Transplantation

Transplantation

8/10/16

When this word becomes a part of our vocabulary one cannot help but have hope, fear and trust rolled up together.  The mere definition of this word should bring into light the seriousness of why the word will be used, for when this word is actually applied a new life is the entrusted result.  We have for as long as I can remember thought about this word when we have grasped the concept of inviting Christ into our hearts or have we?  This spiritual and physical transplanting scenario for Christ represents the exact definition that this word entails, not a smidge less, for if we do not first realize our need for a transplant, then accept this transplant, our lives are doomed for eternal death and separated from our eternal Creator.

When we look at our bodies and our physical contemplations, it would seem like that we would be invincible for a good portion of our lives are spent moving about like we have no limitations.  Very few of us have known the chronic pain and even fewer of us know what it is like to be debilitated for a majority of our lives; however, for some of my readers, a devastating and debilitating condition does exist.  No matter how I word this type of setting someone will be included in a horrible condition state because while we like to think our bodies are indestructible, we are far from it.  This last weekend our community was rocked with a tragic accident that occurred with one of our young people.  While I never knew him or his family, my nineteen-year-old has his mother for her professor for her pharmacy tech school.  This young man was riding in his jeep when it rolled he was ejected and by the time he reached the hospital was basically declared to be brain dead.  A young life who was physically fit, who loved life, and had the world ahead of him was suddenly cut short and entered into a permanently lifeless state according to all medical purposes.

He was automatically placed o a ventilator because his named popped up in the donor registry, a list which he volunteered to be on; a process which we hope to never be called upon to be accepted, but one that provides a foundational resource for another person.  As my daughter received the bad news as she arrived to class, she could not help but stop for a moment and reflect on her own life and her toils in life then immediately begin to pray for her professor.  What a horrible position for any parent to be placed in, but on the other hand a position that has run through every parent’s head at one point in time.  Being so young and also a fighter, the medical personnel are waiting for this brave young man’s body to finally shut down, a cruel waiting period that cannot produce anything but hurt, pain, and millions of questions.  Yet, why these precious parents wait for their son to pass from this life, another group of anxious parents wait for this single impending death so that their children can receive a new lease on life, a tragic end to a precious life yet one that can provide an escape from the clutches of death for others. 

Being a recipient of a major organ is no picnic and the process of keeping that donated organ does not come easy.  While our bodies are equipped to generously repair itself there are some issues that our systems cannot accept without a great deal of help from outside sources.  Sadly, not every recipient of a new organ is successful and when the dust settles sometimes those lucky donor receivers do not pull through.  Most of the time these types of transplants are hugely successful and allow the recipient to go on with life and live a fulfilled and long life and it this type of result that we all wish to read about in the news and medical journals, but as stated before unless the body accepts this new organ the end result is the same as if the donation had never been given; death.

It is this portion of the article that God wishes for us to understand because it is this process of transplantation that describes the foundation of how His Son Jesus comes into our hearts and changes our lives forever.  See, we are born into sin a process which only leads to one end result and that is eternal death.  Every aspect of our existence represents an abomination to God, a status which He did not create but one that we invited into our lives voluntarily.  Genesis Chapter 2 sets the stage for our holy, perfect and complete lives that God intended for us to have but Genesis Chapter 3 shows us the results and consequences of what occurs when we choose to do things our own way instead of God’s.  The remaining portion of Scripture brings into detail the daily struggles of each one of our lives and reveals the results of our choice to live for God or not to.  I understand that this is a huge gathering of information for a few sentences but it is our responsibility to study the entire Bible and get to know the details of God’s Word (anti-rejection medicine) so that we may live effectively in a dying world.

To enhance this truth God brings into motion a process called Covenant, a practice that can never be broken only violated and it is through this process which we live or die, literally.  Covenant was established through God and originated by Him for His children.  It is a call for us to live separate from the world and to have physical and spiritual signs that mark our existence with God and not the world.  It is through this process that God brought forth His Son to live, die and be resurrected to exemplify this Covenant to all mankind and it is through this process by which Jesus comes into our hearts, changes our hearts through a covenant transplant covered by holy and eternal blood. 

There is no question that as soon as we hit the 5^th cell of our reproductive process our cells and bodies begins to die.  This is not a process in which God created us to exist, but I am so glad that He provided this escape route in His overall plan for our lives because if God was short of being the everlasting and eternal Creator, we would not be here today.  Yes, our physical lives are important for it is through our physical lives that we are witnesses for God’s Kingdom but more importantly, it is our eternal position that God desires the most, it is also the portion of our lives that Satan desires the most as well.  While Jesus stands at our door waiting for a personal invitation to be accepted into our hearts, our enemy also is present offering his take on life.  It is safe to say that many people take the easy road and choose the world because they do not have to put forth much effort when accomplishing this task, but eternal life cannot be awarded when humans choose this path, only through a heart transplant from Jesus can guarantee this eternal gift of life.

The unique portion of a physical transplant is that our bodies are not designed to receive other people’s organs, for we are sufficiently supplied to live out our days on our own.  As medical technology has grown over the centuries it has become common practice for humans to receive organs so that they may have a fresh start once again.  This fresh start has a price which entails having to take certain drugs in order for our immune systems to be masked enough so that we do not reject this new part of our body, even though the new organ can be considered to a perfect fit.  It is this aspect of a transplant that must be adhered to at all times for if the regime is not fully complied with the chances of a rejection state drastically increase as each hour passes.

It is the anti-rejection drugs that are taken that provide the transplant recipient with a barrier of protection so that our bodies recognize the organ that has now been inserted.  If transplant recipients do not take these drugs then our immune systems will do what God designed them to do, inform us that something is present that is not supposed to be there and the rejection process will begin.  It is that important that transplant recipients take these medications because if not, their lives will be over quite soon. Here is an interesting tidbit about organ rejection processes they are ugly and very painful.  There is nothing good about a graft vs host disease process on any level; the same when we reject Jesus after He has been transplanted into our lives.

As the patient who has received their new organ, it is drilled into their heads and their family’s heads that their medications cannot be missed or altered in any way.  It is these medications that will give the new organ its functioning capacity in its new host and if even one dose is missed, tragedy can strike almost immediately.  This concept is identical when we are talking about the transplant that Jesus gives us when we allow Him to enter into our lives.  Jesus lives through His Father’s Word and it is this single anti-rejection drug that shall give us our new heart and continued covering that we need to sustain the fight against the world around us.  NO OTHER MEANS can we obtain this eternal covering and eternal live than from Jesus and His Father’s Word.  It is the choosing of Jesus into our hearts that gives us this hope and it is the trust in God’s Word that provides the eternal medication that we need.  This means we need a continual and constant dose of the Word in our lives so that we may live fully and keep out the foreign invaders that would seek harm to our new heart.

For the last few months, God has been dealing with us about the state of the human heart and how important it is that we understand the complete picture of what is at stake.  As this past weekend’s local tragedy occurred, God placed this article in my heart and used the example of what this young man has done for others by being on the organ donor list.  At the same time God also placed in my heart the remaining portions of this article and what it means when we invite Jesus into our hearts and how important it is that we totally separate ourselves from the world, because it is our nature to be in the world and when we accept Jesus into our hearts He comes in and transplants our spiritual heart with His and it is this process that we need to understand to the fullest.

All of us have heard sermons and sang songs about inviting Jesus into our heart.  While this is a simple process it has a complex result that many of us take for granted or taken lightly because we do not understand what is actually taking place.  When we ask Jesus into our heart, He gladly comes in and begins the transplant process.  If He does not complete this process there would be no way for Him to live in our hearts because we must remember that we are representatives of death and God cannot live where death exists.  Jesus has the miraculous ability to change our lives and if we allow Him access to our hearts He will automatically complete this transplant.  How important is it to know this entire process?  As God has shared with us many times, knowing only 50% of His Word is deadly and in physical terms, it is an “F” on any grading system.

If we only understand a portion of this process we are allowing our enemy to infiltrate our hearts and begin his process of rejection.  Over and over in God’s Word, it states that we must be fully grounded in His Word for it is the only thing that brings us complete protection, and this example is the exact reason as to why the Bible repeats this phrase many times and in many ways.  We must remember that it is the Bible that supplies us with the anti-rejection drugs that are needed in order for our hearts not to reject Jesus.  God has to remain separate from the world in ALL ways and when His Son enters into our hearts that total separation once again begins in our lives.  When was the first separation?  In the Garden of Eden when God established the Garden itself, it served as a boundary – border if you wish – from the other parts of the world; we will be talking about that subject shortly.

It is through this protective barrier that Jesus is allowed to re-establish our perfect hearts according to His presence and when this occurs His blood is then poured over our lives as a cleansing presence so that God cannot see what really lies within our existence.  However, if we do not completely listen to what the anti-rejection drugs tell us, it is a 100% guarantee that at some point in time we will listen to the rejection drugs that our enemy will provide.  It is not our responsibility to read the words of the Bible and then immediately forget them.  It is our responsibility to study each word given in God’s Word and to live by those words each and every second of our lives.  Many of us have claimed to have “read” the Bible and while this may be true what fruits of God’s Word is being portrayed through your heart?  Is it really good fruit or is it just physical works of mammon that will have no bearing or meaning to the lost world?  If the actions of our hearts are focused on worldly objects, then we have already accepted the rejection drugs from our enemy.

The troublesome portion of this topic is that many people who claim to be Christians are failing to recognize that they have accepted these rejection drugs and that they are now in organ transplant failure and threatening to enter into a total rejection status.  We have simply created this problem because we have listened to the world and have accepted its vulgar watered down stance where we have said that it is ok to change the Word of God to an interpretive status.  Each letter in God’s Word has a purpose and it is placed there for a specific reason, and through this reason is why it is vital that keep each word of the Bible in our hearts.

Unfortunately, it is easily contended that the people of the world do not wish to have anything to do with this transplant that Jesus offers.  Furthermore, the Church herself has begun to gaze upon the world’s offerings and has allowed viruses and bacteria into her system thus creating and establishing a rejection pattern that she believes will be a better treatment.  What she does not realize is that this process is actually forcing our spiritual bodies to reject Jesus’ heart and to return our sickened and diseased one instead.  Jesus shall never stay where He is not wanted, but He shall hang on to your heart for as long as He can before His Father tells Him to leave.  This is a tragic situation and one that is unfolding before our eyes and we sit and do nothing.  And this is the Church’s condition I am speaking about, not to mention the condition of the world!

As a sufferer of diabetes I understand that following a regular medication regimen can be a royal pain and one that I wish does not exist, but if I do not follow this pattern to the “nth” degree at all times, my life could be shortened dramatically.  If I flirt with not taking my medication accurately, the same problems can become uncontrollable which will become an unstable systemic status which will cause my body to freefall into a metabolic panic mode.  I also understand that a transplant patient has more serious conditional statutes that must be maintained and while a physical transplant is quite serious the spiritual heart transplant that Jesus provides is free, it is easy and is guaranteed to render a glorious eternal outcome but we must never shorten ourselves with the ONE drug that can provide us this continued life, God’s Word.

There are no other sources of this eternal life giving medication, it comes only from the Word of God and through its continual ingestion, Jesus can perform His miracles in our lives like we have never witnessed before.  We can be totally separated from this world and live a wonderful life through His transplant process and blood covering.  See, when Jesus is present only life can be represented which means that He can only provide purity and holiness, through His blood covering – Covenant.  God guarantees that He shall never violate His Covenant that He established with us so long ago and as long as we continue to seek Him in all our ways and keep His ways, then He will live in our hearts forever.

Why is it important to hide God’s Word in our hearts?  The above article from God gives us this answer.  God loves us so much and He wants us to return to His ways by allowing Jesus to pump His life through our lives once again.  I urge each one of you to allow Jesus the opportunity to transplant Himself into your heart and change your life forever.  The pattern of acceptance is easy and complete and as long as we fully and completely, not just 50%, He will stay and provide His perfect love.  God gives 100% at all times and it is up to us to also give Christ 100% of our hearts to Him as well.  Thank you, God, for allowing your Son to die for our sins so that we may have the opportunity to have Him live in our hearts forever and never have to face being separated from our eternal Father again.  As the group "Veridia" sings that Jesus realizes that we are not just created as defective machines but we were created for perfection and only through a heart transplant from Jesus Himself can this process occur.  When doubt floods your heart if this transplant is necessary, then refer to what God truly states in His Word about your life and how important it really is to Him; no questions shall remain.

DLB