A Change Of Heart

Shortly after I received Jesus a friend asked me why I began attending a different church. I said: I*ve had a change of heart. I had no idea how Biblical that statement was. My friend was a Christian and understood instantly that I had received Jesus.

Salvation can be defined as a work of God on a human heart and life. It is not just something that happens after our death. The heart of a man is the essence of who he is. The heart of a natural man is the part of him that is separated from God and is sinful. It needs to be united with God and cleansed of sin. On our own we cannot find God, much less unite with Him. When God gives a man a vital connection to Himself he changes the essence of who the man is. When God changes the essence of a man He changes what that man thinks and does. Receiving Jesus into our hearts unites us with God. He cleanses our hearts from within.

Ephesians 3:17a: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; . . .

Man cannot change himself.

Job 14:4: Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

Proverbs 20:9: Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?

Jeremiah 13:23: Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

The sinful hearts of men separate them from God.

Jeremiah 17:9: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Psalms 95:10: Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: 11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Ezekiel 14:7: For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:

Ezekiel 20:16: Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.

We need a change of heart that only God can accomplish for us.

Matthew 12:35: A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

He does that when we receive Jesus into our hearts. As we receive Him we must do that expecting Him to make the necessary changes. We cannot receive the Jesus of the Bible who is the Son of God and God the Son without also receiving the changes He makes in our hearts and lives.

Ephesians 3:17a: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; . . .

Psalms 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Acts 15:8-9: And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; 9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

1 Peter 1:21-23: Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

The Lord separates us from our sin.

Psalms 103:12: As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

2 Samuel 12:13: And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.

Isaiah 38:17: Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

Isaiah 43:25: I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

Our changed hearts.

Matthew 5:8: Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

1 Timothy 1:5: Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

2 Timothy 2:22: Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Psalms 15:1-2: LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? 2 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

Psalms 24:4-5: He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Care to discuss Change Of Heart, A with Ron?

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