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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Junk Food (08/30/12)
HEART PROBLEMS?


Our society today seems to be obsessed with heart health and for good reason. No one wants to have a problem with their heart. Why are we so protective of this one organ in our body? The heart is life itself pumping through our veins moment by moment, and should it stop than our physical life will cease.
There is a multitude of information on how to keep our heart pumping along in healthy rhythm. It is a known fact that diet plays a big role in our heart’s health. They say you are what you eat. In other words, when you eat lean meat and nutritious veggies your heart smiles, and takes on the shape of say-- broccoli. However, if you are one of the millions of self proclaimed Junk Food Junkies, your heart is puffing up like a cream puff ready to explode.
Healthy food can taste great but so can Junk Food. Why? I mean think about it –we’re going to stuff our faces with something called Junk---food. Isn’t junk something that is usually found in the trash? What could be less appealing? Could it be that something else is at work here? As in a disconnect between our “taste buds,” and the heart. Our “taste buds” are our “buds” when they crave a nice green salad but when they go AWOL for that bag of chips, and that candy bar topped off by a sugary soda; they are no longer our ‘buds.’
We all know that the physical heart has a twin; so to speak. That would be the heart that we see on Valentine cards every February.. It is the seat of our deepest emotions whether it is love or hate. It is with this heart that we meditate, and ponder on the world around us. It is in the midst of us, part of us, and determines how we conduct ourselves, and how we treat others. Our physical heart is hidden but its twin is the one that is most visible in our actions.
The Bible has much to say about this heart because it is the one that God is most interested in. In fact He commands, “Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart.”Duet. 6:5
We all know what happens when we indulge our ‘buds’ in Junk food. We begin to pack on a few pounds. None of which is glamorous or attractive,
Did you know our other heart can be fat as well, and it isn’t a bit attractive to God? Psalm 119:70a reads, “Their heart is fat as grease;-“ May I say—“Yuk!”
Unfortunately our natural sinful heart is just this. God says in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Jesus gives a very graphic description in Matthew 15:19 “Out of the heart proceed—evil thoughts—murders—adulteries—fornications—thefts—false witness—blasphemies;--“
Our natural unregenerate heart is puffed up with pride and vain estimation of ourselves. It has no spiritual appetite whatsoever.
But God created our hearts, searches our hearts, knows our hearts, and created a special place in our hearts where only He can fit.
Wow! After learning all these terrible things about our “other heart” why would God want to live in it? Job tells us that in 7:17—“God sets His heart upon us.” Actually He does this even before we are born. Isaiah 44:2. We are His creation and He loves us. Unfortunately sin has alienated us from God so that are natural heart has a disease so to speak. This disease just like the disease in our physical heart is terminal; unless some intervention is performed to change it.
We live in a wonderful day in age of medical miracles that can keep our heart beating well into old age.
Just like a surgeon can repair what is wrong with our physical heart; Our Great Physician can not only repair, but give us a renewed heart where its darkest sins are forgiven and we are set free from sin and death. Because “where sin abounded grace did much more abound”
Does He do this by church membership or baptism or our “working” on the flaws in our heart? No. He does it by forgiving our sins when we confess our sins to Him “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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This article has been read 753 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
09/06/12
This is a fascinating sermonette. You make such good points and really make the reader think about the verses and our lifestyle choices. Sometimes junk food can be easier, but isn't that true for the other junk food that we fill our hearts with.

You may want to consider double-spacing between paragraphs to make it a bit easier to read.

I liked how you covered the topic and selected just the right verses to emphasis your point.
Danielle King 
09/09/12
This is a neat little sermon, on topic and with points worthy of note.

There were one or two typo's and I think double spacing between paragraphs would help. Overall, a good job.
Genia Gilbert
09/10/12
Your entry would be a bit more enjoyable with spacing between paragraphs. However, it is great biblical truth, and obviously has a lot of thought behind it. Many people have heart problems of both kinds. I love your title and the way you presented it.
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
09/14/12
Congratulations on ranking 19 overall!