No One Could Know

Ben Hitt is being kept alive by one of his father’s kidneys. Now, Ben’s brother Chris is in need of a kidney too, so their other brother Jesse is hoping to donate his kidney to keep Chris alive.

I don’t know this band of brothers, but I do know their one-kidney father, Steve, who lives in Iowa, and I stand amazed at such love.

One of my favorite quotes is, “Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” (Elizabeth Stone) In the Hitt family case, it’s to have one of your kidneys go walking around outside your body.

That’s no doubt the case of another organ transplant story I know about. Anthony Gruber’s heart used to belong to a teenager. This family, also from Iowa, has been fortunate to meet the heart donor’s mother and get together with her on occasion. I’m told that whenever they’re with each other, the donor’s mother loves to lay her ear on Anthony’s chest to hear the rhythm of life that beats inside.

Countless others in the world have received the gift of life at the sacrifice of another — and I’m no exception. No, I’ve never experienced such a surgical transaction, thankfully, but I have donated plenty of my own blood so that others may live. But here’s the thing: when I received Jesus as my Lord, a miraculous transference of life took place that’s even more radical than a human organ transplant or blood transfusion.

The Bible tells us about it in Ezekiel 11:19. God said, “I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh.” In essence, those of us who’ve asked Jesus Christ to come into our hearts have been given a heart transplant.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a right spirit within me,” Psalm 51:10 says.

That’s what Jesus was doing when he was dying on the cross. Three times He told us He would lay His life down for the sheep (us) and that He’d take up again. He also stated the reason He came to earth: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly,” right after he said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”

Yes, we’re all in a battle, but we don’t have to go it alone. Most of America is familiar with John 3:16, which says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” But not as many people are familiar with the next verse that reaches farther: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

The Bible also tells us that Jesus’ blood cleansed us from all sin. He gave us a blood transfusion, and stands knocking at the door of our hearts to also give us a new heart — another shot at a better life. He is a gentleman who’ll not push His way in to where He’s not welcome. He doesn’t shout and kick the door down to gain entrance. He stands, and knocks. If you have never invited Him inside your heart, now is a great time to take Him at His word and do that. He promised He will then never leave you or forsake you.

Will you still have struggles? Yes, at least as long as we live on earth where Satan roams about ” … like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” But when we’re “in Christ,” we can overcome. He makes all things possible. Nothing is impossible with Him.

So, if you’re reading this, and really don’t know for sure if you’re going to heaven or not, He made it simple so you can know. Romans 10:9, 10 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

When someone decides to accept His kind of a “heart transplant,” Romans 8:15 tells us that we’re “adopted” into God’s family. So by giving us a new heart and adopting us as his children, it’s very much like God is like Steve Hitt and the woman who donated her son’s heart to Anthony. Only when we accept Jesus’ donation, we have eternal life.

You can pray something simple like this, “Father, I thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sins, and I ask you to forgive me. I believe you raised Jesus from the dead after He died on that cross, and gave Him new life so that I can have eternal life too. So, Jesus, I ask you you come into my heart — into my life and show me your ways.”

Ask Him to show you more of who He is. He’s amazing. He is the Prince of Peace, and He is coming again soon.

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”           – 2 Corinthians 5:17