Changed heart

AN ANCIENT Japanese sage told the story of a visitor, led through heaven, by an angel.

One huge hall had an enormous collection of tongues on the walls. The visitor asked the angel what this represented. The angel explained, “These were the pious tongues of people who enjoyed some religious talk but their hearts were not pious before God, so only their tongues made it to heaven.”

In another large hall there were rows and rows of benches with flesh-coloured, shell-like shapes. Again the visitor asked the angel to explain. “These are the pious ears of people who loved to hear godly words of truth,” said the angel, “but their lifestyle was not in harmony with godly truth, so only their ears made it to heaven.”

There is a truth here that we should take to heart. Pious words spoken and heard do not in themselves bring us the everlasting delight of heaven. That needs a changed heart that walks the talk and obeys what it hears.

Jesus once talked to a man who loved speaking pious words and listening to godly truth – the Pharisee, Nicodemus. Jesus told him that it wasn’t enough. A change so radical was needed that Jesus spoke about it as “being born again”. Trusting in Jesus’ death and resurrection transforms our lives so that our whole self makes it to heaven.

JOHN WESTENDORP, Christian Reformed Church