Luke 2:35 (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

These are the prophetic words of Simeon to Mary, about her son Jesus.

Do we ever speak our hearts?

Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

The mind is not the heart. If you were given a new heart upon being born again as implicated in Ezekiel 11:19, then this new heart is something other than the mind, will and emotions upon which life has experienced up until becoming a new creation in Christ.

When the heart was evil, the mind and will and emotions of the old man was set upon protecting and hiding that evil heart. Much is said in scriptures about renewing the mind as if the mind is what matters. It is not, it is the condition of the heart that matters.

The renewing of the mind has everything to do with understanding and expressing the new heart. The mind was trained and lived to hide and protect that which is now dead and gone. Our memories are still real but were conditioned by an old heart. Our new heart is not reflective of those memories but yet we treat it as if it was responsible. It was not.

Luke 24:32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

Here are two men on a walk to Emmaus who hear the scriptures, the same scriptures they grew up with and had heard so many times before and yet now, this time their hearts “burn” within them. The only thing that changed for these men was their hearts and for the first time they discovered what that meant.

The renewed mind reveals and shows the new heart condition.

Leviticus 7:12 If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried.

The common element within the mingling here is the oil. Oil symbolizes the anointing and Christ is the anointed, so one can concluded that you bring Jesus into every opportunity to mingle. My biggest problem is I do not know what Jesus would say in every setting. The scriptures tell us He sat and ate with sinners, they do not tell us what He said during those moments.

I can hold my own with anyone when it comes to spiritual conversations. Where I get into conversations that I have no knowledge or interest is when I feel like the outsider struggling to fit in to the group. It is those moments when I lose focus of why I am there in the first place, establishing relationship and trust.

Conversations will not be about things that I can feign interest. If I try and fake it, they will see me as insincere. That doesn’t help. It is in those moments when I should be honing my skills of listening. It is a gift that I could improve upon. It is a gift others can appreciate because it does not put pressure upon them. Listening is how we get to know and understand others.

If I am not invited back then I must trust in the words my Savior gave His disciples.

Matthew 10:13 And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.

Having done all that is asked of me, they reject the Lord who is with me, and not me myself.