reminds us that we need a plan for taking care of our spiritual heart health. “In a sense, each of us chooses a “spiritual strategy” whether or not we are intentional about it. We can choose by default" (p.205). 

How have you chosen?

Be Intentional - PJ

Ch. 11 - An Undivided Life – (The Practice of Reflecting on Scripture)

Do you stink? How do you know? Isn't it funny how many of us are not aware of our own B.O. We can walk out of a bathroom after doing our business feeling good and relieved, but then our spouse or sibling walks in behind you and nearly passes out. I used to be in a bowling league, back when there was still smoking at the lanes. I'd come home smelling like an ash tray, but I didn't realize how bad until I walked through the door and my wife could smell me before she could see me. Growing up in Indiana there were a lot of pig farmers and I remember them walking into the local convenience store and standing in line. Wow oh wow, the smell would hit you like a freight train. It didn't bother pig farmer.  Why, because people can't smell their own stink. Thank God for perfume and deodorant.

Smelling physically is one thing, but smelling spiritually is another. I can wash physical stink off, but how do we wash our spiritual stink off. That's where this week's discipline comes in. Ortberg calls it, the practice of reflecting on scripture. This discipline is more than just reading your Bible everyday. One can actually read through the whole Bible in a year and still come away stinking spiritually to high heaven (pun intended). Therefore our reading needs to be more than just the input of information. In the words of Ortberg we are "to be washed by the Word". The idea is that our hearts and minds get cluttered by the world and what helps us stay spiritually clean is a consistent washing by God's Word. Ortberg gives some ideas on how to begin this practice, but I thought I'd offer a couple additional ways that have worked for me and many others.

 First, you don't need to be a scholar to understand the Bible. And one of the simplest ways to read the Bible is to look for what God is doing and or what is being said about God. For example, pick out any psalm of the Bible. Almost all of them describe God in some way. So as your read the Psalm highlight the characteristics of God and reflect on that truth. Psalms are easy, but what about books like Leviticus with some of those weird laws and the book of Numbers that has those long list of tribes - If you look for it, even in those seemingly boring books there are nuggets of gold of what God is doing or what he is like. When you read looking for Him it actually helps you stay focused. If you're like me, your mind can wonder pretty easily but if you're actually looking for something, you can stay focused. To be honest, sometimes my reading becomes skimming over the passage till I find that nugget of gold that tells me something about God that I've never seen before or something my soul needed to hear or something my heart needed to feel or something my mind needed to learn. This is when that spiritual cleaning can happen. When we don't read in this way we can get stuck reflecting on the people, places, and things of the Bible. That will help with your Bible knowledge but not so much on being "washed by the Word". The Bible is God's story and it cleanses us when we reflect on him and what is true about him.

 My second tid bit of advice: take notes! Whether from a Bible Study you’re a part of or from your own personal reading, take notes! If you don’t have paper at the time, write in your Bible. Taking notes helps you reflect on God’s truth again and again in your personal prayer time. As you’re taking notes it helps to write down questions you might have. You can then later talk to a mature follower of Christ you trust.

 So what do you think, do you stink? Yes you do. Yes I do. We all do! When we leave the Bible closed and we don't reflect properly, it's like washing without soap. Maybe it's time to dust off that Bible of yours and start reading...or for some of you really reading for the first time.