Our heart dictates to a great extent how we live because we always find time to do what we enjoy. “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” (Proverbs 4: 23)
Here, Solomon is telling us to guard our hearts above all else, making sure we concentrate on those desires that will keep us on the right path.

Please always make sure our affections lead us in the right direction. Let us put boundaries on our desires. We should not go after everything we see. It’s time to look straight ahead, keeping our eyes fixed on our goal. We must not get sidetracked on detours.

What is it that we may be suffering from?
Physically –  A heart attack? A weak heart?
Spiritually –  A broken heart? A hard heart?

Sick hearts will physically kill us if it is not detected it time and treated.
It is a big mistake to dwell on our appearances and neglect our character. BIG MISTAKE!

After all, when all is said and done – 1 Samuel 16: 7 – “Man looks at the outward appearance, but The Lord looks at the heart.” Stop judging by appearance alone. God judges by faith and character, not appearances. for that we should be truly grateful! While everyone can see our faces, only we and God know what our hearts really look like. The Bible acts like a mirror – when was the last time you looked at it? Why? Because it shows us the condition of our heart at any given moment. Time to be honest with ourselves.

So, how is our heart today?
What kind of thoughts are we entertaining?
Are we constantly comparing and resenting?
Do I get upset easily?
Do we take offense too easily?
Do we silence or spread gossip?

We have to go to the heart of our problems and stop sweeping them under the carpet. Going to the heart of our problems will show us the problem of our heart.

We need to get our hearts right with God so we can be on prayer answering ground with Him as long as we walk with Him.

So friend, how is our heart today?
And also for the rest of our days on this earth?

Many years ago a ship captain anchored his boat in the harbor of a lovely South Pacific island. He had heard that the people, who were formerly cannibals, were now very friendly and interested in trade.

As the captain talked with the island chief, he noticed a large Bible in the chief’s hands. The captain laughed a little and said to the chief, “Surely you don’t believe in that old book. It’s out of date and no good to anyone.”

The chief glanced at the strong warriors who stood around him and then turned to the captain. “Captain,” he replied slowly, “you may think this Book is of little benefit. What you don’t know is that it is benefiting you. If it were not for this Book that has changed our lives, you would be in our cooking pot right now!”

When you study the Bible, it will affect your life and the lives of others. The captain of this story benefited because someone else had read the Bible and applied its principles.

PEOPLE’S PROBLEMS TO STUDYING THE BIBLE:

1.    The Problem of RELEVANCE – “It’s archaic, out of date!”

2.    The Problem of TECHNIQUE/TRAINING – “I don’t know how!”

3.    The Problem of TIME – “I just don’t have the time!”

4.    The Problem of RELIABILITY/AUTHORITY – “I have my doubts about
the Bible.”

5.    The Problem of ENJOYABILITY – “It’s so boring!”

“The great tragedy among Christians today is that many of us are under the Word of God, but not in it for ourselves.” (HOWARD HENDRICKS)

A RESPONSE TO PEOPLE’S PROBLEMS:

1.  God’s revelation is as ALIVE today as when it was first delivered.
“I can’t  make the Bible  come  alive … The  Bible is alive.  It  makes me
come  alive.” (R. C. Sproul)

2.    We  simply  need  to  recover  the skills  of  READING – You  don’t need
professional training to be able to understand the Bible!

3.   The problem is not time, the problem is really PRIORITIES.

4.   The Bible is completely RELIABLE, CONSISTENT, and REASONABLE.

5.   There is a JOY that comes with first-hand acquaintance with the Word.

“We fail in our duty to study God’s Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work…Our problem is that we are lazy.” (R. C. SPROUL).

The great reformer Martin Luther rightly said that, as sinners, we are prone to pursue a relationship with God in one of two ways. The first is religion/spirituality and the second is the Gospel. The two are antithetical (directly opposite) in every way.

Religion says that if we obey God He will love us. The Gospel says that it is because God has loved us through Jesus that we can obey.

Religion says that the world is filled with good people and bad people. The Gospel says that the world is filled with bad people who are either repentant or unrepentant.

Religion says that you should trust in what you do as a good moral person. The Gospel says that you should trust in the perfectly sinless life of Jesus because He alone is the only good and truly moral Person who will ever live.

The goal of religion is to get from God such things as health, wealth, insight, power, and control. The goal of the Gospel is not the gifts God gives, but rather God as the Gift given to us by grace.

Religion is about what I have to do. The Gospel is about what I get to do. Religion sees hardship in life as punishment from God. The Gospel sees hardship in life as sanctifying affliction that reminds us of Jesus’ sufferings and is used by God in love to make us more like Jesus. Religion is about me. The Gospel is about Jesus.

Religion leads to an uncertainty about my standing before God because I never know if I have done enough to please God. The Gospel leads to a certainty about my standing before God because of the finished work of Jesus on my behalf on the cross.

Religion ends in either pride (because I think I am better than other people) or despair (because I continually fall short of God’s commands). The Gospel ends in humble and confident joy because of the power of Jesus at work for me, in me, through me, and sometimes in spite of me.
(MARS HILL CHURCH)

Look! Those who are last will be first and those who are first will be last. (Luke 13:30)

This is one of those hard sayings of Jesus.  God’s perspective is different than ours.  God judges differently than we do.  God sees the heart.  God is looking for abandonment to His Son, for His Son’s sake.  Some people have made great sacrifices for Christ, but if they create a sense of pride, there is not lasting reward.

There will be great reversals and surprises.  Jesus tells us that God’s economy is different than ours and might shock us.  Riches and wealth do not necessarily mean God’s blessing.  Spiritual giftedness or authority now do not necessarily equate to permanent status.

God might ask you two questions when your life is over.  “How did you love?’, and “How much of My Son’s likeness do you bear?”

Do you know what you are for?  Do you know why God created you?  Do you know what the gift of God is in you that glorifies Him?  Do that to God’s glory.  Be who God created you to be.

Do not strive to be first now.  Be the special person God made you to be, in last place and let God put you in the front, on His stage, in His time.  You have many relationships and functions, but what is the first thing?  Never stop doing and nurturing that first thing.           (STEVE SEVY)

In the story of Jonah, he is ready to die because he is so angry over the destruction of a vine in the desert, but he feels nothing for a whole city of people made in God’s image.

His anger is almost laughable if it didn’t sound so familiar. Most Christians are all for outreach and evangelism and reaching the lost for Christ, until those people start taking our parking spot at church, or sitting in our pew, bring kids who don’t behave the way we like, bring in worship music that we don’t relate to. Then our comfort becomes more important. We’d like to see the lost saved, but we’d rather that they got saved somewhere else.

But God’s concern is so much greater than our concerns.

There are people who are dealing with huge issues in their life, but there are others of us who rate our days on whether we could get a good parking spot at the mall. We tell God what we are concerned about, and He comes to us and says, “Do you want to know what I’m concerned about?”

There are millions of people in the world who are daily facing starvation, death from disease, war and disaster. There are millions who are facing a Christless eternity. There are thousands in our own city who don’t know their moral right hand from their left. God comes to us and says “Should I not be concerned about this great city?”

There may be days when we are deeply concerned and complaining about our own comfort level, but God comes to us and says “Do you know what is concerning Me?” As we listen to Him, we come back and say, “On second thought, my life is pretty good.”

It is not that we should not bring our small concerns to God – there is nothing too small or too large to bring to God in prayer, but sooner or later we must ask God what is His concern in the world. God’s great concern is in the salvation of the lost. Is this our concern or are we more concerned about our own comfort?                                                                        (MIKE WILKINS)

Take a look at your feet. Do you like your feet? On a scale of one to ten: one being ugly and ten being beautiful, how would you rate your feet? While God has made many beautiful things, I don’t imagine any of us would rate our feet as a ten! However, it is possible for all of us to have beautiful feet, at least in God’s eyes. God thinks some feet are very beautiful! God is interested in our feet. He is not so much concerned about how your feet look, but where they go and what they do.

In Romans 10:15b, Paul quotes Isaiah 52:7 and relates it to the ultimate Good News message: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of Peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”

Sharing the Gospel with someone is bringing Good News. As a Christian, you are to be a herald of the Good News of Jesus Christ! To God, there is nothing more beautiful than feet that carry the Good News of Jesus Christ, whether it is across the street or across the ocean. Have your feet brought Good News to someone recently?

The word “beautiful” in the Hebrew is na’ha, and it doesn’t mean pretty, cute or beautiful. Actually, it means befitting, becoming or perfectly appropriate. Flowers are designed by God to bring color and fragrance into our lives, therefore it is fitting or appropriate to display them in a vase on the table. Your feet were designed to go places. Your feet may take you up and down a basketball court or soccer field; they may take you to school or to work, which is well and good. However, your feet can reach into eternity when you employ them to carry the Good News of Jesus Christ! When they are employed to travel near and far bearing the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God calls them beautiful!

It has been observed that there are only two things you can do on this earth that you cannot do in Heaven. You can sing, you can serve, you can pray, you can fellowship in both places. You can even rest in both places, but there are two things you can do here on earth, but not in Heaven. What are they? The first thing is you can’t sin in Heaven. The second is you can’t tell someone about Jesus, and rescue them from eternal Hell. This world needs people with beautiful feet! What about your feet? Are your feet beautiful in God’s eyes?                                              (PASTOR RON THOMAS)

There was a young girl named Hattie May Wiatt at the turn of the century outside of Philadelphia who was crying near a small church when the pastor walked by. When he asked her what was wrong, she sobbed that there hadn’t been enough room in the Sunday School class for her. Seeing her filthy clothes, the pastor guessed that she may have been turned away for other reasons. He marched her back in and found a place for her in the class. She listened and loved the Bible stories she heard each Sunday after that.

Two years later, the little girl died. When the pastor came to make final arrangements, he discovered a coin purse with her belongings. Inside the coin purse was 57 cents and a slip of paper that said, “To make the church bigger so more kids can go to the Sunday School.”

The pastor told the girl’s story that Sunday in church, and challenged his deacons to raise enough money to build a bigger church. The newspapers picked up the story. And a realtor offered a parcel of land worth thousands of dollars to build the church on. When told that the church couldn’t afford the asking price, he offered to sell it to them for 57 cents.

It would seem impossible to build a church with 57 cents, but that didn’t stop one little girl from trying to create a miracle. Today you can go to Temple Baptist church of Philadelphia and Temple University. Go visit the Sunday School building next to Good Samaritan Hospital, where there is more than enough room for everyone. In one room you will see the picture of a young girl who started it all with 57 cents. Alongside it is the picture of the Reverend Dr. Russell Conwell, who multiplied that 57 cents through countless others.

God had taken the very ordinary donation of a poor child, less than a dollar, and turned it into something extraordinary! It became the driving force that turned the heart of a landowner, motivated the revival of a church and eventually founded a University! All because an ordinary young minister made sure an ordinary young girl went to Sunday School one ordinary morning.

God always sees what is inside of us. We all have gifts, talents and opportunities that He can shape into miraculous moments. We must stop looking at what we don’t have and start looking at what God can do in our lives.                                                                           (ROBERT MOMENT)