Friday, May 24, 2013

What's That Written on Your Heart?


In the 1969 film, The Illustrated Man, is about a man who is tattooed over His entire body. Each set of tattoos tells a different story and the movie unfolds one character after another with one story after another. One of the tales in the movie is The Highway which centers on a husband and wife living by a highway in rural Mexico. Their normal, idyllic lives don’t change even as the highway fills with people fleeing a nuclear war. The story ends with some young travelers they help telling them about the nuclear war, and how the world is ending. After the travelers leave, the residents briefly wonder what "the world" is, and then continue on with their lives.

 

Although I watched that movie as a teen, I don’t remember ever knowing exactly what it was about. To think that vignettes of stories were written in the character’s tattoos is pretty amazing. His body carried the evidence. The movie protrayed the tattoos.

 

While Jesus had no tattoos there was evidence of the Greatest Story ever told written on His body. Two ragged horrendous nail holes through the palms of His hands and the bones of His feet along with the sword wound in His side tell an amazing tale of love, intrigue and death.  Although His story on earth was a mere 33 years, it does not end with death. His story is ongoing because of the resurrection and the life. It is a never ending tale that began before the foundation of the world and continues to this day and will go on throughout eternity. What a wonderful story to tell, what a wonderful message to hear, what a magnificent gift to receive.

 

As a believer you have a wonderful story to tell as well. Your story begins before you were ever born. God says He knew you before you were even formed in your mother’s womb.  God says that He has plans for your life to give you a future and a hope. God says that you were predestined to give your heart to Jesus – that it was His plan that you belong to Him and that you be sealed by the Holy Spirit and kept in the love of God forever.

While we don’t get tattoos to prove we belong to Christ or to tell our story, we do have something more wonderful for the movie of our lives. The Word tells us that we are Christ’s letter and that the proof is written on our hearts. He goes on to tell us to write His Word on the tablet of our hearts. These words are not mere tattoos but rather the hand of God writing on our hearts, right in the center of all that we are, so that we will remember who we are in Christ and what He did for us always.

Oh beloved, God sees your heart. He sees where man wrote castoff, diseased, unworthy, worthless, imperfect, done for and more. For many, the finger of man points to every mistake, every problem, every trial and every storm. The finger of man may have written you off, but behold beloved! God Himself has written your name on the Palm of His hand! No mere pencil print this is –you are engraved on His hand! You may have been erased from someone else’s heart, but you will never be erased from God’s heart. He says you are My beloved and I will never leave you or forsake you. Others may taunt you, dismay you, reject you and walk away, but I AM your sure foundation. I AM your rock of ages. I AM the One who will always stay with you . My Word is my bond and your bond as well. I have written on your heart: redeemed, renewed, regenerated, reborn, reconciled. There are other words as well. As you pick up My love story, the Word of God, and learn of Me you will find that you are beloved, beautiful, destined, cared for, watched over and more.

Your life and mine, as believers in Christ, are beautiful illustrations of the One Who gave it all for us! Rejoice beloved, as the King is calling you and writing the most amazing story of your life all on your heart and for the world to see! He loves you and He’s for you and that’s the most beautiful story of your life!

2 Corinthians 3:3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (NAS)

Psalm 139:16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

Isaiah 49:16 Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands…

Psalm 40:8 I take joy in doing Your will, my God, for Your instructions are written on my heart.

Jeremiah 31:33 But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the LORD. I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.

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