From Your “With All My Heart” Pastor…

"Unlimited Possibilities"

One of my life's mentors, Dr. Stewart A. Newman, now of blessed memory, tells the story of a chance encounter with one of his students at a highway rest area in Texas. After the usual surprised and happy greetings, the former student had occasion to say that he was a heart transplant patient. He was feeling as healthy and fit as ever. "It has caused others to be quite concerned about me," he said. "My wife has received calls from members of our church who are deeply concerned about my immortal soul. They say I need to accept Jesus as my Savior again, because the heart I first gave to him no longer is there."

Oh, the limitations of the literal mind! To believe that the heart is all there is to a person is to give God very little credit. It is not only our hearts that are made in God's image, but our whole selves, all that we are. The heart of a person is not a pump with chambers and valves; it is the spiritual unity of all aspects of personhood. This is why the scriptures call us to love the Lord our God "with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength."

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might...Ephesians 1:15-19, RSV

I think that Paul's prayer for the enlightenment of our hearts is one that we must utter constantly, and with humility. The dominant eye for us is that of the mind, and its sight is always limited by logic. This is an astigmatism corrected by the enlightening of the heart's eye, which sees the limitless possibilities of our human world filled with God's love.

In this new year, 2012, the 194th year of our congregation’s ministry for Jesus Christ, may you perceive with all that is in you the hand of God. May the unlimited possibilities for real and permanent good tease your soul into action!

Pastor Ken