δουλογος: The Hardened Heart.

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Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
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Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The Hardened Heart.

When cement is wet it can be poured out into whatever mould we desire - but once it hardens it is stuck that way.

When we talk about hardened hearts, we are talking about giving up on repenting, and allowing some sin to continue unabated. That is what a hardened heart is all about. Just as the horse who refuses to answer the reigns makes his neck "stiff" regardless of how you lead him - so too hard hearts and stiff necks are one and the same. It is a determined mind set that says - I will not yield the rule of my life to God, at least on this matter here, or that matter there. God can have the external stuff - I will look the part - but he can't have such and such - I refuse to have him rule over me there.

It isn't really that we have a more or less soft heart and amiable neck - but that once in a while we dig in and sin - rather the fact that we dig in and sin shows us the true nature of our heart. We can hang all the apples we want on our tree - but if the root continues to sprout up oranges whenever we drop our guard - guess what? It ain't an apple tree.

Is your heart hard? Is your neck stiff? If we were Jews under the Mosaic covenant, I could hit you with the rules and tell you to buck up and fly straight - even though you would have no hope of doing so in your own strength. But Christ has come - and he brought with him something the law didn't bring - grace. Not grace in the sense that now you can sin and its okay, or now you can have a hardened heart and that is okay - but rather grace as the power to obey. Grace as the means by which your hardened heart can be cast out and thrown away, and replaced with a heart of flesh - that is, a heart that is willing to obey.

Sadly, even with so great a deliverance given to us - many will choose to harden their hearts against God anyway.

posted by Daniel @ 1:22 PM

1 Comments:

At 2:57 PM, September 07, 2006, Neil said…

Thanks for this Daniel. It is sobering for me today.