CONTENTS:
The Christian's New Heart (PDF),
The Ways of the Heart (PDF),
8 Heart Booklets (PDF),
Slides
New Heart Home
Introduction
A Silly and Tragic Misunderstanding
Bob Morris needed a new heart. Though only forty years old, he suffered from a debilitating heart disease. For three years he had lived the life of a semi-invalid. Heart medication kept him alive, but his physical activities were severely curtailed. Once a specimen of physical fitness and an avid outdoors man, he had to quit his job in housing construction and could no longer hike in the mountains, ski, hunt, or fish. Bob had less than a year to live—unless he underwent heart transplant surgery.
He was on the waiting list for many long months. Finally the call came: A donor heart was available. The donor had just lost his life in a car accident, but his heart had not been injured.
Tests were quickly conducted on the donor heart. By all indications, it would be a good match for Bob’s body.
A few days following the successful transplant, Bob and his surgeon, Dr. Lester McPeters, held a joint news conference. Dr. McPeters announced that Bob’s new heart was healthy and functioning as it should, and that it was not being rejected by Bob’s body. “At this time,” said Dr. McPeters, “it appears that Bob should be able to resume a normal life-style. He has many good years to look forward to.”
Bob thanked Dr. McPeters, the hospital staff, and his loving and supportive family and friends. “My new heart has given me a new life,” he said, grinning broadly. “I’m a new man! And after some physical therapy, Dr. McPeters says I’ll be able to return to work—and even can go mountain climbing, and skiing, and hunting, and fishing! The first thing I’m gonna do when I get home is throw away all that old heart medicine!”
We can imagine the wonderful new life Bob could now live, thanks to his new heart. But wouldn’t it be silly and tragic if Bob refused to believe he had received a new heart and went on living as if he still had his old heart? If he continued thinking of himself as the victim of a debilitating heart condition and went on taking heart medicine he didn’t need? If he chose not to return to work and not to go mountain climbing, skiing, hunting, and fishing?
The Christian’s New Heart
As absurd as it sounds for a man with a new heart to live as if he still had his old heart, there are many Christians who, whether they know it or not, live as if they still had an old heart. Not an old biological heart, but a heart of a different kind.
According to the Bible, we have two hearts—the one that pumps blood through our bodies, and another one, which is a spiritual heart.
It was this spiritual heart that Moses spoke of when he taught the children of Israel to obey God’s Greatest Commandment—to love Him with all their heart. But they failed, time and again. King David became “a man after God’s own heart,” but not before adultery, murder, and hypocrisy rendered his heart broken and contrite. Out of fear, frustration and brokenness, he asked God to give him a new heart. And God’s response was to reveal a future new covenant—and with it the promise of a new heart for each of His children.
The spiritual heart is hardly obscure in Scripture: It is mentioned in most books of the Bible—more than one thousand times altogether! It was promised under the Mosaic Covenant and granted under the New Covenant of Jesus Christ through the person and works of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught the doctrine of the heart through “the sower” parable, and mentioned the heart frequently when He addressed His disciples, the Pharisees, and the multitudes; indeed, it was central to His proclamations that the new covenant and the kingdom of God were being ushered in by Him and through Him.
But few people today preach the gospel as Jesus preached it. Over the past few generations, God’s doctrine of the heart has all but faded into obscurity. And much of what is taught about the heart is incomplete and in error.
For this reason, few believers today understand that, at the time of their salvation, God gave them a long-ago-promised new spiritual heart. And so they unwittingly continue struggling through life in the conditioned ways of the old spiritual heart. They strive in worldly ways to create identity for themselves and to build up their self-esteem. They do what they hate to do and don’t do what they want to do or should do. Many unnecessarily live in apparent bondage and defeat, fear and doubt, frustration and confusion, loneliness and depression. They pray more and try harder, but nothing seems to help. No matter how hard they try to be a “good Christian” they can’t find victory over sin in their lives, and the “abundant life” promised by Jesus is never realized.
Striving and attempting to cope with life in the ways of the old heart can yield devastating results: pridefulness, self-centeredness, manipulating and controlling; divorce and other problems in relationships; loss of career and financial failure; alcoholism and other unhealthful and destructive dependencies; numerous stress-related physical problems such as sexual dysfunction, fatigue, high blood pressure, insomnia, eating disorders, skin rashes, and irritable bowel disorders. Some believers who live in the ways of the old heart experience “nervous breakdowns,” and others succumb to a variety of so-called “mental illnesses.”
After a time, some such believers mistakenly believe that God has forgotten them, rejected them, or even that they might have “lost their salvation.” Others blame God for not removing negative circumstances in their lives and for not orchestrating positive ones. And all because they don’t know that God has given them a new heart which they must learn to “use” in the ways He intends.
The Christian’s New Heart is the first in a series of books and booklets written for such believers, as well as for those who would help them understand and experience the blessings of their new heart in all its implications.
Discovering what had been lost
David’s writings in the Old Testament remind us that we are wonderfully made by God (Psalm 139:14). Much about the amazing human body remains a mystery to us. And yet perhaps more mysterious is the spiritual part of man. While in this lifetime we will never come to fully understand all the mysteries surrounding ourselves, God does not want us to be ignorant about who we are. He reveals to us all we need to know about who we are in order for us to live whole-heartedly in Christ, with love for Him, for others, and for ourselves.
For several years I have studied the Bible in search of all it has to reveal about the spiritual heart. My research also led to many Bible dictionaries and commentaries—both contemporary as well as those favored over time. Most offered only limited insights into the nature of the Christian’s new heart. Strangely, I could not find a single volume devoted to the subject.
My labor has been greatly rewarded, however, because I have discovered that the Bible contains a profound and complete doctrine of the spiritual heart. God, in effect, gave us a model of the heart to help us better understand how we came into existence, who we are, our spiritual relationships, and why we behave as we do.
Jesus, in doing all that His Father commanded Him to do, taught, counseled, and discipled using God’s model of the heart. He taught His disciples—His original twelve, as well as all who followed, including us—to understand God’s model of the heart. Abundant evidence of this is woven in His teachings throughout the New Testament, in which He refers to the heart.
The purpose of this book
Jesus, in giving the Great Commission to those of us who comprise His Church, commanded: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you...” (Matthew 28:19, 20a).
To teach the nations to observe all that Jesus commanded is a tall order, for His commandments are many, and considerable responsibility is involved in teaching them. If we are called to be teachers of Gods Word, then we are called to teach God’s words. And His word “heart” is one of the foremost to be understood, taught, and applied. For God’s Word—all of His words—ultimately find their intent and purpose in what Jesus called the greatest or foremost of all commandments: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).
If we truly love Jesus with all our heart, we are supernaturally empowered and motivated by His Spirit to help fulfill the Great Commission. And if we teach others all the commandments of Jesus, we are to first and foremost teach the Greatest Commandment. And if we teach the Greatest Commandment, we are to teach what it means to “love God with all your heart.” And if we teach about the heart, we should base our teaching on God’s model of the heart.
God led me to share with you the wonderful biblical truths I have discovered about the heart. One of those discoveries is that the Bible views the heart from six perspectives. The first three—the positional, relational, and ontological perspectives—are absolutes, which is to say they are unchangeable. The other three—the conditional, functional, and behavioral perspectives—are variable or changeable.
This book is my first “Advanced Study” in The Christian’s New Heart series. It is “advanced” in that it is written primarily for pastors, counselors, Bible teachers, and other disciplers. Yet, it is within the comprehension and interest range of all serious students of the Bible.
The illustrations in this book are my own interpretations of God’s model of the heart in its many aspects. They are particularly useful in counseling and teaching because they serve as visual aids in more readily understanding and identifying abstract and complex biblical concepts.
The second Advanced Study—The Ways of the Heart—takes us to a deeper level of the doctrine of the heart to examine old and new spiritual relationships, and the three variable biblical perspectives of man: the conditional, functional and behavioral.
I have also published a series of topical booklets adapted from the Advanced Studies.
New Heart Ministries has been established to distribute my studies and booklets, and to sponsor my seminars and training programs. For more information, please contact me at frank@frankallnutt.com.
As you embark on this fascinating study of the Christian’s new heart, I join my heart with the Apostle Paul’s in his prayer for you:
I pray that the eyes of your heart will be enlightened
So that you may know what is the hope of His calling,
What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
And what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
(Ephesians 1:18)
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