the heart?

[In Dust and Ashes]

What is the heart? and how is it separate from the soul, spirit and mind?

I've never understood what anyone has meant when they refer to their heart in the non-organ sense. Are they referring to their desires? How have we come to equate that with the heart? Is there something about our organ heart that we dont' know about that somehow ties it in with emotions or other intangible things that we talk about?

I'm not even clear on what the difference between the soul and the spirit are. And "mind" is a pretty ambiguous term. does it go beyond synapses?

[WonderWoman4Jesus]

Wow, sounds a lot like my philosophy class. I see "the heart" as referred in the Bible as not the organ that pumps blood, but part of the "soul." You see when we "accept Christ into our hearts" we accept Him into the part of us that is eternal, our soul, our true lifeforce. The soul is spirit, what God is made of.

Romans 15:6 (New International Version)

6so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 3:17 (New International Version)

17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

In this sense, I see the brain as the physical organ that controls breathing, etc. But the mind is what truly debates and decide. To really get to know God you've got to unite soul, body and mind.

[Oma]

The old divines spoke of the human soul consisting in three parts - the understanding, the will, and the affections.
The understanding would be our reason/thinking part, the highest most noble part of us that distinquishes us from the beasts, and with which we communicate with God.
The will acts upon what our reason has told us is good and desirable.
The affections would be the emotional part of us which we could think of as the heart.
Strongs describes heart as being thoughts or feelings of the mind.

[SeattleSun]

The heart is the source of the river from which our true selves flow. The river can be pristine or it can be polluted. It gives life to our minds and our mouths -- the problems that are upstream. The heart is our essense.

Jer 17:9"The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

Jesus regenerated our hearts because only He can understand it.

Prov 4:23Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.

The heart is the tabernacle of God.

[farmdirt]

Is there something about our organ heart that we dont' know about that somehow ties it in with emotions or other intangible things that we talk about?

Yes, it's very interconnected with emotions, and we are so much more than the sum of our parts. We are not biological machines, first and foremost we are spiritual beings.