The Path

I have heard it said, the path from the head to the heart is the longest and hardest path. I recall hearing about a man that had memorized the Bible word for word, but he was an atheist. He had a lot of head knowledge, but had no heart knowledge. He didn't believe what he had read, he just saw it words on a page.

I have tried long and hard to put words to the head knowledge verses heart knowledge and God has given me the words to share.

Head knowledge is focused on self, it is what can I get from my knowledge to better me, what can I do to make a difference in my life. It is knowing the Bible without actually knowing the knowledge of the truth of who God really is. It is going to church, but having no fruit in my walk. The Bible talks about the tree that bears no good fruit Matthew 7:17 "Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit."

Heart knowledge is knowing and truly seeing the reality of God. That it is not about self at all, but about the Love for the Father who has made us. He says in John 14:15 ""If you love me, keep my commands." It is heart knowledge that shows us that true love is not just something that happens, because of good things, it comes down to a heart choice. Love is a choice, we have to lead our hearts, because our hearts contain junk, look at Matthew 15:19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." Good things take work, it takes work to grow, I can sit and hope to learn, but what I learn is that sitting doesn't afford me the chance to learn, I have to do to learn. God calls us to do. He talks about us doing, not just being.

The problem today we have a heart condition that is focused on self. When the heart is focused on what can I get out of this or that, we lose the point of honoring God, because all we see is me, me, me. God says we must die to self, that in order to live for Him. The water baptism is a symbol for bury the old, so that we could come alive in Christ Jesus. That in and of itself is not enough, because we have to make the choice every moment of every day, to put to death the old self (otherwise it will keep coming back) and we have to come alive in Christ Jesus. He is the only way we can live, not for ourselves but for Him.

When we understand the unconditional love of the Father for us, we see how that unconditional love can come alive in our own lives for the people that are around us. We stop making it about self and start making it about Christ Jesus who lives in us and can live through us if we make the choice to continue to die to self.

The Bible talks about the heart and what it has in it. We see in Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’" With your heart and mind, it isn't just in our minds that we have to love Him or just in our hearts, but in both places and our soul. We may have the knowledge and love Him just because or we have the heart knowledge to live it out.

Our heart contains many things and it warns us about what we have in our hearts in Matthew 15:19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." and Matthew 15:18 "But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them."  But in Luke 6:45 "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."

My final thoughts, when I am lost if I just stay in the same place, I will still be lost, but if I start walking and trusting God to lead me, then He does. It takes movement, it takes walking by faith and not by site. Good things take work, great things take a lot of work. Our relationship with the Father, takes us praying, reading and doing. It is like a garden, if I don't tend it, it will become full of weeds, the good plants will die and the weeds will take over. I can't just remain idle, I have to work at it.