Life or Death is What You Set Your Heart Upon

by Thomas Denegre

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How we identify ourselves in life is not done through our performance, but by whom we are through God. What we believe in our heart can bring us either life or death, "for the heart is the wellspring of life."  (Proverbs 4:20)

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Take for example a young man named Jacob. Raised as a Christian he sought his identity through his performance lifestyle. Whether it was through sports, religion, or the party scene; popularity was his idol.  Drugs and alcohol gripped him early in life.  In college he lost two sports scholarships when he flunked a drug test, and then things spiraled downward. As the old saying goes, he was looking for love in all the wrong places.  He found short success as a martial arts fighter, but that too failed from drug addiction.  Down to 119 pounds his parents found him living in their backyard shed. As Jesus once said, “The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.” John 10:10 

We find a similar destructive path during the reign of Jeroboam II.  The nation of Israel was prosperous, but the people no longer trusted, loved, nor depended on God. Idols took over their hearts. They went into a moral and spiritual decay. Materialism and secularism captured their hearts allowing the full force of their sins to be manifested.  If you didn’t know any better, you think the list of sins was from today’s newspapers such as; killing, sexual immorality, lying, drunkenness, perversion, perjury, deceit, swearing, falsehoods, and deceptions. What grieved the heart of God more than anything else was idolatry as they placed their hearts on something else besides God. 

At this time God spoke to his prophet Hosea to marry a promiscuous woman named Gomer.  The short story is that Hosea fell madly in love with Gomer and had two children.  While Hosea prophesied to Israel to return to God, Gomer was left to her own devices by seeking a better life and a new lover.  Betrayed by his wife, Hosea felt his heart being ripped away by her rejection and distrust.  Similarly, God felt the pains of rejection from his chosen bride, the nation of Israel. While God can be jealous, he is also filled with justice, mercy, and an unstoppable love. He also has a long-term plan. 

While humans will naturally want to seek retaliation when they are betrayed, consider what God said through Isaiah. 

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,  

Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.  

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,  

So are My ways higher than your ways  

And My thoughts than your thoughts.’  Isaiah 55:8-9 

Hosea never stopped loving Gomer and neither did God stop loving Israel; despite the betrayal.  Both were consumed with the love of their bride.  Hosea eventually finds Gomer being sold at a slave auction. Clearly, a life of sin put a great downfall on Gomer. Filled with love and compassion, Hosea purchased Gomer for the cheap price of fifteen shekels. In a merciful act of love, Hosea restores Gomer to be his bride, his beloved, and his wife. This is the way of God too. 

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Going back to Jacob’s fallen life, his parents had great love and concern for him, so they placed him in a Christian based recovery program. One day Jacob woke up to find 30 men laying hands on him.   Just as Gomer was purchased for a price and delivered from bondage, so too was Jacob.  The love and the movement of the Holy Spirit touched Jacob’s heart. It was his first experience to taste the authentic love of God.  Later, he humbled himself, opened his heart, and truly surrender his life to Jesus.  As Jesus once said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) 

Just as the relentless love of Hosea rescued Gomer, the divine radical love of Jesus poured mercy and healing into Jacob to transform and restore his life.  To complete the final statement, Jesus said, “I came to bring life and bring it abundantly.” John 10:10 

Jacob now preaches at recovery centers to spread the authentic hope and love of Jesus.  Being the hero of his own story, Jacob carries the identity as a son of God and through love carries the authority of Jesus through his right of inheritance.  As Jesus once said, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt: 6:9-10) 

By restoring Jacob to be in life union with Jesus, (John 15:7) God not only blesses Jacob to go to heaven, but more importantly to live in that heaven now by living with intimacy and affection with the Lord. Jacob has become a divine instrument of God’s love and affection. For it is written, “Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.” (Proverbs 11:25) 

“Therefore, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:16). 

Overcoming the Enemies in Your Life

By Thomas Denegre

We know how David overcame Goliath (1 Samuel 17). In a similar way, one woman, through Christ, overcame a South American tribe’s culture of death into life.

In the jungles of Ecuador, 33-year-old Elisabeth Elliot watched in horror as a dead man floated down the river with eighteen spears embedded in him.  The dreaded Auca tribe, known for their savagery and killings, had infiltrated her host’s village.  Filled with mixed feelings, Elisabeth made contact with the tribe she planned to evangelize with the Gospel.  Two years earlier, her husband Jim Elliot and four other missionaries were speared to death by the same tribe when they tried to evangelize to them.  Just as David was going to confront Goliath (1 Samuel 17), Elizabeth was going to confront her own foe.  Yet, her mission was not to destroy her enemy but to save them.

In the end, Elisabeth befriended the tribe and by modeling the virtues of Jesus she won many of them over to Christ.  Taken back by her character of humility, compassion, forgiveness, kindness, courage, and openness, 20% of the tribe received Jesus as their Lord. 

When she arrived in 1959 six out of ten Auca men died before the age of forty-five from homicide.  The Auca’s were a savage people and killing was an accepted form of behavior.  Within a few years the homicide rate dropped to 10% and the tribe’s population increased from 600 to 2,000 people.  The tribe changed their name from Auca to Waorani, meaning they are “the true people.” Clearly, the acceptance of Christ in these people’s hearts changed the culture of the tribe from death into life.  As Jesus once said, “The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have to come to bring life, and bring it abundantly.” (John 10:10).

So, how do we overcome our great enemies in life?  More importantly, how do we love our enemies when they want to kill us?  As Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” Elisabeth Elliot, who wrote the book, “End of the Spear,” gives us the lessons to conquer our enemies.  Here are just few things I learned that you can apply to your life today, that can make a difference.

The prophet Hosea once said, “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6) Or, as one of Murphy’s Law states, “if all else fails read the instructions.” As God plainly instructs us, we are called to plant and grow His Word in our heart and mind to prosper in all things.

Based on my own experience with prison ministry and mentoring immature Christians, the lesson is simple.  In John 15, Jesus is the source of life, truth, and the way while we receive and apply this source of love and life to others. Jesus said, “If you live in life-union with me (Jesus) and if my words live powerfully within you—then you can ask whatever you desire, and it will be done.  When your lives bear abundant fruit, you demonstrate that you are my mature disciples who glorify my Father!” (John 15:7-8 TPT)

By being in life union with Jesus and knowing his Words, I’m given the power, authority and strength to love, forgive, and care for others.  Not only does it change my life, but it changes those around me.  Today, the wardens of Ohio prisons are demanding more prison ministries to its inmates because it changes lives and changes the culture of a prison.  Just like the Auca tribe, the blessings of God are bestowed to those who hear, believe, and do his word.

To have the courage to face your enemy requires a large faith, confidence, and trust in the Lord. Elisabeth was soaked in the word and it gave her the strength and compassion to encounter her enemy.  It was not her facing the enemy, but Christ inside her that did.

Three things matter most in our faith journey. One is knowing the word of God. Two, is visualizing it working, and three being obedient to His Word.  As St. Paul said in Romans, “So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17).  Equally important is visualizing the hope of God in your heart. “For the heart is the wellspring of Life.” (Proverbs 4:20)

You have to conceive the Word, then you believe what it says, and then you’ll receive its promises. God calls us to meditate on the word to conceive its blessings as it is written in Psalm 1.  For it says,

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And, in His law he meditates day and night.

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season,

And its leaf does not wither;

And in whatever he does, he prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3)

Yes, God prospers us when we own the Word of God in our heart and mind! I learned that by meditating on the Word in my heart God has prospered me with a rich life with Jesus in the Kingdom of God, and a blessed life with my wife, family and friends. Through humility I opened my heart to his love and his teachings.  By seeing how Jesus works in the Word, I can manifest these blessings from my mind’s eye into reality.  It is the same way Elisabeth was able to convert the tribe from a culture of death to Life, and the same way you can do it too.

Finally, you will always encounter doubts when facing difficult circumstances.  The way out is simple; never trust your own reasoning based on earthly teachings, never trust the reasoning of an unbeliever, and never trust the reasoning of a Christian who does not know or honors the Word of God.  Rather, through the Holy Spirit, always trust in the Word of God and the counsel of like-minded Christians. Just as Elisabeth trusted God in the jungles of Ecuador, you too can trust God to change your life and those around you.