Examining the Insides

June 5 2011When my doctor noticed my age he thought it would be a good idea to look at the insides of my intestines, “Just to get a baseline,” he said, but I didn’t particularly care about how he smiled. On the way out I was handed a prescription for valium and an instruction sheet. Last week, with the appointment fast approaching I actually read the instruction sheet and my first reaction was to cancel the appointment. I should have, but I didn’t. So today is preparation day, which means a clear liquid diet, drinking a bottle of citrate of magnesia to clean things out, a fleet enema for breakfast tomorrow, and of course the valium so I will be “relaxed’ for the video session scheduled for 8:00 AM tomorrow morning. I suppose in our culture this is the how you are initiated into the second fifty years of life.Of course my hope is that the doctor will do his thing and tell me that I am clean as whistle on the inside, but at the same time if there is something to be found I pray he will find it and be able to fix it. But there is more inside of us than organs, muscles, bones, nerves, glands, and piping of various kinds. There are things inside us no x-ray, no scan, no lab test, no scope can detect. There is the heart that pumps he blood, but there is also the “heart” that contains and shapes our character, our motives, our morality, our aspirations, our world view, our love and hate, our values, pride, will, thoughts,and depravity, - the heart that is me, that is you.That heart lies beyond the best physicians’ skills to examine, to evaluate, and to cure. The only one who knows its true condition is God, his assessment, "The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, GOD, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be" Jeremiah 17:9-10 (MSG).To scope, to examine our hearts ourselves God recommends we put it under the light of his word, the scriptures, it allows us to see what he sees, “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable” Hebrews 4:12-13 (NLT).To cure our hearts we must acknowledge its true condition, admit our complete inability to fix it ourselves, and allow God to do a healing, changing, saving work through Jesus Christ, “He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls” 1 Peter 2:24-25 (NLT).To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans