{"id":15618,"date":"2025-04-24T17:50:39","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T22:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/?p=15618"},"modified":"2025-04-26T17:53:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T22:53:40","slug":"a-matter-of-the-heart-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/15618\/a-matter-of-the-heart-4\/","title":{"rendered":"A matter of the heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

I was thinking about the love and the wisdom of God on King David, the Apostle Paul, and others in the Bible who were moved to pray and speak on the importance of one’s heart:<\/span>
\n\u2022 “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies” (Ps. 119:36)<\/span>
\n\u2022 “And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God” (2Thess. 3:5)<\/span>
\n\u2022 “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23)<\/span><\/p>\n

Many times, and just recently, you described how, in your youth, you were determined to follow any path in life except the path of holiness mapped out by your father, Preacher Clark. Yet, you ended up precisely on that path. You even had a friend who pointed out, “You became what you said you never would be!”<\/span><\/p>\n

The apostle Paul (Saul of Tarsus), as a young man seeking to imprison the disciples of Christ, never thought he would one day be a disciple, and even an apostle, of Christ himself.\u00a0 We know from Paul’s writings that he was CERTAIN that would never happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some saints who have left their walk with Jesus after many decades, who now openly speak against the truth they once thought they loved, would have assuredly said they would never be in the sin and false doctrine they now support.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it goes both ways.\u00a0 Some think they would never serve the Lord, but end up the most faithful believers in Christ.\u00a0 Others think they would never go back into sin or support false doctrine after experiencing the truth and the goodness of God, but end up in the worst condition.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is just as you have said, it is all “A matter of the heart.”\u00a0 Where our heart is, we shall one day be – it is guaranteed if the Lord allows us to live on this earth long enough to see it through.<\/span>
\nIt makes me fall on my knees and ask God to incline my heart fully toward him.\u00a0 I am going to follow my heart.\u00a0 We all are.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jerry<\/span><\/p>\n

Comments welcome:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/WitnessofSpirit\/status\/1916264251003490725<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastor John, I was thinking about the love and the wisdom of God on King David, the Apostle Paul, and others in the Bible who were moved to pray and speak on the importance of one’s heart: \u2022 “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies” (Ps. 119:36) \u2022 “And the Lord direct your hearts into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15618"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15620,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15618\/revisions\/15620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}