Do not invite Jesus into your heart (Proverbs 22:17-19)

Yup. That's not a typo. MASAO really said it.
Do
not invite Jesus into your heart. But rather, give your heart (and
your mind, your body, your future, your all) to Jesus.

The
phrase, "invite Jesus into your heart" is NEVER found in the Bible (This
phrase was invented by people in modern times to appeal to an
emotion-oriented and self-centered generation).

What we see in
the Bible are people giving themselves to Jesus to follow him. We see
Peter dropping his nets to follow Jesus. We see Paul ditching his
popular Pharisee crowd to follow Jesus.

The Bible speaks of
"receiving" Jesus (John 1:12, Revelation 3:20), but these verses do not
refer to inviting Jesus into our "hearts." These verses speak of
receiving Jesus as Lord, Saviour, and Friend.

The problem with
"inviting Jesus into our hearts" is that it reinforces a small, cuddly,
self-centered, action-less view of Jesus.

When you love and
honour a person, do you invite him into your heart? No, that's silly.
You give him your heart. You trust him with your heart. You persevere
to understand him. You wait patiently when he is silent. You smile
just to know that he is thinking of you. You let him plan your future.

Jesus
is not a "feeling" or an "idea." He is a person. He cannot fit in our
puny little hearts. He is God taking on human form. Sure, he is not
in front of us right now. But he will return, or we may go to him
before that. But he has left his words. He has given his Spirit so
that we may experience his presence.

Just as a friend or a family
member remains REAL no matter how far he is from us at the present
moment, Jesus is real. And we have faith in him not by inviting him
into our hearts, but by getting to know him and following him.

I was reading over my youth facebook group discussions or devotions that Masao Morinaga has kindly and lovingly posted. I have been challenged by a lot of this topics. This topic can struck a lot of people I think.