The Question of the Heart

This is my 2nd blog in succession, but really I don't that much time to blog anyway.

There's this thing that was been popping up in my mind, because one thing was that it really spoke to me through a book " Journey of Desire" and it seems like I've been dealing with this issue around in my life alot; maybe because the book started opening my eyes.

Let me start with this: A conversation with a friend..

My friend said that when you make a decision, the best gauge is to think about which decision leads you to greater godliness.

I was like.. Huh?

What do you mean by greater godliness? Even as a Christian, I totally had no idea what he was talking about.

For example if you were choosing between two jobs, and one was intensive, working late hours and the other was more slack, but it meant that you had more time for prayer and reading the Bible, you should take the latter.

Oh I see, but I totally disagreed with that he said. He's my friend la, I love him, but he's just off. That's totally unscriptural.

And that's what I want to talk about: Principles.

As humans, it's a very natural thing for us to try to rely on principles. The Godliness principle states that you have to pick the job that leads you to greater godliness.

It's natural. We like to think in principles. Look at all the frameworks consultants have come up with. All the diagrams and stuff that philosphers have done.

And it extends to the Christian faith as well. Besides this Godliness principle, there's probably unsaid things like the "Serving God" principle: when an authority asks you to do certain things ( even when you're overloaded), the serving god principle states that you are a good servant if you accept it, because you have submissive and obedient. BUT when you apply the Sabbath day principle: You realize that because of all these, you don't have a day of rest at all.

So then now what?

Principles are great, but more often than not, they reflect the fear of uncertainty of the human heart. We, in our fallen state, are attempting to try to figure life out by ourselves and to put it under OUR control.

Frameworks, Principles; we use things we can see to try to put our lives under our own control.

How do you gauge if you're doing well in God. Oh, use the attendance principle( btw all these are unspoken, but yet it's pretty obvious some people live by them): Are you attending cell group and service?

But then my question to them is: By which principle did Abraham use when he brought his son up to Mt Moriah to be sacrificed? The 10 commandments weren't even out then. The godliness principle maybe? Maybe he decided that he would be more godly if he were to kill his only son.

By which principle did Jesus decided that He was to be crucified?

By which principle did the disciples live by when they started speaking in other tongues?

But the Bible says: The just shall live by faith.
(Hab 2:4,Romans 1:17)
To Abraham: His faith was accounted to him as righteousness. (Also in Bible, but i forgot book chapter and verse)

God said in the Bible, that He has put His law in our hearts. That we have a new spirit and a new heart.

Why then has man gone back to principles, laws and commandments after 2000 years, like the Pharisees used to be?

It's safe.

It's certainty.

You don't need faith when you think all you have to do is A-Z for God to be pleased with you.

Your life is back under your control.

And why don't we dare to live from our hearts? Live by faith?

It's scarey.

It's dark in there.

You don't know what your heart's desire will bring out.

It's like a sleeping dragon in there.

You HAVE to live by faith.

Your life stops being under your control when you decide to give up your stable job and start a business on your own. Or when you decide that you will love another person wholeheartedly. There's a chance to be hurt now. You're vulnerable when you live from your heart.

Look back into your heart. Ask yourself What do you want?

You'll notice it's alot. Too much for you to handle sometimes. But God never expected us to quell our desires, but to re-direct them.

The Bible says to guard our hearts. Not kill it.

But what often is the first thing that religion does to us? It tries to kill the heart. It's just too much to bear. So we're unconsciously we're taught to kill our own desires so that we can be 'godly'. We just want to be 'faithful servants' who do as we're told. We give up our dreams and desires because they make us wild, sometimes seemingly disobedient to the 800 commandments and principles that have been set up on top of God's 10.

But Jesus never asked us to quell that desire. Look at the way he treated the sinners. The tax collectors, the prostitutes, the Samaritian woman who had 5 husbands before.

He knew they, in their hearts, they were looking for God. They were searching for a life that only God could give, a life of intimacy, of hope, of abundance. But they were doing it without God, which was why their desires were directed into the wrong places. They tried to find life in all the wrong places, in the wrong people.

Jesus knew that: that was why he said to the Samaritian woman:(roughly, no time to check bible)" If you knew the water I could give you, you will drink and never be thirsty again." Jesus knew that she was searching, searching for the life only God could give, and she found them in the wrong places, which led her to her present state.

That is our problem sometimes, we try to make a life for ourselves apart from God, and we see that often we just screw ourselves up.

But these people never knew God. That was why Jesus was so compassionate on them, He knew what they were looking for, and He knew He had it.

Our desires are holy. They are good. They just need to be re-focused and re-directed. Live from the heart. It is either our greatest enemy or greatest ally.

Conversely: Why did you think Jesus was so pissed with the Pharisees? They tried to kill the heart. They tried to put God in a box. They added hundreds and hundreds of commandments to gauge their holiness, to gauge people's holiness.

While the sinners never put their heart away, the Pharisees already planned to live their life apart from God. And what's more, they tried to kill the hearts of the people as well.

So friend, are you a Pharisee yourself?

Do you REALLY live by faith? or by principles? or by wisdom?

Do you follow Jesus' principles? Or do you follow Jesus?

Romans 8:14
For as many are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

That same friend asked me what this verse meant in the same bus ride. Only then did I realize why we had such a debate. Ha..

Simple. It means what it means.

If you don't know the Spirit of God. You won't understand this verse.

Then I realized one thing: He didn't really know God for himself, that's why he lived by principles.

Know God for yourself.

Jesus didn't come to give us 800 more princples or commandments. He came to give us LIFE more abundantly, in this time, and the time that is to come. =)