Antelope Canyon
Slot Canyon East of Page Arizona
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:13
Hi Men:
I pray this week you have had “heart-felt” reflection on who you are “in” Christ.
I received a text message this week from a very dear friend of many years (he was one of my very first life insurance clients back in 1977). His text asked if I would call him. I did and we had a tender conversation. I could totally relate to what he was dealing with. He was discouraged and had a heavy heart as he looks across the landscape of what’s been taking place in our country and around the world. He lamented on the fact that it appears most Christians today don’t take God seriously anymore and crave autonomy….. they want to be accountable to no one, especially God. They scoff at God’s commandments and don’t take them serious. I mentioned to him the latest statistics that just came out from George Barna of the Cultural Research Center. One troubling statistic revealed that, “….just 6% of U.S. adults have a biblical worldview.” What we discussed seemed to parallel what Jerry Bangert wrote in his book, The Discipline of Delusion – How Secular Ideas Became the New Idolatry. Secular ideologies have seduced the church into listening to our culture rather than the Bible. This has produced what Jeremiah called a “discipline of delusion.” (If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. (Click Here).
Here is an attention-getting verse from Jude 17-18:
But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there shall be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.”
We are “Fools for Christ’s sake.” Let us not fall into the trap of today’s church that has degenerated into criticism rather than obedience to apostolic teachings. We cannot pick and choose. If the commandments are cultural, then so are the promises. And if the commandments are cultural, then our culture and not the Scripture is authoritative. You will find all this explained in detail in Jerry’s book. Here is the Kindle version: Click Here. This book is more relevant now than ever………….
My friend and I closed with prayer and prayed for Christ’s imminent return.
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Side Note: I ran across the Antelope Canyon photo at the top. It was a great “heart shaped” composition of the slot, but remined me of our Scout Troop’s 50 milers down Buckskin Gulch to the Paria River, exiting at Lee’s Ferry on the Colorado River. Paria is actually to the west of Page Arizona and one of the longest & deepest slot canyons in the world….. right in our own backyard. I truly believe that every boy that backpacked down this canyon, was impacted greatly and had a new vision for what “perseverance” really means. Here is one photo of the boys as we began to enter the slot.
Well, let’s get to the heart of the matter. What about our heart? Let’s start with some basic information……
Basic Heart Facts . This is just about the heart, not our blood or lungs (which in and of themselves are mind boggling)
- The heart is a muscle that beats 100,000 times a day and pumps through 60,000 miles of blood vessels! That’s 2.5 times around the Earth at the equator.
- Over your lifetime (to age 75) your heart beats over 2.5 billion times w/o ever pausing for a new fan belt or visiting a Jiffy Lube………… and it never rusts
- Every minute the heart pumps about 1.5 gallons of blood or 2100 gallons a day.
- It would fill an Olympic-sized pool in a year and a couple super-sized oil tankers in your lifetime.
- The heart has its own electrical supply (it can continue to beat even when removed)
What about the photo below?
A little history
There were plenty of guys prior to Leonardo Da Vinci that studied the heart, but Da Vinci was the first to draw detailed 3-semensional drawings from multiple angles and determined it to be a 4-chambered heart. He did these anatomical drawings around 1512, but this was during the Inquisition and the Roman Church cloistered “new thought” and would not allow him to publish his works. These drawings remained hidden for 300 years. Interesting to note that it was during this same period of church history that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517.
Our Amazing Heart
There is so much information on the heart, I will only touch on a few key points. By the way, we were briefly discussing the heart at the Friday Group and one of the guys said he has a friend that received a heart transplant. After the transplant his sense of smell increased greatly…….on the surface, that made no sense. Keep reading
- More information is carried by your nervous system from your heart up to the brain than from the brain down to the heart.
- The energy field of the heart can be measured 8 feet from your body. We influence each other on an invisible energy level. The magnetic field of the heart is around 5000 times stronger than produced by the brain.
- Nerves from the brain to the heart can speed it up or slow it down according to what’s going on in our consciousness. Who knew evolution was so clever 😊
- There are sections of memory cells in the heart exactly like the memory cells in the brain. That’s why people with a heart transplant find themselves with habits and memories from the previous owner.
- This is just part of what Dr. Steven Scott of the Riverside Heart and Vascular Center said: The heart is a miraculous pump. It works because it is mostly made of muscle. Each tiny cell is able to perform a contraction in one direction. In fact, if they are separated out and given appropriate nutrients, a microscope will allow you to see individual cells still beating! ………….. It’s mind-boggling to realize that, with all our technology, we haven’t even come close to creating a pump that can run for 80+ years so efficiently, reliably, and without resting!
- The heart is actually two pumps in one…………. There is so much information on this. More than amazing!
- Did you ever think what happens when a baby is born. By God’s marvelous design the baby emerges from its watery home and breathes the air without a glitch. Blood begins pumping to the lungs to absorb oxygen without a moment’s delay. The complexities of everything that happens in this short window, will take you to your knees.
There are so many verses in the Bible about the heart. The heart is cited over 800 times!
I will leave you with a few verses on the heart:
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
(Ezekiel 36:26)
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
(Jeremiah 17:9)
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
(Matthew 5:8)
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
(Hebrews 4:12)
“There would be no sense in saying you trusted Jesus if you would not take is advice.” C.S. Lewis
Dan
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind!”
Men: Give some reflection to this. Are you meditating on God’s Word? You might also review the Friday letter dealing with “Are You Teachable”
Refusing to Think – Red Book Day 140
The purpose of these devotionals is to help you think Biblically
Solomon said, “As a man thinks, so is he”
Lee Yih’s May Letter
As I read these notes from Lee & Miltinnie, I continue to be amazed. Praise God!
Facts of the Matter
CAN WE REALLY KNOW THE SPIRIITUAL CONDITION OF OUR HEART ? (Part 1 of 2)
The Scriptures instruct us to examine ourselves to see if we are holding to the faith. (2 Cor. 13:5) But we have a serious problem: An exceedingly fraudulent heart. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?… The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters….“ (Jer. 17:9; Pro. 20:5a) James informs us that we can be self-deceived through our failure to apply God’s word to our heart. (Jms. 1:22) (See 2 Tim. 3:13).
Following are two of five questions posed by A. W. Tozer to help us evaluate the condition of our heart : 1
1. What do we want the most ? We might better ask, “What captivates our thinking and our passions?” That is, what do we think about when we lay our head on the pillow at night, and what grabs our mind in our waking moments the next morning? Money? Sex? Power? The desire for respect, influence and security? The fear of rejection or our insatiable need to be loved? Or, are we captivated by our union and communion with Christ? Are we arrested by our deep concern for our lost friends and neighbors? Are we grieved over the spiritual direction of our country; the reality of untold billions around the world who know nothing of the Lord Jesus? Do we care one iota over the reeking, grinding poverty in our inner cities and across the globe? (See Lam. 1:12; Jn. 4:35, 36)
2. How do we use our money ? Is it all about self-indulgence, materialism and upward mobility? Larger houses and gold plated vacations? Is it about possessing the latest and best electronic gadgets? Jesus warned us about “… the the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things [that] come in and choke the word, making [us] unfruitful” (Mk. 4:19). How right on was King Solomon in stating, “Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are the eyes of man” (Pro. 27:20). Jesus, in effect said, “If you want to know a person’s first love, look at his check book and bank account, because, ‘ no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money …For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’” (Matt. 6:24, 21).
This week, may you experience His grace, peace, and protection.
~R. Dwight Hill~
1 The Pursuit of God – A. W. Tozer, Wing Spread Publishers, 1995, Pg 37;
MIM Mentors Corner
Mat 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Success, Significance, Sufficiency and The Serpent’s Siren Song: Part I (Click Here)
A Sixth-Generation Mormon Meets a Born-Again Christian
“He asked me how I knew my faith was true. I couldn’t give a compelling answer.”
ChristianityToday.com/Lisa-Brockman-out-zion-sixth-generation-morman
Second Saturdays Resume – Saturday, June 12th
7pm – 9pm
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