OUT OF THE BOX

The following article is a re-print of an earlier post. It is a good story...and true, and I am posting it here for those who have not read it.   ---Billy Long L. D. AND THE RELIGIOUS FOLK L.D. was a colorful character who ran a country store a couple miles from Longs crossroads where I grew up. I used to stop in occasionally, and visit with him and any of the local farmers who happened to be standing around the old wood heater that sat in the middle of the one-room store. He watched and listened as people from the local churches dropped in. From his position behind the counter he would hear all the latest gossip and get a good whiff of all the “dirty laundry” to which he was exposed on an almost daily basis. Consequently he did not have a favorable impression of many of the church members who passed by. When one of the local pastors tried to talk with him about his need to repent, LD quickly responded, “You surely don’t want to check behind your members too close. Cause if you

”As in water face reflects face, so a man’s heart reveals the man.” Proverbs 27: 19 It is easier to list problems than to provide solutions. “How To” books are generally disappointing to me. They give insights, inspire, and point in the right direction but are limited in their ability to bring us to full satisfaction in the results we anticipated. This is because the solutions lie primarily in the heart rather than mechanically following a list of steps. The heart, not the mind, determines our spiritual state. It is the heart that determines how a person perceives God and how he deals with life, other people, and his environment. The mind is the battlefield. It can be blinded and confused, but it is a product of the heart. The disposition of the heart determines the revelation a person can receive, the clarity and accuracy of his perception, and the extent of his ability and willingness to change. Although the mind does feed and influence the heart, yet the heart is the rudder. A per