Volume 14 Issue 3
My brother Doug is a genius. Aside from the fact I’ve admired his determined Christian life though all these years, I’ve also been in awe of his ability to do just about anything.
One day we were discussing small boxes which are, in fact, also puzzles. This type of box requires knowledge of the “trick” before it can be opened. In fact, “trick boxes” represent an ilk of box making that makes them one of the world’s most sought-after treasures.
Anyway, about four weeks after our talk, Doug presented me with a small box and demanded that I open it. He had placed a penny in the box just to assure me that it was openable. It took me quite a while to figure it out, and I’ll not reveal the secret here just in case I get a chance to show it to you sometime. It is ingenious, especially for his first effort at making a trick box.
That little box sits on my library shelf today like an icon of truth. I think of it as being like a human heart. You know it’s there, but how do you reach into it? How do you solve the puzzle of the human heart? How do you discover the key that will unlock its realities, truths, loves, and hatreds?
One may preach to a huge audience and never unlock even one heart.
One may have a thousand conversations with various friends and never ever have a heart to heart talk with anyone.
One may be married and never know his or her companion’s heart.
The human heart is a trick box. Even experts in dealing with the human heart are fascinated by its mysteries.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9).
We can never restore a spiritually diseased nation or have revival until we start reaching hearts. Fifty million people say they’re born again – but are there truly fifty million hearts that are dedicated to God and obeying His instructions as if they really believed in Him to be Supreme Commander-in-Chief?
How many people do we have in our churches “whose hearts are far from God?” How many preachers are there whose hearts and mouths have long been two separate matters?
The key to unlocking the human heart is the power of the Holy Spirit. Take the Apostle’s description of the last days and explained how one can reach these types of hearts. We can’t unless we’re aided by the Holy Ghost.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God: (2 Timothy 3:2-4)
Often we talk in circles; or we talk on the surface, never reaching solutions. The reason? We never reach the heart, therefore we never get righteous results; we never find common ground. Don’t you think it’s time we go to the heart of the matter?
