Issue 1512 – Hidden – July 31, 2024

Yesterday, I snapped a few photos in the backyard. Under the misty sky, the raindrops hung like little diamonds from the spider webs. Most were in plain sight, but this little one was tucked away, hidden amongst the flowers and foliage.

Sometimes, the hidden things are the most beautiful. The works of a believer may show our faith, but plenty of non-believers are nice people who do good works too. Some of the nicest, kindest people I have known over the years want nothing to do with Christ. That saddens me, and I pray for them.

On the flip side, some of the most disreputable, cantankerous, sour, pickle-faced people I have ever met have been in church.  I imagine their faces would explode if they ever smiled or showed joy. I pray for them as well.

Becoming a Christian ought to change how we behave and live our lives. After all, Jesus tells us that we will be known by our fruit. It’s true that our life is often a good indicator of our faith. It isn’t so much that we suddenly become bearers of large producers of sweet fruit but that we are growing in those areas. After all, producing fruit takes time.

We can do all the works we want and be as nice as we are able. We can attend church and be generous, but none of that can make us Christians. Only the work of the Holy Spirit can do that. It comes and grows in places we cannot see.

We can’t see the Spirit, and we can’t see inside ourselves to see our spiritual hearts. Yet it is precisely by those hidden things that God brings about the beauty of a sinner saved by Christ, a loving follower of Jesus.

The idea of a transformed heart is not new. Our Lord is a heart surgeon, changing hearts of stone into flesh.

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. Ezekiel 26:36

Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever! Deuteronomy 5:29

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9

I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. Jeremiah 24:7

We may never actually see another person’s heart, but a redeemed heart is a beautiful thing in the eyes of God. The angels rejoice over every sinner saved.

May the world see evidence of our transformed hearts in how we love and live. May you bear much fruit.

Be blessed

Hallelu Yah / Praise God 

Kevin

Gleanings From The Word

Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life. 

Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)

Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant. Your value in God’s eyes is so great that it was worth dying for. You are a blessing to the world. You are so precious to God that his plan for heaven will not be complete without you.

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the English Standard Version (ESV)

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