The folks at the hospital asked my father-in-law if he'd like to donate his organs. He smiled and said, "Depends on how soon you want them." Great answer.
Someone somewhere decided to donate their heart if something happened to them. Today, that heart is beating in the former Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney. Doctors had done everything else science can do to save and extend his life since his first heart attack at the age of 37. Stents, bypasses, an implanted defibrillator. But now, at age 71, his life probably depended on the ultimate solution - not a heart repair but a totally new heart.
Right now, there are probably 3,000 Americans whose lives depend on getting a new heart. Their average wait for one to become available is somewhere between six months and a year. Dick Cheney had to wait 20 months for his.
But every day - somewhere in the world - people are getting a new heart. Made possible by a donor who died. And the miracle-working skill of a master heart surgeon. I know. He performed that miracle on me - and on many of the people I love.
The Surgeon is God Himself. The donor is Jesus. It took His dying for me to have the spiritual heart transplant that changed everything.
God made a promise to all of us who know all too well the darkness that lives in our heart. He said, "I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols (all those things that push God to the edge). I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh...you will be My people, and I will be your God" (Ezekiel 36:25-28).
Just this weekend, a lady told me how her heart toward her husband had turned hard over the years of a difficult marriage. But then her face just lit up as she told me how Jesus had given her a "heart transplant" with a new love for her man - and a new marriage. Only the Master Heart Surgeon can do that.
One of God's prophets provided a revealing "spiritual EKG" of the heart behind all our actions: "The heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9 - NLT). Out of our spiritually diseased hearts come words that scar people for life...betrayal of the person we committed our life to...unthinking selfishness...cancerous anger and bitterness...and all kinds of darkness that poison our relationships, our reputation and our future.
Oh, we try a lot of things to get better - just like they did with Dick Cheney's heart. But all our resolutions and religion are temporary and unsuccessful fixes. We need Dr. Jesus.
But He had to die to make possible the new heart that's our only hope of living right - and dying right. God tells us that "the blood of Jesus His Son purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). And that happens, not through being reformed, but by being transformed. From the inside out.
That's the miracle that takes place when you recognize that Jesus - the Man who died for your sin and then birthed eternal life by walking out of His grave - is your only hope. And you tell Him that. When you put yourself in the hands of Dr. Jesus, He, in essence, implants a new spiritual heart. With a love you never had before. A power to be the kind of person you've always wanted to be - and those you love need you to be. And ability to forgive, to break bondages, to heal broken relationships.
When you have Jesus in you, He produces a new life you could never do on your own. And because He removes the guilt and penalty of every sin you've ever committed, He changes your destiny from hell to heaven.
Jesus' new heart miracle can save a marriage, a family, a future, a soul. He did the dying. So we would never have to. And there's no wait for your new heart. He's been waiting for you to call.
If you'd like to experience for yourself what a personal relationship with Jesus can do, I encourage you to check out how to get started with Him at our website, YoursForLife.net