God's Open-Heart Surgery

The heart is an amazing mechanism. It is the central core of what makes our bodies function. The heart is defined as a muscle that pumps the blood through a serious of various sized veins and arteries allowing it to service the entire body. There are internal organs you can function without. But, nothing in your body can survive without blood, and blood cannot flow without being pumped through a distribution system that is powered by a heart.

When it became necessary for my Father to undergo heart surgery several years ago it was amazing to me what was involved in replacing a valve, and bypassing several arteries that were no longer functional. The doctors were extremely kind in trying to explain the process in simple terms that we could understand. I think the one thing that remains more clear to me than anything else the doctors said was this, “This is a very serious, possibly fatal task. Anytime you open the heart, best case scenario, you are risking everything.” There was no question in our minds as to the seriousness of the operation. Because his heart would have to be completely stopped there was no guarantee that the doctors could actually get a sustained heart rhythm started again. The risks were enormous but without it my Father had a 100% prognosis of eminent death. Some decisions become so desperate that the risks are outweighed by the fact that there are no other options.

In a spiritual sense, as we seek to understand the structure and functions of the Body of Christ, I believe the central mechanism, or the heart, is in fact worship. Worship is the single action that sustains on a continual basis all other endeavors of the Christian walk and life. The first commandment given to Moses in Exodus 20 determines the priority of worship, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Worship is the heart of our spiritual quest to know and understand God. The term idolatry exists solely as the all-encompassing alternative to worshipping anything other than God!

At the risk of being stereotyped and labeled I want to open the heart of worship. Some decisions become so desperate that the risks are outweighed by the fact that there are no other options. I believe worship is that important and stands alone in a list of what must be engaged for our spiritual life. There is something vitally wrong with Christianity and to correct it we need spiritual open-heart surgery.

We are given the surgical tools we need in Hebrews 4:12. ” the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Let’s allow the word of God to cut away and by-pass everything that is congesting our spiritual heart.
Psalms 27:4 gives us the primary heart of worship, “One thing have I desired of the Lord…that I may dwell in the House of the Lord…to behold His beauty. This is the heart of worship.