Recognizing the Perfect Work of God

I spent some time today looking online for a church group for my daughter.  You can imagine that I was a little bit thorough.  For each one found that seemed relevant, I quickly scanned their Beliefs, Vision and maybe their staff, and listened to snippets of several of the pastor’s sermons.  Some might consider that what got my attention as unimportant, but I heard it over and over again.  When I listened further into their sermons, it was reflected in a lot—a lot a lot—of what followed.  I was unhappily surprised.

Sure evidence that many speakers and pastors do not recognize the fulfillment and end of the Former Covenant in favor of the beginning and far better promises of the New Covenant is how often they say something before their messages like, “Let’s prepare our hearts for the Lord.”  Really?  I thought that through the new birth we had been given new hearts—hearts that God, all by Himself, made from the original material of His own nature. 

He shared Himself with us.  How do you top that?  There is nothing for me to “prepare” or to “work upon,” since not only did I have nothing to do with that work, but I could never do as good of a job as He did.  Right?  Isn’t it fantastic to have that pressure removed?  How cool is that?  All I get to do is to recognize that God Himself has prepared my heart.  He is all done with it, and it was a perfect work.  He is now convincing me to live from my heart, not to work upon it.

He who has made me “the house of God,” is the very happy inhabitant—He loves His surroundings and paid off the mortgage and everything forever.  It follows, naturally, that one of my favorite things to read or to hear about (especially when listening to a sermon) is how good a work that was and how perfect my heart is—the very core of my being.  God saw to it and it cannot get any better than He made it through the new birth.  To say then that there is work for me to do where God has already worked, and in an arena that Christ alone can touch and I cannot possibly—my heart—is, well, it’s anti-Christ.  And it’s terribly confusing and frustrating for everybody who hears it.

What would I like to hear from these same speakers and pastors?  Well, something like, “Let’s turn our minds to the Spirit, and explore the perfect work God has done to our hearts.”  I would be all ears . . . and my perfect heart would be beautifully wide open.  I bet yours would be, too.

(This is a transcript of yesterday’s video, “Recognizing the Perfect Work of God,” and is for those who might rather read than watch . . . or both.  To see the video, click http://youtu.be/AutQSZ-CZb0.)