we need enlightenment.
why? because we’ve been endarkened. the eyes of our hearts get clouded and darkened in this life. When we look on things that are dark, we are filled with darkness. When I say “look on” I mean to think on it, consider it, enjoy it, take time to feel it and allow it to influence us. When we do this with spiritually dark things, we become spiritually dark.
I was flipping radio stations in the car yesterday when I stopped on a song that had some of the rocky grit I was looking for. The singer sang, “People don’t crumble in a day. Daddies don’t crumble in a day, Families don’t crumble in a day.” And then the voice of a child sang, “Be careful little eyes what you see… for the Father up above is looking down in love. Be careful little eyes what you see.”
The message was unmistakable. In that small bit of song I heard the story of thousands of ruined people, families, daddies. I heard the story of countless men who give their eyes, maybe once, maybe twice to what is worthless, wicked, dark. The darkness begins to fill them, consume them and devour their marriage and their family.
I don’t usually watch TV. Recently a show was released that interested me. It was a remake of a series I had seen as a kid. I began to watch it online. In the 3rd episode there was one brief scene in which a woman was barely dressed. It flashed on the screen and then it was over. It was a few seconds out of the nearly 7,740 seconds of this series that I had already watched. Do you know which seconds I remember? The image recurs to me so easily, so frequently, so clearly. It offers me the opportunity to dwell on it, follow it, see where it goes. The longer I look on that, the darker the eyes of my heart will get. I need enlightenment.
there is only One source of enlightenment: Jesus. No other god or spiritual exercise or human activity will give me the light I need. Only Jesus. He is the light. You’ve heard it said many times that all we need to disperse the darkness is for someone to turn on a light. To disperse the darkness in our hearts we need only gaze on the Light. We behold Jesus in prayer. Consider His Word. Confess and repent for our love of darkness, and let Him bathe us, soak us, burn us with the light of His love
this is but one facet of the enlightenment our heart-eyes require. I think I’ll linger here for a bit and discuss other places in the heart that need to be enlightened.
by Sylvia, on December 10 2009 @ 9:13 pm
The image on TV came into your eyes, but it was your black black heart that produced thoughts other than “That poor girl, she is nude! Will no one cover her?”
Your heart didn’t just see that image, your heart was gearing up to produce a new line of idols based on the next bit of media you took in. Fortunately, you called on Jesus to shut down production.
Are we giving the heart proper credit when we say that it perceives? The heart creates. It has devices,(PR 19:21) it is a center for the synthesis of thoughts(Ac8:22, Deu15:9..).
The heart needs to perceive. It is in big trouble if it is “veiled” or “darkened”. Could it be, though, that what is really at stake here is that certain information is necessary to create a certain product, say, repentance? belief? Like, you can’t count on it to produce good things on it’s own to begin with, but if it is cut off from certain insights, there are things that it cannot ever produce.
If this were the case, the heart is not so much a tool for acquiring information, but something that functions based on the information that it receives from one place or another. Since it is–apparently–capable of synthesizing thoughts, that could explain how those inspired by the Holy Spirit, with their hearts guided thereby, can perceive things that the unregenerate cannot apprehend. Thoughts are..thunk..within the heart, rightly.
But then, I still go back to the question of what tells us that what our hearts are now thinking is right. Is it the Holy Spirit? Is it the conscience—is that a separate thing?
Ok, sorry. Can ya tell I’m procrastinating on some work work. God Bless.
by Ryan, on December 11 2009 @ 12:07 am
Oooh! i’m liking this! So, you are proposing that the heart is not only a RECEIVER but also a GENERATOR! Yes? I can see this. Yes, i agree that our hearts, left on their own in this fallen world produce filth!
I think you are also saying that the heart requires external stimuli in order to produce… yes?
i’d say, without Jesus, and in the absence of any external stimuli, our hearts produce filth. Given dark stimuli, our hearts produce more filth. Given the stimuli of Light (Jesus) our hearts… hmmm, not sure if i’d use the word “produce” here… but, certainly, when we take in the Light of Christ through scripture, prayer, worship, etc… Light is multiplied in our hearts, perhaps it’s “incubated”?
Anyways, in case i haven’t been clear: i don’t believe my heart is any good on it’s own. It was created good in the image of God, and so it is ONLY good in the image of God (Jesus). So, my heart is only “good” in Christ. So, can i then “trust” in my heart? No. I trust in the Lord. To trust in my heart would be to trust in something other than the Lord. My heart is not the Lord. My heart can and will lead me astray. the Lord won’t.
I’m thankful for my heart as the seat of emotion and thought and will because it is part of my design to interact with God in these ways. He created me to experience Him emotionally, mentally and to respond to Him in my life actions. Ok, i’m gonna stop here before i write a blog-worth in the comments! i gotta save some of this stuff for a post! Thanks again, Sylvia.
by Sylvia, on December 11 2009 @ 12:56 am
I think you said it right that there is only one possible stimulus under which our hearts are able to generate anything other than filth.
You have made it clear that you do not believe that our hearts can be trusted of followed, thanks.
Something interesting that I learned fairly recently. I think I found one area in which the Bible seems to specifically instruct us to follow our hearts. I was shocked. Should I wait for guesses?
by Ryan, on December 11 2009 @ 5:03 pm
I’m all ears!
by Sylvia, on December 11 2009 @ 5:41 pm
Gifts and offerings, or so it would appear:
2Cor 9:7, Exodus 25:2, Exodus 35:21, Exodus 35:29
It seems like this is God’s way of reminding us that he doesn’t want our ol’ gifts if he doesn’t already have our hearts. He doesn’t want us to give grudgingly while convincing ourselves that our hearts are ok. Rather, if we only give from the heart, lack of giving should make us stop and say “Hey, where is my heart?” At least that’s my take.