The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2017 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 48

A New Heart

Who do you trust more — God or yourself?

Ps 78
10) They didn’t keep God’s covenant, and refused to walk in his law.
11) They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them.
12) He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13) He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.
14) In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.
15) He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
16) He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17) Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
18) They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.
19) Yes, they spoke against God. They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20) Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?”
21) Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,
22) because they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in his salvation.

Israel trusted themselves more than they trusted God.

“Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?” they mocked. After splitting the sea for them, leading them with cloud and fire, and giving them water from a rock they asked, “Can he give bread also?”

Israel did not trust Yahweh to be their king. How do you trust what you can’t see? So they trusted what they could see – themselves.

That’s normal.

The whole of humanity struggles with this problem. They do not believe a God they can’t see.

The scientific method fails at this point. Scientists trust only what they can see, yet human science is based on what no one has ever seen. Evolution’s founding premise is that life comes from nothing, yet no one has ever known of any life coming from nothing. Charles Darwin thought that life first sprouted from lifeless matter in some little warm pond somewhere. I have a little pond on my forty acres that’s warm much of the year, but I’ve never seen scientists huddling around my little warm pond, hoping to see new life spring up from dead stuff.

So why aren’t they huddled around my pond or any other little warm pond in the world?

Because they know better. They may be scientists but they’re not that dumb.

Their science claims to believe only what they can observe and replicate, yet they wind up believing what no one has ever observed and what no one can replicate. They trust that life comes from nothing yet they cannot bring themselves to trust an invisible God. They can only trust in themselves.

Ps 92
5) How great are your works, Yahweh! Your thoughts are very deep.
6) A senseless man doesn’t know, neither does a fool understand this:

Ironically everything that is visible — all that we see and think of as real, everything that we trust — is not really real.

Heb 11
3) By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.

Everything visible is made out of that which is not visible. All physical matter is like slowed down spirit. Einstein showed that all matter is energy. So everything we see is made up of what you can’t see — energy — including our own physical bodies. That which we believe in most — ourselves — is just an aggregation of agitated atoms wildly whirling away. For a few years, anyway, until we die and fall back into the nitrogen and carbon cycles, cycles that prove a Creator.

Plants take in nitrogen from the soil, you get nitrogen from eating the plant, then eventually you decompose and give the nitrogen back. How green will your grass grow?

Plants breathe in carbon dioxide, use the sun’s energy to make sugar from the carbon, you eat the plant to take in carbon, and then at some point you decompose and give the carbon back to some other living thing.

Decomposing!

That’s mindful of the story where, after his death, Beethoven was seen erasing all his musical scores. “What are you doing?” he was asked. His answer? “Decomposing.”

It’s natural to trust in yourself because you can see yourself. Yet you’re not really real. You’re only a temporary physical apparition, who will pass in the blink of an eye and do the same thing that Beethoven did.

WEB Ps 146:3-4
3) Don’t put your trust in princes, each a son of man in whom there is no help.
4) His spirit departs, and he returns to the earth. In that very day, his thoughts perish.

When Jeremiah said “The heart is deceitful above all things,” self trust is that deception. The heart is “desperately wicked,” KJV, yet it thinks it is good. It tends to trust itself more than it trusts anyone else or even God. We wind up trusting that which is most deceptive, our own natural reactions.

Even in reading that statement, you’re going to wonder if your heart is really deceitful above all things.

Some deception, huh?

WEB Prov 28:26
26) One who trusts in himself is a fool; but one who walks in wisdom is kept safe.

Much of the world dives into this deception of self trust, preaching trust yourself, believe in yourself, whatever you want to do is right for you — then soon they all are decomposing, without ever even understanding why they were composed in the first place.

1Tim 1
17) Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

To distrust what you can see — yourself — and trust what you can’t see — invisible Almighty God — takes a total change of heart.

This requires nothing less than a miracle, the miracle of the new heart.

A different spirit.

This is not just an intellectual conclusion. This is an internal conviction. When we are facing ridicule and ruin, injury and injustice, persecution and trials, or just the end of life — that takes so much more than mental reasoning. That takes a changed heart. Facing the end of life either early or late, and the end of life always comes way too early, is not just a mental exercise but a test of the heart. At such a moment of stress, your head will not prevail over your heart. The reaction of your heart will rule the reasoning of your mind. You cannot overthink what you feel.

For example, a normal human reaction at the end of life is — controlled panic. People grasp at every straw to prolong life, even with little or no chance of success. Yet when Peter’s tent was ready to fold, Peter was calm and confident.

2Pet 1
10) Therefore, brothers, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.
11) For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Yeshua Christ.
12) Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you of these things, though you know them, and are established in the present truth.
13) I think it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you;
14) knowing that the putting off of my tent comes swiftly, even as our Lord Yeshua Christ made clear to me.
15) Yes, I will make every effort that you may always be able to remember these things even after my departure.

Remember when the soldiers came to apprehend Christ, how Peter had panicked and cut off Malchus’ ear? Yet Peter faced his own martyrdom calmly — “the putting off of my tent comes swiftly,” he boldly wrote.

And when Paul was about to be martyred as he had martyred Stephen, he had anticipation instead of panic.

2Tim 4
6) For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure has come.
7) I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.
8) From now on, there is stored up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day; and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved his appearing.

Those were changed hearts, full of faith in God. Unlike Israel, they did trust in God’s salvation.

Moses endured because he saw what can’t be seen. Of course, Moses actually had seen Him once, on Mt. Sinai, for a moment.

Heb 11
24) By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
25) choosing rather to share ill treatment with God’s people, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time;
26) accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
27) By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

Moses endured, as if he saw Him who is invisible. That’s called faith.

Heb 11
1) Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.

Faith is “proof of things not seen” — following an invisible God.

To trust in God more than yourself, to trust in what you can’t see more than what you can see, takes a whole new heart and that new heart comes only from seeking with the whole heart.

We quote from an earlier chapter.

“Israel didn’t see God because they weren’t really looking for him.

They had no image of Yahweh to look at. They had no human government to control their lives. They were led only by the invisible visible God. However, only by seeking God with their whole heart could they find him.

The whole heart.

Jer 24)
7) I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Yahweh. They will be my people, and I will be their God;   for they will return to me with their whole heart.

Seeking God with the whole heart can never be a halfhearted effort.

Just before Israel entered the Promised Land, Moses told them that in the future they would forsake God and then he would forsake them. After their suffering, though, they would again seek God, and then they would do it with a whole heart.

Deu 4:27-29
Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations, where Yahweh will lead you away. There you shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Notice — you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Jeremiah prophesied at the time of the fall of Judah, and he told them that after a long period of captivity, they would again search for God — with all their heart.

Jer 29:10-13
For Yahweh says, “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future. You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You shall seek me, and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.

Notice — “You shall seek me, and find me, when you search for me with all your heart,” From Chapter 6, “Seeking What You Can’t See — With Your Whole Heart.”

Israel didn’t usually seek with the whole heart. The result was that “they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in his salvation,” because they were left with their own deceitful heart instead of a new heart.

Heb 8
7) For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
8) For finding fault with them, he said, “Behold, the days come,” says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
9) not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn’t continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them,” says the Lord.
10) “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,” says the Lord; “I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

This new heart is more than just trying not to break the Ten Commandments. Yeshua never broke the Commandments once or even thought about it, yet He went far beyond that. The Ten Commandments say don’t: don’t kill, don’t adulterize, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t covet. But Christ prayed for His murderers while they were killing Him. That wasn’t just a mental reaction on His part. That was a conviction of the heart, His innermost feelings poured out with His blood — “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”

Now do you think your heart will naturally do that? How do you feel when someone insults you, or physically attacks you, or — woe upon woe — disagrees with your religion? Do you yearn with compassion for that person, or do you burn with vengeful passion?

If Israel was to find God only when they sought Him with their whole heart, can New Covenant Israel do less?

You can’t change until you realize that you’re what needs to be changed. Not just what you do but what you are. What you have to repent of is yourself, that one being that you trust more than anyone.

Your heart, your spirit — what you feel inside, the way you react to the tumult of trials, your unplanned reaction to reality — controls your life. Whether you’re facing death, or personal catastrophe, or religious persecution, your heart is your rudder. To rise above natural human self serving reactions, your natural heart has to change. Even if you know in your mind that Yahweh is God, you have to feel it in your heart.

And just as Israel was told to do, you have to seek this new heart with all your heart.

It’s very hard to seek this new heart with all your heart. Why? Because your heart says you don’t need to.

We do need to change.

From looking out for number 1, which is what people normally do —

WEB Matt 26:33-41
33) But Peter answered him, “Even if all will be made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble.”
34) Yeshua said to him, “Most certainly I tell you that tonight, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.”
35) Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.” All of the disciples also said likewise.
36) Then Yeshua came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go there and pray.”
37) He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and severely troubled.
38) Then he said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch with me.”
39) He went forward a little, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you desire.”
40) He came to the disciples, and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What, couldn’t you watch with me for one hour?
41) Watch and pray, that you don’t enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

47) While he was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and clubs, from the chief priest and elders of the people.
48) Now he who betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, “Whoever I kiss, he is the one. Seize him.”
49) Immediately he came to Yeshua, and said, “Hail, Rabbi!” and kissed him.
50) Yeshua said to him, “Friend, why are you here?” Then they came and laid hands on Yeshua, and took him.
51) Behold, one of those who were with Yeshua stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck the servant of the high priest, and struck off his ear.

WEB Matt 26:69-75
69) Now Peter was sitting outside in the court, and a maid came to him, saying, “You were also with Yeshua, the Galilean!”
70) But he denied it before them all, saying, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
71) When he had gone out onto the porch, someone else saw him, and said to those who were there, “This man also was with Yeshua of Nazareth.”
72) Again he denied it with an oath, “I don’t know the man.”
73) After a little while those who stood by came and said to Peter, “Surely you are also one of them, for your speech makes you known.”
74) Then he began to curse and to swear, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately the rooster crowed.
75) Peter remembered the word which Yeshua had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” He went out and wept bitterly.

To looking up to Number 1.

WEB Matt 27:27-31
27) Then the governor’s soldiers took Yeshua into the Praetorium, and gathered the whole garrison together against him.
28) They stripped him, and put a scarlet robe on him.
29) They braided a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they kneeled down before him, and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
30) They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head.
31) When they had mocked him, they took the robe off of him, and put his clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him.

WEB Luke 23:32-34
32) There were also others, two criminals, led with him to be put to death.
33) When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.
34) Yeshua said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing...”

You see, that ain’t normal. That’s the heart and spirit we have to seek with all our might.