August 18th

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Ezekiel 10-13.

Scripture
I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. Ezekiel 11:19-20

Observation
True conversion, brought about solely by the grace of God, results in obedience out of love for God.

Application
An undivided heart refers to the desires of our souls. It is human (sinful) for our hearts to be focused on many different gods (be they tangible idols, or intangible ones such as money and power). An undivided heart would be a heart that is focused on serving God alone.

A heart of stone obviously does not refer to our physical hearts as we would be dead if we actually had hearts of stone. And that is the exact spiritual application. Without God we are spiritually dead.

In his sermon The Heart Transplant, Ben Edgington says....
We do not love him, we do not believe him, we do not trust him, we do not delight in him, we do not obey him. As far as God is concerned, our inner beings are as responsive as rocks.

This is the way we are born. Not one of us was born with a heart that is alive to God. Ever since the Fall, we have inherited a defect that has left us with a heart problem; a heart made of stone; an inner being that is dead towards God.

The prophet Jeremiah, a contemporary of Ezekiel's, says, The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Our heart condition cannot be cured. We cannot make ourselves alive to God. We cannot make our cold, stone, lifeless hearts beat with warmth towards God any more than we can take a rock and make it live.

I really like the analogy Ben uses in his sermon. Our heart of stone is the diagnosis, the treatment is a heart transplant, the only doctor that can perform that surgery is God himself, and the donor for the heart transplant is Jesus Christ.

Similar scriptural passages promise the same thing....

For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness. Ezekiel 36:24-29a

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17

This process of regeneration can only be performed by God himself, but we need to be willing patients for this surgery. And we will be able to tell if the surgery was truly successful by our post-operative behaviour.

Prayer
Lord, thank you for being the surgeon that can replace our hearts of stone with a heart of flesh. Jesus, we thank you for being the donor for us. The condition of our hearts was incurable and impossible from a human standpoint. Only your perfect sacrifice and the miraculous work you perform in our hearts and lives can result in our lives being transformed. Thank you for your mercy and grace. Help us to live our lives in obedience, dedication, devotion and love for you alone. Amen.

Tomorrow's passage: Ezekiel 14-16