Your Heart   

A person's heart is a very faithful organ. Every day, day after day, hour after hour, moment by moment, it keeps pumping, pumping. Whether one sleeps or is awake, his heart continues to push the life of the flesh through his veins. Like some other important organs of our body, we have but one heart. We have two eyes, two ears, two legs, two kidneys, but one heart. It is a critical organ for our lives. Our very existence depends on the continued pumping of our heart.

The human heart is about the size of one's fist and weights a bit over eight ounces. It is divided into four chambers and enclosed in a sack called the pericardium. It beats 70 times every minute, 4200 times an hour, 100,800 times a day and 36,792,000 times a year. When a person has reached the age of 70 years, the heart has beaten 2,575,440,000 times. The volume of blood pumped by the heart in one year is about 650,000 gallons, or enough to fill more than 81 tank cars of 8000 gallons each. The heart generates enough energy in twelve hours to lift, one foot from the ground, a tank car of 65 tons.

It is said that when a person rests one complete day of 24 hours, the energy of 20,000 heart beats is saved.

A leading American encyclopedia is our authority for saying that the blood circulates through about 12,000 miles of bloodways, or the approximate distance from New York to Hong Kong by way of the Panama Canal.

While this little organ that keeps our blood constantly circulating can be weakened by disease and abuse, if given a fair chance, it will "render excellent service" until, weary with the years of ceaseless toil, it finally stops.

This brings us to a very sobering thought. When your heart stops, where will you spend eternity? While your body will cease to function when your heart stops, your eternal soul will be separated from your body. The soul of the children of God goes immediately to be with the Lord in heaven. The soul of those who are not God's children goes to hell. Look at these scriptures:

"Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (for we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." -- 2 Corinthians 5:6-8. This passage shows the hope of the child of God. Now the other:

"And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments..." -- Luke 16:22,23a.

When our heart stops finally, that is the end of this life. But it is only the end of life on earth as we know it. Our soul lives on - somewhere. Where will you spend eternity?

 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. -- Mark 16:15,16.

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