Instead of reflection on a hymn, today I want to write about the heart. News has broken this week of attempts (successful) to grow a heart for a rat. Remarkable that heart cells could grow into a functioning organ even with just 2% capacity. Truthfully I’m not a big fan of rats – but I guess scientists have to use something!!

How often does God’s word speak about the heart? Create in me a CLEAN HEART, O God, and renew a right spirit within me…. David’s prayer and desperate cry is reflective and required of a truly penitent sinner.
The HEART is DECEITFUL above all things and desperately wicked. (Jeremiah 17:9) This was one of my earliest memory verses and I am grateful for parents and a church that reminded me that I was and am a sinner.
Keep YOUR HEART with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. This proverbial injunction (so well preached to us last year in a series of Chapel messages at Toronto Baptist Seminary www.tbs.edu by Rev. Fred Sarjeant of England) is a strong command. I must give priority to my heart.

“HOSTILE HEART” was the headline for an article in “24 hours” a daily free newspaper available in Toronto. This is the substance of the article –
“Hostility could increase people’s risk of heart disease by depleting their levels of certain heart-healthy antioxidants, new research suggests. Hostility has been associated with heart disease, cancer and other illnesses. Antioxidant vitamins can help counteract oxidative stress, while cigarette smoking and pollution, among other factors, can increase it.

Well might we heed the words of the hymnwriter – “Give me thine heart, give me thine heart; Hear the soft whisper wherever thou art. From this vile world He would draw thee apart, speaking so tenderly give Me thy heart!” In prayer give your heart, your life, yourself completely to the One who loved you and died for you.