The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? The word that should have been used for desperately wicked is not the word that is used here. That word desperately wicked should be unclear. The definition of that is wretched or feeble, distress beyond all things in consequence of the wickedness that is in it. The word is here badly translated as anesh. Anesh is never used in Scripture to denote wickedness of any kind. My old manuscript Bible translates it thus, Shrewd is the heart of a man and unsearchable; who can know it. The word heart can be translated a number of ways depending on the context. The heart is one of the most commonly used words in the Bible. Most of these occurrences are used metaphorically, of the inner man. Depending on the context, the heart refers to the mind or it can refer to the emotions, the will, to the sinful nature, or simply just to a person as a whole. The term heart then generally speaks of the inner person and the spiritual life with all this different aspect. This multiple use of heart, along with the way that it is used, strongly focuses our attention on the importance of the spiritual life. Like the human heart, it is central and it is vital to our existence. Heart is a very important word because God is so deeply concerned about this inner man and the condition of our hearts and our minds. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. God searches us out, He tests the minds. He tries to see what is inside of us. Noah had a righteous heart. He did not have that evil thoughts continuing like the rest of the world. God destroyed them because of their totally and completely evil hearts. Noah was the only one who was spared, him and his family, and most likely because he did have a righteous heart. God said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. We can, as a people, fool people for a while, for a long time until something happens and that inner person really comes out in them. A lot of people can talk a good righteous game. They want everybody to think they are real righteous, but it turns out they were not so righteous in the end. We do not know, we cannot see what is inside a person. But God digs in there and finds out what is in us, in these deep things. I the Lord search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord. If we looked at it as being easily deceived and extremely and desperately vulnerable, He says, I searched his heart out. I searched the deep things that are in man. I test his mind even to give every man according to his way, according to the fruit of his doings. This passage here teaches us that our Lord looks at and searches the heart, that is, the inner person. Because of the issues of life, He is talking about here are our actions, our works, whether they are good or bad works, our deeds, and things like that and so on. And these all proceed from what is inside of us, from what is inside of our hearts. What we do, then, in word and deed is, first of all, a product of what we are basically inside. It reveals who we really are. A cover does not always exactly match what is inside. We claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, we claim to be Christians. Do we have the heart and mind of Jesus Christ? People look on the outward appearance. But God however, is always concerned with what is inside of us, what is inside of our mind, our heart, with the reality and the condition of what is inside. That is what He is looking for. What are yo

God judges by the heart, not by outward appearance. Saul looked kingly, tall and handsome, and God gave the people the king they asked for, yet he failed because he did not see or trust God, and pride and disobedience took root in his heart. When Samuel was sent to anoint a successor, he looked at Eliab's stature and assumed he was the one, but God corrected him: "the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart" (I Samuel 16:7). God saw in the youngest son, David, what no one else could, including Samuel. David's heart was fixed on God. He gave God the credit for the victory over Goliath, and he wanted everything in his life, including his behavior, motivations, thoughts, and emotions, to please God. Both kings sinned grievously, but Saul made excuses while David took full responsibility and sought restored relationship with God, praying in Psalm 51 for a clean heart and for God not to take His Spirit. Leadership therefore does not depend on heritage, size, strength, or any physical trait. Everything depends on the state of the heart, which shows itself in principles, character, and actions. David told Solomon that the Lord searches all hearts and understands the intent of every thought. Believers should examine their underlying motives honestly, since nothing pleases God more than that honesty, and God is willing to forgive and give a new heart to those who repent sincerely.

The heart is often used in the Bible to describe human character and personality. In other words, the heart describes the dynamic forces that make us unique individuals. As a result, the heart can be instilled with moral qualities. In this regard, the writers of the Bible also use complex metaphors concerning the heart. For example, a heart not yet bound to God is referred to as an uncircumcised heart and a heart of hostility and hate is a hard heart. Now, the book of Exodus refers to the hard heart of Pharaoh that God had strengthened in that way. His heart refused to choose in accordance with freedom for Israel and ultimately leading to Egypt's destruction. On the other hand, hearts can be transformed from self-serving to God fearing. Ezekiel describes the process of transforming hearts of stone into hearts of flesh and as receiving a new heart. So God gives us a new heart upon receiving His Holy Spirit. Because the heart represents human personality, God looks there, in addition to our actions, to see whether we are faithful. We are called upon to seek God with our whole hearts so that is where He looks to see if we are His people. Now, our personality functions from many different aspects of our being. And it is not surprising that the Hebrew word for heart represents our thinking, remembering, our feeling, our desires, and our willingness. The heart is also referred to as the seat of desire. The heart not only thinks and feels, remembers and desires, but it also chooses a course of action. In Matthew 15:19, Jesus taught that out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. To have heart requires faithful conviction. The dedicated heart motivates us to continue until we succeed in worthwhile things. Heart can even be in failure and the willingness to accept it, grow from it, and try again. Even in defeat, no one can take true heart away from us. Heart transforms our lives, knowing that we are fighting for what we love. God is the strength of our heart. When we feel like our hearts and minds are failing us, God strengthens our hearts with His indwelling Spirit and He uses His spiritual power to fortify us. The new heart is about having God's love abiding in us, which should motivate us to do the right thing. We must give God total love, love that dominates our emotions, love that directs our thoughts, and love that is the dynamic, the motivation of our actions. What does it mean realistically that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind? Christ's command here from Deuteronomy 6:5 summarizes the idea of total conviction in living God's way of life and includes the duty to obey all the rest of God's commandments. Heart, soul, and mind do not represent detached sections of the human life, but rather combined refer to the whole person. Applying your whole heart to God means that you must have heart. That is, you are required to have faithful conviction, courage, perseverance, hope, and most of all the love of God and His way of life, and our fellow brethren. Our lives are becoming glorious, perfect lives encompassing and capturing the whole personality. So may God make us stable Christians, men and women of whom it can be said that we are obviously and undoubtedly obeying from the heart that form of doctrine that has been delivered to us from God's Word. When we stand before God, may He say to each of us, Well done, good and faithful servant. You had heart!

Everybody has sinned and become separated from God. Everybody has sinned. That means everybody requires reconciliation. Everybody has sinned and become separated from God, but this does not mean that every person is committing all of these things that are named here. What God has inspired Isaiah to do is to show some of the general attitude in Judah toward sin, just before they went into captivity. The going into captivity and losing possession of the land was a discipline by God designed to show them how wide their separation from Him was. Do any of these acts we just read about in Isaiah 59 promote unity? Every one of them causes division. What is implied here without saying it is that the opposite of the acts named are the ones which will either promote or maintain unity. Collectively, we can honestly say then that keeping of the commandments love unites. Breaking the commandments, which is what every one of these things is here in Isaiah 59, breaks the commandments and divides. The church is divided. Therefore, love is either missing entirely or, at the very least, it is in short supply. And even if it is there (which I believe that it is), it is infrequently used. We are not choosing to use it. Here is briefly described the greatest act of reconciliation in the history of the world. What the Father and the Son did demonstrates the principle that acts of love reconcile those separated by some enmity. They want us to understand that through Christ's death, while it is undoubtedly a benefit, should not be merely seen as a benefit but as vicarious. He died for us! He died in our place. The seriousness of that is that if He had not done this, we would have to pay the penalty for our own sins. We would die and we would forever be separated from God. It does not anticipate the first death, but rather the second death. He died for us, in our place, and He did it in order that we might be reconciled and therefore not have to die. He did not die merely for reconciliation, but rather for what reconciliation will produce if it is taken advantage of. I think that it is clear that this love that unites is not a feeling, but rather it is an act. It is reasoned conduct containing sacrifice and based on eternal truth, done because it is the righteous thing to do. In regard to reconcile, which appears here several times, the Greek word here means to change mutually. That is, there is a change on both sides. Something took place. To change mutually; to make an adjustment; to restore; to reconcile. The English word reconcile means to bring back together; to unite; to settle or resolve differences; to restore harmony between. I think we can see then, that though the two words are not precisely the same thing, that both the English and the Greek words are still very close in meaning. Both have the sense of bringing together separated parties. Both words indicate that somewhere along the line alienation occurred. There is another word, also translated reconciliation in the Bible, and this word is, in usage, actually closer to the English word propitiate. Propitiate means to appease; to make amends; to compensate. With this word the emphasis is on the payment. It can be applied to what is sacrificed in order to affect the reconciliation. It indicates what covers or atones so the differences can be bridged and thus resolved. So, both words translated reconcile or reconciliation in the Bible, imply action, not feeling. They imply action, movement toward agreement and unity. The only real difference between these two words is one of emphasis. One is showing payment, the other is showing more strongly the feeling of movement together. However, I wonder if we grasp how deep this enmity is against God. Taken as a whole, the record of the Bible shows that we have a deep and, actually, a fierce and fixed hostility to God. I mean that it is something that is in the nature. Not only is it against Him, but it is against those things that are associated wit