My Empty Heart

 My Empty Heart

 

Ephesians 3:16-17 I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. NIV

 When I taught in a Christian school, I often wore a heart-shaped locket. No pictures adorned its interior.

A second-grade girl noticed this jewelry and asked what was in the heart. I let her open it so she could see.

When she looked inside, she gave me a somber look and, with the wisdom that comes from young children, said, “It’s not good to have an empty heart.”

Later, I noticed she was concentrating on a project at her desk.

Between classes, my young student brought me a tiny paper heart with the name of Jesus written on it. She gave it to me as a gift so my heart wouldn’t be empty anymore.

It’s been many years, but I haven’t forgotten her words. “It’s not good to have an empty heart.”

How is your heart? Empty or full of Jesus?

A Letter from Jesus

My Aunt Barbara sent this to me in an email. It was so good that I had to repost it here.

A Letter From Jesus To You My Dear Child


My love, I love you. (John 15:9) I have called you by your name, you are
Mine. (Isaiah 43:1) Before I formed you, I knew you. And before you were
born, I consecrated you. (Jeremiah 1:5) You did not choose Me, I chose you.
(John 15:16) Beloved, I wish above all things that you prosper and be in
good health, even as your soul prospers.(3John 2) Because you are precious
to Me, and honored, I love you. (Isaiah 43:4) I have loved you with an
everlasting love and I will continue my constant love. (Jeremiah 31:3)

How can I abandon you? My love for you is too strong. (Hosea 11:8) I love
you so much that I hung on the cross at Calvary. I died for you, and if you
believe Me, you will have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Can a woman forget her own baby and not love the child she bore? Yes, even
should she forget, I will never forget you. I cannot forget you. I will hold
you in the palm of My hands.(Isaiah 41:13) I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS UNTIL THE
END OF THE WORLD. (Matthew 28:20)

Do not let your heart be troubled, trust in Me. (John14:1) I will help you
(Isaiah 41:14) When you pass through the deep waters, I will be with you.
Your troubles will not overwhelm you.

The hard trials that will come will not hurt you. (Isaiah 43:2) When you
walk through the valley of the shadows of death, do not be afraid because I
am with you. My rod and My staff will comfort you. I will lead you in the
path of righteousness. (Psalm 23) I will give you peace in the midst of a
storm, not as the world giveth.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27) Peace
I give which will pass all understanding and shall keep your heart and mind
(Philippians 4:7)

When you lie down do not be afraid, your sleep shall be sweet. (Proverbs
3:24)
My love for you will keep your dwelling safe. (Psalm 4:8)

Beloved, My eyes are upon you and I will give you hope, for I Am merciful.
(Psalm 33:18) You will have access to My grace and rejoice in hope while
sharing in the glory of My Father. (Romans 5:2)

I will give you joy and peace. The mountains and hills will sing, and the
trees will clasp their hands before you. (Isaiah 55:12) You may have sorrow
now, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice and no one will
take your joy from you. (John 16:22)

Do not worry.(Luke 12:9) Even the hairs on your head have all been counted,
so there is no need to be afraid of anything. (Matthew 10:30) The mountains
may depart and the hills will be shaken, but My steadfast love for you will
never end. (Isaiah 54:10)

Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest
(Matthew 11:28) Come, my love come. I will lead you into solitude and there
I will speak tenderly to your heart. I will be true and faithful. I will
show you constant love and make you Mine forever.

I will keep my promise, and you will really know Me then as never before. I
Am who I Am. (Exodus 3:14)

I Am the LORD, your God. (Hosea 13:4)

Your Faithful Friend, Jesus

P.S. I AM the same Yesterday, Today and Forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

How Jesus Became a Rabbi

Jesus earned the title of Rabbi. People - even high ranking people - also called Him Master. Those titles were not used lightly. They had to be EARNED.

In Jesus' day, fathers took seriously the command to train up a child in the way he should go (Proverbs 22:6) and to talk of them constantly to your children.

Deut. 6:6 "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8"You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.…

Fathers would teach their toddlers the whole book of Deuteronomy so they could recite it by the age of five. When the sons were five years old, the child would go to the local ruler of the synagogue and recite what he had learned. If he didn't know it well and stumbled through it, the son would begin to learn his father's trade. If the boy could recite Deuteronomy clearly and accurately, he would go to the next level of schooling.

By the time the boy reached his bar mitzvah, he was expected to know the rest of the Torah, all five books of Moses. During this test, the young man did not recite the whole Torah verbatim. The teachers would question him and he would be expected to know what part of the Torah applied and be able to recite that section truly. When Jesus stayed behind in the Temple when He was twelve, He was passing His test with such a level of understanding that He amazed the Temple teachers.

If, as Jesus did, a young man passed this stringent exam, he would go on to rabbi school. This lasted until the age of thirty. During these years, the scholars would study the histories of Israel, the wisdom and poetry, the prophets, the Talmud, and the writings of well-respected teachers.

At the age of thirty, these men were sent out to officiate in the synagogues as rabbis. But there was yet one more title possible.

If a scholar was observed by his teachers and fellow students to have "schmidah" (sp?), he could become a Master Teacher. This meant he was known to have the Spirit of God on him. He would need two witnesses who attested to this and would have a ritual baptism performed by a priest.

In Jesus' case, He went down to the Jordan River at the age of thirty. The baptism was performed by John the Baptist, the son of a priest. The two witnesses were the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and the Father's voice from heaven.

After this, Jesus was allowed to gather His own students and train them under His own authority. Even being the Word of God in the flesh, even having been the Creator of the world, even with His divinity thinly clad in flesh, Jesus still fulfilled every requirement to earn the right to teach people about God and heavenly things.

God bless us all,

Kathi Linz

My thanks to Perry Stone for sharing this information.

King Herod and the Wise Men

Matthew chapter 2 tells us about the star that led to wise men to Jesus and about King Herod's reaction to the news.

Consider this:
1. The star had to have been a divine message.
2. The wise men asked for the newborn KING.
3. Herod asked for information about the MESSIAH.

Taking those three points together, Herod knew about the Messiah - that He would be sent from God.

Now Herod was no stranger to "messiahs" in general.  There were a couple of them in his own lifetime, messiahs who were trying to rebel against the Romans.  Take the words of Gamaliel during the trial of the apostles immediately after Jesus rose into heaven.

Acts 5:35-39 (ESV) And [Gamaliel] said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!”

According to Gamaliel, Herod was dealing with a 'messiah' at the exact time that the wise men showed up asking about another one.  Maybe Herod was simply fed up with all of the local heroic types and he just wanted to nip this one in the bud.  But no other claimant had been heralded by a celestial sign and seekers from far countries. 

They came looking for a king, but Herod knew enough to ask where the Messiah would be born.  Herod didn't ask the news reporters and spies with which he had certainly surrounded himself.  He asked the scholars of Scripture.  Herod understood that this particular Messiah was the real thing.

And his first plan was to kill Him!

If Herod understood enough about the Scriptures to know about the true Messiah, I wonder if he understood the mission of Jesus.  Maybe not.  It seems like most of those well-versed in God's Word missed Jesus' first coming.  They too were looking for a King.

It's a wonderful thing that God knows how to protect His own and that His plans cannot be thwarted.  Otherwise, Jesus would not have seen His third birthday, and we would all be destined for hell. 

God bless us all.

Happy New Year.

Kathi Linz

The Order of Melchizedek

Melchizedek has always made me wonder.  How can someone have no mother and no father and yet still be human?  Here are some of the things I learned.

"Having no mother and no father" may have meant that the man was old to the point where no one knew his heritage.  Jewish tradition suggests that Melchizedek may have been Noah's son Shem.  Shem lived for a long time after the Flood, long enough for Abraham to have arrived in Canaan according to the timeline offered in Genesis.

Melchizedek was his title, not his name.  The title means "King of Righteousness". He is called "a priest of the Most High God".  His name is never mentioned.

Jesus is named a priest after the order of Melchizedek.  According to the Tabernacle/Temple priesthood, any priest had to be from the Levite tribe of the family of Aaron.  Jesus didn't belong to Aaron's family.  He came from the tribe of Judah.  He would have to be a different type of priest.  Melchizedek is the only other  type of priest approved in Scripture.

At the core of what I heard last week is the story about Jesus' baptism.

When an old high priest was about to die, he would name his oldest son to be the next high priest.  This son had to be at least 30 years old.  The son would bathe in the mikvah and dress in the priestly robes.  His head would be anointed with sacred oil.  He would go to his father's bedside (or wherever the ailing old man was) and his father would say, "This is my son.  I am pleased with him."  Then he would go out and fulfill his duties.

When Jesus went to the Jordan River to be baptized, He did not do it because He needed His sins to be washed away.  He had no sin. 

Let's compare Jesus' baptism with the account of preparing a new high priest.  When Jesus was 30 years old, He went into the water like the priest going to the mikvah.  When He came out of the water, the Holy Spirit came down on Him like the anointing oil.  Jesus received the Spirit to empower Him for the ministry He was about to begin.  And the Father's voice came from heaven saying, "This is My Son.  I am pleased with Him."

Jesus came up out of the river with God's stamp of approval on His ministry - a priest after the order of Melchizedek, King of Righteousness.  (Gen. 14, Ps. 110:4, Hebrews 5:8-10)

May God bless us all.

Kathi

Learning from a Student

Some time back, I had a girl named Chanta in my class.  Since we both changed grades, I had her in my class for several years. 

Chanta was somewhat dyslexic.  This affected her spelling and math skills more than anything else.  You could just tell that she was very smart when she spoke, but her written skills suffered - and so did she.  She would study hard.  Given her spelling tests out loud, she could spell with no trouble at all.  Doing it on paper, all of the letter would be present, but not in the right order.  I hated to mark them wrong as I knew the effort Chanta put into getting them right.  It was simply beyond her.

One time during her second grade year, Chanta was having trouble with her adding and subtracting.  Often her subtraction problems would have answers larger than either of the numbers being subtracted. 

I sat down with her and said, "Let's say you have eight M&M's, and you give three of them to your brother..."

"Oh, I would never do that!"

"Well, let's say that you did.  Would you have more afterwards than you did to start with?"

Her answer: "Yes, I would.  God would give me more."

How do you argue with that?  My exact thought was, "Her checkbook will never be balanced, but she'll never run out of money."

I used to frequently wear a small locket that was a gift from my mother.  This same girl still in the second grade noticed that I liked to wear it and once asked me whose picture was inside.  I opened it and showed her that there were no pictures in my locket.

Chanta looked up at me with an amazing depth of wisdom in her young eyes and said, "Miss Eickstadt, it's not good to have an empty heart."

She went and sat down and got busy at her desk.  I didn't notice what she was working on until a few minutes later when she came back to me and offered me a tiny, tiny heart cut out of notebook paper.  It was angular and inperfect with the word "Jesus" written on it in uneven second grade handwriting.  She meant for me to put the heart inside my locket.  I did.

A couple of years later, I showed her that I still had the heart in my locket.  Chanta seemed embarrassed to see the roughness of her work.  She offered to make me a new one that would look better. 

I turned down her offer.  I told her, "There's no way you can top this one.  I'm never going to get rid of it."

To this day, that small gift of love is still in my locket.  She was right - it's not good to have an empty heart.

May God bless us,

Kathi

Inspired by Greatness

This morning I found this Scripture being quoted by one of my friends on facebook:

"Let them praise the name of the Lord for His name alone is exalted; His splendor is above the earth and the heavens. He has raised up for His people a horn, the praise of all His saints." Psalm 148:13-14

It reminded me of one other verse that always leaves me breathless when I consider it.  Isaiah 40:12a says: "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?" 

If you stretch out the fingers of your hand as far as they will go and measure from the end of your thumb to the end of your little finger, that is the span or breadth of your hand. 

God holds the universe in the span of His hand.  Just think about THAT for a minute and see if your perspective on God doesn't change for the larger.

Psalm 8 goes on to add:

3When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

4what is man that you are mindful of him,

the son of man that you care for him?

How God could even find us in such a vast expanse is incredible!  That He would be willing to come down to be with us is even more amazing. 

We see this skit in church every so often.  I'm going to add the link to it so you can enjoy it too. 

http://www.sermonspice.com/product/38133/the-birdcage

God bless us all,

Kathi

Jesus' First and Second Coming

Over the last number of Sunday school classes, I have been tracing Jesus' family from Adam and Eve through Abraham and David's family.  We've finally arrived at Jesus' first coming.

Yesterday, I went through the prophecies in the Old Testament that are so familiar even to people who only show up for church on Christmas.

Jesus would:

crush the serpent's head  Gen 3:15
be a blessing to the whole world    Gen 18:18
be born of a virgin  Is 7:14
be born in Bethlehem   Micah 5:2
go to Egypt for a time  Hosea 11:1
be raised in the Galilee  Is 9:1-2
be betrayed by a friend Ps 41:9
be sold for thirty pieces of silver Zec 11:12
      which would be returned and used to purchase the potter's field   Zec 11:13
suffer for us   Ps 22   Is 53
die for us      Ps 22    Is 53
die among evil people   Is 53:12
be buried in a rich man's tomb    Is 53:9
be raised from the dead.       Ps 16:10

I've heard it used as an argument that Jesus fulfilled all of the prophecies about the Messiah on purpose so that He would look like a messiah to anyone who was paying attention.

Please note how many of these prophecies would have been completely beyond His control if he were an ordinary human.  No one picks their parents.  No one chooses their place of birth or where they live before they reach a viable age to live on their own.  No one willingly arranges to be crucified.  While we can pick a cemetery plot today, and it was even done back in Jesus' day what with family tombs and all, Jesus was nowhere near His family's usual place of interment if they had one.  He did not have a say in where He was buried.  No ordinary human decides to raise from the dead three days after they are put in a tomb.

There is a vivid description of crucifixion in Psalm 22 which was written hundreds of years before that particular form of torture was invented.  The same psalm says that Jesus' clothes would be divided by gambling. 

Therefore, since Jesus fulfilled every prophecy about His first coming, He will certainly fulfill every one of the prophecies about His second coming. 

The last few lines in the Bible say:

"I am coming soon."

To which the heartfelt response is:

"Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."

God bless us all,

Kathi