Healing for the Heart

Guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life!

Do you recall this ancient Proverb?  Let it ring loud in your ear if you have forgotten or neglected it.  Our hearts are the wellspring of life, life abundant or life neglected.  We are all broken vessels in need of repair and restoration.  The reality is if you were born into this world then you were born into brokenness, even if you had a great mother and father and family.

There is not one person who is perfect and completely healed.  It is a journey all throughout life, but we must persevere on the path to wholeness.  Many ministers and leaders are broken themselves and operate out of a wounded heart, rather than a heart that has been made whole and healed from past wounds and bondage.

If you are broken today, you are not alone.  If you are struggling to feel hope with a certain issue or affliction, then you are not alone.  The good news is that through Christ and the freedom that he offers, we can walk in newness of life.  This is precisely what He died for.  It is for freedom that Christ has set you free, right?  Your heart identity is not one of slavery and sin, but of sonship and freedom.

Therefore guard your heart today, water your heart with the word.  Seek help for your wounds and afflictions.  Do not attempt to do it alone.  Would you ask for help?  If you are bleeding and you have tried yourself to many times to but the same old bandage over it, then allow someone to come along side you and help clean up that wound.

There is freedom, there is hope, there is deliverance.  I am 36 and learning so much in ways that I cannot even begin to describe.  I am on my own journey, don't neglect yours.  Be blessed.

This is a picture I took in an apartment that I was working on.  It is a wall behind a fridge that was covered in black mold, but on the other side light was shining through.  If we do not tend our hearts, and expose things in the light, then the light will grow dim and the darkness will surround it.  Praise be to God, He is in the business of removing the sin and mold in order to restore and purify us so that we shine like the stars in the heavens!

Laughter is good medicine...

Laugh out loud, right?
Laugh often out of sight.
Laugh in the morning and laugh in the evening.
Laugh throughout your day when your coming and when your leaving.
Laugh when your angry.
Laugh when your sad.
Laugh when your a good boy, and laugh when you are 'bad'.
Laughter is good medicine.
Laughter softens the heart, and makes others smile.
Laughter is an exercise, like eating and breathing all the while.
Laughter calms the nerves.
Laughter soothes the pain.
Laughter is not only for jokes.
Laughter is for sun and rain.
Laugh on cold and dark days.
Laugh through warm and sunny rays.
Laugh with your kids, and laugh with your wife.
Laugh at yourself it really does pay.
Laugh, laugh, laugh.  There is a time to laugh.

Listening to 'The Voice'

I have to say that each minute of the day there is an opportunity to hear God's voice.  Does that surprise you?  It shouldn't if you are a born again believer in Jesus.  He promised that the Helper would come and dwell in us and convict us of sin, and lead us in all righteousness.  How then does He convict us of sin if He does not speak to us?  How does He lead us in all righteousness if we are not listening?  In John 10 it talks about the sheep knowing the voice of the shepherd.  We have no excuse.  He is always speaking and we are not always listening.

It is a choice to listen, because often it requires obedience and therefore stepping out of our comfort zone.  Often times the voice does not always make 'sense' to our rational, logical mind.  Why would He want to make sense to our rational minds anyways?  He is God of the universe, God of all power and creation.  What He does who can fathom?  He holds the keys to all things.  Does it make sense to you how a leaf falls from a tree and gently lands here or there?  Does it make sense to you that the Holy Spirit is like the wind and where He blows who can measure?  Ah, therefore we must walk by faith and not by sight.  We must learn to listen to not just another human voice, but an eternal voice.  A voice that thunders and rumbles, and yet is soft and still.  I am slowly learning.  I often feel like a dumb sheep that just does not get it.  We are all on this journey of learning to listen and obey.

Testimony:

Just the other day my 5 year old son and I were driving home from the grocery store.  I noticed a man walking on the side walk with a cane.  I drove pass him and all of a sudden I had a split-second urge to turn around.  I say split second because that is all it takes usually to talk yourself out of something like this.  If we learn to obey in split-second moments then we would be much further along.  Anyhow, so I said to my son that we needed to turn around and pray for the "man with the cane".  He seemed eager to do so, an adventure with dad nonetheless.  I pulled into a parking lot and jumped out of the car and walked up to the man and greeted him in English.  He looked and me and said, "No Hablo Ingles".  Thankfully I am fluent in Spanish so perfect!  I then asked him why he had the cane and he began to explain to me the 'incurable' hereditary bone disease he had.  I then began to share with him that there is no disease or sickness that in 'incurable' to the One who created His body.  I told him that I believed that God wanted to heal his body.  I then asked him if he believed in God.  He said yes, so I then proceeded to share the power of Jesus blood with him.  My son and I laid our hands on the man and began to pray.  I sensed my hand and his shoulder and neck area getting really warm.  I asked him after we were finished praying if he felt anything.  He said that his neck and shoulder were hot and that he had more movement in them.  We were excited because the Holy Spirit was working on him!  I prayed again that God would complete this healing.  He shook my hand and with a smile on his face walked off.  Orlando was from Cuba, and I thought to myself of how good God is to allow us to partner with what He is already doing.  Had I not listened to "The Voice" in a split-second fashion, I would have missed this opportunity.

I want to encourage you no matter where you are at in your faith.  I am a nobody who often times misses the mark.  I am not always obedient, and I am not always taking every opportunity that God has given me.  I want to me more faithful, more obedient, and more consistent with sharing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and praying for the sick.  Be blessed today.

"Lord help me to follow you today wherever you lead.  Would you allow me to be like a child

and simply hold your hand through this journey?"