Men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken (Luke 21:26).

The Heart

The heart is a hard-working marvel. It can keep on beating automatically even if all other nerves were severed. And what a beat!

It beats an average of 75 times a minute, forty million times a year, or two-and-a-half billion times in a life of 70 years. At each beat, the average adult heart discharges about four ounces of blood. This amounts to three thousand gallons a day or 650,000 gallons a year—enough to fill more than 81 tank cars of 8,000 gallons each.

The heart does enough work in one hour to lift a 150-pound man to the top of a three-story building, enough energy in twelve hours to lift a 65-ton tank car one foot off the ground, or enough power in seventy years to lift the largest battleship afloat completely out of the water.

Heart Transplants

Since the heart-transplant era began about a decade ago, 308 patients worldwide have received transplants. Sixty-three were still surviving in 1977.

When transplants were first performed, patients had only a 22% chance of surviving one year. Of the one-year survivors, 90% return to normal work and lifestyles.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.