Heart Gospel

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" (Romans 10:13-15 NRSV)

With the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Romans 10:10)

I see here another strong indicator of the need for anyone trying to share the gospel with others to be actively living with their own heart open before God, not just focused on giving out information. First of all, I think it is extremely important that they comprehend the true heart-nature of the gospel message and are actively engaged in the work of transformation in their own heart. This is not something that can be substituted in any way with more head knowledge or even being able to say all the right words and believe the right facts about the importance of the heart. It has to be a work that makes their own heart open, honest and the motivator of their own life in submission to the Holy Spirit. They need to be aware of the kind of spirit that is in them at all times and need to know how to do heart work with other people.

Jesus is the perfect example of a heart worker. He was always very careful to pay much more attention to the signals of people's hearts than He was listening to their words. He always worked with the utmost gentleness and unselfish love and was not focused on spreading doctrinal truth as much as enticing hearts into a trusting, loving relationship by revealing a new picture of God. Most evangelism today is focused on presenting facts and trying to push people into changing their intellectual beliefs about certain doctrines. Others focus on having an emotional high in a church environment and then draw people into coming back to repeatably receive an emotional fix several times a week. But none of these constitute the real gospel that Jesus came to announce.

Paul is making it more clear here that the gospel is an issue that is primarily dealing with heart problems and must be always focused on the heart more than the intellect alone. But for people with hurting, broken hearts that do not know the truth about how God really feels about them, there needs to come a revelation at the heart level of the real God that can be trusted to respect, care for and heal their heart. When they realize that such a God really exists and is not the angry God that has been foisted on them in the past; that God is not like their dysfunctional parents or religious leaders or anyone else who has used and abused them, then they will be more in a position to respond with real faith.

Paul says here that there is a sequence that has to take place. For a person's heart to respond to a loving Father and give Him permission to launch His remedial work in their life by calling on Him, they have to first grasp a sense of the trustworthiness of that God before they can invite Him into their heart and believe that He has their best interest in mind. For them to be able to come to that place of heart-understanding and belief they must hear about this trustworthy God, especially at the heart level which is where their belief must originate to be effective. For them to hear the real truth about this loving, empowering, healing God there must be a person who not only knows this truth but must convey it in such a way as to reach the hearts of people more than just conveying information to their minds. And for such a presenter to be able to live from his heart and be able to be effective without losing perspective or becoming burned out, that person must be connected very intimately at the heart level with a group of “senders” who not only hold that person accountable to stay open at the heart level but are there for the “preacher” of good heart news to support, encourage and inspire as well as share the heartaches and pain that will inevitably be a part of that person's ministry. They will be there as a reliable support team to minister to his heart and keep his heart open and on track in his own healing journey.

But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:16-17 NRSV)

(next in series)

Safe to Save

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13 NRSV)

I would like to address a little more the false idea that if someone just says some words, even with strong emotion, that they confess Jesus as Lord of their life and call upon His name that somehow God has now been obligated to “save” them no matter what choices they make after that point. That is completely contradictory to God's respect for their freedom of choice.

A person has the right to choose to be lost after they have called upon the name of the Lord and have been saved. Because being saved is not so much about going to heaven as it is entering the process of healing and restoration that God wants to effect in our lives. If a person decides that that process is too painful and they are unwilling to learn endurance through the testing of their faith (James 1:2-4), they are free to withdraw from that process and go a different direction with their life. God will do everything possible to attract them back to Himself but He will not employ force to coerce them into compliance with His will. He will also not endanger the purity of heaven by taking them into paradise where their unwillingness to cooperate will reinfect the universe with the poison of sin.

Some people believe that at the moment we are taken to heaven that God does something miraculous in our brain that will cause us to suddenly not desire to sin anymore. Some believe that sin in our heart would go away if there were no more outside stimulus to cause our sinful reactions so if we can just somehow get into heaven then we will no longer have a sin problem.

But this kind of thinking misses a great deal of understanding of what sin really is and how our own minds and hearts operate. The first belief embraces a view of God who is willing to violate our free choice in favor of ending the problem of sin. But violating anyone's freedom to choose is to rob them of the ability to truly love. And God simply is not going to settle for imitation love. If He was willing to do that He could have ended this whole experiment long ago. He will only receive into His dwelling those who have freely chosen to give themselves totally into His heart of love and be molded into His image by any means necessary short of violating their will.

The second belief falls into the trap of thinking that most, if not all of our problems are simply a result of others or outside circumstances and we are not responsible for our own reactions. That is denial, failing to take ownership of our own stuff. And placing us into a perfect environment will not cure the deceitfulness and sin of our own heart. The sin problem is a lot deeper that others causing us to react negatively. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. (James 1:14-15) Sin at its root is really selfishness.

When a person “calls upon the name of the Lord” in a public or even private setting without a corresponding, deep heart change inspired by a new perception of God at the heart level, then we cannot expect God to force us into the process of salvation. For it is with our heart that we must believe, much more than with out intellect. Our intellect must cooperate with this process, but it cannot preempt it or replace the transformation that must take place in the heart.

God desires only service motivated by love. And for love to be genuine it must be totally free and uncoerced. Freedom means that I am always free to not love, or else love is not really love. Only those who are willing to be transformed by the renewing of their mind into the image of God will be safe to save in God's kingdom. Our love for God must always be based on the natural response to perceiving His intense love for us. And this must be perceived with the heart, for it is the heart that knows how to really love with passion and satisfaction. By beholding we become changed.

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV)

(next in series)

Refiners Fire for Salvation

If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."

(Romans 10:9-13)

I looked up the reference in the Old Testament which Paul quoted here at the end of this passage to see what the context was for this statement. I am aware that many like to lift this phrase out of context and jump to a conclusion that if one simply says certain words with their mouth that claim to be calling on the name of the Lord, then they become irrevocably “saved”, which in their interpretation means that they are now guaranteed a place in heaven no matter what else they do. That kind of teaching is not supported by the Bible when it is allowed to speak for itself and I do not believe it for a minute. People try to claim that this is the definition of assurance. In reality, it is making humans think they have power to manipulate the Almighty. However, I am very interested in finding out just what real truth Paul was trying to express in this passage. Here is more of the context of this reference that is found in Joel.

"It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the LORD has said, even among the survivors whom the LORD calls. (Joel 2:28-32)

While the Spirit may be poured out on all flesh or humanity, that does not mean that everyone will receive it. In James we are told that anyone who is double-minded does not have a working receiver capable of receiving from the Lord. In that case, even though the Spirit may be waiting and available, if we have not participated and cooperated in the work of purifying our faith through trials then we will not be equipped to receive and be empowered by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. (James 1:2-8 NRSV)

First I would like to note that given the context of both Romans 10 and Joel 2 it seems quite clear that the emphasis being made here is on God bypassing all the human differences that too often seem so important to us. That seems to be the main point that is being made in both of these passages. Whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered. Paul refers to the prejudice that was felt between Jews and Greeks (or Gentiles) that he had previously addressed in chapter 2, For there is no partiality with God. (Romans 2:11), but Joel takes it much further and refers to the comparisons or distinctions of parent and child, old and young and even class distinctions of servants and masters.

This seems to be one of the most difficult things for the church in all ages to accept. Peter expressed it when he was confronted with the wrongness of his own prejudice by saying, "I see, beyond all doubt," he said, "that 'God does not show partiality,' But that in every nation he who reverences him and does what is right is acceptable to him." (Acts 10:34-35 TCNT)

I think it becomes more clear in these two passages that God has no use for the distinctions we seem to put so much value in between humans beings in various situations or even sexes. When God comes to relate to a person's heart there is not the slightest difference from His perspective between one human being and another. God's desire and passion is to connect every single heart to His own with intimate ties of love and affection in a covenant relationship that is permanent and secure. He is also eager to bond together the hearts of everyone who is thus being brought into relationship with Him by connecting them with each other in bonds of love and unity. And for that to take place we all have to be divested of our prejudices and artificial distinctions and false ideas about each other and God that prevent us from entering into the unity that God is bringing about in His family.

Secondly I would like to look a little more at the issue of those who may outwardly claim to call on the name of the Lord but who yet cannot be brought into paradise. I know this may make some people bristle, but it is still true. Jesus said Himself, “Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” (Matthew 7:21) Did these people “call upon the name of the Lord”? Apparently they did, but yet Jesus says they will not enter the kingdom of heaven. So what gives here?

I think a very important key is found in James in the context of the other verses we have looked at here. And I also think Paul has been developing this truth all throughout the book of Romans up to this point. Just because people make a profession of serving God and do any amount of religious activities and make all sorts of religious claims about believing in God does not mean that they will be found in heaven. The Jews experience has made that abundantly clear and Paul is addressing that very issue throughout the book of Romans.

The problem is still very much the same today. There are millions who are resting in the false hope that because they repeated some kind of religious words like a mantra and then believe that they are predestined and guaranteed a place in the kingdom of heaven. The Jews lived under a similar delusion but it did not prevent them from killing God Himself in the flesh. Paul is making it very clear in the previous verses that confessing with the mouth alone (a left brain based religious experience) is not enough to get one aligned properly with God and enter His kingdom. There must be a heart transformation that takes place that coincides with the confession that is then made by the mouth. The heart-based beliefs must be purified by exposure in the fires of trial, acknowledged and released so that the truth of God believed at the heart level (faith) can become more and more pure. As the lies about God embedded in the heart are exposed and replaced with the presence of the Holy Spirit that brings in truth, spontaneous faith and love is the natural result. Then the confession of the mouth that Jesus is our Lord is actually a statement of truth, not just a rhetorical recitation of some “magic words” that supposedly force God to guarantee us a place in paradise.

God is not in the business of making us jump through hidden hoops or perform certain gimmicks so that we can go to heaven. God's desire is to enter into the most intimate of relationships with every person who is willing, in the total freedom of their own choice without any coercion or force from the outside against their will, to enter into an intelligent covenant relationship with Him by sacrifice of themselves. "Gather to me my consecrated ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice." (Psalms 50:5 NIV)

Paul made this very same point later in Romans 12. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2 NIV)

This transformation is the very same thing that happens when metal is transformed from a state of ore to the beauty and strength of purity in the smelting process. But God does not force anyone to cooperate with this process. We will all have the heat of trials come into our lives, but the choices we make as to how we respond to that heat makes all the difference as to whether we end up with a purified faith that is bonded to the heart of God or we retain our impurities and have to be discarded with the slag.

Salvation is the plan and process whereby anyone may be purified and prepared for the pure heat of God's glory in His presence. But it is always our own free choice that determines whether or not that process is successful in our hearts. This purification is a heart work much more than it is a collection of true information stored in the intellect. It is very painful work and most people sadly are unwilling to participate in this work. They are eager to trust in their theories and formulas, their assurance that they have the right doctrines or know more “truth” than others. But just like the Jews who also had “all the truth” in their religion, if we do not allow the refiners fire to expose the right brain experiential lie-based beliefs that cause our emotions to betray our professions of piety and receive the healing needed to replace those false ideas, then we will find ourselves arguing with Jesus in the judgment as to why we are found on the wrong side of the gates.

What is this process? How does God refine our faith so that it is more pure and effective?

In short, we need to realize our true condition and how our left and right brain process and store things radically differently. Our memories and experience make up all of what we are inside and determine how we relate to any circumstance or relationship that we currently meet. However, the memories of the very same events from our past are stored in both sides of our brain but in very different ways. Our left brain stores facts and concrete information and data about an event whereas our right brain remembers the feelings, emotions and deductions that we made about the event stored as pictures, feelings and how it made us feel about our value.

Quite often, but usually unknown to us cognitively, the conclusions that we have about an early event in our life are contradictory between our intellectual memory and our emotional memory. But it is events from our past, especially those formed very early in our life in our formative years, that today make up most of how we perceive and react to life. When we have a negative emotional reaction to what someone says to us or an unfair circumstance, the real source of the emotion has very little to do with the current event even though it feels very much like it does. When we are honest enough to face that emotion, instead of suppressing or ignoring or running away from it; if we are willing to disconnect it temporarily from the current circumstance, then we are capable of allowing its original root memory to come back into consciousness and we are very close to discovering the belief that is driving our current experience of this emotion.

Within every root memory there is an intense belief about ourself and/or God that became the basis by which we always relate to any new stimulus that is somewhat similar in nature to the original memory. If that core belief (which has very little to do with a cognitive belief which is on the other side of the brain) is false, and it very often is, then when we are triggered by a current circumstance, comment or other situation that stimulates that memory we will experience an immediate emotional reaction that is always based accurately on the belief that is held in our heart.

Again, I am not talking about intellectual, cognitive beliefs held my our mind on the left side that are much easier to identify and relate to. I am talking about experiential beliefs that lie deeply buried in our right brain emotional history that are far out of reach of our left brain capabilities to access. And even when we do become consciously aware of these emotional beliefs with our left brain it is still unable to change them because the left brain has no equipment to make alterations in the right brain beliefs. It can only make changes in the left brain, fact-oriented memory files that are parallel to the right ones which do not change what we really believe. For what really drives our life is the beliefs that are hidden in our heart and that will drive our responses to outside stimuli's when triggered.

Unfortunately, most religions have tried to create all sorts of gimmicks and formulas to deal with this problem, but always unsuccessful in dealing with the root problem. We may be able to create convincing masks that make us appear to be healed, but if the root beliefs are not allowed to be exposed and brought to the open and dealt with in ways that are truly effective, then we can never really believe the truth with a pure heart. It is only through the process of refinement talked about in James and in other places in Scripture that we will ever successfully be prepared and purified for the intensity of fire that is found in the presence of God.

So how does this process work correctly? How can we come to count it all “joy” when we encounter various trials that turn up the heat of the refiners fire?

When we are triggered emotionally, we are really entering into a wonderful opportunity to access a belief, often hidden, rooted in a memory that cannot be accessed in any other way. The negative emotions are fueled by the heat caused by the resistance produced by a lie-based belief. Our emotions can always be trusted. I know this sounds almost heretical to some, but it is nevertheless true. I am not saying that our emotions are guidelines to show us how to act or react to any given situation. But our emotions are always completely reliable to reveal to us a belief that is held deep within our heart, our right brain memories, that is the foundation and springboard for that emotion appearing in that kind of circumstance.

Whenever we experience this emotion it is really an invitation from God to allow Him access to our heart to do a healing, transformational work that will further purify our heart if we are willing to not avoid it or run away or suppress it. He will not force us to cooperate, but if we are willing to be completely honest and go into that emotion and trace it back to its root in our heart, then God is faithful and just to expose the false belief that we have so long believed to be true and will speak healing truth and peace into that root memory that will bring instant healing and wholeness to that part of our heart. From then on, anytime we encounter an event that would normally trigger that negative emotion, we will find to our amazement that in the place of that disruptive, destructive emotion and pain we will only experience the peace of Christ. This is the work of purification that God eagerly wants to work in each of our hearts.

If we choose any other option to avoid exposure when faced with these emotions, then we will pass up the opportunity to receive the necessary healing that God wants to work in us and will be forced to repeat the problem again and again until we are willing to own our feelings and beliefs or we have hardened our heart beyond repair. All of us have many, many lie-based beliefs buried in our hearts that need to experience the transformation of healing that God is ready to do for us. But the choice is always ours as to whether we will take ownership of our “stuff” or we will go into denial, avoidance or blame.

As stated in James 1, God is faithful to give us the all the wisdom we need generously whenever we get our “receiver” synchronized with the convicting Spirit of God by facing and owning the symptomatic feelings that warn us of underlying problems of the heart. That is what the word “confession” simply means – agreeing with God. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord... Whenever we make that choice, we will experience the inflowing power of the peace that passes all understanding, peace that is unexplainable by the left brain logic. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7 NIV)

(next in series)

Ecstatic Delight in Problems

I found the reading in My Utmost to be very appropriate for my circumstances today. It also reminds me of things I am learning in the heart from my study of Romans 10.

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you. . . . Let not your heart be troubled. John 14:27.

Whenever a thing becomes difficult in personal experience, we are in danger of blaming God, but it is we who are in the wrong, not God, there is some perversity somewhere that we will not let go. Immediately we do, everything becomes as clear as daylight. As long as we try to serve two ends, ourselves and God, there is perplexity. The attitude must be one of complete reliance on God. When once we get there, there is nothing easier than living the saintly life; difficulty comes in when we want to usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit for our own ends.

Whenever you obey God, His seal is always that of peace, the witness of an unfathomable peace, which is not natural, but the peace of Jesus. Whenever peace does not come, tarry till it does or find out the reason why it does not. If you are acting on an impulse, or from a sense of the heroic, the peace of Jesus will not witness; there is no simplicity or confidence in God, because the spirit of simplicity is born of the Holy Ghost, not of your decisions. Every decision brings a reaction of simplicity.

My questions come whenever I cease to obey. When I have obeyed God, the problems never come between me and God, they come as probes to keep the mind awake and amazed at the revelation of God. Any problem that comes between God and myself springs out of disobedience; any problem, and there are many, that is alongside me while I obey God, increases my ecstatic delight, because I know that my Father knows, and I am going to watch and see how He unravels this thing.

Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935, S. December 14

I particularly like the last paragraph. I want to live with that kind of outlook and view problems as opportunities to keep my mind awake and amazed at the revelation of God. I want to have my heart in tune with the heart of God in a relationship of obedience, that is, obedience to His call for me to believe in His goodness and desires to bring life into the places of pain and death in my own heart. Beyond wanting to, I choose to do that today.

Problems are simply means by which the triggers in my heart are tested to see how much healing needs to yet take place. If I choose to obey God by cooperating with His plans and methods for my healing, then I can enjoy this “ecstatic delight, because I know that my Father knows, and I am going to watch and see how He unravels this thing.”

I have learned from Romans 10 that obedience has much more to do with how my heart relates to God than it has to do with the outward symptoms that appear in my actions and performance. Instead of trying to manipulate and groom my outward appearances to look like an acceptable “Christian”, which Paul declares is going about trying to establish my own righteousness, obedience is a heart-focused relationship that is designed to synchronize my life and impulses with the character and impulses of God. That is radically different than the religion that I grew up in and that I still see taught all around me. But I am coming to realize more and more that it is the true religion of Christ who's mission statement was: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19 NRSV)

This is the same gospel – good news – that Paul was preaching and wrote about in the book of Romans. Here are some of the things that I am seeing in this passage (inserted throughout the quote).

But what does it say? "The word (Jesus is the Word Himself and is really the one who) is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith (a spontaneous response of trust and confidence when I see how trustworthy God really is) we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," (I notice that speaking truth out loud makes a powerful impact on the mind and heart much more than simply thinking about it) and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead (and so can likewise bring life into the recesses of death in my own heart and soul), you will be saved (healed, restored to wholeness). For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified (aligned properly in correct relationship with God), and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (confirming openly and thereby sealing the work that God does at the heart level). As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame (God never makes you feel worthless or demeaned. He is in the business of imparting a sense of empowering identity and inestimable worth to our soul)." For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile (no discrimination on the part of God between any human beings whether believers or unbelievers, religious or anti-religious) – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him (the only criteria for enjoying the rich blessing of God is that we ask for Him with our heart which gives Him permission to release His extra-rich blessings and presence in our life), for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (restored to our original design of joy and intimacy with God and wholeness of being)." (Romans 10:8-13 NIV)

The Two Options of Righteousness

As I look again at Romans 10 I see something interesting about righteousness. Apparently there are two ways of arriving at the same thing; two different options of how to be righteous but not two different kinds of righteousness. For I do not believe that Paul is saying here that there can be more than one real concept called righteousness.

I am again forced to go back and revisit the confusing issue of trying to define this word that has been pretty much a mystery to me all of my life. Not that there is any shortage of offered definitions floating around in the world. But I am looking for the real definition that not only makes sense logically but fits perfectly into the heart as well as the mind.

For starters I just looked up the word from its Greek origin and here is part of what I found. Righteousness means equitable (in character or act); by implication, innocent, holy (absolutely or relatively): – just. So from this explanation this word can obviously have very broad application both to internal qualities of a living being and the way this being expresses those inner qualities in their actions and interactions with others. Their character and actio

ns both will be fair (that's what I take equitable to mean) and just, which is pretty much the same concept. They will also be innocent, which means they are free of both evil motives and evil actions. They are also holy which means totally dedicated to something or someone (see some of these terms on my growing list of definitions).

The Bible says that only God is holy. And it also teaches that really only God is righteous and that all real righteousness comes from Him. That creates a very interesting situation for unpacking these verses in Romans 10:5-13 regarding righteousness.

For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. (Romans 10:5)

What I see in this verse is the strong implication that real righteousness is not only a description of qualities and a condition but is also a source of life itself. Somehow righteousness is a description of what brains are pre-hardwired to look for to get life.

Just like a newborn baby intuitively knows how to look for a mother's breast to receive life and nourishment to thrive, I believe humans are designed to hunger and look for something call righteousness from which to receive life and nourishment to stay alive and thrive.

In that case, going about to establish our own righteousness is like a baby trying to suck on a toy or anything else that feels like it might be a source of nourishment but is not the real thing. Worse yet, it is trying to create the source of nourishment by looking to one's own self as the source from which to draw nourishment. It is like insisting on only sucking your thumb to receive all the nourishment you need for life. It becomes quickly obvious that for a being to look to itself as the source of life for very long will only result in sucking the life out of themselves, for nothing can depend on its own life to be the source of its own life. Only God can depend on Himself to be a source of energy and life because God is the only self-existent one. He is the one and only source of life for everything else that exists.

When viewed in this perspective, what this verse is really saying is that if someone decides that they are going to be righteous based on a description of what righteousness looks like – the Law – then they are going to have to depend on a self-generated perfect conformity in every detail to what God is like as well as be a self-existent source of life for themselves, for that is the real meaning of righteousness viewed through the Law. They are entering the role of being God themselves and are depending on themselves and their performance as their source of life.

But just as it is an impossibility in the physical world for a baby to nourish itself and thrive by drawing life from its own body, so also is this an impossibility in the realm of righteousness as well. What is really taking place here is that anyone attempting to be righteous by perfectly keeping the Law is actually setting themselves up as their own god, their source of life. They come to worship themselves and their own works, knowledge and performance and depend on their own achievements and appearances to be the source and reason why they should be able to live forever.

So, since this is an absurd impossibility, what is the real way to get life so that we can thrive and receive the life (righteousness) that we need? The answer comes in the next few verses that

present once again the message of salvation that is the reason the whole Bible is given to us. Real righteousness – the real way to get the life we must have – is by aligning ourself in proper relationship with the one and only Source of life, the only righteous One in the universe.

It involves using the equipment that we have been given in the proper way and connecting it to the proper source, just like a newborn must use the mouth and all its other organs it was born with to connect with the breast and life-giving milk that is provided for it from an outside person that is mature and much greater than the child.

The healthy newborn baby has instinctively a measure of faith that the mother's breast will provide what it needs and desires. Otherwise, it would not even try to suckle and drink and rest in its mother's love. Just so, we have to exercise the measure of faith that each one of us possesses and respond to the loving care of our Creator and draw life from Him using the equipment He has given us. And the primary equipment that we are given with which to receive life from God is our heart, that deepest sense of our being that is largely located physically, I believe, in the right brain.

It is with our heart and emotions that we successfully connect with the current of life streaming from the heart of God. It must be with our heart, not just our intellect, that we believe at a much deeper level in the goodness and loving-kindness of God to provide what we need and crave, just like a baby trusts its mother implicitly to provide all of its needs and desires while drinking her milk from directly over her heart. This even gives an interesting new meaning to Paul's statement that the word of faith is near you, not far away, but is already in your mouth and in your heart. You already have the equipment you need for nourishment, you just have to use it in the proper relationship with the only Source of life and nourishment.

So what is that proper relationship? Verses 9-11 makes it very clear. We have to relate to Jesus as our Lord, the one who is bigger than us in every way, our Mother/Father God and who is mature and has the capacity to give us what we need. We use our mouth to acknowledge our proper relationship to Him that our heart cries out for. That is the part that our left brain resists doing in its pride and independence and must be surrendered in humility.

Secondly, our right brain that is so full of fear and doubt and overwhelmed with pain and the shadows of death must choose to believe that God is a reliable source of life and healing for anything associated with pain and death. Through the demonstration of the power seen in the resurrection of Christ from the grave after He suffered more pain and results of sin than any being will ever experience, we are given the evidence of God's ability to bring life and hope into any place filled with the tinges of death. There is no heart so full of pain and fear and death that it cannot be brought to life if it is willing to open itself to receive that healing and life.

But just like a baby cannot be forced to drink, so too God will not force our hearts to receive the life that He so desires to give to us. Real love demands complete freedom of choice, and God is only interested in a relationship of love with all of His created beings. Forced obedience is an invention of the devil, and God will not accept any such pollution into the environment of heaven. Real obedience is a natural response from hearts that believe the truth about how God feels about them and receives the love that He pours into them. When a person believes with the heart, the spontaneous result is righteousness.

But this righteousness is not something created by the person any more than the growth and health of a baby is something it somehow generated on its own by drawing life from itself. Life is imparted only in relationships, and real righteousness is like the milk that imparts life to our thirsty hearts. When we connect our empty, hungry hearts to the heart of our loving Parent in heaven and open our mouth to receive it, we will begin to experience the inflow of life and the natural effects of vitality and growth that spring from that life.

For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed." (Romans 10:11)

So, this all sounds good on paper and in theory, and I believe that it is important to understand the theory to some extent. But what does it look like in real life? How do I, in practical, everyday life go about connecting my heart with the heart of God? How to I link up with Him/Her to drink the living water/milk that is waiting to nourish my soul?

Well, to offer a pat, simplistic answer to that question would be an insult to the depth of it and the nature of the answer. Issues of the heart are very difficult to translate into words at times but must necessarily be attempted anyway for communications sake. I will simply say that it is the journey that I am on to find that answer for myself experimentally. I am in process myself of trying to learn what it means to live from my heart, to receive the healing and nourishment at the heart level that I desperately need to be restored to wholeness and to enjoy the satisfaction that does not disappoint.

I invite you to join those who are choosing to explore this life of connecting to the only Source of righteousness. There are many who are discovering the joy of receiving the same attentions from God as a baby receives from its mother. (see Isaiah 66:9-14) I believe that the real way to prepare for end time events is to learn experientially what it means to live in intimate connection with God's heart and thrive with the nourishment of joy and peace that He has to feed our heart. Preparation for the end of the world is not found in memorizing proof-texts or steeling the mind against false doctrines (which usually also means hardening the heart), but it is in becoming real, getting totally honest about the real pain and emptiness of our heart and living with a vital, dynamic connection to the heart of our Savior.

I am learning very slowly how to exercise my heart a little more each day. I sometimes have to refrain from writing or even thinking so much to allow room for my heart to do whatever it is that it does in the presence of God. I cannot cognitively understand how my heart operates but I am learning that it needs to function much more freely than I have ever allowed it to before. So in the safety of the grace of God and trusting in God to finish the work He has started within me, I am exploring what it means to know about God's righteousness (Romans 10:3).

(next in series)