Change My Heart, Oh Lord / わが心を変えて下さい、わが主よ

Join me in prayer:  Psalm 139:23-24 ²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

詩編 139:23-24 神よ、わたしを究め／わたしの心を知ってください。わたしを試し、悩みを知ってください。御覧ください／わたしの内に迷いの道があるかどうかを。どうか、わたしを／とこしえの道に導いてください。

Change my heart, oh Lord. 

Hebrews 11:6  And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. ヘブライ人への手紙 / 11章 6節
信仰がなければ、神に喜ばれることはできません。神に近づく者は、神が存在しておられること、また、神は御自分を求める者たちに報いてくださる方であることを、信じていなければならないからです

Isaiah 53:2  He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.  イザヤ書53:2 乾いた地に埋もれた根から生え出た若枝のように／この人は主の前に育った。見るべき面影はなく／輝かしい風格も、好ましい容姿もない

But, God has placed a desire for Himself in every person. We are miserable when we fight this!
"You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you" (St. Augustine).

It is my Christian duty to be changed to be more like Jesus.  This will entail a number of adjustments and changes in how I live and how I think.  These adjustments are the Work of the Spirit of God in me.  I need to be tuned to His heart sound.

When a piano tuner sets up to do his craft, he has with him a number of tools that are very special for the job.  His tools and training goes with him, as does his inner ear to hear the right pitch and vibration.

Piano tuning is the act of making minute adjustments to the tensions of the strings of a piano to properly align the intervals between their tones so that the instrument is in tune. The meaning of the term in tune is not simply a particular fixed set of pitches. Fine piano tuning requires an assessment of the interaction among notes, which is different for every piano, thus in practice requiring slightly different pitches from any theoretical standard. Pianos are usually tuned to a modified version of the system called equal temperament. In all systems of tuning, every pitch may be derived from its relationship to a chosen fixed pitch.

Don’t you agree that we, too, need to be brought to a Divine Equal Temperament so that the sound of our lives reflect and mimic the sounds and action of our Creator? Create in me a clean heart, Lord.

 Such it was for my old friend, Franz Mohr, who I had the great honor of meeting and becoming his friend back in 1973 while on Long Island, NY. Franz was and is a Master Piano Technician with Steinway Pianos of NYC.  ($36,995.00 and up ¥2,971,382 +.)

He would be armed with a tool that is priced at $14.95 (¥1,200) and its weight is only 1.25 pounds (.566Kil) and is 12” long (30.48 centimeter), he will make adjustments to the piano that will make that piano brilliant.  Great piano masters would NOT play their concert piano unless Franz Mohr had tuned it.

Here is his story:

He was 16 when his village in Germany was completely wiped out by American B-17s. He put his hand over his mother's mouth to keep her from praying. He told her there was no God.

Years later he was in a Bible study to argue, but the leader was filled with so much love Mohr didn't know how to counter it with hate. The leader gave him a Bible and wrote his address inside, telling Mohr that one-day he would write to say that he'd given his life to the Lord.

The Bible sat on his shelf for many years, but one day he opened it and started reading.

By the time he read through Matthew he was ready to give his life to the Lord, but he didn't know how to pray, because all the prayers of his youth were written, and none of them fit. He remembered the thief on the cross and called out to Jesus: "Remember me!" Franz said, "The Lord changed my heart from a heart of hate to a heart of love.”  He was fine tuned by the Master and He wants to do that with all of us today…but only a few will allow that to happen.

As it is with pianos, it is with our own hearts… To please the Master who made us is to make music with our lives that sounds like His own music, we will need to be retuned—from time to time.  We will need to get to that place of allowing the Holy One to change us.  Change our hearts, oh Lord.  Make it ever Yours.  Melt me, mold me, and change me, so that I can sound like You in all I do. To be pure inside. And to be pure inside means that our sins have been forgiven. And this equals a changed life!

This sounds like a very hard experience to go through.  Let there be no mistake, that kind of desire goes against everything in our natural self.  We are all self-possessed.  We have become very satisfied with how we live, move and act. We are very comfortable just the way we are.  But some of us become unsatisfied with that state of being and we want more. More of Him. More of His Spirit.  More of His Love—and at that point, we become dangerous.

We are told to shut up as those around Bartimaes told him.  Be quite!  Don’t make waves.  Let life go on as it has and be happy.

But some of us are not happy.  We long for a change. We long for a retuning of our heartstrings so that His fingers can play us and make a sweet sound of our lives.  It is called being sold out to God.  It is called total surrender. It is called the deeper Christian Life. 

The Word of God has many references to this kind of move into the unusual.  Would you join me as we look at some of these dangerous verses from His Score Book? One is found in James.

James 1:19-21  My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save.

You are changed now: you are not the same--not the same old same!

This closeness is something that the Father desires of us.  We are not alone. He is on our side!  And we will need to be aware of certain tag words that will begin to draw us to Him, like:

*ABIDING PRAYER   *BE STILL       *CENTERING ON CHRIST              *HEART FOR GOD *INTIMACY WITH JESUS  *LISTENING TO GOD  *PRACTICING GOD’S PRESENCE  *SOUL CARE. (Our duty!)

The outcome would sound like this:  

"Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him…" (Psalm 37:5-7a, NIV). 詩編 / 37:5-7a あなたの道を主にまかせよ。信頼せよ、主は計らい 6 あなたの正しさを光のように／あなたのための裁きを／真昼の光のように輝かせてくださる。7 沈黙して主に向かい、主を待ち焦がれよ。

 An active faith-not auto!

Otherwise, we would have what Paul wrote to young Timothy in:

 2 Timothy 3:2-4 (or in Romans 1:30) ² People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴ treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— テモテへの手紙二3:2-4 そのとき、人々は自分自身を愛し、金銭を愛し、ほらを吹き、高慢になり、神をあざけり、両親に従わず、恩を知らず、神を畏れなくなります。3 また、情けを知らず、和解せず、中傷し、節度がなく、残忍になり、善を好まず、4 人を裏切り、軽率になり、思い上がり、神よりも快楽を愛し、

That is not how God made us. It is NOT the why He made us!  We are to bring glory back to Him!

Our delight must be first in the Lord. It must be THE top priority in our lives. Each follower of Jesus needs to cultivate a deepening living, growing relationship with the Lord—without living off other people's spiritual lives. Your devotion must be yours. We can use other’s ‘stories’ to help us but it must—in the end—be your story. That requires slowing down. Structuring your whole life in such a way that Christ really becomes your Center. It is important to attend worship services to be in fellowship with fellow travelers but that cannot take the place of a personal worship time.  If each of us only depends on what they get during this one and one half hour to ‘make a good spiritual tune’, we would soon sound like an out of tune instrument.  And we might sound like that right now! Our delight, therefore, needs to come from more than one source, (except the one source being the Holy Spirit Himself.)  Another would be personal Bible reading, Prayer, witnessing, sharing and spreading the Gospel to others.

That in turn will bring about a healthy spirituality that is also emotionally mature.  They go hand in hand.  It just is not possible for someone to be a spiritual mature person while they remain emotionally immature.  To be emotionally immature lacks the evidence of Godly love.  So, if you are critical, defensive or self-justifying, touchy or quick-tempered, unapproachable, stingy and ungenerous, a lover of money or insecure—in any degree—these would be telltale signs of someone who is emotional immature—than that person just could not be spiritually mature.  And to be spiritually mature that is what we are called to be!

It does not matter how ‘anointed’ the person is or how much Bible they know, the one true mark of a mature Believer is having the essential mark of having Christ’ kind of LOVE be at the center. As in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church says: For if you do not have Love, you are nothing.  Other verses:

Psalm 22:26 The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise Him— may your hearts live forever! Are you praising Him?
Psalm 34:10 The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Are you seeking Him?

Proverbs 28:5 Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it fully.  Do you understand it fully?

Acts 15:17 that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bare My name, says the Lord, who does these things.

Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until He comes and showers righteousness on you.

Again, we return to a familiar verse: Ecclesiastes 12:13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Micah 6:8  He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. ミカ書6:8  人よ、何が善であり／主が何をお前に求めておられるかは／お前に告げられている。正義を行い、慈しみを愛し／へりくだって神と共に歩むこと、これである。

Or from Isaiah 61:8 For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them.  Are you in that kind of a covenant with Him? イザヤ書61:8 主なるわたしは正義を愛し、献げ物の強奪を憎む。まことをもって彼らの労苦に報い／とこしえの契約を彼らと結ぶ

To hear His Heart, one needs to be tuned by His Spirit. Franz tuned a very good piano to make it sound even better.  It isn’t that we are evil, it might be that we need to choose the better rather than the good.  To be tuned by His Spirit, we will then begin to hear His Heart on injustices, to see the pain of the downtrodden, to care for those who are being taken advantage of, to seek justice for those who have been wronged.  In this way, we would reflect His heart.

You can see, that if you are truly delighting in Him, trusting in Him, committing your way to Him, and waiting on Him, yes, He will give you the desires of your heart. Scripture tells us He will. But God's timing may not be your timing.

Does God give you the desires of your heart? Yes, and even more. It may be different plans or desires than you ever thought you wanted. We will need to learn to trust Him fully.  It will take time but He has time to work with you.  Press on.  Don't give in to the cries around us to remain the same as they are.  He has extraordinary plans when you simply put Him first in your life.

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen" (Ephesians 3:20~21, NASB). エフェソの信徒への手紙3:20-21 わたしたちの内に働く御力によって、わたしたちが求めたり、思ったりすることすべてを、はるかに超えてかなえることのおできになる方に、21 教会により、また、キリスト・イエスによって、栄光が世々限りなくありますように、アーメン。

Here is a prayer for such a heart tuning.  First, read it with me. Think on it and then—after the ICCS Black Gospel Choir sings, read it as your prayer—if you so dare.

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, superficial relationships, so that you will live deep within your heart.   May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people so that you will work for justice, equality and peace.

 あなたが不正、抑圧、そして搾取に対する怒りに、神が恵みをもって臨まれ、あなたが正義、公正そして平和のために働くように。

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them and change their pain into joy.  And may God bless you with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in the world, so that you will do the things which others tell you cannot be done. 世にあってあなたが力を発揮できると考えるような愚かなことも、神が恵みをもって臨まれ、他（ほか）の人が不可能とあなたに言っていることを成し遂げるように。

May it be so!