Heart Tracks - Offbeat

"My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as You and I are one, Father - that just as You are in Me, and I in You, so they will be in Us, and the world will believe You sent Me." John 17:21......"Are our lives in Him made up of minor course corrections, or of radical life transformation?" Lisa Bevere

Whether we're aware of it or not, our "hearts" will resonate with something or someone in this life. To what does your heart and mine beat along with? If it is anything other than what Jesus prayed for in John 21, than we can be sure that our hearts are "offbeat." We're out of tune with the Father's heart. An orchestra made up of accomplished musicians can be ruined in their sound if only one of them is even slightly out of tune with the rest. To what degree might our hearts be out of tune with His? Where in our lives are we offbeat? Put another way, to what degree, if any, do our hearts beat with the same passion and intensity as His? Do we have hearts that enable us to see what He sees, hear what He hears, and above all, love as He loves? And all of this not from a human perspective, but a Kingdom one. Do we share in what are the deep joys of the heart of the Father as well as what grieves that heart? Or, do we only have anguish over the things we feel are missing from our lives?

Oswald Chambers said something to effect that we need to get into God's "stride." That is, we must walk in life according to His pace, and not our own. Yes, I know that He leads us each in His own way, but He does not permit a lagging behind. His expectation is that we walk with Him, in His stride, and at His pace, and all by His grace. When this happens, our hearts beat, respond, and our moved by the very things that move the heart of God. Likely most of us have seen the prayer that asks that our hearts be moved by the very things that move the heart of God, but this is a very dangerous prayer to pray. Dangerous to our flesh, for the flesh will never pray or ask for it. To have such a heart will require that we go to His cross, and die to all that is not Him so that it we live to all that is. Anything less will result in an offbeat life.

Juan Carlos Ortiz said that in the west, we present a gospel that appeals to man's interest. "Jesus is the Savior, the Healer, the King, coming for ME. Me is the center of our gospel." Such a gospel will guarantee a life made up of minor course corrections, because we never see ourselves as we really are, or Him as He truly is. We live offbeat lives. But when, by His grace, our eyes are opened to see Him, we not only see what we are without Him, totally lost, but also who we can be in and with Him. Then begins the journey of walking in His stride, hearts beating with His.

In the late 1960's, South African surgeon Christian Barnard became famous for doing the first heart transplant. Yet the Father has been doing them in Christ for over 2000 years. Have you received yours? Is your heart beating with His.....or do you go on being out of sync.......offbeat?

Blessings,
Pastor O