KINSEY from page 12 with the power to do what God asks them to do. Another reason why lives of Chris tians are different is because Chris tians have special guidance from God’s Word, the Bible. He promises us that He “will instruct us and teach us iti the way which we shall go.” He promises to guide us with
IN CHRIST IS LIFE 1
What Kind of a Heart Do You Have? I once heard a minister preach on the subject What kind of a heart do you have? It was based on what Christ said about the human heart in the fourth chapter of Mark. Since we humans have been created with the ability of choice we can have a variety of heart attitudes. For example when we hear an appeal to give to the Red Cross we can open our heart to the appeal or close our heart to the appeal. It’s as simple as that. It is choice not chance that determines the kind of heart we have. This is a wonderful truth. While we may be bound by our health, our background, our surround ings, we are never bound in our heart. When Christ was talking about the human heart he painted a word picture that’s strikingly vivid. He used a com parison with which all of his listeners were familiar. He said the heart is like a farmer’s field and the Word of God is like the giain the farmer scatters onto the ground. Here it is in His words: “And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and be cause it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.” Then to make His comparison doubly plain Christ ex plained His parable. And from His explanation we see four kinds of hearts. There’s the hard heart, the shallow heart, the crowded heart and the receptive heart. The hard heart hears the claims of Christ and immediately rejects them. The shal low heart considers Christ but rejects Him because the Chris tian way seems too difficult. The crowded heart has room for everything imaginable . . . except Christ and His forgiveness and His peace. And finally there is the receptive heart. This is the heart that reasons this way: “ I’ve tried everything else and I still don’t have peace. Life just doesn’t make sense for me. The more I seek for pleasure and meaning and complete ness the further away they seem. Jesus Christ, if You have the answer to life’s problems then I’m willing to believe on You. I’ve tried everything else now I’m asking You to come into my life.” That’s the receptive heart talking. It belongs to the person who isn’t afraid of testing a new idea. What kind of a heart do you have? Perhaps you’d like to make the experiment of testing Christ to see if He really does have the answer for your life. Remember you’ll never know unless you try Him. There is no situation, no problem, that is too difficult for Him. Give Him a chance to prove that In Christ Is Life. — L. H. If you have found in this short article a way of life that you would like, we urge you now— this very moment— to yield your will to His will and in doing so find that in Christ is Life. If you want to make a decision for Christ please write us. Your letter will be held in the strictest confidence. We'll send you without charge a special Gospel of John and other helps. Address: The Editors, King's Business, 558 S. Hope, Los Angeles 17, Calif. m m
d i p & Share How long has it been since you gave someone a gospel tract? Please don't let the column on the right die. Hand it or send it to some unsaved person today. May He richly bless your faith fulness.
His eye. If we have turned aside from the world and if we are looking into the face of God, He will guide us with His eye. This lesson I learned from my ten-month-old baby who had not yet started to talk. I asked her where her mother was, and al though she could not speak, she did lead me with her eyes over to her mother who was standing not far away. What a blessed experience it is to be a child of the heavenly Father, to look into His glorious face, and to have Him instruct and teach us and to guide us with His eye. Furthermore, God gives to His own, special understanding and wisdom. Like David we can say “ I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my medita tion” (Psa. 119:99). Our teachers may forget the law of God, and they may neglect meditation in the Scriptures. But if we heed the inspired Word of God, we may expect to have more understanding than our teachers who give themselves over to wisdom of the world. The boy or girl, or man or wom an who is trusting in Christ is also fellowshipping with other Christian believers. In other words, they are not ¿running around with the crowd where they are encouraged to engage in free love and other acts of sin. Instead, they have wholesome activi ties which bring happiness and in spiration. When God changes our hearts, He furnishes us with a desire to be with those who have had the same experience. No one but a Chris tian believer knows the joy of fel lowshipping with other believers. It satisfies the heart and it leaves no sorrow nor regret in the wake. God is constantly speaking to the hearts of devoted young men and women as well as to older adults. He asks us to flee fornication and youth- CONTINUED ►
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