REVIVALTALK

     It is impossible to know someone’s heart unless he or she tells what it conceals. Sometimes we can’t even predict what our own heart may do. Only God truly knows a heart and knows how to deal with a heart.        Psalms 86:11-12 says, “Teach me Your way, O Lord, that I may walk and live in Your truth; direct and unite my heart to fear and honor Your name. I will confess and praise You, O Lord my God, with my whole heart; and I will glorify Your name forevermore.”         In this Psalm, David is revealing the contradiction of a divided heart seeking wholeness. He sees his need to be made whole from the trauma he has suffered. He recognizes that he is devoid of truth and has allowed his will to be divided.        Anytime we are in a place of lack there is some truth we are missing. Worship positions us to come into that truth and to be healed. We are transformed in the presence of God. It is there that Go...

  Ephesians 5:25 – “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.”              For years I have heard men describe their wives in a derogatory way. I remember working in my father’s retail business and hearing the men who came into the warehouse degrade their wives. It bothered me and showed such disrespect to their spouses. When we married, we entered into a covenant. We promised to love each other unconditionally. This is during the good times, the bad times, the happy times, and the sad times.              The Bible outlines the duties and responsibilities of a Godly husband. Matthew 19:3-9 says we are to live with her for life. Malachi 2:14-15 says we are to be faithful to her. The Proverbs offers these words of wisdom In Proverbs 5:18-20, “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with  the wife of y...

  I John3:16 – “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”              Human love is imperfect. It usually comes with conditions. Many of these conditions are rooted in selfishness. I Corinthians 13:4-5 says, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil.”  Jerry Bridges writes, “God’s unfailing love for us is an objective fact affirmed over and over in the Scriptures. It is true whether we believe it or not. Our doubts do not destroy God’s love, nor does our faith create it. It originates in the very nature of God, who is love, and it flows to us through our union with His beloved Son.” [ I ]              The Spirit Filled Life Study Bible Commentary Notes says...

I Corinthians 13:1-13 – “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, t...