--- On Mon, 7/27/09, Jonathan Fru <jonathan_light2000@yahoo.com> wrote:
You remind me about this article I wrote in December, 2007 for friends.I had to look for it after reading your email and realized your increasing soft and kind heart toward people. This article is certainly not about you because you already have a changed heart but it will help you to appreciate yourself more in relation with the weird things people do in life against others. May be it could also challenge your faith in God, right?
Change my heart oh God December 28, 2007
“Change my heart, O God, make it ever true
Change my heart, O God, may I be like you
You are the Potter, I am the clay;
Mold me and make me, this is what I pray
Change my heart, O God, make it ever true
Change my heart, O God, may I be like you” Eddie Espinosa
The changed or transformed Heart is the kindhearted you
Let me reflect over these words expressed in this song. This song is about change of heart. Some hearts are hard and infertile while others are soft and fertile. Our hearts can become the soil on, which all types of seeds are planted. The human heart is often described as the soil in the parable of the sower but it can also be turned into a battlefield by external forces. So, close your eyes and take a silent moment and think about what is in your heart about life and your relationship with your fellow human being? If you’ll like to understand the metaphor of the Parable of the sower then read Mathew 13:1-23
It seems many persons are victims and if we can all change our hearts and recognize the dignity of one another, the change of our hearts will be translated into the community in the way we connect with one another. Change is susceptible to a total revolution of our hearts from a previous state of heartlessness to a new one. Remember, we have not mentioned anything about our faculty of intellect and intelligence because many people in this world are intelligent but ironically they use their intelligence negatively. This is because their hearts have a different orientation distant from the spirit of truth, goodness and kindness for the common good. If we change our hearts and begin to take ownership of our problems, then what will happen is, God will guide us to embark on a new path to freedom. So, let us allow God to change our hearts. For this to happen, we have to know what is desirable and acceptable according to God's will for us. If you don't know God’s will for your life, stop for a minute and ask yourself what is your purpose and meaning on earth? I will be available to help you find your true purpose and meaning but also remember that there are many others like myself who are just around waiting to help you.
What strikes me about this song is the vivid portrayal of “us” like clay in the hands of a potter. God is the potter with the power to mold us and make us to be what we want to be for the good of humanity. That seems to suggest to me that we are fragile like clay and it is unreasonable for us to be against the common good, anyway. For how long are we going to be around, anyway? Don’t we have an obligation to leave this world better than we met it? God is the potter and if we submit ourselves to God’s will, then we shall find true peace and happiness in the world. Some people act as though they are the potter. No, mortal human beings shall never usurp the place of God on earth and beyond. We are the clay in the hands of a faithful, merciful, gracious and loving God who is willing to listen and help us to change our hearts if we, from time to time take ownership of our own short comings instead of blaming it all on others. By the same token, we also need to take responsibility for the failures of our fellow human beings if our actions are responsible. The blame game is supposed to be a two way traffic on the high way of a clean and clear conscience before a reasonable Judge, referee (advocate) or peacemaker.
We have to change or transform our hearts under different circumstances. For instance may be we have to change our hearts from thinking that other human beings are either superior or inferior to us. May be we need to change our hearts toward those we hate because of false witnesses we bear against them. We have to build a strong community of mutual interaction and mutual exchange of benefits. Life is more than “a bargain across the counter” to recall Hard Times by Charles Dickens. It goes beyond this and hinges on sharing and bearing one another’s burden. If we change our hearts and treat others the way they should be treated, we will realize a more loving and peaceful society. I pray that God will change your hearts to become the good soil today and forever especially in this coming year, 2008. I also pray that the seed that falls on your good hearts be good seeds, too because either way a good heart and good seed compliment each other. They thrive well and grow to produce good fruits.
As C.H. Spurgeon concludes in his kind words on the Parable of the Sower, he writes. “I now close with the last character, namely, the GOOD GROUND. Of the good soil, as you will mark, we have but one in four. Will one in four of our hearers, with well-prepared heart, receive the Word? The ground is described as "good": not that it was good by nature, but it had been made good by grace. God had ploughed it; he had stirred it up with the plough of conviction, and there it lay in ridge and furrow as it should lie. When the gospel was preached, the heart received it, for the man said, "That is just the blessing I want. Mercy is what a needy sinner requires." So that the preaching of the gospel was THE thing to give comfort to this disturbed and ploughed soil. Down fell the seed to take good root. In some cases it produced fervency of love, largeness of heart, devotedness of purpose of a noble kind, like seed which produces a hundredfold. The man became a mighty servant for God, he spent himself and was spent. He took his place in the vanguard of Christ's army, stood in the hottest of the battle, and did deeds of daring which few could accomplish—the seed produced a hundredfold. It fell into another heart of like character;—the man could not do the most, but still he did much. He gave himself to God, and in his business he had a word to say for his Lord; in his daily walk he quietly adorned the doctrine of God his Saviour,—he brought forth sixty-fold. Then it fell on another, whose abilities and talents were but small; he could not be a star, but he would be a glow-worm; he could not do as the greatest, but he was content to do something, however humble. The seed had brought forth in him tenfold, perhaps twentyfold. How many are there of this sort here?”
Peace on earth. Happy New year, 2008
|
No comments:
Post a Comment