Come as You Are - Pocket Full of Rocks

His Heart

I see His heart in wondrous creation
I know His heart thru my salvation
I hear His heart thru caring voices
I touch His heart when mine rejoices
I discern His heart in quiet prayer
I carry His heart to a world laid bare
I feel His heart when mine is broken
I honor His heart when truth is spoken
I impart His heart as salt and light
I watch His heart make wrong things right
I gladden His heart when mine is grateful
I bless His heart as I forgive the hateful
I trust His heart as I obey His commands
I rejoice in His heart as He breaks my bands
I read His heart when I read His Word
I love His heart when mine is stirred
I preach His heart when I feed the poor
I respond to His heart while He’s at the door
I listen to His heart as I sit at His feet
I model His heart as I’m walking the street
I cry with His heart as He mourns the lost
I value His heart as I realize the cost
I witness His heart in all I see
And all I see is His heart for me.

Right from creation’s start It all came from the Creator’s heart And His Heart Is The Message!

What is love??

In a very familiar bible verse that we hear at about every wedding (I Corinthians 13:4-8):
"Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut.
Doesn't have a swelled head.
Doesn't force itself on others,
isn't always "me first".
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end." (Verses from the "Message" bible)

This is a beautiful verse but the real beauty and truth in it is that as a part of scripture it is God breathed and authored. So if this is His definition of love and He is defined as "love",(IJohn 4:16 "God is love") then this is not only His definition for us to achieve but it also is the definition He applys to Himself. So....go back and change "love" to "God" in each of the verses in I Corinthians 13. Then it will say, "God never gives up, etc.". Since God by His own choice cannot lie then this gives us something to clearly apply to His nature and to how we see him and can relate to Him.

I think that many people view God similar to this cartoon where He is positioned to hit the "smite" button and bring down judgement on us at any moment. Look at how we define things pertaining to God such as a severe destructive storm which we call an "act of God". Not exactly pictures of a loving, caring God.

We all know John 3:16 because we hear and see it everywhere including sporting events: "For God so loved the world". I love how the "Message" version of the bible says it:
"This is how much God loved the world: He gave His Son, His one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending His Son merely to point a finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in Him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust Him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it."

In ending this post, I want to specifically tell you what God thinks about you:
Jeremiah 29:11 : "For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope."
He says it far better than I can in John 10:10 (Message): "A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of."

I will leave you there. Please weigh your view of God against what I have shared here and if you feel really bold trying praying about it and ask God to reveal Himself to you in love.