Jeremiah 29:13
You Will Find Me With Your Heart
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Matthew 15:1-20
1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 “‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’”
10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”
13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”
16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
Matthew 5:6
Blessed Are Those Who Hunger
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
John 18:33-38
Jesus is a King
33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.
John 8:31-32
Following Jesus Sets us Free
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The heart is the Spiritual Center of man...There is mystery in the heart...What goes and comes from the heart can be good or not so good...The heart hungers and thirsts for righteousness...And the heart of each of us is what Jesus tries to reach...
Jesus never says much about being a King...But He talks often of God's Kingdom and what it is like....So He has a Kingdom...His Kingdom is of the heart...Pilate said Jesus "You are a King then."...Jesus did not deny Pilates' statement...But He said the reason that He was born and came into this world was to testify to the truth...Everyone on the side of truth listens to Him...In Him alone is the Truth...He is the One, who defines what Truth is for all of us...We seek Him and find Him in Truth...And in Him alone we are set free...
His Kingdom is different from man's thinking about kings and kingdoms...Jesus seems to resist the kingly title and having others thinking He was a King...And if He was an earthly king, He was not after more land, a bigger empire, or gold -and those things we think of normal kings wanting and doing...And earthly king's kingdoms rise and fall...Great military leaders have gained many nations and then they too, have fallen...All the great kings and leaders seem to have come and gone, but One...He never spoke of military battles or empires, He spoke of salvation and forgiveness...LOVE was interlaced through all He spoke and taught...What Jesus said, how He said it, and what He did was like no other man or king...His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension set Him apart from other men...His Teachings and acts make Him a wonderment and a mystery, yet He always touched the heart of others...Unlike any other king, He was and is after our souls...
Of all the great kings that have come and gone One remains...He remains truly by Himself...His reign continues today, two thousand years after His departure...His staying power is based on faith...He appeals not to one's reputation, wealth, power, or fame, but always to one's heart...And He appeals to all...I think we often misunderstand, or do not understand all that He said and taught, but we somehow do feel deeply about what He was saying...It takes one's heart to make sense of Him...