Dave’s Monday Blast – June 1, 2020
Repair or replace? I am definitely a replace kind of guy…not because I want to be…but because I am not really handy. I tend to be a duct tape zip tie and JB Weld kind of guy; not a fix, just a band-aid. One thing I know that is not fixable no matter how “handy” you are is the heart. Our heart…who we really are …at the core is defective. The only solution is revealed in the Book of Ezekiel. It exposes a systemic problem and reveals the drastic measures required to fix it.
A good friend of Auburn Grace is Tierce Green of Authentic Manhood. Tierce comments: “Ezekiel was probably in his thirties when God sent him as a prophet to his people…people who were in God’s own words obstinate and stubborn (Ezekiel 2:3 – 6). They were described as a “rebellious house”. Ezekiel’s book paints a disturbing portrait of the disparity between what God intended for his people and what they had become. This disparity, as always, produced a deep despair among the people.”
In truth, we all have a heart of stone. That was the diagnosis delivered by the prophet Ezekiel. When you have a heart of stone there’s no need to ask, “How long do I have to live?” because you are already dead. Jeremiah, Ezekiel’s contemporary, concurred and proclaimed, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
The implications? Everything that flows from a heart like this will be infected and polluted. If there’s pollution downstream, you can keep treating the water, but it would be smart to go upstream and eliminate the problem at the source. A heart of stone cannot be patched up and repaired. It must be removed and replaced. That was the plan with the New Covenant laid out in Ezekiel 36:26: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
No amount of money, science or influence can afford us a new heart. We all need one. Ours is dead from the curse of sin. It is NOT REPAIRABLE. Only the blood of Christ covered the cost of a new heart for all humankind. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not a result of anything you can do, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8 & 9).
Do you know anyone who needs a new heart today? I suspect we all have a list of folks we know who desperately need this free gift that our God is offering to all. Be INTENTIONAL about sharing how to “fix” the heart with someone today. “If anyone be found in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away…all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
