What Opens Your Heart?

What Opens Your Heart?

Good Morning Friends,

That gift and spark that makes a relationship alive in the personality of Jesus is indeed powerful. I think we get a picture of this happening in the story of Lydia and Paul when truth is revealed in the sharing of the Gospel. Here we learn about love and the work of the Holy Spirit in the making of a home. What Opens Your Heart?

Scripture: We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.

Acts 16:11-15 (NRSV)

“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning. “I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.

John 15:26-16:4a (NRSV)

This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.

1 John 5:6 (NRSV)

Message: Too many people find it difficult to open their hearts and their homes. Too few have homes where Jesus rules. Too many are freed and frozen at the same time failing to testify to the truth. Their lives are cut off from their feelings and if you have been dealing with life from your head disconnected from those around you, and if you do not remember shedding a tear for another person, then maybe you too have failed to keep love alive in your heart. Maybe you shield your heart having been hurt in the past. But unless we love we never get the opportunity to be nourished by it. Unless we are vulnerable and embody a reckless love like God’s, we cannot claim to be truly living. And yes, the world just hates it when people are moved to love with abandon in witness to Jesus. But friends, it is here, as we learn to bear witness to Jesus, that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter begins to teach us the ways of how to love. And if we love sharing the love we have received, life can indeed birth something wonderful. So, friends, always be ready to give an account of the hope that is within us knowing that the Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus with us, and through us to God’s glory as our hearts are opened to power of the water, blood and Spirit of Christ.

Pray we open our hearts to the things of beauty that invite Jesus into our homes. Pray we love to tell the story of Jesus in our stories. Pray we are in touch with the joys and sorrows of life ready to become a story maker. Pray we surround ourselves with life. Pray we do things we love. Pray we visualize light and life and love in our relationships. Pray we inhale the healing of the Spirit of Jesus even as we share the words of witness. Pray we let go of the past. Pray we become open to receiving. Pray we embrace or fears. Pray we help others without expectation. Pray we learn to love unconditionally. Pray we keep love in our hearts. Pray we see the role of the Holy Spirit in teaching us how to love. Pray we open our hearts to the home Jesus is making for us. Pray we learn how to serve the Lord in love.

Blessings,

John Lawson