And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their hearts of stone and give them tender hearts instead, so they will obey my laws and regulations. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God (Ezekiel 11:19-20)

I personally have never had surgery.  No one I know likes surgery, especially heart surgery.   I have known a few people who have had heart surgery and it is a pretty intense surgery.  In those people, all testify that once they are on the other side of it, life hasn’t been better.  They have a new energy and new vigor for life and a true appreciation for life and breath.

Are you familiar with the worship song “Change my heart, O God.  Make it ever true, “the old praise chorus goes, “change my heart, O God. Let me be like you.”

Not only is a great song, but a great prayer.  But if you want to get picky theologically, it’s an unnecessary request for Christians to make – sort of like praying for God to be with us.

The fact is, every believer in Jesus already has a changed heart.  It’s a done deal.  That’s the promise and the essence of the gospel, the new covenant.  When we put our trust in Christ, an invisible but very real spiritual heart transplant occurs – your old, hard, sin-prone heart gets replaced with a new heart.  That’s what this passage in Ezekiel was alluding to – a new heart that can respond to God and connect with him.  It’s a heart that longs to know and serve and please God.  It is a God-filled heart.

The apostle Paul writes about this in (2 Corinthians 5:17) when he says believers have a brand-new nature.  We really are brand-new.  And now we have new desires and new capacities to honor God.

I not only pray this for me, reminding me that my heart is to seek Him in all things, I pray this for those close to me who may not be following Christ or have walked away from following Him.  I ask God to “take away their hearts of stone and give them tender hearts instead.”

During my personal times of spiritual heart surgery, I am uncomfortable; it’s painful and sometimes fearful.  But I know God has a plan and purpose for the surgery and I tell myself to lean into the pain because once I’ve recovered, I’m closer to Him and I’m changed from the inside out!

– Pastor Kelly

My husband and I recently took a mini vacation to see old friends.  They are the type of friends that I talk to maybe once a year, but whenever we visit them it is as if we were never apart.  It is a comfortable friendship where you can be yourself, idiosyncrasies and all, and it is ok.  When we are together, I wonder why I do not make more of an effort to keep in touch.

On the airplane ride home I asked myself why is that I count this relationship as important to me yet I do not call or email them with any consistency?   As I ponder this now, I hear a small voice saying why if you value Me, are you not more consistent with  keeping in touch with Me?  Ouch! I find it interesting that I love to pray with people but have a hard time praying by myself.  I look for opportunities to pray with others and do not mind stopping my day to pray with them, yet I do not stop my day nearly as often to pray when it is just me and God.  Even as I write that, I cringe.  I am a pastor for goodness sake, and talking with God should be what it is all about.  I can’t receive from Him if I am not contacting Him regularly.

When I do make it a habit to talk with God, it is just like visiting my friends.  It is as if we were never apart, and again I wonder why I don’t do it regularly.  I have no good answer for that, but I do know it makes me grateful that Jesus is my Savior and does not look to my performance or the amount of my prayers as the determining factors of loving me.  So it is with a grateful heart that I tell Him:

Thank you Jesus for your grace

Thank you Jesus for being available when I do contact you

Thank you Jesus for putting situations in my life that force me to examine my sins and shortcomings

Thank you Jesus for being faithful, even when I am not

If we are faithless, He remains faithful…2 Tim 2:13a

Lord, thank you for being that old friend who loves me despite me.  Forgive me for not always making our relationship my number one daily priority.  Love, Chris

~Pastor Chris

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8)

The summer of ’93 my kids were 8 years and 10 years old.  My best friend (I call her my “best best” and more on her in another blog) decided to have a summer bible study for our kids.  Most people want to “take a break” from studies and schedules, but I was convicted that summer to not “take a break”.   So to answer that conviction, we together planned a study, together wrote the curriculum and called it “Little Bits”, Little Bible in the Summer (I still LOVE that name).  It was the best thing we’ve ever done together.  Mind you, we’ve done a lot together, after all we are “best bests”, but this by far was one of the best things we’ve done.  Our kids talk about that summer of ’93 still to this day.   They remember the fun, the crafts and the treasures they experienced.  One of those treasures was Scriptures.  Words and promises from God’s Word.  They had a memory verse each week they had to memorize.  One of those verses was “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” Hebrews 13:8.   This treasure of truth is in their hearts.  When life hits, they dig for that treasure and claim it for their life situation.

Life is ever changing.  Things are always different.  As we journey life, we are tempted to want to stay the same and not embrace change.  Change can be good for us, but only if we embrace it and cling to the One who never changes.

I grew up in the military. Can I give a shout out to the Coast Guard!!  My life was always changing.   We moved every two years.  My dad said there was one year that we moved 11 times in that year. Wow, talk about change.  Change was all I knew growing up.  Nothing ever was “familiar”.  I never went to a school two years in a row until I got into High School and I even attended two different High Schools.  Most people would have hated that.  I however, realize it taught me to embrace change and to cling to the One who never changes.  This truth is what built my faith, my security and confidence in Him.

Moody Memorial Church was completed in 1925, itself a product of great change.  Started as a Sunday school by the evangelist Dwight L. Moody, it was organized as a church in 1864, but burned in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.  The words of Hebrews 13:8 echo in the hearts and minds of all worshipers there.  Limitations of time and geography vanish in this verse. The verb tense is past, present, and future.

The beautiful thing about the Great Message of preaching is that truth shines everywhere…For the faith is always one and the same.  Jesus and his truth transcends geography, race, age, and time.  That same incomparable Savior is ours.

Today as you experience changes in the world and in your life, rest in the One who remains wonderfully the same. Praise his changeless name.  May it bring you stability, confidence and security of our Lord and Savior?  He truly is One and The Same!! – Pastor Kelly

Do you ever have questions for God, or question God Himself? Perhaps it is just me and I shouldn’t be admitting it. My questions range from the quirky to the serious. They make me wonder if others think the way I do and at times they have made me question the ways of God and can I trust Him. My questions are random and come from nowhere at times. See when I die I don’t want to know the great mysteries of this world or of our faith, instead I want to know:

Why do we have to wear shoes?

Why didn’t Adam stop Eve from eating the forbidden fruit?

Why are the Padres the only team that CANT hit homeruns at Petco Park?

Why can’t my friend have a baby and yet the child abuser has a parcel of them?

Why can I get up early to watch my daughter play softball, but not to do devotions?

Why do babies die?

Maybe I have too much time to think, but these questions just stick with me and it bugs me to know I will probably never have the answers here on this earth. And the reality is when I get to heaven will I even care? (See another question) I have learned though, that regardless of the questions the only thing that matters is what I do with them. Rather than doubt God, I have chosen to trust in His love for me and His sovereign plan for my life. It’s ok to question Him, he is a big enough God to handle them so long as at the end of the day I can still trust in His promises. Jeremiah 29:11-13

- Pastor Chris