Tag: Declare

The Mouth Reveals the Heart

This morning I am led to the 5th verse in the Roman Road to salvation, Romans 10:9 for my continued study on the word “heart”. This verse is enlightening yet it is verse 10 that captured me this morning as to my learning for the day.

“9because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” – Romans 10:9-10 (ESV)

Yes, we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth. Here is how I was struck this morning. The mouth of the believer reveals our heart’s belief. It is something that cannot be forgotten or set aside. Our belief is not to be kept to ourselves. We are to declare our belief in the LORD for the world to know. We are to believe and declare.

Our heart is the vessel where the LORD resides in us. It is vital that we allow Him to take up residence in our heart. But those around us cannot see our heart and that He does indeed reside there. So we need a way to show the LORD to the world. The first way for that is to declare Him to the world by our mouth. We are to speak of the LORD. We are to sing of and to the LORD. We are to announce His presence in our lives and for all the world to see and take hold of Him, and that is done with our mouth.

I know what you may be thinking, but aren’t we to demonstrate the LORD to the world through our actions. The answer is yes, but look at how I indicated we declare the LORD to the world, “first” is with our mouth after we have believed with and in our hearts. Then we live our lives continuing to speak of the LORD and acting as He intends us to act to fulfill the work He has for us.

I am not great at either of these by some standards. I have work to do in being more and more like Christ would have me be. But one thing I do know is that those who are around me most do know that Jesus is LORD as I have declared my heart’s belief in Him with my mouth.

What is your process in declaring the LORD? Are you relying solely on your actions to speak for your beliefs? Where actions are important, what if you were to confess with your mouth that the LORD indeed resides in your heart?

Jesus Built His Church

“18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” – Matthew 16:18 (ESV)

And there you have it, Jesus states that He will build His church. And that brings us to where we are today. Jesus built His church and nothing can destroy it (as noted in the third part of the verse).

Let’s look at the first part of the verse where Jesus is addressing Peter. Peter is the rock that the church is built on. Why is that so? Yes, the word Peter is similar to the word rock or stone in Greek. But I also think that there is more to it than just Peter being the rock. And for that look at a couple of verses prior to the above to speak to my thoughts.

“15He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ 16Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” – Matthew 16:15-16 (ESV)

And there it is, Jesus asks the disciples who they say Jesus is. Before anyone else could answer, Peter speaks up to declare Jesus and Christ and the Son of God. Peter beat them all to the punch and stated what I believe the other disciples would have stated as well. I have written in the margin of my bible that the questions asked by Jesus is “the question we all have to ask”, and “can we state the same with conviction” as Peter so boldly declared.

This is where my thoughts come in. I believe that Jesus built His church as the people who have declared Him as Christ, LORD, and Son of God. When we accept the free gift of salvation we declare Jesus as our LORD and Savior. We boldly state, as Peter did, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”.

“19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” – Matthew 16:19 (ESV)

The you here is identifying us all. As noted in the commentary of my bible: “Peter is give the authority to admit entrance into the kingdom through preaching the gospel, an authority that is subsequently granted to all who are called to proclaim the gospel.” We are all called to proclaim the gospel as followers of Christ and therefor all have the authority Jesus mentions in verse 19 above. We are all the church on which Jesus builds. We are not some building that will eventually fall to the ground. We will stand throughout this world and will always prevail.

How do you think about the church? Are you stuck in the idea that it is a building where services are attended? What if the church is the people who follow Jesus and declare, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”?