Wednesday in the Word: How is Your Heart?
This is the devotion I posted today at KJV Blog Directory.
Good morning! It's probably afternoon already wherever you are, as we're on the west coast. I'm late posting today, for which I apologize. We're having revival services this week, and as part of my focus on revival, I have not been online for anything more than is necessary for the past week. In the meantime, my husband installed a new router for our home network, and when I went to post my devotion last night, my computer wasn't recognizing the network, so I couldn't do anything online at all. He fixed it this morning, though, so I'm all set to be back online, for the most part, tomorrow.
Our speaker for our revival this week, Pastor Tom Kline of Castlegar Baptist Church in Castlegar, BC, has been tremendous! Each message has spoken to my heart in some way, so I wanted to share one of them with you. This one is from Monday night, taken from Luke 8, the parable of the sower. Bro. Kline asked, "How is your heart?" as he began his sermon, and then identified each type of heart in the parable as a response that we have to hearing God's Word. We always have a response; the type of heart we have determines our response.
The first heart in the parable, where the seed fell upon stony ground (verse 12), represents the careless response. This hearer couldn't care less about God's Word, and this response reveals a hard heart. Have you ever had a hard heart during a sermon, and knew it? It's miserable, isn't it? I don't have this type response very often, but it does happen, and I want to stay tender to the Holy Spirit so that it never happens.
The second heart, mentioned in verse 13, represents an emotional response. This heart is stirred, but no permanent change takes place. This is when you hear a sermon and the Holy Spirit puts his finger on something you need to change. You get up from the altar with good intentions . . . but no real change has taken place. This response shows a shallow heart.
Thirdly, verse 14 speaks of the seed that fell on good soil, but the weeds and thorns came up and choked the seed. This heart represents a priority response. In other words, the heart is soft and receives the Word and desires to change, but the person's priorities are out of place. Things like entertainment and get-togethers with friends may have higher priority to them than going to church. Many church members have this kind of heart! Super Bowl Sunday is coming up soon; that's when this type of heart may be revealed!
The last type of heart is the one that has good, soft soil for the seed to take root, then it grows and grows and produces lots of fruit. Not surprisingly, this response is a fruitful response. This response goes beyond the emotional response and shows proper priorities; it shows a heart that will be faithful and have patience. It's a slow process though. The person with this heart has to exercise faithfulness. Continue on and fruit will come!
What kind of heart do you have? I think we all have each of these hearts at one time or another. The goal is to have a fruitful response, allowing the Holy Spirit to change our careless, emotional, low-priority responses to the fruitful ones of a soft heart!
Good morning! It's probably afternoon already wherever you are, as we're on the west coast. I'm late posting today, for which I apologize. We're having revival services this week, and as part of my focus on revival, I have not been online for anything more than is necessary for the past week. In the meantime, my husband installed a new router for our home network, and when I went to post my devotion last night, my computer wasn't recognizing the network, so I couldn't do anything online at all. He fixed it this morning, though, so I'm all set to be back online, for the most part, tomorrow.
Our speaker for our revival this week, Pastor Tom Kline of Castlegar Baptist Church in Castlegar, BC, has been tremendous! Each message has spoken to my heart in some way, so I wanted to share one of them with you. This one is from Monday night, taken from Luke 8, the parable of the sower. Bro. Kline asked, "How is your heart?" as he began his sermon, and then identified each type of heart in the parable as a response that we have to hearing God's Word. We always have a response; the type of heart we have determines our response.
The first heart in the parable, where the seed fell upon stony ground (verse 12), represents the careless response. This hearer couldn't care less about God's Word, and this response reveals a hard heart. Have you ever had a hard heart during a sermon, and knew it? It's miserable, isn't it? I don't have this type response very often, but it does happen, and I want to stay tender to the Holy Spirit so that it never happens.
The second heart, mentioned in verse 13, represents an emotional response. This heart is stirred, but no permanent change takes place. This is when you hear a sermon and the Holy Spirit puts his finger on something you need to change. You get up from the altar with good intentions . . . but no real change has taken place. This response shows a shallow heart.
Thirdly, verse 14 speaks of the seed that fell on good soil, but the weeds and thorns came up and choked the seed. This heart represents a priority response. In other words, the heart is soft and receives the Word and desires to change, but the person's priorities are out of place. Things like entertainment and get-togethers with friends may have higher priority to them than going to church. Many church members have this kind of heart! Super Bowl Sunday is coming up soon; that's when this type of heart may be revealed!
The last type of heart is the one that has good, soft soil for the seed to take root, then it grows and grows and produces lots of fruit. Not surprisingly, this response is a fruitful response. This response goes beyond the emotional response and shows proper priorities; it shows a heart that will be faithful and have patience. It's a slow process though. The person with this heart has to exercise faithfulness. Continue on and fruit will come!
What kind of heart do you have? I think we all have each of these hearts at one time or another. The goal is to have a fruitful response, allowing the Holy Spirit to change our careless, emotional, low-priority responses to the fruitful ones of a soft heart!
I love this post it is so true.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I talked about this after he preached (our pastor had knee surgery and my honey has been helping out). He said a lot of people come and listen and go home as if they never heard a thing. He said we are not perfect Christians, the difference is we want to be and look to the Lord and the Word for the how of it.
It is so sad to see people come and come and not change.
Makes no sense to me. All I know to do is pray for them and of course ourselves to not stumble.