A Determined Heart

Success

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist

2 Cor 6:2-11
Behold, now is "THE ACCEPTABLE TIME," behold, now is "THE DAY OF SALVATION" -giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things. Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. NASU

If you have read the scripture above you know that today I am talking about the terrible and hurtful things that happen to people that take the risk of stepping out of their worlds to help others. It is always inevitable that there will be a time that the hearts of those that take these risks will get stepped on, and it hurts doesn’t it.

As I sit here thinking of how it feels, it really feels like someone has laid your heart out in front of a huge circus elephant and he is balancing on it with one foot and trumpeting to the world his deed. It really, really does hurt, doesn’t it? The ultimate result of this hurt is that we feel as if we ever get our heart back we will never, ever, allow anyone, or anything, to do that to us again, we will mind “Our own business.

Then we read of Paul’s endurance and we are ashamed, ashamed that we have given up so easily. Sometimes we require a period of healing, but the ultimate truth is that we as Christians have to open that door to our heart again, we must not allow the god of this world to have victory over the downtrodden of this world who had no Savior to restore them, or to sustain them. They must see us pick that heart up and hold it up to Jesus for restoration, and then lay it back down for their good, just as Jesus laid down his life freely for us.

Does hurt happen in churches, sure it does, but the faithful keep keeping on, our commendation shall be seen in our strong endurance, our love for God in our determination to succeed when the rest of the world would run…God Bless

Pastor William