Only God Knows the Heart?

Been pondering this much today--not in reference to anyone or anything in particular but a comment sparked many questions for me. We often hear "only God knows the heart." Mostly, it's when someone's faith in true Christianity is in question or their behaviors/words show contradiction to their profession of being a Christian. We say it when we can't--by what's been evidenced--decide on whether or not they really follow Jesus. Or someone says it of themselves to feel better about their lack of being true to His word.

Today though, I can't escape the question: Is that statement true? Or is it just something put out there to make someone feel better without really having to examine what's heard or seen? It reminds me of when I was a kid and had a pack of cigarettes in my jacket pocket and the parent that was holding my coat, cupped the shape of it in the fabric and asked what it was. I answered "a deck of cards," but they never reached into the pocket to see if I was telling the truth.

Aren't we supposed to dig a little deeper than surface level? Not to judge anyone to condemnation nor play God nor be demeaning in any way, but to know them that labour among us? To know the true from the false? To not allow seeds of lies or deceit to be planted into our own hearts. If it was as simple as everyone who professed to believe in God was truly walking with Christ, then I'm missing something. Which could be possible. But that would also make the Word of God wrong. Which...is impossible.

From what I read, we are to try the spirits to see if they be of God (1 John 4:1). When confused or feeling "off," don't just dismiss it. What influence is behind a person's words and actions? We might not know the secrets of the person's heart--which God certainly does--but if we are born of the Spirit then we definitely can discern what IS NOT of God.

And doesn't Jesus want us to know? If He didn't, why would He tell us about knowing a tree by its fruit (Matt 7:15-17)? Especially in relation to wolves in sheep's clothing. Obviously, an imposter.  Looks and/or acts the part but is not genuine. Or what about this? He HAS given us an ability to see  what is in someone's heart. Not just by the unction/anointing of His Spirit that will teach us who is false/a seducer/a deceiver (1 John 2:26-27) but by the person's VERY OWN WORDS. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matt 12:34). He does say by thy own words you will be justified or condemned (Matt 12:37).  Does it line up with their Christian label or title or Sunday morning profession? Just sayin...

If the heart belongs to Jesus, I believe it will be known. Light manifests, darkness hides. Who lights a candle and puts it under a bushel, right? It's not like we have to hide our faith in this country for sake of our lives (not yet anyway and even then to what degree will it be hid?). My experience has shown that those who are born again, are born again. There isn't a lot of confusion surrounding their faith, their loyalty to Jesus and the scriptures. It's usually recognized after having a conversation or two and obviously evidenced in their lifestyles.

So, why do we so often result to "only God knows the heart" like it's wrong to question something that is confusing or just doesn't quite line up? Out of fear of being judgmental? I'm sure SOME will judge others with an evil heart of pride and religiosity, but I don't think that should stop the rest of us who are of a pure heart from testing that which is around us and claims to be of Christ. That's embracing knowledge, isn't it? The Lord said His people were destroyed for lack of knowledge. Perhaps today many are destroyed for lack of knowledge of what is truly of Christ and what isn't. They dismiss someone's actions or ill-will (or altering of the Word to fit their agenda) because of their "Christian" label. They would rather continue to accept/follow that which is not true or real cuz "only God knows the heart" than make a judgment call (see par 3 please before telling me thou shalt not judge...lol). They would rather believe the lie than simply look into the pocket to reveal the truth.

So, all this...judging the truth from the lies, bearing it out against the whole Word of God, trying the spirits, hearing what IS the abundance of someone's heart, and knowing them by their fruit...isn't wrong. It's simply knowledge. And the thing about knowledge... It's how you use (or abuse) it that makes it to you either wisdom or corruption.

And I will finish this off with a plea for mercy. Just because someone is in error, outright lying, deceived or doing the deceiving, doesn't make them too far out of reach for the salvation of God which is in Christ Jesus and available to ALL who will come to Him. If you judge/discern someone's actions as being contrary to the word - don't bash 'em, don't black-ball 'em, pray for them. You never know, it could be your intercession that draws them to the Lord to be set free by the Spirit of Truth. ♥

A Sad Day in the Blogging World

Is when you inadvertently delete EVERY SINGLE IMAGE that has ever been posted to any of your blogs. Ugh! I was a late-starter to the Google+ world, having insufficient time as is for every other social media network website out there. Well, there I was, navigating around, viewing images and, What's this? A massive amount of seemingly-random, some repeated, images that appear familiar as from my blog. Realizing my Google+ account and Blogger must somehow be intertwined yet knowing as well I would never need these images for Google+, I deleted the album.

I don't recall any warning dialogue boxes popping up at the time. That was a few weeks ago. Today, after much time away, I returned to do some re-working on my blog and what did I find? Post after post filled with nothing but gray buttons in place of my pictures. Dreadful! I thought maybe it was just the most recent ones, but no! Every single one!

It's a good thing I don't make a living off of this or I would be much more upset. I cannot believe the Google+ developers would allow such a devastating action to occur at our (often ignorant) fingertips. I don't know what an alternative solution would be, but MANY of us do NOT know and/or realize the consequences of deleting this album. If anything, a restoration should be possible to retrieve the images afterwards. Or an option to delete the images from Google+ only, yet leave them alone on the other websites.

Ok - I'm done crying about it. Time to move on. Have a blessed day!

That Old Nature

The old nature – that sin nature – has been crucified and put to death if so be that we have been born again, filled with the Spirit of God, ourselves buried together in baptism with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. Newness of life! Old things have passed away; we are new creatures with a new nature. That old nature is dead! Sin is therefore no longer operating with dominion over us. It is only able to operate through the lusts of the flesh—our bodily members, which we continually war against. This flesh is born of corruption, but we being born-again by the Word of God are now born of an incorruptible seed—a seed that cannot be corrupted.

Do not believe the lie that there is a nature inside of you that must sin because it’s how we were born. We are BORN AGAIN – anew, brand new, by the blood of the Lamb, set free from sin and all the wages thereof! We should not be fooled that we are under the authority of a sin nature. No! The enemy—the god of this world, the powers of darkness—will have you to believe that. They will lie to you and try to enforce a FALSE authority over you and your life, only to draw you away into temptation.

The Truth stands and will destroy every lie of the wicked one. We are new creatures, no longer slaves to sin. If we sin it is because we allow our flesh to be drawn away by the lusts thereof. We must daily mortify the deeds of this body and expose the lies of the enemy to walk in the reality of who we are in Christ Jesus. Sons of God, heirs and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus, kings and priests unto God, awaiting that blessed day when this body of corruption will be done away and we will forever be with our Lord.

“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Pet 1:2-4)