Deuteronomy 5:29 (NIV) Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!
Jeremiah 17:9-10 (NIV) 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 10 "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."
Proverbs 21:2 (NIV) All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart.
Acts 15:9 (NIV) He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV) I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
There is a familiar picture by Holman Hunt. There is shown a cottage neglected, falling into ruin. In front of the window tall thistles spring up, and long grass waves on the pathway, leading to the door overgrown with moss and rank poisonous weeds. In front of the fast-closed door with rusted hinges a tall and stately figure stands amid the night dews and the darkness with a face that tells of toil and long, weary waiting, and one hand uplifted to knock and another bearing a light that may perhaps flash through some of the chinks of the door. It is Christ, the Son of God, seeking to get into our sinful hearts.—W. G. Elmslie.
I know a mother who has a mentally disabled child. For it she gave up all society, almost everything, and devoted her whole life to it. "And now," said she, "for fourteen years I have tended it, and loved it, and it does not even know me. Oh, it is breaking my heart!" Oh, how the Lord might say this of hundreds here! Jesus comes here, and goes from one to another, asking if there is a place for Him. Oh, will not some of you take Him into your hearts?—D. L. Moody.
One Thousand Evangelistic Illustrations.
