You know, I feel like God has been teaching me a few things. All of it is related together. And I think it all wraps up with being in-tune with God.

I have to say that I don’t think I am very in-tune with God most of my days. It is so easy for me to sweep God aside and just do my thing, whether it be work or watching a movie or even sometimes church. I forget about Him. My mind and my heart are not paying attention to Him.

I believe now that God speaks to us way more than we know. In a number of places throughout scripture, especially in the New Testament, God tells us that He speaks to us, and that we, His sheep, hear His voice. Do you believe that God speaks to you all the time?

I believe that He speaks to me all the time. I just don’t think I hear Him very well. I don’t pay very good attention to Him. And that’s what I mean when I say I believe that I am more out of tune with God than I am in-tune with Him, and that it is easy for me to brush Him aside.

I also think that people use the excuse that God gives us free choice. Yes we have free will and God does not nor will not control our actions, and He also gives us brains and wisdom to make our own choices, but I still believe that God speaks to us about a lot of things. I think God knows what’s best for us and has some things to say to us about our lives and the choices we make.

So for me, the challenge is to be more in-tune with God in my life. I’ll still make choices daily, but I want to bring everything before God and submit it to Him in prayer. And He might not say anything at all about it, and so I’ll carry on doing it. But He just might have something to say about it, and then that presents me the challenge to pay attention to what He is saying. Especially if I don’t like what He is saying.

And it’s not just in the things that I do and the choices that I make that I should be in-tune with God about. I just need to pay attention to Him no matter what I am doing, because He just might have something, anything, to say to me or ask me. But it is not easy, and I don’t think I will ever achieve perfection in this, but I can still strive towards it, towards Jesus.

Are you in-tune with God?

In my earlier blog post titled "I Need A Vacation" I had mentioned that I needed a vacation and that I had planned to take a week and just go camping.  So I did.  I went camping for 7 days and God spoke to me something that played a role in my transformation, specifically in the area of my identity.  He told me that my heart is good.

Did you know that there are over 800 direct references to the heart in all of the Bible?  There are over 300 direct references to the soul, and over 150 direct references to the mind.  I think God is saying something here.  It seems to be saying to me that our flesh, our body, is not who we are.  Who we are, then, is really our heart, our inner self.  And there are number of scriptures and passages that back this up.  Lots of verses like 1 Samuel 16:6 and Matthew 23:24 that say God see's not the outward appearance, but the heart, and that it's the heart that He judges.  Probably a key verse is Proverbs 4:23 which says, "Guard your heart above all else, for from it flows the spring of life."

So my first questions is: is my heart really good?  I believe that most people, even Christians, do not believe that there heart is good.  They believe it is still wicked and cannot be trusted or followed.  So here is what I learned after God told me that my heart is good.

In the beginning everything was perfect.  Adam and Eve ran around naked and God frolicked alongside them and they were not ashamed.  There was no death and there was no evil, save the serpent that had come to tempt man.  Adam and Eve at this point are living a life that they, and we, were meant to live.  They were what we are suppose to be, perfect, radiant, glorious image bearers of the glorious God.  What they decided in the beginning would forever shape our lives.  And they chose evil.  They broke the only command that God had given them.  From that, something shifted.  Something went wrong in their hearts.  Sin entered the world.  Death entered our lives.  Romans 5:12 says, “Sin entered the world through one man” (the one man being Adam) and Romans 5:19 says, “through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners”.  So, our hearts became corrupt.  So corrupt in fact, that God wiped out all of man except for Noah and his family.  Genesis 6:5-6 says “The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the heart was only evil all the time.  The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.”  (By the way, this is the first time God says anything about His heart in scriptures, and He talks about how His heart is broken because ours is fallen.)

And then on top of that we have scriptures like Matthew 15:19 that say, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander."  Look around in the world.  Watch the news.  You see it.  The heart has gone bad.  All this stems from the first man, Adam.

But there is hope!  Romans 5:14 says, “Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the One who was to come.”  So Adam was a “pattern of the One to come!”  The One being Jesus Christ!!

So what did Jesus do?

Jesus came and restored our hearts.  Jesus made it possible for our hearts to be good.  So it's not just that the death of Jesus did something for us (let us have a relationship with Him and go to Heaven), but Jesus' death actually did something to us!  When Jesus died on that cross, something shifted again.  For those that choose Jesus and surrender to Him, He gives us a new heart.  He gives us a new identity.  He wipes away our sin and makes us fresh and clean again.  And then He moves in.  We become Christ's dwelling place, becoming a part of His Church.  We become transformed and continue to be transformed (2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ezekiel 36:26, 2 Corinthians 6:16, 1 Corinthians 6:19, Romans 8:9-11).

So here's a question: If God lives in us because we have become His dwelling place (those that have accepted and surrendered to Him), can our hearts truly be bad?  Are we still wicked and have evil hearts?  I don't believe so.  I believe our hearts are good.  Paul talks about in Romans 7 (Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8 are also great for what I am talking about) how we are always in a battle against our flesh, our sinful nature.  He says that he struggles with doing good, but he does not say that he is evil.  He even goes on to say that the sin he does is not him, but sin living in him!  Now this is not an excuse to sin (Romans 6:1 & 15), but he is differentiating the sinful nature from who we really are in Christ.  So the battle is against the flesh, and we must guard our hearts!  Look at King David.  David was sinful and he did some really wicked things, but God still called him a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22)!  Though David struggled and sinned, his heart was pure and good.  Matthew 5:8 says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."  It does not say, "Blessed are the perfect in heart," it says "Blessed are the pure in heart."

So if Christ lives in us and we are chasing after Him and we are repenting and our repenting is bearing good fruit (Matthew 3:8), I believe our hearts are pure.  I believe our hearts are good!! 

So that's what God spoke to me while camping.  My heart is good.  And to be honest, knowing this makes me even more long for Jesus!  I even more desire Jesus and even more desire to sin less and less.  And like I blogged about in my last blog entry, God's grace is not something I can forget!  All of what I just blogged about here is possible because of God's grace, and His love.  Because He loves you.  Know this: though it's a battle and we do fall and struggle with sin, Jesus' heart for us has not nor will not change.  And He does not condemn us (Romans 8:1).  Christ has set you free and given you a new and good heart.  So be free and live!

A passion of mine that has been growing stronger over the last few years is a passion to mentor and disciple younger males that do not have fathers in their lives.  Or maybe they do have fathers, but their fathers are not really being a father to them.

This is a passion of mine because I have been mentored and discipled myself.  And it has changed my life.  I have learned, and am learning, what really a man created in the image of God is.  I'm also learning how much the world lacks real men.  And so it's my passion to help young boys to become men.

Here is a video that describes a little bit about The Mentoring Project.  The Mentoring Project "seeks to respond to the American crisis of fatherlessness by inspiring and equipping faith communities to mentor fatherless boys."  Check it out!

And with that, I have signed up with The Mentoring Project to start a Mentoring Program in my area when The Mentoring Project does their national launch of this program in late fall/early winter.  

I was talking with some men today and they brought up a very good question that I will be pondering for maybe even the rest of my life, when it comes to loving a women.  The question is, "Do you treasure her?"