Extreme Makeover - Heart Edition

By: Carl Holland
Carl's Words of Inspiration

Heart transplant surgery, though still a very serious operation, seems almost routine with today's medical technology. Many people claim to feel like they have much more energy and can breathe better after receiving a new heart. Sort of a "renewed life" you might say. That's what it's like when we come to God and let the Holy Spirit work inside us. Before a heart transplant is even considered, it must be determined that there is a problem with the heart to begin with. You may be physically healthy without a heart disease, but you still have to contend with "heart deceive." In Jeremiah 17:9 we read:

The heart is deceitful above all things,

And desperately wicked;

who can know it?

And in Proverbs 28:26:

He who trusts in his own heart is a fool,

But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.

So, our own hearts can deceive us and we not know it, and we are fools to trust it. Ouch! Sounds pretty harsh, but that’s what God says about our emotional heart. He certainly knows, and He says so in Jeremiah 17:10:

I, the LORD, search the heart,

I test the mind,

Even to give every man according to his ways,

According to the fruit of his doings.

So how do we get this extreme heart makeover? Simple… we just ask the Master Surgeon for it, and we humbly allow Him to do it. As we seek to do His will and set our own desires aside, He renews our heart, both inwardly in how we look at things such as ourselves and situations we face, and outwardly in how we respond to and treat others around us. Is your heart made of stone, and maybe you don't even realize it? Have you stopped to honestly consider whether your own heart is deceiving you and you're operating based on feelings rather than God's Spirit within you? Humbly submit to His authority, His ways, and His will for you today, setting your sights on the things above, and let Him do some radical, life-changing heart surgery in you to make you more like Him! Jesus is the cure for any heart condition!

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

- Ephesians 3:14-19

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you;

I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh

and give you a heart of flesh.

-Ezekiel 36:26

Creative Nativity Story with a Modern Twist

This a very creative telling of the Nativity story with a uniquely modern twist. It's too cute and very much worth the viewing. There is no embed code to put it on here with a preview in a player, so please click on the link. It's on a site called GodVine.

http://www.godvine.com/Story-of-the-Nativity-Told-in-a-Very-Unique-Way-112.html

Extreme Guitar Hero Christmas Lights

I came across this video of a kid combining Guitar Hero with Christmas lights. I thought it was pretty creative and would be something cool to share.

Sunday Fishing Lesson

Fishermen have always been known to spin a yarn or two about "the big one that got away." I've got a few of them myself. Jesus called four fishermen to follow him and be disciples, Simon, Andrew, James, and John. I'm sure they had their share of fish stories to tell, too. In this picture you see a couple of family heirlooms of mine that my grandfather had hanging on the wall in his house until he sold it to move out of the city to a small town near my dad. They now hang proudly on my wall, and I never pass up the chance to tell about them. The fish on the left is the first crappie (speckled perch) I caught when I was 6 or 7 years old. The fish on the right is a 6-3/4 pound largemouth bass that jumped in the boat with us. YES! Jumped in the boat and landed at my feet! And that, my friend, is no fish story! It's the absolute truth, just like the story I'm about to relate to you here. This true story is a humorous lesson in faith, integrity, and keeping one's word.

As a young child in the early 70's I lived with my grandparents in Tennessee. My dad was a single parent in the navy and had to deploy at sea a few times in a place called Vietnam. Every spring my grandparents would take a week's vacation and go fishing at Ross Barnett Reservoir in Mississippi with another couple with whom they were very dear friends. They would head home on Saturday so they could attend church on Sunday morning. I was with them this one particular time when they decided to stay and fish on Sunday. Now, my grandmother couldn't swim, but as long as she had a life jacket on, and the fish were biting, she'd head out in the boat. It was shortly after we'd eaten lunch, as I recall, when the sky started getting dark in a hurry. We'd been caught in rain showers before, but this day things would be a little different. The wind started picking up very quickly, and the water started getting pretty rough. We tried to head back in to the boat ramp but it was too far, and the weather was worsening too quickly. We saw a highway bridge over a side creek and headed toward it to try to get some shelter from the storm. The other couple was in a little bit smaller and lighter boat than we were, so my grandpa was leading the way, trying to smooth it out for them a little. The swells were so high we kept completely losing sight of them behind us. I remember seeing lightning hit the water maybe 150 to 200 yards from us. It was a very scary ride, for sure. We finally got up under the bridge and tied off to wait it out. My grandma was a very faithful, God-fearing, Christian woman. Her father and grandfather were both Southern Baptist preachers. I owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude for much of the foundation of my faith. In the midst of this storm she prayed to Jesus. She told Him that if He got her out of this alive then she would never go fishing on Sunday again! Well, I'm here telling the story, so we obviously got out of it ok. Now I know God's not in the exactly in the deal-making business, but He does make promises. God always keeps His promises, though we tend not to, no matter how well intentioned. God did make the ultimate deal (promise) though. He sacrificed His only Son on a cross 2000 years ago, that if we only trust Him that He conquered death for us, then we can have eternal life with Him. My grandma kept her focus on Jesus in the middle of the storm, just like Peter did when he walked on the water to Jesus. He didn't sink until he took his focus off of Jesus and let the storm around him overtake him. As for my grandmother, she kept her side of the "deal" she made with God that day, all the way till the day Jesus took her home some 20 years later. There was no way she was going to go fishing on Sunday again. The Bible says to let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no. My grandma was indeed a woman of integrity, and she kept her word to God to the very end.

Jesus Calls Peter by Joshua Harris

Found this cartoon on Mikes Sumondong' blog Your Daily Word
I liked it so much I thought I'd share it. God has a sense of humor!

Praise the Lord and Pass the Pepto | Liveblog | Christianity Today

Praise the Lord and Pass the Pepto Liveblog Christianity Today

This is a video of a children's praise song that has caused some controversy in an article on Christianity Today. Some call it irreverent, some are ok with it. It's just the song with the lyrics on the screen, not a video of kids singing. Have a look at it and chime in with your comments.

Holy Fishing

This is a joke I heard many years ago and I know it's been posted all over the place in one variation or another, but I like it, so I thought I'm post it on my own blog, too.  Hey, God has a sense of humor... just look at the Duck-Billed Platypus!  Well, here goes...

There was a Baptist preacher and a Catholic priest who liked to go fishing together a lot.  One day they invited a Jewish rabbi to go out in the boat fishing with them.  After a while, the preacher said, "I gotta make a nature call.  I'll be right back."  He hopped out of the right side of the boat, walked over to the shore, "answered the call of nature," then walked back, got in the boat, and continued fishing.  A while later the priest had to go too, so he hopped out of the right side of the boat, walked to shore, "answered nature," then walked back to continue fishing.  A while later the rabbi has to go, too.  He thought to himself, "well, if these guys can walk on water," hopped out of the left side of the boat, and sank.  As they are helping the rabbi back into the boat, through his tears of laughter the preacher says to the priest, "you think we should have told him where the rocks are?"

The Garden of Life

I can't claim to have written this.  I received this by email from a friend a few years ago and saved it, so I don't know who wrote it to give them credit, but I like it.  So, here it is just as I received it...

“The Garden of Life”


For the Garden of your daily living

Plant three rows of peas:
1. Peace of mind
2. Peace of heart
3. Peace of soul

Plant four rows of squash:
1. Squash gossip
2. Squash indifference
3. Squash grumbling
4. Squash selfishness

Plant four rows of lettuce:
1. Lettuce be faithful
2. Lettuce be kind
3. Lettuce be patient
4. Lettuce really love one another

No garden without turnips:
1. Turnip for meetings
2. Turnip for service
3. Turnip to help one another

To conclude our garden, we must have thyme:
1. Thyme for God
2. Thyme for family
3. Thyme for friends
4. Thyme for each other

Water freely with patience and cultivate with love.
There is much fruit in your garden because you reap what you sow.

I found a really great e-cookbooks site! Cook restaurant quality meals at home for a fraction of the cost!

One Minute Sermon

I love this video! Simple, straight message.