How is Your Heart?
by Karen Pederson
How’s your heart? That’s a question from a commercial to check your physical heart, but that little machine wouldn’t have pointed out my heart problem yesterday: I had become hard-hearted. After some words were spoken to me, I became broken-hearted, then turned hard-hearted, like a “heart of stone”. I’m so grateful that, as God told Ezekiel, He will remove my heart of stone and give a heart of flesh, and He does. I want my heart to be a heart of flesh; “tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).
Recently I read in Our Daily Bread that Augustine struggled with the idea of God in a relationship with him. How could the God of creation, so powerful and huge come into his small sinful heart? That didn’t seem possible to him, and he prayed, “The house of my soul is narrow, enlarge it, so that You may enter it. It’s in ruins! Repair it!”
David wrote in Psalm 51 of his recognition of his sin, a broken and contrite heart and the forgiveness of God, healing his heart white as snow. His heart was turned into a heart of flesh. Augustine asked God to “enlarge his heart” and David also wrote in Psalm 119:32, “I will run the course of Your Commandments for You shall enlarge my heart.”
My prayer is: “God, enlarge my heart so that You take possession and fill it to overflowing so that my heart loves as You love, so that my heart breaks with what breaks Yours.” I know physically an enlarged heart isn’t a good thing, but my spiritual heart can be enlarged so God can enter it, enlarged so that God can fill it to overflowing with His great love, enlarged so that I am a woman after God’s own heart. May our prayer be that our spiritual heart be enlarged as we approach Valentine’s Day and all through the year.
I Set You Apart
by Karen Pederson
Right to Life Month is a chance for us to be reminded or to come to know, the value God has placed on the unborn, on His created people whom He formed.
My pastor, Chris Kumpula, in his sermon on a recent Sunday had so many things to say I couldn’t write fast enough. He shared about Jeremiah’s calling in Jeremiah 1:4 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart, I appointed you a prophet.” Yes, it was God’s call on Jeremiah but through these verses we see God’s plan and deep knowledge and love for His people, for us, for me.
He went on and asked us, “What is a life worth? What is a life worth To God? What is Life Worth then to people?
He highlighted these points:
Precious- More than Valuable
Eternal- More than Temporal
Human- More than Animal
Soul – More than Matter
That’s what a life is worth to God. It doesn’t change if people’s opinions change. God formed us and set us apart, He knew us and appointed us. God’s divine purposes are attached to us and God’s Redemptive Work was offered to me, determined to redeem me before I was formed.
My notes from the sermon touched me and I wanted to share the with you during January as we challenge society and let them know the extreme value God places on life--on each one of us!
I also remember an article in the Ambassador back in August 2024 written by Kirstie Skogerboe. Her paragraph based on Psalm 8:2 stuck with me: "From the lips of children and infants You have ordained praise." Kristie said "God is establishing the strength to conquer His enemies through babies." She was carrying her baby at the time of writing and thinking of how her unborn baby would receive the gift of faith in her baptism before she could even speak!!
She wrote that this baby will be called into God’s spiritual army and could still the enemy with child-like faith! Wow! Consider that and remember that Jesus said, "unless you change and become like children you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."
All that is possible with the faith of a child. Then we need to nurture it in God’s Word! We have so many materials at our disposal and one of them is our Cradle Roll Packets.
The Cradle Roll material actually comes in a small box and have the materials for you to supply to new parents each month that first year. Then for the next three years, books to nurture that faith and the training for parents is all included in the Cradle Roll box.
It’s your investment in the baby and parents who just have brought home a new baby to “train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old, they will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6
You can order Cradle Roll material from our Parish Education office by calling 763.412.2010.