How's your heart?

There are lots of things I've never done, one of them is to read 1 and 2 Chronicles. I probably made a half arsed attempt at college so I could tick a reading report but never gave it a fair go. Well, I've read through these 2 books over the last few days. It's intersting what jumps out at you when you tackle books of the bible in one go. There was a word that kept on popping up. Wholehearted. More than a word, it's a concept. The plea from prophets and kings - when it comes to God, worship Him wholeheartedly. It's also a thermometer to test Israel. Is she wholehearted towards the Lord, or is her heart divided? How's your heart? 2 Chronicles Ch 7 tells of King Hezekiah (a good king) who started to celebrate the passover again. His daddy had neglected the people and not led them in the ways of the Lord, and so celebrating the passover again was a big deal. But when everyone got together to make the sacrifices, most of them had not purified themselves as they should have because the law of the Lord had been forgotten for a generation. Now I was expecting that God would freak out and fry their unpurified butts. But check out what happens: "But Hezekiah prayed for them, 'May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God even if he is not clean acording to the rules of the sanctuary.' And the Lord heard Hezekaih and healed the people." Even if the letter of the law wasn't satisfied the law was still fulfilled. Perhaps a better way to put it would be that the law was fulfilled because the hearts of the people (and not just their rituals) were committed to God. As a moral checklist the law is impossible to keep. That's the whole point. Hezekiah saw that the law was to drive people wholeheartedly back to God asking for pardon by His great mercy. One of the few teachers of the law in Jesus day to hit the nail on the head summed it up well. "To love Him with all your heart and all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." (Mark 12) Jesus commended this man as being petty darn close to the kingdom. Where's your heart at? Caught up in the fuss of loving religion? Or do you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and all your strength . . . Scott