Recently I read a medical report where a team of doctors removed the bottom portion of a man’s heart. This section was diseased and infected and if left unattended the patient would have died. Do you have infected places in your heart; Interior walls that have hardened; Pockets where God is not allowed; Pores that have been clogged by sin, un-forgiveness or hate, preventing the life Blood of Jesus Christ to flow freely? The Great Physician and Healer stand ready and able to perform soul saving surgery on each and every heart that comes to Him. This mighty Surgeon can mend a broken heart (Isaiah 61:1) through His Son whom He sent for this very purpose. He will even remove a heart of stone, replacing it with a heart of flesh (Ezechiel 11:19).

God made man with a heart to serve Him, but mankind proved to be a dire disappointment! God was sorry He had made human beings and His heart was filled with pain (Genesis 6:6). “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal (corrupt)” (Genesis 6:3). He destroyed all the animals, everything that crawled on earth, the birds of the air and every human with the exception of Noah. Noah, his wife, his sons and the sons’ wives were all spared along with two of every living thing on earth. Everything else on the face of the earth that had the life of breath in its nostrils died and only Noah and those on the Ark were left (Genesis 7:21-24), and the waters flooded the earth.

Like a transplant of a physical heart is sometimes rejected, the re-populated human race soon became disobedient and rejected God and His Word once again. With a hard heart, Pharaoh enslaved and oppressed the Israelites, issuing orders to kill all the new-born male children. Moses escaped this death sentence, was raised as a member of the Egyptian royal family, became an out-cast and fled to the desert where God prepared his heart to “set His people free” (Exoduds 3:10). Through forty years of wandering through the wilderness, the stitches began to unravel allowing an open wound and God’s people turned again and again to idol with doubt and disbelief in their hearts. They harbored hate in their hearts for their brothers (Leviticus 19:17) as they began to seek after their own hearts’ desires (Numbers 15:39).

After open heart surgery in a human, one must follow health instructions in order to keep the “new heart” in proper working order. Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy, summarized God’s guidance, provisions and instructions for the Israelites during the previous forty years in the desert. The adults who had escaped Egypt had all died because they had failed to read and obey God’s prescription labels. Moses’ life ended with an offering to the people; life or death, blessings or curses. Although Moses would not be allowed to cross the Jordan River, his plea was that the people be strong and brave, choosing life, continue to love the Lord, obey His teachings and follow Him to the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 30:1 through 31:1-8).

Saul was from the smallest tribe in Israel, Benjamin, and his family the smallest of the tribe. He did not imagine that he, of all people, could be the first king of Israel. God stepped in with His scalpel, gave Saul a new heart and through the Spirit of God, Saul took a risk to fulfill God’s plan (1 Samuel chapters 9 and 10). I wish this story had a happy ending but Saul’s heart was turned away from God and the Prophet Samuel related that his kingdom would not continue. The Lord had found a man after His own heart in the Shepherd David (1st and 2nd Samuel). “God made David their king. God said about him; ‘I have found in David, son of Jesse, the kind of man I want. He will do all I want him to do’” (Acts 13:22 NCV). Now King David had more heart surgeries than any ten men in the bible. David did all that God wanted him to do and then some! After my husband’s open heart surgery, he did all the doctors wanted him to do and then some! It is this “then some” that gets you into trouble. My husband, by keeping regular doctor appointments, managed to keep his blood pumping at the recommended pressure. David, by keeping his repentance prayer appointments, managed to keep God’s life Blood in the linage of Jesus Christ (Matthews 1:1-17).

The final heart surgery was Jesus Christ on the Cross when He became sin in order to cleanse all the sin from mankind (2 Corinthians 5:21). Scientists have determined that the position of Jesus Christ on the Cross would likely cause the lungs to collapse from decreased oxygen, leading to cardiac arrest. The heart could have literally burst, a process known as cardiac rupture. The soldiers pierced His side and blood and water gushed from His lifeless body and all over all who will come into His presence (John 19:32-34). “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19) and so that His broken heart might not be in vain. Continue on the prescribed diet (1 Corinthians 3:1-2, Heb. 5:14) so that all might be well with your soul (3 John 2). Carefully follow the Word of God, doing what it commands (James 1:22), put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) and be healed by the one that God raised from the dead (Acts 4:10). Schedule your heart surgery before that final “cut” (Acts 3:23), and do not stir up God’s wrath with an unrepentant heart (Romans 2:5). Have your heart right when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). “Blessed are those who hear (this prophecy) and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near” (Revelation 1:3)