In Seclusion

I am away writing this week, trying to finish a new resource I've been working on for some time. When I find myself at a near deadline, I've found that getting alone somewhere and doing nothing but write day and night usually works well for me. I do nothing but write, sleep, eat with no set schedule. I write until I'm sleepy then sleep. Sometimes I'm sleeping at eleven in the morning, but writing at three in the morning. I don't see or talk to anybody. I call it "being in the vortex." I suppose it's a strange way to do it, but it works for me at times like this when I really need to finish.

The book is called Journey Into Intimacy and will be an interactive workbook, like The Grace Walk Experience. I'm already scheduled to promote it on a national TV station in the fall, so to say I'm motivated to get it finished would be an understatement!

Here's an excerpt from what I've written this week:

Don't be deceived by faulty teaching you may have heard about your own heart. I used to believe that my heart was evil and that, by Christ's help, I had to constantly battle against the wicked desires of my heart. I had read a Bible verse many times that caused me to believe that was the case. You probably know the text too. A misunderstanding of this verse has caused a lot of trouble for a lot of people. Without looking it up, fill in the words I leave out of the verse below.

"The heart is ______________ above all things and is desperately ____________."

You may have heard this verse, taken from Jeremiah 17:9, taught many times. The problem is that many of us heard it taught without "rightly dividing the Word" (see 2 Timothy 2:15). Some have inaccurately handled God's Word by trying to apply that passage to you, a New Testament Christian.

To rightly understand God's Word, we have to put verses we study into their proper context. In this case, to do that will make a huge difference in what you believe about the meaning of Jeremiah 17:9. Consider the following points about the verse and how it relates to your heart:


1. Is the verse in the Old Testament or the New Testament? _________
Don't underestimate the importance of where the verse is located. While it is true that everything in the Bible is written for us, not every verse there is written directly to us. Even the most stubborn legalist will admit this point. Nobody would argue that we should stone rebellious children, although the Old Testament says to do it. (See Deuteronomy 21:18-21) Nobody would suggest that we slaughter and sacrifice animals today, as the law in Leviticus teaches. There is much in the Old Testament that we don't apply to ourselves precisely because it is in the Old Testament. That is the case with Jeremiah 17:9.

2. Read what God told these old covenant believers in Jeremiah 31:31-34 and in Ezekiel 36:26. In the Jeremiah passage, circle the words "I will" each time you see it. (It is there seven times in the New American Standard Version of the Bible.) God said in Jeremiah 31:33 that a day would come when He would write His Law ___ ______ ___________.

Do you see the promise of God through Jeremiah to these Old Testament saints that "days are coming" when He was going to change everything by establishing a new covenant with them?

Look at Ezekiel 36:26 and fill in the blanks:

"Moreover, I will give you a _____ heart and put a _____ spirit within you; and I will ___________ the heart of stone from your flesh and ______ _______ a heart of flesh" (a tender heart).

Read the surrounding verses in the Ezekiel passage, verses 24-31. Count the number of times God says, "I will" in that passage. Notice how He points out that what the people will do is a result of what He does. He is saying to them, "A time will come when you obey me because it is in your heart to do so. I'm going to give you a new heart so that you obey me because of desire, not because you have to do it so that you can keep me happy."

3. Under the old covenant, people had deceitful hearts that were wicked, but you don't live under the old covenant. You live within the benefits of the new covenant. Don't think that Ezekiel 36:26 was given only to the Jews. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:9 that those of us who are believers have received the same blessing.

In Hebrews 8, the Bible quotes the passage from Jeremiah, and then makes an important point in verse thirteen:

"When He said, 'A new covenant' He has made the first obsolete.
But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear."

Has the new covenant been established? ______ This verse says that, because of the new covenant, the old covenant has become ____________. It has disappeared.

Has God fulfilled His promise to give a new heart to His saints when the new covenant became effective? ______

Are you one of His saints? ______

Do you now have a new heart? _______

If you want to experience deep intimacy with your Father, you must understand and believe this. Your heart isn't wicked and dirty anymore. He has given you a new heart.