Heart Transplant

I had a discussion this week with a member of our congregation who recently received a heart transplant.  She is doing well.  While her body adjusts to the anti-rejection drugs she must avoid contact with the general public for fear of catching a virus or other disease.  The anti-rejection drugs suppress her immune system which seeks to reject the new heart as an invader to her system.  So most her interaction with people right now is technological in nature.

She is a living miracle.  100 years ago her surgery was a fantasy, the dreams of fools and visionaries.  She is another sign of God’s incredible grace and power.  He blesses all of us with men and women (doctors) who are granted such incredible wisdom to understand the healing reality.

All this helps me understand God’s promise in Ezekiel 36:26 to grant us a new heart.  Our old sinful heart cannot be healed.  It has to be removed and a brand new heart put in its place.  Our remaining sinful nature will continue to threaten this new heart.  Our sinful desires will threaten to reject this new life.  How many of us live as if God is an invader, usurper, a foreign influence that must be held in check?  He seeks to impose His will.  Well, what of mine?  Don’t any of my ideas matter?  What of my wishes and desires?  Can’t we share a heart, a life?  Am I possibly the only person on the planet with these struggles? 

I need a new heart.  Each day.  A heart that submits to Him.  A heart that realizes the influences of the world are a deadly virus waiting to destroy this new heart, this new life.  Contact with such a world must be under controlled circumstances, controlled by the Holy Spirit in order to keep me immune from the world’s influence.

I am, of course, using this analogy to make a point.  But in my real personal life I am a recipient of donated human body parts- aortic valve and aorta.  Someone died and donated parts of their body to someone they did not know…so that unknown person might live.  Would he have donated this to me if he knew me?  The real me? 

Jesus Christ knows me…the real me…the sinful disobedient me…and yet He died for me…to give me a new heart…a new life.  I pray He keeps that heart beating in my life for all eternity.

How about you?  Need a transplant?  Tired of the spiritual equivalent of congestive heart failure?  Jesus is your answer.  If you don’t know Him, let’s chat.

Election 2008

Many white suburbanites in the North Dallas area are confused and frustrated today as they contemplate the next four years under President Obama.  Why the confusion and frustration?  Are we racists?  Are we selfish greedy capitalists?  Do we lack compassion for the less fortunate?  Are we right-wing Bible thumping ultra-conservative Christians?  Are we the remnants of modernity struggling to adapt to a postmodern world?  Some of us – yes.  Others of us – no.

If the answer to the above questions is no, then why are we confused and frustrated after Tuesday’s election?  Let me suggest we have failed to remember Daniel 4.  The prophet Daniel reminded the great King Nebuchadnezzar that “the Most HIgh is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes.”  (Daniel 4:25)

God reigns over our nation and all nations.  He, and He alone, is sovereign.  He raises up one kingdom and tears down another as He desires.  Do we trust in HIm or over time we have come to trust in our military and economic might to keep us safe and powerful?  Do our hearts turn to Him or have we worshipped at the altar of self-reliance and self-preservation?  All we have and all we are is God’s gift to us.  We need to return to trusting in Him, honoring HIm, worshipping HIm, and submitting to HIm.

Democrats are not the answer to America’s problems.  Neither are Republicans.  It isn’t about tax rates, free trade, NAFTA, the war in Iraq, sharing the wealth, black or white, conservative or liberal.  It is about God.  The greatness of America has been found in her submission to the sovereignty of the Most High God.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its water roar and foam, and the mountains quake with their surging.” Psalm 46:1-3

Banks close.  Mortgages fail and foreclosures rise.  Jobs are lost.  War rages on.  Worries increase.  Fear grows.  Frustration boils over.  How can President elect Obama face such overwhelming issues?  Perhaps he and all of us need to remember HIm who stands in the midst of the storm and says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Don’t be confused:  turn to God.  He is our answer.  Don’t be frustrated:  God is still sovereign…He is still gracious.