In May, 1974 my father, at the young age of 59, collapsed with a heart attack, and died before arriving at the hospital.  A week previously, apparently in good health,  Dad had had his annual physical, including a “stress test.” He passed both exams with flying colors. However, his autopsy revealed a hardening of the arteries.  This was his silent killer.  I share this with you because there is a term used only three times in the New Testament that is similar to “hardening of the arteries”.  It is sklerokardia (sklay-rä-cah-dee’-ah).  Jesus used this term to describe a soul  (that center of a person including his emotions, thoughts, and motivation)  as being like harsh, dry, hardened ground.  This term is translated as “stiffness/hardness of heart”, and “stubborn unbelief,” in Mark 16:14.  Here Jesus rebuked his disciples for their sklerokardia. What evidence was there of sklerokardia in the disciples?  Do we, ourselves,  have this health risk?  What symptoms might we have to show us the condition of our hearts?  Could that diagnosis be our silent killer, stealing our life in a spiritual sense?The evidence that someone’s heart is unhealthy is seen in their lack faith.  Some of Jesus’s followers (Mary Magdalene and other women at the tomb, and the men walking to Emmaus) saw the Resurrected Lord.  Joyfully they ran and reported the appearance of Jesus’ resurrected body to the core of disciples. But these followers did not believe them.  They had sklerokardia.  And Jesus chastised them for it.  After all Jesus had told his disciples that he would be resurrected. So why didn’t they believe?What reason was there for not believing that Jesus was resurrected, particularly after their friends told them they had seen the Risen Lord?  Didn’t they trust their friends’ reports?I believe this might be the reason for their heart-condition:  They had not yet grasped the FACT that the Father God of Jesus was the Creator of our Universe. These disciples with sklerokardia had not yet had a heart transplant.  They had not embraced the type of faith their Father Abraham had: that Elohiym is a “God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” (Romans 4: 17).Thank the Heavenly Father that he knows the condition of our hearts. If we ask him, God will reveal to us the degree of our hardened arteries, by doing a spiritual angiogram. Thank Holy Spirit that he gives us the gift of faith, which — when poured into us — can clean out our spiritual plaque.  This process of anointing will cause the grace of God to flow freely through our veins.Thank the Sovereign LORD that he will give us a new heart and put a new spirit in us.The Great “I Am” promises: “I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and cause you to walk in my statues.”  (Ezek. 36: 26-27.)All we have to do is surrender our heart, not just once in our life, but day-by-day and minute-by-minute. The Spirit will do the rest. After that, we will not be threatened by the silent, spiritual killer of an unbelieving heart.  We will be transformed in our soul to believe that we can — BECAUSE OF WHO GOD IS  —call into existence that which does not exist.  We can believe our GOD will create new things out of nothing,  and make blessings out of sufferings.  When we believe in the Resurrected Lord, we know that life and victory will come out of death and suffering.Thank you, Jesus.In Christ,