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The simple things are sometimes the most difficult.  A right heart is a simple thing.  Children can have it.  In fact, often they have better hearts than we adults.  I wrestle with having a right heart.  This section on heart attitudes has been the most difficult to write.  I have found it hard to write about a godly heart when my own heart struggles so.  How do you write about authority when you sin?  How do you tell people to enjoy God when you are so busy with other things?  I have been unable to write these chapters on heart…

Over the past months, we have discussed different aspects of a right heart:  peace, joy, humility, submission to authority, confidence in God, the fear of God, simplicity, and  more.  Because each discussion focuses on only one characteristic, we might think that these characteristics are somehow separated from each other as the stripes on a zebra are.  Such thinking would be a mistake.  The heart is a holistic thing. Its attitudes are the sounds of a symphony. They do not exist in isolation but interact together to create a concerto of the soul. Consequently, one of the best ways to tell…

The following letter was originally posted on Jul 2, 2015. My Dear International Friends:   I have gotten to know many of you over the years and am grateful to God that I know you.  Your presence in my life has greatly enriched it.   As you know, this past week the U.S. Supreme Court declared that people of the same sex may legally marry.  This decision will reverberate across American culture and eventually affect your cultures as well.  America exports more than just grain and goods. I want to talk briefly about this decision and do so from a Biblical…

Sincerity is a wonderful thing.  But sincerity by itself is empty. All sincere people are always sincere about something. I have seen Mormons who were sincere about their Mormonism and communists who were sincere about their communism. I have seen sincere environmentalists blow up ships and sincere Muslims blow up buildings. Many Republicans and Democrats are sincere about their politics, but their sincerity causes them to push for opposing policies.  For all I know, Hitler himself was quite sincere about Nazism. This should challenge the rabidly popular notion that sincerity is what makes a heart right. You’ve heard the idea….

Open the eyes of my heart to see that You, O God, are the source of all good things and fill me with gratitude for Your kindness.   The heart that sees God sees that we owe everything to Him.  The heart that sees God sees that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights (Jas 1:17).  The heart that sees God is constantly grateful.  It is grateful for simple things like a cup of tea.  It is grateful for weightier things like children, which are a gift from God (Ps 127:3).  It is grateful for…