His Heart Lied.

I'm reading, "So We Believe, So We Pray," by George Arthur Butterick. It is a wonderful  book about the Lord's Prayer. In chapter 15, The Prayer for the Deliverance from Evil," Butterick cites a short poem by Hilaire Belloc.

The False Heart

I said to Heart, "How goes it?"  Heart replied:
Right as a Ribstone Pippin!" But it lied.

A Ribstone Pippin is a kind of apple. So his heart was saying all was well with him. But it lied. I wondered why Belloc wrote this poem, so I searched online and found the true story behind the poem.

In the early 1800s, a priest named Thomas Poschl was sent to a small village in Austria. He had gotten in trouble for fanaticism, so they sent him away to be the assistant parish priest. While there, he met Magdalena Sickinger, who told him about her visions from God. They founded a sect called, "The Pure and Innocent."

Their aim was to cleanse the villagers of their sins and destroy all non-believers. They also wanted to depose the Pope. Thomas Poschl was arrested and imprisoned for the rest of his life. But after he left, his followers became even more fanatic. They committed the great sin of human sacrifice. The National Guard was called and freed the people from their persecutors. They went to trial and were found to be of unsound mind and acquitted. Magdalena renounced her visions.

So, Belloc's poem was about how deceitful our hearts can be. We can think we are doing good works, when we are doing evil. We can imagine we are holy, when we are doing Satan's bidding.
The Bible says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"  Jeremiah 17:9

Butterick writes we are helpless without God, and therefore we are to pray, "Bring us not into  temptation, but deliver us from evil."

We cannot change our hearts. We cannot even know if our thoughts are evil. As Jesus said, "Without me, you can do nothing." I think he meant we can do nothing good, not one good thing, without him. It just isn't possible, for all good things come from God. 

This is a serious issue, whether our hearts are lying. The only way to be saved from this is to ask God to show us where we are going wrong. Ask him to search our hearts and save us from ourselves and the power of the evil one. I know he will do this for us.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way."  Psalm 139:24

God is Everywhere.

Who is God?

Someone who can be everywhere.

"Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

      for darkness is as light to you." 
      Psa.139:7-12

I was reading a sermon by, A.W. Tozer tonight and it was so beautiful. I've never heard of this man before, but the sermons are on Bible Hub, which I follow. Here is just a paragraph from the sermon.

"What does the divine immanence mean in direct Christian experience? It means simply that God is here. Wherever we are, God is here. There is no place, there can be no place, where He is not. 
Ten million intelligences standing at as many points in space and separated by incomprehensible distances can each one say with equal truth, God is here. No point is nearer to God than any other point. It is exactly as near to God from any place as it is from any other place. No one is in mere distance any further from or any nearer to God than any other person is."
http://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/tozer/the_universal_presence.htm


A.W. Tozer

Hailing from a tiny farming community in western La Jose, Pennsylvania, his conversion was as a teenager in Akron, Ohio. While on his way home from work at a tire company, he overheard a street preacher say "If you don't know how to be saved... just call on God, saying, 'Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.'" Upon returning home, he climbed into the attic and heeded the preacher’s advice...

Among the more than 60 books that bear his name, most of which were compiled after his death from sermons he preached and articles he wrote, at least two are regarded as Christian classics: The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy. Many of his books impress on the reader the possibility and necessity for a deeper relationship with God.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._W._Tozer

Who am I?
Someone who is happy to have God by her side and in her heart. 

God Knows All About You and Still Likes You.

Who am I?

Well, someone who didn't really finish the last post. I forgot to write how the appointment with my mother's doctor went. She said my mother needs scans and x-rays so we will be waiting for those tests to be done.

Mom is over the flu, thank God, but has a slight nausea every day now. No matter what we do it won't go away. But she is eating and drinking better, and I pray God will help her through this hard time of waiting.

I am all over the flu now too. I'm still not smoking, and by God's grace won't start again.

One other thing I learned through this illness. Previously, I had been feeling sorry for myself  (big surprise) because of my fibromyalgia. But after not being able to get out of bed for days, I'm so thankful for the relative good health that I do have!  I mean, I knew things could be worse; everyone knows that. But experiencing "worse" and then going back to your own type of normal is a big deal. It makes you feel grateful.

Who is God?

Someone who helped Mom and I get to the doctor. Someone Mom and I pray to together. Someone to turn to when the way is hard (or easy). Someone who comforts the sick.  Someone I trust my life to and the lives of my family. Someone who knows us better than we know ourselves. Someone who is my strength, my spirit and my song.

"You have searched me, Lord,

and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

you, Lord, know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, God!

How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them,

they would outnumber the grains of sand—

when I awake, I am still with you."

Psalm 139:1-18