HeartbreakHeart Condition
Heartbreak: Ramblings From a Compassionate Heart - A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

A series of commentaries by Mary T. Hoffman about: humans and animals and the cruelty inflicted upon them; prayer and grace, and the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives; and the problems that plague our lives in this corrupted world.


Heart Condition
By Mary T. Hoffman

What's the condition of your heart?  I am not asking if you have cardiovascular disease or not, but rather, I'm inquiring about the spiritual condition of your heart.

A couple of years ago, a hunting/fishing enthusiast "outdoors writer" for a local newspaper had bypass surgery.  Off  and on I had been praying for the Lord to soften this man's heart.  When I heard about his illness, I hoped that the discomfort of his ordeal would give him a chance to reflect on the suffering endured by God's creatures and that he would relent.

However, just as Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus of the Bible dug in his heels and hardened his heart, so this writer continues to this day to promote the killing for fun of non-humans.  And I continue to pray that he and others like him will see the light. 

In my opinion, the harm that participation in killing does to a person's spirit is far greater and more of a permanent nature than any physical ailment.   So important is this message that Jesus says in Matt 5:29-30:

29    And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

30    And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. (KJV)

I can just hear someone protesting that this doesn't apply to them: that they've been born again, and since Jesus is now their personal Lord and Savior, they will continue to hunt and fish “with God's blessings”.

My reply to such a person is, read Ezekiel 36:26-27:

26    A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27    And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. (KJV)

From my heart,

Mary

Go on to: Heifer International's 2003 Catalogue - Some Personal Thoughts
Return to: Heartbreak: Ramblings From a Compassionate Heart
Watercolor Painting by Mary T. Hoffman