I want to start a series of posts on a topic.  It is summed up by two questions.  The answers I am sure you know, but only in your head.  My pastor in California is fond of saying the phrase, “heart knowledge,” and I think that is the key to this whole issue.  We cannot live the life God has for us if we only know the answers in our heads and do not believe it in our hearts, down to the core of our being.

What is in your heart, at your core?  You can say and do things contrary to what you really are.  The Israelites were fond of saying they would serve God, however He made them wander.

And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. Deuteronomy 8:2

Solomon noted:

Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23

Our mind is important, but it is not the core of our being.  It is only the place where we process what comes in and goes out.  It is only a stopping point along the way down to the base of your being, your heart.  You can know things, and not believe them.  You can think things inconsistent with your beliefs.  You can even pretend to be something you are not.  None of that changes who you really are, and what you really believe.  Honestly, this is at the root of the whole problem with most of Christianity today, but the majority of that is beyond the scope of this series.

I was honored to give the Easter message at a local church here just outside of Nairobi.  I chose John 10:7-18.  Jesus states of His life, “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”  There were quite a few people raised from the dead in the Bible.  However, there was only One who had the power to take it again.  Praise Him!  He is risen!

Why did He die?  I hope you have an answer to that question.  But I believe it goes beyond the answer you probably have.  Jesus says in that same passage:

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

He did not die just that we might live again in the hereafter.  He died and rose so that we could live life abundantly.  Are you living the abundant life?  Are you more than a conqueror? Or has life got you down and you are just hanging on to the hope that eventually He will come back and save you from your life?  He saved us from sin for life, not to save us from life.  We should be living that way.

The key is that we need to live like we “heart know” the answers to these two questions.

The two simple questions are:
Is God able?
Does God love me?

I will follow up with some posts on those two questions.  Please think about them.  I bet you know the answer.  But do you “heart know” them.  Live like it…

Edit: The next in the series is “Je Mungu anaweza?“