Captured Hearts

Our hearts are captured. The question is by what or who. We have been created in the image of God.............having the capacity to receive love and give love. Yet, our hearts may be captured by something other than true Love, something contrary to God's design in creation for us. Something or someone other than Jesus, maybe an offense, an emotional injury, a person, fear, pride, bitterness and the list continues.

Our life will demonstrate the source of our hearts captivity even in spite of our creeds. Paul says "But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." and "Whatever we do, it is because Christ's love controls us." Whatever captivates us controls us. It is vital that we submit to our need and dependency in humility. Seek the Lord and his enlightenment of your heart so you can receive and experience his love and presence. So that he can capture your heart with his unfailing love.

We can enjoy encouragement and a common bond with others who love the Lord, who have tasted and experienced Jesus.................those who worship the Lord in intimacy even if we have never had the privilege of meeting them. Listed below are a few who God has obviously blessed with the revelation of his love at least as their songs seem to indicate. A few lines from each are also listed.


The Beauty Of Simplicity
By: Telecast

It's the beauty of simplicity
That brings me down to my knees
I'll praise You for eternity
And Lord I love you
because you, you first loved me


Knees To The Earth
by Watermark

Be blessed, be loved, be lifted high
Be treasured here, be glorified
I owe my life to You oh Lord
Here I am

Beautiful Jesus
How may I bless Your heart?


If I have not love
by Matt Redman

This is a love song
This is a love song
Jesus, a love song to You
A song of devotion, a reverent passion
Savior, a love song to You


Sound Of Melodies
by Leeland

We have caught a revelation
That nothing can separate us from
The love we received through salvation
It fills your daughters and your sons

Your daughters in love
Your daughters in love
You’ve won your children


Sweetly Broken
by Jeremy Riddle

At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

What is first today?

Same as yesterday and everyday. To praise and glorify God? To do great things in service to God? To pray for others? Give sacrificially to those in need? Taking a bold stand for Christ? Well, it depends. Is God being loved very intentionally and intimately as we do whatever we are doing. Do our voices reach his heart saying "Jesus, I do this in love to you. Be the very first recipient of this very moment of my life" as we are doing everything we do each day of our lives. Walking in the presence and fellowship with his Spirit brings this opportunity to a place of reality for us.

Jesus says in Matthew "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment" and Paul says in I Corinthians "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."

What empowers us to love God in every detail of our lives? That he has captured our hearts as he has enlightened our hearts very personally with his love for us. He has blessed my heart very personally and intimately with his voice of love. "So now I say to you Jesus, I love you, feel loved this very moment and be blessed by my heart that you have won by your great love for me".

Whose Glory defends me?

John wrote in Revelations, “For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

In response to accusations against us, true or fabricated, we have two choices. We can attempt to stand in our own defense before others and God or we can simply stand free of guilt and condemnation through our faith in Christ. Claiming our own defense as being an acceptable and approved individual by whatever measures we choose robs Jesus of Glory that is his and not ours. Humbly submitting to our fallen depravity and claiming nothing in ourselves is the freedom we have in Christ.

Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness. Psalm 115:1

God’s love and acceptance of us in Christ has set us free from the burden of defending our own value as an individual. God’s Glory defends me.

The Power of Love

What has a grasp on me? What consumes the greatest portion of my emotions and thoughts? What has captured me? What controls me?

Does worry and stress consume my thoughts and emotions? Am I anxious, restless and unable to sleep? Or, maybe do I sleep too much?

Over time, if you have given your mind the authority through your own understanding to give you truth, you may be “held captive to empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world”. Then, when deception creeps in, it is powerful to influence our minds to develop confidences in false beliefs deep within our subconscious that we struggle to recognize and define.

Foundational to most of our vulnerability to the power of Satan’s lies and deception is pain and fear. We are a dependent people attempting to be self-sufficient. Fears arise because although we are attempting to remain confident in our own self, we are well aware of the possibility of failure. Failure is a painful experience to those whose confidence in who they are is depepedent upon "measuring up". The fear of even the possibilty of failure is painful.

Pride also develops. The pride we develop from believing Satan's lies has lead us into a performance oriented perception of life and has alienated us from experiencing God who resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. The fear of failure, the fear of not being acceptable and included, the fear of punishment and condemnation and shame could be dominant forces in our lives even despite the creeds of our faith. Not only will these fears contribute to unhealthy earthly relations but they may even define and dictate our experience with God so that we fear we are not welcome in his presence or that we can enjoy him.

Yes, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and as the song Amazing Grace says “T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.” However, the song also rightly continues “And Grace, my fears relieved.” Finally, the power of Love! As John says “Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of judgment, and this shows that his love has not been perfected in us.”

Wow! I pray for every reader. “And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.”

May the Love of God and your experience with him consume you and control you. In Christ you are complete and you are welcome in God’s presence to experience the fullness of joy. This pressing burden that we must "measure up" so that we are acceptable as individuals has been satisfied by Christ. He met all the requirements of perfection for us. All because he loves us. Now we are released from fear and the burden of pride. We are who we are in Christ. Wow, the power of love to cast out fear.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

God is communicating his unfailing love for us through his Word. His suffering on the cross fulfills this truth. God passionately suffered for our redemption because he truly loves us and desires our companionship. The Psalms say "he rescued me because he delights in me" and Jesus says in John's Gospel "No one can take my life from me. I lay down my life voluntarily."

As God is communicating this message of love and how he demonstrated this great love toward us on the cross, he is communicating his heart to our heart. Why? Merely so we can know about him and his love? No. His desire is not that we merely know the facts of the message but so we will know him personally, relate to him and experience him in love and oneness that goes beyond our mind's ability to fully comprehend. His words are intended to bless us emotionally so that we enjoy him in a very rich way, just as our words of love toward one another are not merely intended to convey the facts but are intended to let the other person feel loved and experience our heart toward them.

The greatest blessing any day is the joyful assurance and experience of God's love and presence. Hear the truth with your heart as you pray for God to enlighten your heart with how great his love is for you. As the Psalmist says in Psalm 27, "My heart has heard you say, "Come and talk with me." And my heart responds, "LORD, I am coming." With this we begin to rest in the embrace of his love and enjoy his presence.

Thanksgiving – everyday

What does it mean if we are consistent everyday, maybe every morning first thing, in sharing so compassionately with our Heavenly Father how thankful we are for his protection of our family from evil yesterday and through the night, for yesterdays blessing of accomplishments and successes, for the blessing of health our family received, for the very special joy we received as he enlightened our heart with a refreshed perception of the awareness of his loving presence and the list continues?

It is simple. It means that yesterday we asked him for his blessings and protection for ourselves and our family and hopefully throughout the entire day as we walked in loving oneness with Jesus through his Spirit.

This speaks to us also if we are not occupied daily in giving thanks to God from our heart. It could mean that our confidence actually rests somewhere else. This of course is not where we want to be because we stand vulnerable to attack and also that we are standing firm and confident that we are sufficient in ourselves for the day’s tasks and encounters unless……….oops something happens. And only then we begin to seek God’s care which reveals most sadly that we probably are not walking with Jesus in intimate companionship today and apparently we were not yesterday. It appears that we could be ignoring the Spirit who “jealously longs for us to be faithful” as James says. Maybe we have been preoccupied with the world and are also finding our confidence for the day in the things that are visible to us through our fleshly eyes rather than being continually occupied with the Spirit’s comforting, guiding, loving presence and also truly resting in God to care for us and provide for us through the eyes of our faith. Paul says in Ephesians. “let the Holy Spirit fill and control you. Then you will sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, making music to the Lord in your hearts. And you will always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
How revealing our thankfulness or thanklessness can be regarding where our heart is.

What about strongholds?

Be encouraged! There is hope more than you can imagine! God created everything in the universe with merely the effort of his spoken word. You are not beyond his ability to give you a life full of joy. Actually the greater the forgiveness and healing………………the greater the love and joy you can experience. Jesus says in Luke “I tell you, her sins – and they are many – have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love."

The list of strongholds is enormous. The list could include: chemical addictions, anger, addictions to the approval of other people, gossip, perfectionism, withdrawal, bitterness, insecurity, pride, control, pornography, sexual impurity including sexual disorientation, depression and the list goes on.

We now desire freedom……….. that is, escaping the grasp of anything that holds us captive or enslaves us.

Or do we really desire freedom? We have probably developed a comfortableness and security with some of these strongholds…………an escape or hiding from reality and the pain and fears of life. So, the question is what are you substituting for the life you think God wants for you? If you could start living a life of freedom from this minute on, would you be willing to give up all these things, behaviors, addictions, control or whatever? Or would you need to think about it? This will indicate where you are in terms of repentance.

However, the actual demolition of these strongholds is not within our own capacity or strength. Paul says “we are humans, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.” Our strongholds are founded in false beliefs……..” empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ.” as Paul says in Colossians. We can destroy these strongholds in our life as God’s power, presence, love and truth empower us. He only needs a heart that desires to receive him and loves him more than a life of bondage.
“I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light” and “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.”, just as Paul prayed in Ephesians. As God miraculously opens the eyes and ears of your heart with his love for you personally, surrender into the embrace of his arms and presence. Remember, his love is greater than you could possibly imagine, so trying to make sense of something that God has said you can never fully understand in your mind will only hinder your experience of him in your heart.

Repent!?

Yes, repentance is naturally necessary as we are not responding to the love and invitation of an idea. Rather, we are uniting intimately to God our Father, Jesus his Son and receiving life eternal through his indwelling Spirit.

Regarding God's Spirit and our relating in a rich love relationship with him, James says, “You adulterers! Don't you realize that friendship with this world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy this world, you can't be a friend of God. What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, jealously longs for us to be faithful.” And then Paul says “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” and “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature”. Our New Life is someone not an idea or even a system of rights and wrongs which the scriptures term as law. Therefore, it is only natural that repentance is necessary or turning from a life that apposes the one who loves us and lovingly embracing him and his desires with our life. Victory against our flesh however will be sporadic, cold and mechanical as long as this truth of relating in love to God through his indwelling Spirit remains merely a subjective idea. Until we mix the truth of this relationship with faith, which “is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” we will only be working to overcome our flesh with our flesh as a matter of religious idea………….law. Use the faith that God has given you to live in the reality of the presence of His Spirit moment by moment every day. You will then be empowered with warm loving interaction with God's Spirit as you battle against the pleasures that appeal to your flesh. He is jealous for your warm loving attention, affections and loyalty. If you choose not to be continually occupied with his presence your battles will be fought in your own strength and merely between the law of right and wrong.................cold, mechanical and sporadically successful at best.

Regarding God leading us to repentance, Paul states in Romans “do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?”. I know this is not the noble idea of following God through our own glorious self-driven dedication but it is God’s way of writing his law of love on our hearts, empowering us by his love to do his will joyfully. It is God’s way of allowing us to follow Him and meet his expectations by grace.

Personal security through accomplishment?

Feeling secure in who I am? What determines who I am so that I have worth and value. Does my security in who I am come from my accomplishments, successes and achievements? If so then I am being held captive to “empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ" as Paul writes in Colossians. Do you find yourself deceived into believing the lie that you are set apart as being someone of worth through your own ability to accomplish or possess or whatever. This belief is prideful and establishes you as the one who should receive the glory for who you are and the things you accomplish. It also robs you of peace and freedom by making you a slave to fear.................the fear of failure.

Remember that Jesus declared you as being valuable beyond comprehension through enormous suffering on the cross. Why did he do this? Well, it wasn’t because you measured up or even because you asked for him to. The suffering of Jesus on the cross clearly demonstrates how much he values and loves you. The cross is proof of your unconditional value as a person. If God values you and loves you, then who is to argue? Stop striving and receive him freely by faith. Now, having received Him pray that his love will capture your heart so that the things you do in life are no longer in defense of your own pride as being someone of worth but rather are pure and from singleness of heart in love to the one who loves us.

Loved! A truth about you!

Jesus, agonising in prayer before his betrayal and suffering has his heart determined to endure the upcoming pain. His unlimited ability to see the future shows him every detail of his next hours of suffering. Actually even in the beginning when he created everything, including us, he foresaw every detail of suffering he would have to endure. He created us anyway, having full knowledge of every detail of the price he would ultimately pay for our redemption.

Marks Gospel says, Jesus "took Peter, James, and John with him, and he began to be filled with horror and deep distress. He told them, 'My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me."

What was he so compassionately seeking after so that he would choose to suffer both the horror of anticipating the suffering and the physical suffering of the Crucifixion? The answer is YOU.................oneness, intimacy and companionship with you, now and forever. He loves and values you that much. Ever wonder if you have value as an individual or if anyone could ever love you? God does and the proof is in the suffering he endured to bring you into a relationship with Himself. And you did nothing to compel God in this sacrificial offering of love. Sounds strange maybe to say this but the demonstration of God's love through the cross declares that you are unconditionaly valued and loved.

In Johns Letter Jesus says "I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one. Then the world will know that you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me."

Hear the truth with your heart. Listen to the Word communicate God's heart to yours..............that he desires for you to experience the Fathers love toward you which is exactly the same love He loves Jesus with. And he wants you to experience oneness with Him just as Jesus and the Father are one.

The writer of Hebrews says "He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward."

Again, the joy set before Him empowering Him to endure the cross is you................personally. You cannot change this truth. You are loved beyond the ability of your mind to comprehend. Hear the truth with the heart of a child who does not have a lot of reasoning ability to make sense of things mentally. Hear the truth with your heart. God is trying to communicate His heart to your heart.

Paul's Letter to the Romans says - "Salvation that comes from trusting Christ – which is the message we preach – is already within easy reach. In fact, the Scriptures say, "The message is close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart." For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, "Anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed. "

And John in His Gospel says - "But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan – this rebirth comes from God."

Now, be still, stop striving. Trust the Lord with your heart and receive Him and He will be your new Life, eternal life.

hi

hello,
this is my first blog effort. i have not even completed my front page information telling who i am and such. regardless, this page came up first for me to work within if i wanted to and so i am. briefly, let me invite you to please check back as i intend to use this blog as a way to communicate to your (anyone who will listen) heart from my heart as God through Jesus has captured mine with His love.