信仰の手引き（英語・English）
How to Change Our Hearts
投稿者
goodnews2
投稿日
2023-09-08 21:30
閲覧数
200
Health Recovery Through Transplantation
These days, a new tooth can be made to replace a rotten tooth that cannot be used. If your kidneys are failing, you can get a transplant from someone with a good kidney and live a healthy life again. The same goes for our hearts. We have deceitful, evil, and dark minds. But we can live brightly when we throw away our hearts and accept the heart of Jesus. So how can we change our hearts? Can the mind be cut out with surgical scissors and stitched back? Of course not! But there is another way to change our hearts.
A Certain Man with an Infirmity for a Long Time
In John chapter 5 in the Bible, there is a certain man who had been ill for a long time. At first, he thought he would be sick for about a month and get better, but a year passed,
ten years passed, and then 38 years passed by. At that time, there was a pool called Bethesda in Jerusalem.
The legend was that an angel sometimes came down and troubled the water in the pool, and the first person to enter the water was cured of whatever disease they had. So, this man who had been ill for 38 years, was also lying by the pool, waiting for the water to be stirred up. He thought to himself, ‘Will an angel really come and trouble the water? But then what? I can’t walk or move... I struggled so hard to get up all these years and only failed. Oh well, it is what it is, I’ll never be cured.’
Then Jesus came to the pool of Bethesda and saw him. Jesus asked the man.
“Wilt thou be made whole?”
“Lord, I want to be cured. But there is no one to put me in the pool when the water is troubled. Because I can’t move at all, someone else goes in first.”
“Rise, take up thy bed, and walk!”
The Disabled Man Chose the Heart of Jesus
The disabled man had a heart thinking, ‘I can’t walk. All I got from trying to get up was falling and hurting myself. I can’t do this.’
But Jesus’ heart was completely different. ‘You can get up. Rise, take up your bed and walk.’ Now the disabled man had to choose between the two different mindsets. He thought, ‘It is true that I have been sick for a long time and cannot walk, but I must let go of my thoughts and accept the words of Jesus.’ So, he tried standing up and felt strength flow into his body.
“What’s this? I suddenly feel stronger. I am getting up!”
Soon the man rose from his bed and began to walk with strength on his legs.
“I’m walking. It’s true! I’m walking!”
It was as Jesus had said.
What Should We Accept?
To change our hearts is to reject what we think and accept the heart of Jesus. We think we are sinners because we have sinned. Therefore, because we think that way, we will go to hell. Even in the Bible, Romans chapter 3 verse 23 states, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” According to these words, we are clearly sinners. However,
if you move on to verse 24, it is completely different. Jesus was crucified and washed away all our sins, then said, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). This means that we are justified and holy.
Now we have to decide what we will accept. We must choose and accept between our thought that says ‘I stole things. I also lied. I’m a really bad kid. I am a sinner.’ or Jesus’ words that say, ‘I have washed away all your sins. You are clean. You are justified.’ There is only one reason why people go to hell; it is because even though Jesus washed away all our sins on the cross, they do not believe that fact and choose to keep their own thought that they are sinners.
When We Accept the Word of Jesus
Faith is changing our hearts from our thoughts to the words of Jesus. If the man with an infirmity for 38 years had not thrown his thoughts away, he would not have been able
to get up and would have remained on his bed. This man was only able to rise when he threw away his thought that he could not walk and accepted the words of Jesus.
Now we must throw away the thought that we ‘cannot do it’, and believe in the words of Jesus. Then, amazing works will also happen to us. Just as we remove a rotten tooth and replace it with a new one, when we throw away our dark heart and accept the heart of Jesus and become one with Him, he will do amazing works for us.
