Sun.12.28.14...Eddie's Heart Condition

Dave's Introductory Note: I want to thank Eddie for being the first to volunteer to present his GDP (Growing Deeper Project). He did a great job! Be blessed and let him know your thoughts.

Heart Condition 

I recently had to go through a series of physical exams. My initial results showed some complications with my heart. I didn't want to delay looking into this situation further, especially since I was diagnosed with a potential heart condition. After further testing, the results came back. The cardiologist came in and looked at the results and told me that my heart was healthy. He said, "Your heart is healthy now, but the important thing is to keep your heart healthy for the rest of your life." I immediately thought of the spiritual implications that came with this statement. My heart may be healthy physically, but is it healthy spiritually?  And if my heart is healthy now, how can I keep it healthy?

I believe the condition of our heart will affect our ministry, our intentional influence, our lives and most importantly every decision we make. So many times throughout the Old and New Testament, it talks about the condition of our hearts. Here are just a few examples:

"Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go." Exodus 8:32 NIV

"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left." Ecclesiastes 10:2 NIV

"As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been." 1 Kings 11:4 NIV

We make countless decisions on a daily basis. Most decisions we don't think twice about, while some we take our time with. Every decision we make has an outcome, a consequence, an impact on us. For example, if I want a physically healthy heart and body in the future, I would create a workout routine and get into the habit of eating healthy today. Thus, in the near future (and hopefully for the rest of my life as I continue the routine), I will see and enjoy a healthy heart and body. We also need to remember that many of our decisions significantly affect others- we are interconnected. What we do today can positively or negatively affect others as well as ourselves. Choose wisely!

In Matthew 6:21 Jesus says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." People fix their heart on what they value most; so they fix their eyes on what they consider a priority. I am reminded of a story from the Gospel of Mark, where a man had a heart condition and it affected his decision making. (Mark 10:17-28). Jesus asked a young, wealthy man to sell everything he had and follow him. The rich young man said that he had been obedient to all the commands, but "Jesus looked at him and loved him [and said, 'There is] one thing you lack...Go and sell everything you have and give to the poor...then come follow me.'" The scripture says that the young man's face fell and he went away sad. He declined an invitation to follow Jesus because of his bad heart condition. 

I found an interesting insight on this portion of scripture from a book called, Love Does: "It's important to note here that Jesus didn't ask everybody to give up all their stuff. This is something He asked of the rich young ruler because He wanted to teach the young man that he wasn't as holy as he thought he was. Jesus wanted to teach the young man that he still needed God's help, to look at what he had and decide whether he would rather have that, or trade up and have what Jesus is offering:a life with Him." I think if we really look at the story deeper, it wasn't necessarily having money that was the problem, but pride that the young man was struggling with. Seems like the young man was saying, “I spent my whole life building up this empire. I don't want to lose all this wealth that took so much of my time and hard work to amass. I put my whole heart into this and now you want me to give it away?!” He didn't see that to follow Jesus equaled being with JESUS! He could have had a new heart and a life so much more abundant and fulfilling. 

I wouldn’t really know about my physical heart’s condition until I submitted to my doctor’s heart test. Sometimes, we may have spiritual heart problems that we may not know about until we have a heart to heart talk with the Great Physician, Jesus.  Many times I think that we can decline Jesus' invitation to follow Him, when we choose our priorities over Jesus. What thing, if any, is competing with Jesus? We tend to undervalue our sins and write them off as not that bad. By the same token, we have a tendency to overestimate our abilities, skills and deeds.

I think there is a way to keep our hearts healthy. It's by asking ourselves and God some honest questions and allowing Him the time to show us the answer to those questions. I believe this requires that we humbly approach His throne and spend some time with Him. We need to stay humble before the Lord and understand that we aren't finished. As the end of the year approaches, I always take time to evaluate my goals- financial, personal, spiritual, vocational, etc. I know I especially need to take time to evaluate my heart. I like the following words regarding our hearts- “If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” 1 John 3:20 NIV

Here is an interesting article that I thought would be appropriate for us to read and implement during the last week of the year as we evaluate and look ahead for the coming year.

http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/Annual_Spiritual_Check_Up?utm_source=Spiritual+Check-Up+%28Chicago%29&utm_campaign=Spiritual+Checkup&utm_medium=email

Grace and Peace Brothers!

Eddie

Note from Dave: Great job Eddie! I’m sure the author of the link provided didn’t pass all the questions he came up with. So many questions can feel overwhelming. So why not pick a few that strike you men as most important and think of some ways to make progress on them this coming year? 

Here are some suggestions to all of you yet to present:
Keep it short and sweet as Eddie did. Don't be intimidated if you are not a good writer. Just seek to do a good job, not as good as everyone else. How to do a good job? Proof reading is crucial! Read over what you wrote out loud. Remember, there's no such thing as good writing, only good re-writing. Use Spell-Check. Please, never submit something to me that you first haven't proof read and used Spell-Check. (That's good advice for even what you post on the blog.) I will work with you to polish up your work, but please do your work of proof reading it first. Otherwise, I'll lovingly send it back to you. If you are really intimidated with writing, feel free to copy a lot and paste from other sources, just give them credit where credit is due. Speaking of things being due, since I've not gotten an overflow of volunteers, let's knock these out by dividing the due dates as follows- If the first letter of your last name is between A-F your GDP is due Jan.8th. G-L is due Jan.15th. M-R is due by Jan.22. S-Z is due Jan.29th. Please write your due date on your calendar and get it in to me by then. (Don't make me come to your door :) Again, I'm here to help you. Also one of the purposes of the GDP is to help you become more familiar with all the resources that are now available to you on the web. That way you can help your proteges when they hit you with questions you may not have the answer for right then and there. 

Lastly, feel free to also include a verse or truth you liked from the message today. Also please post your thoughts regarding M3 for other men considering to join. Then please email me by tomorrow night your prayer partners- their names and emails. Thanks mucho! Tomorrow, I also look forward to introducing our newest M3 teammate. He's a great brother!