The Heart

Prov 4:23 (KJV) Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of
it are the issues of life.

Prov 4:23 (TEV) be careful how you think; your life is shaped
by your thoughts.

Proverbs 4:23 (NLT) Above all else, guard your heart, for it
affects everything you do.

Often people have asked me why I choose the path of Christianity, as opposed to other world 'religion'. And normally I'd explain my life story and experiences, and I would go into great detail, using Bible verses to back up my words. Having spoken to my good friend Michael Morgan, I promised I'd put my thoughts on this blog for all to see. Not being a theologian or bible scholar, please excuse my humble attempt to explain and represent the almighty. I hope these words will cause many to think and investigate these issues for themselves.

For me the issue at hand, regarding God, sin, death, eternal life, can all be summed up in one word: HEART. The three verses at the beginning of this post, are three transaction of the same verse (I did this to show clarity) How what do I mean/understand by the term heart? The heart is your mind, conscience, or thought life. It determines your behaviour, opinions. How another Bible verse states: The heart is wicked above all things :( Forgive me but I can't remember which book of the bible this relates to) in plain speak, this states that, our mind are naturally evil, from day one. We don't need to be programmed to be evil, it's apart of our original programme. How when I read the bible, and read this, this resonated with me. I reflected over my life, to that point. My actions and thoughts. The conclusion I came too was that, for me, this was true. I didn't need to coerced to do wrong. Many times I wanted to. Still do. So that rang true. But then in my minds eyes, I thought' I not as bad as others. I go to church, don't swear, respect my parents, I live and let live. I'm heaven bound,. But again the bible spoke to me; Romans 3:23 says: 'For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God'. So as good as I thought I was, it was still WAY short of God's mark. I then looked at the 10 commandments. (See Exodus Chapter 20) Going through them, I realised there were some I hadn't committed, and some that I had. I made a vow to do better. But then God's word killed that. Romans 3:20 states: Therefore no-one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
So the 'Law' as such made me conscious of my sin, or wrong-doing, but obeying it wouldn't gain me God's pleasure or a home with him for eternity.
I then realised that I was beat. But I read further on in Romans. Chapter 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So through Jesus’ death, and resurrection, I had provision into God's presence. He took my place, and died the death I deserved, so that I could have a relationship with The Lord God. The last verse that stood out for me was Romans: 10:9: because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. I confessed not only this, but all my sins (actions and thoughts that were/are opposed to God's way) I believed that that he was raised from the dead in 3 days. I asked Jesus to be my Lord of my Life. Now my aim in this isn't to persuade you into accepting Christ, but to document why I choose this course of action. I haven't got all the answers, but I'm willing to discuss any points you would like clarified.

Further reading:

Matthew 5

The Book of Romans

The Book of Proverbs