Paradise Cafe Discussions - A Place For Bible Research And Christian Encouragement

:love:

The Heart is pure love the perfect gift from above. The Heart is your true conscience the voice from within that calls out ever so faintly yet loud and clear. It is the essence of what we will become when we listen to it. Our conscience decides morally what is right and wrong but can't make an ethically decision without the Heart. Whether or not the conscience listens to the purity of the Heart, the Heart is always pure and has no bad intent!:heartbeat: It is the mind with its reasoning's that leads to impurity.

The Heart must override the mind for purity to prevail. The Heart does not decide but only provides the best intentions to the mind. What resonates in your Heart should be the prevailing thoughts in your mind if you want harmony and inner peace. Peace of mind comes from peace of Heart!

Good evening brother Chuck:

Just a thought to share that came into my heart when i saw your post:

Proverbs 4:20-23

20 My son, to my words do pay attention. To my sayings incline your ear. 21 May they not get away from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart. 22 For they are life to those finding them and health to all their flesh. 23 More than all else that is to be guarded, safeguard your heart, for out of it are the sources of life.

Much Christian Love and Prayers Always to You, your family and ALL :grouphug::heartbeat:
sis

Jeremiah 17:9 (Darby Translation)

9The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurable; who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:9 (Amplified Bible)

9The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]?

Jeremiah 17:9 (New American Standard Bible)


9"The (A)heart is more (B)deceitful than all else
And is desperately ©sick;
Who can understand it?


Dear Chuck:hibye:,

Seems to me that we were told differently.

:happyheart:Reasonably, a balanced view is that it's really 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. There are those who have goodness in their hearts, and there are those who have evil in their hearts.

Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Matthew 12:35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

It's why God judges what's in the heart ---
Psalm 7:9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.

Psalm 17:3 You have tried my heart;You have visited me by night;You have tested me and You find nothing;I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.

Psalm 26:2 Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.

Psalm 44:21 Would not God find this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.

Good hearts ---
Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Psalm 7:10 My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart.

Psalm 27:8 When You said, " Seek My face," my heart said to You, "Your face, O LORD, I shall seek."

Psalm 28:7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped;Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him.

Psalm 32:11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.

Psalm 37:31 The law of his God is in his heart;His steps do not slip.

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Psalm 97:11
Light is sown like seed for the righteousAnd gladness for the upright in heart.

Bad hearts ---
Psalm 28:3 Do not drag me away with the wicked And with those who work iniquity, Who speak peace with their neighbors, While evil is in their hearts.

Psalm 36:1 Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart; There is no fear of God before his eyes.

Psalm 78:37 For their heart was not steadfast toward Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant.

Psalm 81:12 "So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, To walk in their own devices.

Psalm 95:10 "For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways.

Just a few examples... :heartbeat:

Dear Sis Willa:love:,

I'm a little more abstract in my reasoning's from the scriptures. Its the invisible line that I believe Jesus teaches us with holy spirit. I know you have it, too, your just such a fantastic information gatherer! List right, list left. How I would like to be more organized and disciplined like you, then I could display my interpretation on the 'anointed' thread!

I think the creatures I most act like is a butterfly or a kitten. Into, on, moving to one thing after another; and a kitten is easily distracted! If, were to think of a creation of botanical nature-a leaf turning and twisting in the wind, I can use the leaf with the season if you take my personality and add a seasonal mood change and add a woman anatomical make up-Wow! I couldn't list the other things that God created just to describe my personal character make up.

Believe it or not, I have a point. With all your character make ups and the life that you have lived and choices you made-has your heart proven to be treacherous? Mine has proven treachery beyond any story that I ever thought I would live, and I'm sure many others feel the same way about their life.

It could be harsh words coming out from lack of patience or plain selfishness, it could be resenting long term care for our family or even resentment for our life not being the way we wanted it to be; how about resentment to God for all the harshness around us? Yeah, blaming God for everything and discarding Him. Especially after promises and oaths of eternal love and desires to be chosen to help others attain the same love and appreciation. Its fornication, expressions of anger, and just plain ugliness that's inside our heart. Pure treachery!

Nice to visit you tonight, sis. I found my husbands arrest file on the internet, they took him in for not having a fishing license. Getting a license is not only practical, its freakin' fun! I was so happy when I got my first "trout license" (wanted to try fly fishing, wanted to learn to make flies, wanted cool pants to wear in the water- the real search engines are our brains, LOL) . I brought my yellow kitchen gloves to handle the fish to take off the line, I still screamed like a little girl. Since, I was fishing while the kids were in school (sometimes, others-they went fishing and we met up with friends) I found out that you can "husband hunt" at the fishing holes. LOL. See, it was better for me to marry, even if he is a dunderhead! He has bond for the fishing but they have the others charges added after it. He's so stupid (sorry guys, I KNOW I'm harsh (I hate myself, for it-I just don't know how to be from wanting to hurt him to being OK. So, just an objective-he's stupid, is working , for now. And then I'll feel bad about it later...Arghhh!)) And, no, just because I've had some bad relationships, doesn't mean I think bad of men. It SUCKS that I've had a difficult life because of a handful of men, even through it all, I still see the "good" through even the bad. It's been interesting reflecting, forgiving, and moving on...

So, yes, the heart is treacherous; at every moment. My daughter just came in and wanted a little comfort. Do I want to type or give to her. There are times she doesn't win....but, not tonight.:heartbeat:

With Sis Love and Hugs, Debbie

Wow, just woke up to these posts.

When it comes to other peoples hearts, they can be treacherous.

I hate it when the WT plucks a scripture out of the Bible and keeps stuffing it under our noses. When that happens immediately question the agenda. You can't trust yourself, rely on us, The Great Watchtower Bible and Tract Soc.

Well if it were not for them I would not be poor and struggling
So there is a Soc. in the eye for you. There are some evil hearts out there and many of them are corporate.

The interesting thing about my life is that daily I have to rely on Jehovah, but I turn a corner and he steps in.

The scrips you posted Willa are fantastic.

Now I look back at the guys I was really fond of in my youth (having been prevented from further education by the org., family, and ex) and I realise I could have been Mrs. Circuit Overseer, or an Elderette of high standing.
Either way I would not have escaped the clutches of the WT and would still be going through the motions of boring meeting and boring chats with people whose minds had been numbed by boring meetings.

Instead I get to meet you guys,

Spiritual Willa
Straight from the hip Debbie
Loving and hospitable Wolfie
Humble and caring isomam
The sharp minds of Resolute and JWH----whatever your inititials
BR the researcher
LLee the collater
Bang the researcher
Wickster the humourous poet
and all you Bible Students
and look darlings I could type out your names for days but I haven't got time,
but things seem to happen for a purpose.

I could have followed a highly profitable educational course, a WT worthy spiritual course, but instead I got to meet the relatives of Christ.

vicky

It seems that the bible is revealing 2 sides to the same coin. That coin being us. On one side,since we are created in Gods image there is good and noble and loving things in our hearts. On the other side we are forced to recognize that we are also plagued by sin inherited from Adam. Thus we must use the caution that Gods word provides when listening to our hearts.

What we choose to put into our heart has a considerable influence on which side of the coin we personally favor. Heb.6 :13,14 comes to mind ,for being well aquointed with Gods word will definitly help us to distingush right and wrong.

Wont it be wonderful that someday, with the help of our Lord Jesus , we will be able to be just as we were created in Gods image, all traces of the sin which now pollutes our hearts done away with.:cheer:

Until then keep the faith:thumbup:
Jayme

What is in the heart is pure and from God. Only when we reason ( the mind) on the hearts intentions do we make a ethically wrong choice. What comes from the heart is pure it is our true conscience. That is why Jesus said you must become like a child to enter the Kingdom. A child heart is pure it has no bad intent. A child is innocent in everyone's book. It is only whe a child learns to reason with his mind that he can choose a different choice than what his heart is telling him.

Example: The child is told from Mom not to go near the stove or he could burn himself and it would not feel good. In the child's heart he knows what mommy says is right and that he can trust mommy that she knows what is good for him. But the child now reasoning on the matter decides to discover on his own if this will really happen. So he goes to the stove and reaches up. Immediately he stops and rethinks his actions remembering what mommy said. But again he reaches out in curiosity and immediately stops again. He actually felt the heat of the stove and drew his hand back quickly. Hmmmm Maybe Mommy is right, I could burn my hand here. Now either the child will learn from that or he may go a step further and actually burn his hand.

Jesus said your heart must be like that of a child A child's heart is pure even if he burns his hand on the stove! Experience is part of life whether that is good or bad. We can either listen to the purity of our heart an experience true light and love or reason that there is a better way. When we reason that there is a better way then we must experience that way. Reap what you sow.

A heart can be corrupted by the mind. It is only when you listen to your true heart and not your mind that you will experience peace of mind. You got to be out of your mind I'm telling ya!:funnyface: Not only that but be into your true childlike heart!:happyheart:

Once we realize that the Bible heart is a metaphor for what is now called the unconscious mind, it becomes clear what the scripture means. Who can know their own unconscious mind? A rhetorical question indeed. We can know it, if we choose. Is it treacherous? Absolutely, because it can influence and even override our conscious mind, making us do things that are contrary to common sense. It is powerful, but not necessary dangerous.
Every time we dream, we let our unconscious mind out of its box. It can be a wonderful tool for achieving a happy life. Or, it can lead us to corruption.
I agree with chuck!

Enjoyed your comment Chuck. I was a very stubborn child, and my mother told me ....Kathryn...I am going to the bathroom, so don't touch that iron, it is very hot. What did I do? I Touched it anyway.. But boy did I learn fast! Growing up, I remained stubborn not to just take what everyone told me to do as fact, but tested everything they said. I guess we are all stubborn here on this site,we tested what we were told, and now here we are with Jesus true followers, so I am glad I was stubborn and listened to my heart, and what it was drawing me to question. We should always follow the child we were from the beginning, and guard our thinking from what this corrupt world tells us is good, and the things we put into our minds. This worlds thinking is turned completly around, and what is good is now called bad.

Love,
New Heart

Dear Chuck,

I replied a couple of days ago. Pretty good posts, I was happy and then my computer went off line. I was able to keep it on the computer but forgot and x'd tabs and shut down later. Too bad, I was feeling pretty fun when I wrote it.:funnyface:

As, I'm sure you know, I ahve four kids. Let's start with the hearts and character of our children. My first was super easy, except the waking me up with hard objects over the head. My second taught me about pineapple upside down cake. I can tell you that if I were to pick a cake, I didn't want it was pineapple upside down cake!

He was just born a controlling and self centered maniac. The little Taz wore me out. Even from babyhood. Could his baby heart be "pure" or was it already born into sin and carrying a "selfish" DNA or another characteristic blight? (I have one, too, sometimes (especially with a chocolate stash)-don't want my son to ever read this and say what a hypocrite I am! LOL.)

My third child, my daughter-I fell in love with her. Nothing could be so much more sweet and perfect! I really think that's where you are right now. I think your in love with your daughter and have completely lost your senses.

Objectively, we know from studies of past people that some are born to be different personalities. My son has his father's dyslexia and racing mind for mischievousness. He didn't act like how I was as a baby, my mom says I was so good-you could just sit me with a book or toys and I would just stay there. She even left me home a few times running to the kingdom hall with the kids. She would be ten minutes down the road and ask my three older siblings-where's the baby? and have to turn around. My youngest daughter was much more similar to my behavior.

So nature verses nurture and our personal character is random, inherited, and chosen. Some kids kill, harm animals. Is it taught to a bad child? I don't think so. Killers have been raised in "nice" homes, too.

How about when we "know" our hearts and say we will devote ourselves to God and Jesus? I remember traveling my "own" path. I did break my promises. I remember being a child saying that I wanted to be like one of the bible characters. Or even now, as an adult, as I go through everyday I'm fighting against certain behaviors trying to make the right choices. My heart desires to do good and yet, unavoidably I'm saying or doing something I wish I didn't do. It happens when I least expect it.

What about the apostle Peter? He said he would never deny the Christ. He felt so much love for him.:heartbeat: And, then before you know it, he's lying and doing the very thing that he swore he wouldn't do! How sad, and yet its humbly our inheritance. We become "pure" at heart because of kindness from above.

I'm happy for you in your blessings with your family. But, tell me in eightteen months whether our hearts are "pure" or whether we have our own agendas and we will use deviousness and manipulation to achieve our personal agendas.

I think there is a lot more to a "pure heart" then just this post, too. I think its beyond conscientious and unconscientiousness, too.

I do appreciate your desire to want to see the good in everything, too. I like to live that way, too. But, I do want to ask, are you going to keep trying to disassemble everything in the bible? You've dropped everything past the gospels, I'm guessing? OR have you dropped that, too? Now your going after a treacherous heart, are you going to say that we really CAN guide our own steps, next?:confused:

I would just like to remind you that there are evil beings that want you to think they don't exist and everything can be in harmony if only you will it. We can help our environment but we will still be under attack.

Thanks for the one sided discussion, look forward to yours.

With Sisterly Love, Debbie

I met an American family in the south of France, one of the children was stuck up a tree. They had five, but this child as they said drummed to his own beat.
She was a professor of languages and he was a marine biologist. They thought they had it all sussed in the child rearing arena, until this child came along.
Whilst talking him down out of the tree, I discovered that the previous week he had given his sister a makeover, and had cut off her long blond plaits.

Perhaps if we did a Solomon and had hunreds of children we might understand what child rearing is about, but I doubt it.
How many sleepless nights did he have?
The wisdom of Solomon? Give me a break! Hundreds of women with PMT all at the same time! Not that I have ever had it, I just vomited and passed out every month of my life.

My daughter was tough to raise and sickly. She is now tough and watches out for me. We do not know what we are instilling in our children.
Hearts can be treacherous but they can also be exceedingly loving.

vicky

Remington did it to his sister's life size Barbie (chopped the hair off). This was after he tried to kill her a few times. Very jealous from the get go. I brought her home from the hospital and he only screamed at me for eight days or threw stuff at her.

I think that our hearts are both treacherous and loving, too.

My son is great. I love upside down pineapple cake, now. Some things just take time to adapt to, for both him and I.

Love ya, Sis, Deb

:hibye:and :grouphug:

Sometimes what we see on the outside isn't what's on the inside. I say handle with care :cheekkiss: if at all possible. :hug: Sister Debbie, you are an inspiration to me. :heartbeat: :thumbup:

Sister LOWlee

Thank you, Sis Lowlee:hug:

I'm not very good with compliments, I'm afraid. My husband says I'm the only woman that he ever knew that you couldn't compliment.

Comes from a very sad heart and a long traveled road of survival.

I appreciate everyone on the board:grouphug: If I didn't have a soft place to fall, I don't know how I would get through my life:love: Our Father provides and Jesus is a loving Shepard.:heartbeat:

With Sis Love, Debbie