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Heart-Attacks

John Flavel Keeping the Heart Recognizing Christ

I’m reading John Flavel’s book, Keeping the Heart. The book is a collection of sermons on Proverbs 4:23: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (NIV).

Flavel pictures the heart as a fort under attack from without and within. It is therefore in need of constant attention and defense:

Lavater on the text will have the word taken from a besieged garrison, beset by many enemies without, and in danger of being betrayed and destroyed by treacherous citizens within, in which danger the soldiers, upon pain of death, are commanded to watch… (p. 2).

We don’t think about our hearts and souls as often as we think about our physical body. But Proverbs 4:23 calls us to constant attention. Guard your heart both from external and internal attacks. Or, as M’Cheyne put it, don’t neglect the “culture of the inner man.”

What is the Fear of the Lord?

At the risk of confusing the issue by modern use (or abuse) of theological terminology, the ‘fear of the Lord’ denotes piety in the most positive sense of the word, a spiritual disposition that may be described as a proper relationship to God and one’s neighbor. It is wisdom’s comprehensive term for religion.

-C. Hassell Bullock, An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books, p. 24

My Fall class on the Ketubim has begun; now comes the reading. I didn’t blog through my initial years of seminary, why not start with some now? It’s probably all I’m going to be reading anyway.

The idea of the ‘fear of the Lord’ is nebulous at best in our day. Over the years I’ve usually heard it put that wisdom begins with reverent awe for God. Not a bad place to start, but it doesn’t seem to make actual sense of Proverbs. The fear of the Lord in Proverbs is actually more of a set of presuppositions, perhaps a worldview. Bullock continues:

It would not be inaccurate to say that comprehensively the fear of the lord is a world view that attempts to synthesize the elements of human life and work. It is an ‘educational standard’ (compare our objective standard of research) that gives balance to the individual as he relates both to his world and God (p. 25).

As an educator, I demand that students writing research papers follow a certain standard of objectivity. As a Christian teacher and preacher, I demand that they follow a certain standard called the Word of God – that every thought be taken captive to Christ.

Wisdom begins with worldview. Wisdom begins with a set of religious presuppositions. That’s the idea.

Powerball and Proverbs Revisited

I did this during the last Powerball. I see everyone scrambling again, so here goes. Can you pray these words in good conscience?:

  • Proverbs 30:8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9 lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

Don’t look for get-rich-quick schemes. Look to one who, though he was rich, for your sake became poor:

  • 2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Are you already rich?

  • Ephesians 1:3 ¶ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

You betcha!

Making Your Decision the Right Decision

I’m not a ‘motivational speaker.’ I don’t like modern fortune-cookie-like proverbial sayings. I tend to think they smack of moralism. But every once in a while I will come across a good one.

Recently, I listened to a talk by Peyton Manning on ‘leadership’ (HERE). This is a statement I have heard him say several times over the past year and I think it is worth sharing. He says that during his decision-making process as an NFL free agent last year he kept this idea before him:

“Be determined to make your decision the right decision.”

This idea means that, while you certainly want to make the ‘right decision’ initially, the more important element in decision making is that you be ready to do the work necessary, after the fact, to make the initial decision turn out right. Decisions are not so much right at the actual moment of the decision. Their rightness (or wrongness) will be shown by how the effects of the decision play out. And much of that playing out is in your own hands.

Three texts from biblical wisdom literature come to mind:

  • Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
  • Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
  • Proverbs 16:3 Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.

St. Augustine famously wrote, ‘Love God and do as you please.’ Each of these texts, and the words of Augustine, demonstrate something about the the action of God as is it relates to our choices. The principle that I have found helpful is this: Trust in God beforehand, delight in him beforehand. If you are trusting in him, if you are in submission to his Word, if you are in communion with him, then you do not have to wring your hands wondering what his will is. Make a decision, commit it to God in prayer, and be determined to do your part to make it the right decision.

What if you’re proven wrong? For a quarterback, the wrong decision may lead to throwing an interception, getting smeared by a massive linebacker, or losing a game (perhaps a big game). From there, Manning’s advice is that you ‘get back to 0 (zero).’ You cannot dwell on it morbidly. Your bad decision can have an impact on those around you. They can be catastrophic. The question, then, is whether or not you will work even harder to make your next decision turn out right, or will you let the failure of the past become and idol continually lording over you threatening you with the fires of bad-decision-making hell. This leads to nothing but paralysis. It may be paralysis by analysis, but it is paralysis nonetheless.

As cliched as the idea may be for Christians, the gospel of Jesus Christ declares not only the possibility of second chances, but the fact of second chances. But ‘chances’ is not really the right phrase. You are not on probation. This is not the covenant of works. You are not-guilty in God’s court. Your choices may come to haunt you. They may hurt you and those around you. But rather than this leading to a downward spiral of bad-choices, it should be all the more ammunition for future diligence.

A resilient man is a dangerous man. See the resurrection of Christ.

But, the fact of the matter is, we are not resilient in ourselves. When we are crushed, we tend to, well, stay crushed. When we die we decompose. This is why it ultimately cannot depend upon you. A man outside of Christ can move forward after a bad decision by saying ‘oh well’ or ‘screw it,’ and that’s about all he can do. In Christ, you can own up to sins and mistakes, warts and all, because you believe in a resurrected Savior. You believe in a God who brings life out of death. At present, death remains, but, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis, the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor of its demise.

Christ was resilient for us, and so we will be. Now be what you are in him.

Following Your Heart…Following Your Dreams

  • Proverbs 28:26 He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.
  • Jeremiah 29:8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream…

The world says follow your heart, pursue your dreams. God says, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?’ (Jer. 17:9).

As a young man who did not know Christ, I had dreams. Lots of them. ‘Chase them,’ the world said. Validate yourself. Make your life mean something. Follow your heart and you will never fail. God says only a fool would say such things (Prov. 28:26).

When I met Christ, those dreams died along with my old nature. ‘Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow Me’ implies that to gain Christ we must lose our dreams. In Him the dream is new, and so is the heart. I no longer dream of myself. I dream of him. Dream of the world and you might just get it, and lose your soul. That’s foolish. Dream of Him and get the world thrown in, and all other things added. Stop dreaming about yourself, stop trusting your heart. Guard it, guard your heart under Christ’s care, and the wellsprings of life will flow. That’s a dream worth dreaming.

  • Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

 

Powerball and Proverbs: Give Me Neither Poverty nor Riches

As I witnessed someone today going to great lengths to purchase a powerball ticket in another state, this passage came to mind:

  • Proverbs 30:8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9 lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.