Dave’s Monday Blast – November 8, 2021
Homicide and suicide are on a historic rise in the United States. A recent Harvard study shows that “loneliness appears to have increased substantially the last two years”. And according to a national poll, 81% of Americans say that life will likely never return to normal. Participants were asked to select the word or words that best described how they are feeling:
62% chose disappointed
50% chose hopeful
46% chose exhausted
43% chose worried
41% chose angry
24% chose indifferent
The majority of people that I speak with would place anger and fear at the top of their descriptive words! Pastor Jim Denison comments: “Clearly, the deep and rampant secularization of our culture is not improving our culture. But the good news is that Christians can respond to the bad news with the best news of all. We can still be salt and light in ways that transform our world. But there is an often-overlooked step we need to take first.” He goes on to explain: “In his Sunday article, cultural commentator David French points us to a new term, orthocardia. Essentially it means ‘having a right heart.’” French adds, “When I learned that term, it started to transform the way I understood our times.”
Orthocardia is distinct from and essentially precedes orthodoxy (right belief) and orthopraxy (right practice). French notes, “knowledge about God is distinct from faith in God. For example, one of the most famous passages in the Bible declares, ‘You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder!'” French then reminds us of Paul’s statement that I can “speak in the tongues of men and angels,” “have prophetic powers,” and ” have all faith,” but if I “have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1 – 2).
You see brothers, we can know the right things and even do many great things, and yet there is something missing if the beliefs and practices do not flow from a heart that is oriented toward God. We see this principle in 1 Kings 6 as Solomon constructs the first temple. As you read this passage you see that extraordinary care is used in constructing the “Holy of Holies” (v.16). Read through (v. 30) and note that the very best was truly for God’s eyes only. In fact, the only human being to set foot in this part of the temple (once a year) was the high priest. The lesson? We must give the Lord our best in private worship to experience His best in public service.
Oswald Chambers exhorted his students: “The private relationship of worshipping God is the great essential fitness. Worship aright in your private relationships, then when God sets you free you will be ready, because in the unseen life which no one saw but God you have become perfectly fit, and when the strain comes you can be relied upon by God.”
When Christians are not influencing the culture in publicly transforming ways, we should ask if we are being transformed privately by God (Romans 12:1 – 2). I want to continue this discussion next week by unpacking God’s vision for our world and the part we are designed to play in His vision.
