Love is often not what we have been led by our heart to believe...

Love is often not what we have been led by our heart to believe

by Patte Smith on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 11:20am

I do not trust my own heart,
but I can trust it to Him whose Name is True and Faithful.
~ Meshell Sirearl

We should be wary of trusting our 'heart' since God makes it clear that it can and will lead us away from the love of the Truth.  Jeremiah 17:9 declares: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"  John Gill explains the evil of men's hearts in his thought-provoking commentary of this passage:

The heart is deceitful above all things. This is the source of idolatry and creature confidence of the Jews and the sins which were the cause of their ruin. Though what is here said is particularly applicable to their hearts, yet is in general true of the heart of every man; which is "deceitful", and deceiving; and puts a cheat upon the man himself. It deceives him with respect to sin. It proposes it to him under the notion of pleasure. It promises him a great deal in it, but does not yield... It is all fancy and imagination; a mere illusion and a dream; and what it gives is very short lived. It is but for a season, and ends in bitterness and death. It proposes it under the notion of profit. It promises him riches, by such and such sinful ways it suggests; but, when he has got them, he is the loser by them. These deceitful riches choke the Word, cause him to err from the faith, pierce him through with many sorrows, and endanger the loss of his soul. It promises honour and preferment in the world, but promotes him to shame. It promises him liberty, but brings him into bondage.It promises him impunity, peace, and security, when sudden destruction comes. It persuades him that he is a very knowing person, when he is blind and ignorant, and knows nothing as he ought to know; and only deceives himself; for there is no true knowledge but of God in Christ, and of a crucified Christ, and salvation by Him. (See 1 Corinthians 3:18) It deceives in the business of religion. It makes a man believe that he is a very holy and righteous man, and in a fair way for heaven, when he is far from that. It suggests to him that concupiscence or lust, or the inward workings of the mind, are not sin. It represents other sins as mere peccadillos, as little sins, and not to be regarded; and even puts the name of virtue on vices; profuseness and prodigality it calls liberality, and doing public good. Covetousness has the name of frugality and good economy. It buoys up with the purity of human nature and it puts the profane sinner upon trusting to the absolute mercy of God, and hides from him Jis justice and holiness. It puts others upon depending upon the outward acts of religion, or upon speculative notions, to the neglect of real godliness. (See James 1:22). The man of a deceitful heart, the hypocrite, tries to deceive God, but he cannot. He oftentimes deceives men, and always himself. So do the profane sinner, the self-righteous man, and the false teacher; who attempts to deceive the very elect, but cannot. Yea, a good man may be deceived by his own heart, of which Peter is a sad instance, Matthew 26:33.

The heart is deceitful to a very great degree, it is superlatively so; "above all". Yea, it is more deceitful to a man than the devil, the great deceiver himself; because it is nearer to a man, and can come at him, and work upon him, when Satan cannot. It is an abyss, a bottomless one; there is no fathoming of it; the depths of sin are in it. (See Psalm 64:6) Seeing it is so deceitful, it should not be trusted. A man should neither trust in his own heart, nor in another's (Proverbs 28:26). It is "desperately wicked". Everything in it is wicked. The thoughts of it are evil. Every imagination, and that only, and always (Genesis 6:5). The affections are inordinate. The mind and conscience are defiled. The understanding darkened, so dark as to call evil good, and good evil. The will is obstinate and perverse: all manner of sin and wickedness is in it; it is the cage of every unclean bird, and the hold of every foul spirit. All sin is forged and framed in it; and all manner of evil comes out of it (Revelation 18:1). Yea, it is wickedness itself (Psalm 5:9) even to desperation. It is "incurably wicked". It is so without the grace of God, and blood of Christ.

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And so, when the world (and the worldly 'church') clamors for 'love', it most often is clamoring for tolerance of their heart of wickedness and profligacy, which is not love at all.

But God, in His mercy and kindness, promised and provided a NEW heart for His people:
And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them.
I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh...
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 11:19;36:26

And, by His grace we are given the ability, through obedience to the truth and the new birth, to love, truly LOVE, from a pure heart!

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love,
love one another fervently, earnestly, from a pure heart.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever...
And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
I Peter 1:22-23,25

Albert Barnes gives us a biblical definition of this kind of love:

The phrase "with a pure heart fervently," means:

(1) that it should be genuine love proceeding from a heart in which there is no guile or hypocrisy; and,
(2) that it should be intense affection, (ἐκτενῶς ektenōs;) not cold and formal, but ardent and strong.

Religion is always of the nature of obedience. It consists in yielding to what is true and right; in laying aside the feelings of opposition, and in allowing the mind to follow where truth and duty lead.
This would always take place when the truth is presented to the mind, if there were no voluntary resistance. If all people were ready to yield to the truth, they would become Christians. The only reason why all people do not love and serve God is that they refuse to yield to what they know to be true and right.

(3) the agency by which this was accomplished was that of the Holy Spirit. Truth is adapted in itself to a certain end or result, as seed is adapted to produce a harvest. But it will no more of itself produce its appropriate effects on the soul, than seed will produce a harvest without rains, and dews, and suns. In all cases, therefore, the proper effect of truth on the soul is to be traced to the influence of the Holy Spirit, as the germination of the seed in the earth is to the foreign cause that acts on it. No man was ever converted by the mere effect of truth without the agency of the Holy Spirit, any more than seed germinates when laid upon a hard rock.
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May the Lord help us to recognize the counterfeit of love, which is a worldly sentimentality from a fallen heart, disguised as love, but which is actually the OPPOSITE. Let us seek Jesus' gracious renewing, sanctifying power to love from a pure heart. May we learn to discern and develop genuine, unfeigned love from a heart made clean by the Blood of the Lamb and made fervent by the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Auschwitz Within

"Let us not stand by idly and let the enemy continue this holocaust...I am not a political man..I do not have a political ambition. I do not have a political agenda. I have a spiritual agenda. I want to see Jesus Christ gain His due. As a man of God I am responsible when I see someone weak and vulnerable...to risk my blood & my body to preserve them. That's the model of Jesus Christ...There are those that do not have a voice to even scream out & we as the Church do not have ears tuned to it. And the reason is because its been politicized in our generation. This is a spiritual issue, first and foremost, and not a political one.. I say we remove this ridiculous veil that stands in the way. Everyone knows it's life. When the cattle cars of Jews were being carted off to concentration camps and they were passing by that one church in Germany and they were reaching out through the slats, screaming "Help us!" the church turned up the pipe organ's volume to drown out the sounds. And I submit that is exactly what we are doing today... We have lost our heart...
The Auschwitz within...

~ Eric Ludy
http://www.ellerslie.com/Eric_Ludy_Sermons/Entries/2011/1/16_The_Auschwitz_Within.html


"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
~ Jesus
John 10:10

Satan takes. God gives.

The mission of the devil: DEATH. The mission of the Savior: LIFE.

The mission of the Church is the mission of life and eternity.

Approximately 3,700 infants are being slaughtered by abortion in America. TODAY.

What's stopping us, Christians, the Body of Jesus Christ, from rescuing the children being led to slaughter?


1389.4 Holocaust A Auschwitz 30

We, too, are lepers...

"Behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh,
He shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague."
~ Leviticus 13:13

Strange enough this regulation appears, yet there was wisdom in it, for
the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound.
This morning it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of so
singular a rule. We, too, are lepers, and may read the law of the leper
as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be altogether
lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and no
part free from pollution; when he disclaims all righteousness of his
own, and pleads guilty before the Lord, then is he clean through the
blood of Jesus, and the grace of God. Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed
iniquity is the true leprosy, but when sin is seen and felt it has
received its death blow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the
soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness,
or more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are
"nothing else but sin," for no confession short of this will be the whole truth,
and if the Holy Spirit be at work with us, convincing us of sin, there
will be no difficulty about making such an acknowledgment-it will
spring spontaneously from our lips. What comfort does the text afford
to those under a deep sense of sin! Sin mourned and confessed, however
black and foul, shall never shut a man out from the Lord Jesus.
Whosoever cometh unto Him, He will in no wise cast out. Though
dishonest as the thief, though unchaste as the woman who was a sinner,
though fierce as Saul of Tarsus, though cruel as Manasseh, though
rebellious as the prodigal, the Great Heart of love will look upon the
man who feels himself to have no soundness in him, and will pronounce
him clean, when he trusts in Jesus crucified.
Come to Him, then, poor, heavy-laden sinner,

Come needy, come guilty, come loathsome and bare;
You can't come too filthy - come just as you are.

~  Charles Spurgeon

The Ugly Truth about Planned Parenthood

FACT: Planned Parenthood is the number one provider of child-sacrifice (abortion) in the United States. FACT: Margaret Sanger is the FOUNDER of Planned Parenthood. Listen to the heart of this depraved woman:



"[Our objective is] unlimited sexual gratification without the burden of unwanted children..."   Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood

“Our failure to segregate morons who are increasing and multiplying … demonstrates our foolhardy and extravagant sentimentalism … [Philanthropists] encourage the healthier and more normal sections of the world to shoulder the burden of unthinking and indiscriminate fecundity of others; which brings with it, as I think the reader must agree, a dead weight of human waste. Instead of decreasing and aiming to eliminate the stocks that are most detrimental to the future of the race and the world, it tends to render them to a menacing degree dominant … We are paying for, and even submitting to, the dictates of an ever-increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all.”
  ~ Margaret Sanger. The Pivot of Civilization, 1922. Chapter on “The Cruelty of Charity,”

“The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
 Margaret Sanger (editor). The Woman Rebel, Volume I, Number 1.

“Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race.”
 Margaret Sanger. Woman, Morality, and Birth Control. New York: New York Publishing Company, 1922. Page 12.

“Eugenics is … the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems.Margaret Sanger. “
The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda.

"The marriage bed is the most degenerative influence in the social order..." 
~ Margaret Sanger

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FACT: GOD knows us even BEFORE He forms us in the womb (Jer 1:5)
FACT: Children are a GIFT OF THE LORD (Psalm 127:3)FACT: The Bible commands us to LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR.
FACT: The Word of God commands us to PROTECT OUR NEIGHBOR FROM HARM. (Sixth Commandment)


The Lord Jesus Christ taught "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mt. 22:37-40), and Scripture declares "Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter" (Prov. 24:11-12)

Scripture declares "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them" (Eph. 5:8-14) , and "show her (the bloody city) all her abominations" (Ez. 22:1-5),

Preborn children are "oppressed," Isaiah 1:17&58:6.
Preborn children are "weak and needy," Psalm 82:4.
Preborn children are "the least of these," Matthew 25:40.
Preborn children are "your neighbor," Luke 10:25-37.


Keepin' it real. Passin' it on. Won't you do the same?

Thou wilt light my candle

For Thou wilt light my candle.
Psalm 18:28


It may be that my soul sits in darkness; and if this be of a spiritual kind, no human power can bring me light. Blessed be God! He can enlighten my darkness, and at once light my candle. Even though I may be surrounded by a 'darkness which might be felt,' yet He can break the gloom, and immediately make it bright around me. The mercy is, that if He lights the candle none can blow it out, neither will it go out for lack of substance, nor burn out of itself through the lapse of hours. The lights which the Lord kindled in the beginning are shining still. The Lord's lamps may need trimming, but He does not put them out. Let me, then, like the nightingale, sing in the dark. Expectation shall furnish me with music, and hope shall pitch the tune. Soon I shall rejoice in a candle of God's lighting. I am dull and dreary just now. Perhaps it is the weather, or bodily weakness, or the surprise of a sudden trouble; but whatever has made the darkness, it is God alone who will bring the light. My eyes are unto Him alone. I shall soon have the candle of the Lord shining about me; and, further on in His own good time, I shall be where they need no candle, neither light of sun. Hallelujah!

C.H. Spurgeon



Let me, then, like the nightingale, sing in the dark.

Where are the David's?

David didn't have to pray about dealing with Goliath, that's what everybody else was standing around doing. Goliath needed to be addressed!
~ Kevin Shell

We need more Davids who are willing to stand up against the Goliath of child-killing in America. Daring men who are unafraid of the taunts of genocidal maniacs.

The Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” The King and all the people of Israel were dismayed and afraid. They were faithless cowards. Young David, the shepherd boy, comes along and wonders why everyone is standing around shaking in their boots. David asks: "For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”And this young man did not walk, he RAN to battle the Giant! He took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.

And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth... And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hand.”

When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David RAN QUICKLY TOWARD THE BATTLE LINE to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.

So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
I Samuel 17:40-51

Where are the Davids? Are they sipping coffee at men's breakfasts? Are they sitting quietly listening to speaker after speaker at conferences? Are they attending retreats? Playing golf? Going to sporting events? How many goofy vanities are being organized through churches? When will the men rise up and make war against the enemies of God? When will they advance in the Name of the Lord?

Christians are to 'have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose & reprove them.' (Ephesians 5:11)


The devising of folly is sin,
and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind.

If you faint in the day of adversity,
your strength is small.
Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”
does not He who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not He who keeps watch over your soul know it,
and will He not repay man according to his work?
Proverbs 24:9-12



Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute, of all such as are appointed to destruction.. Proverbs 31:8Oh for mighty men of valor who have a vision from God to protect the women and children in their cities.

Raise them up, O Lord, we pray. Raise up warriors to fight the battle against abortion and rescue the orphans being led to slaughter. We trust You to accomplish the gathering of Your army but we wonder why so few men care about the slaughter of babies in their communities. We know that the battle belongs to You, Lord. Move, we pray, amongst Your people. Revive Thy men and deliver them from cowardice. Make them strong and courageous. For Your glory and the saving of many children alive. Amen.

Willing

Lord, I am willing
To receive what You give,
To lack what You withhold,
To relinquish what You take,
To suffer what You inflict,
To be what You require.