Discarding Stones
By Ron Wood
"…I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh..." (Ezek. 11:19)
You can believe God even if you can't understand Him.
There are apparent paradoxes pictured in the Bible, seemingly opposite truths. "The first shall be last." "If you humble yourself, you'll be exalted." "If you wish to be great, be a servant to all." These sayings are true from heaven's perspective, but they offend our carnal way of thinking. Apart from humbling our minds (deliberately deciding to distrust our ability to know it all or to figure everything out), we can't receive these kingdom truths.
Kingdom truth is always walked out by childlike faith. I've heard it said that God offends our minds to reveal our hearts. This is so true! Even the apostle Paul said he was sometimes perplexed (but thankfully, not in despair). Our heart is the core of who we are and what we believe. It is with our heart that we first receive God's word, not with our head.
In a story in Mark 10, Jesus released a prize catch. He let a rich young ruler slip away, departing sad, but unchanged, still loved by Jesus, but barred from His kingdom. If Jesus were a modern pastor, the Church Board would chastise him for letting a new member get away! Why did Jesus do this? Because the young candidate was missing something essential, something that was a fundamental heart issue: he was unable to give. "One thing you lack," Jesus said. He was a good man who kept God's commandments from his youth, but who never felt compassion for the poor, had no treasure stored up in heaven, whose heart was tied to possessions rather than to God's purpose for his life. This one thing kept a man with great potential wasted, outside of Jesus' team, missing the kingdom.
Many kingdom truths apply to money. "How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God," Jesus said. (Mk. 10:23) Yet, Jesus also promised increased wealth to those who give money away for the kingdom of God's sake (vs. 29-30). What did Christ mean by this paradox? Jesus meant that when our heart is absorbed with seeking after money purely for profit's sake, we have lowered ourselves into living for greed (which is idolatry). In that state, it is as hard for us to enter the kingdom as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. (Mk. 10:25) The kingdom becomes difficult if core issues are neglected.
More than our words or desires, deeds really count with God. For example, how we use money reveals our heart more than anything else in our life. It is a measurable barometer of how we value what God has said. "If you love me, keep my words," Jesus said. At some point, observed behavior tops stated intentions. What we do testifies more loudly than what we say. Let's get real: If we don't put it on the calendar, if we don't budget for it, if we don't plan on it, then we don't really believe in it, do we? And since God is an honest and fair judge, He keeps track of what we do and then He renders a verdict based on the evidence. God keeps good books. God counts because we count with Him. If He didn't care, He wouldn't bother with us. Tell me: If someone examined your checking account, would they find enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian?
Jesus spoke a word to the rich young ruler that uncovered the core of his heart. Have you ever had God speak a word to you like that? Spiritual words cut to the core (see Hebrews 4:12). When that happens to you- and if you are following the Lord, it eventually will- it seems like everything is suddenly laid bare for everyone to see. The reason God does this (lets us see ourselves as He sees us) is so that we can fully realize our desperate condition and then be able to cooperate with His transforming process in our inner man. God doesn't show us our wounded soul to shame us, but to repair us. This patient repair work requires more experiencing of the cross, more practical application of God's word, and more covenant love expressed to us by Jesus' family on earth.
The state of our heart is the issue! God isn't after external obedience (reluctant submission to new laws; being trained to behave while still resenting it; being a hypocrite but adopting a religious disguise) but God desires transformation of our inner man. He wants reality: Christ-likeness in us without pressure to pretend; godly conduct without stopping to check the rulebook; obedience to His will while not even knowing the biblical references.
These things come in the category listed in Colossians 3: put off the old man; put on the new man. It is one thing to turn away from sin to be saved; it is still something else for God to work on our thinking and our ways so that we live like kingdom citizens. When I initially came to Jesus, sin died in me. The will to do wrong was judged and executed. I now want to do His will! While the desire was now present, I found internal roadblocks, stones, no.... boulders, in the road that hindered full faith and obedience. But as I have kept pressing into God, to my surprise, my own former ways of thinking and my own former motivations and my own former lifestyle choices have experienced death and resurrection in Jesus. I started being changed inwardly, in the spirit of my mind, even in my unconscious thoughts. This has affected the way I handle money, the way I relate to my wife, the way I perceive my self and my purpose. Indeed one of the greatest Scriptures the Holy Spirit has made alive to me this year is Colossians 3:3: "For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God."
Psalms 94:12 says, "Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord, and whom you teach out of Your law; that you may grant him relief from the days of adversity, until a pit is dug for the wicked." Something is going to be dug up here… either the secrets of your heart, or a pit for your feet. Which will it be? God's living word digs deep into your soul. Like a power shovel, it excavates the jobsite. You are God's building project and site preparation of the soil is underway. Strongholds of habitual wrong thinking and snares of unhealthy emotional reactions are being destroyed. Can you feel it?
Maybe you thought everything was falling apart in your life. Maybe you wondered why pressures against you kept increasing. Maybe you felt like your faith had quit working and God had stopped blessing you. Not at all! He is working deeper than you realized.
It is a blessing for your Master to dig into your life and begin removing the stones of offense from your heart and from your mind. These hard stones of offense are what bruise the people whom you love when they try to get close to you. They make you stumble and doubt yourself when the path ahead of you should be smooth. They weigh you down and keep you from running your race with joy. They are hurled from your hand (by words from your mouth) to strike those who anger you. They bend your back with their load when you should be standing straight, holy before God in full acceptance and confidence.
God goes after everything in our heart that contradicts the image of Christ, or interferes with our intimacy with Father's love, or feeds a failure syndrome of fear and rejection. Allow the Lord to probe deeper. Don't despair when He uncovers heart issues that - if not dealt with ruthlessly, quickly, and thoroughly - would only prevent you from ever partaking of the fullness of life in Jesus. Deconstruction of bitter strongholds is evidence that the Master Architect, Jesus, is reconstructing your life in His image for His kingdom's sake.
© 2003 Touched by Grace Inc. P. O. Box 12749 Wilmington, NC 28405 USA
