Archive for Life
The Mind of Christ
Posted by: | CommentsThe things we believe to be true are the engine of our thought life. Our thought life is the ground on which God engages us and He commands that we take every thought captive that is not pleasing to Him. God wants to replace our thought with His thought. He wants to exchange the mind of Christ for our carnal mind. The Three Holy Lies, if believed to be true, are a major roadblock that allow us to continue to think in ways that seem right to us but are not pleasing to God. All of the thoughts we have that are based on believing the Three Holy Lies are not pleasing to God. These are the thoughts we must take captive and these are the thoughts that we must take to the cross as we crucify the seven deadly sins of self.
In this blog I have discussed the concept of living Life on a Cross. To crucify self, the process of taking thoughts captive must be integrated with the Life on a Cross model. When we are able to do that a powerful transformation begins to take place at our spiritual core. The power of God to really change us at the level of thought and motive becomes evident to us. As we become more patient, more kind, more forgiving and more obedient, we begin to authentically reflect God in our lives for the first time. This is real Christianity. This is the purpose of God. This is how we are putting on the mind of Christ.
The Sin of Self-Seeking
Posted by: | CommentsSelf seeking involves taking advantage of situations and circumstances without regard for the consequences to others. Self seeking only cares for how things can be better for me! Even though there will be consequences for others, self seeking enables us to rationalize and discount the collateral damage.
There is no better example of self seeking than divorce. When a couple divorces a family is destroyed. Children are deprived of their need for both parents to raise them in a loving home. In-laws are forced to take sides and extended family wars break out. Resentments hang on for years and the lives of many people are severely disrupted and changed. All of this happens because one or two people decide they aren’t as happy as they want to be and they believe they are unhappy because of their spouse. Most people who get divorced rationalize the effect on their children by saying, “The children will be much happier when I am happier!” A fundamental fact of self seeking is the idea that everything revolves around me.
It’s a well known statistic that 50% of new American marriages end in divorce. The divorce rate for second and third marriages is worse! 60% of subsequent marriages fail. The self seeking continues in the second marriages and disaster repeats itself. It is not unusual for men and women to have children from three and four failed marriages. As each new relationship fails to produce the level of happiness people want, their subsequent marriages are more easily abandoned. The only thing learned from each failure is that the decision to divorce becomes easier to make. The self seeking never stops.
What Has God Called You to ?
Posted by: | CommentsChristians are not called by God to attend church regularly. Christians are not called by God to tithe. Christians are not called to donate to building funds or support ministries. Christians are not called to DO anything. Christians are called to be holy. Christians are called to BE! When I say Christians are called to be, I don’t mean called to maximize their full potential by seeking some secular purpose for their lives. Christians are not called to be successful. Christians are called to obedience by faith and to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. When that happens, they really begin to do things.
As a wise man (Zig Ziglar) once said, “You have to BE, before you can DO“
Characteristics of Love – It Does Not Brag
Posted by: | CommentsDoes Not Brag – Anytime we talk about ourselves and proclaim the goodness of something we have done we are bragging. Even if we do so with false humility and a self-deprecating manner, it is still bragging. A Christian being conformed into the image of Jesus knows their life is none of their business and anything good they do is the result of Jesus living His life through them. If a Christian is to brag or boast it can only be in what Jesus has done through them. If we are proud of our works and like to spend a lot of time telling others about our successes then we are bragging and we are carnal.
Feelings and Choices
Posted by: | CommentsIt is the combination of belief and thought that produces the way we feel and this is where the human condition becomes quite perilous. Years ago, before I learned the things I now write and teach on this subject, I could think my way into states of utter panic, based on very little that was actually happening to me. Most of my thinking was dominated by things that had happened in my past, or might happen to me in the future. I had no idea how to remain emotionally in the present. Consequently, most of my thinking was wrapped up in anger and resentment over past injustices or a lot of fear about what might happen to me in the future. This kind of thinking created emotions not based on anything that was actually happening in my life at the time. The feelings I thought myself into became the monster that controlled my choices.
How much of your thought life is spent in the past or in the future. If you spend much time in either I imagine you are frequently angry or fearful. To change all that you have to live in the moment. That requires faith in God and trusting him for all you need. In the present moment is peace because God is found in the present moment.
The Authenticity of Salvation
Posted by: | CommentsI can’t wait to get to heaven to ask the Lord which of my multiple surrenders he actually accepted. If I was pressed to identify a specific time it would probably be in 1986 when I was forty-three. That is when I know I reached the end of me and became willing to let God run my life. I decided and accepted that my life was truly none of my business. I laid down my rebellion and clearly saw that I was a man with a depraved, self-seeking heart. I knew that by the righteous judgment of God I deserved death. I fully accepted that truth and gave myself over to it.
I am not a ‘salvation inspector’ and I don’t judge the spiritual condition of others. I’ve had enough difficulty dealing with my own! A person’s spiritual condition is between them and God. However, I know there are many people who secretly fret over the authenticity of their relationship with Christ. There are lots of reasons that fuel this worry, but the biggest is a lack of fruit. By lack of fruit I mean an absence of love, joy, peace and the other character traits of Christ that are supposed to be present in the life of a Christian. In America today it is difficult to tell the difference between Christians and non-Christians, based on how they live and what they do. As it has been said, if many of us were put on trial for being Christians there might not be enough evidence to convict us. The reason for the lack of evidence is what the Apostle Paul called carnality or being fleshly. It is quite possible for Christians to live in a carnal condition. Paul’s letters to the church at Corinth acknowledge and verify the existence of carnal Christian people – People who have been saved by grace and regenerated but continue to live by their own self-will.
Eternity is in Our Hearts
Posted by: | CommentsMan instinctively knows that his soul will transcend time and exist again beyond physical death. Man seeks to define God so that the mystery of eternity can be understood in natural terms and allow himself to gain control over it. But, God has not granted man the right or the ability to define Him by experience or natural observation. God retains the right to reveal Himself to man and it is only by His own revelation of Himself that man has any hope of knowing anything about God or his relationship to God.
Some Things Must Be Revealed
Sometimes it seems there is nothing humanity will fail to master, given enough time, imagination and effort. The frontiers of knowledge and scientific advancement seem limitless. There are, however, two questions that are beyond the ability of humans to answer by their own thinking and observation.
1. Who, or what is God?
2. What is our relationship to God?
It was in 1977-78 that I began a quest to discover the truth about God. I think such a quest is common to most people at some point in their life. In my case, I was not well focused during the first few years I was investigating God. I would run into someone who had an interesting perspective on God and spirituality and I would chase that idea until it became illogical for one reason or another. Eventually it dawned on me that all I was doing was evaluating a lot of human opinion and there was no way to verify the truth of anything on a factual basis. The only conclusion I could reach was that a lot of people seemed to believe this way or that and they were very sincere about it. This was long before I understood how sincerely people can believe a lie.
When it comes to defining God, we must have an authentic revelation from beyond ourselves and the natural world.
God At the Source of All
Posted by: | CommentsI want to explain what I think it means to define God. In the largest sense, defining God is the process of trying to understand the creation and all that is in it. Defining God is the process of finding ways to interpret the meaning of human life and the spiritual nature of humanity. Defining God involves discovering and understanding His nature, His identity, His character, and all that He is.
Nearly every process of human curiosity and discovery is somehow related to defining God. Science seeks natural explanations for the natural world. Psychology seeks to find the sources of human behavior and explain them in secular terms. Medical Science seeks to understand and treat the disease and discomfort that play havoc with our physical body. Astronomers peer into space to find origins and beginnings. Biologists and archeologists seek connections to man through ancient animals and prehistoric goo from millenniums past. Religion tries to explain and meld the natural world, the universe and the spiritual into cogent systems of belief and practice. At the root of all these things is one reality: God.
What we believe or disbelieve about God and religion are the most influential truths or lies a human being imports into their Body of Truth. They are the truths of all truths. They are the foundational truths of our existence and every other truth or lie we accept must be consistent with what we either believe or do not believe about God. It is either the presence of God or the absence of God that becomes the foundational rudder of our existence in this world and the next. God has set eternity in the hearts of men and we labor to understand what it means.
“…He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Ecc 3:11 (Amplified Bible)
My Life is None of My Business
Posted by: | CommentsReal Christian maturity will not be achieved until we come to believe that our life is really none of our business. Our life is none of our business, because the life we must live is not ours – the life we are to live is the life of Jesus Christ who lives in and through us. It is His life, His mind, and His truth that we must accept and to which we must yield. I have no rights. Spiritually, I know nothing apart from Him. I can’t define truth by my own power and reasoning. Truth only comes by the Spirit of God and that truth is Christ.
In the modern world it is difficult for people to accept the idea that their life is none of their business. That is one of the reasons people struggle with real Christianity. Dying to yourself and allowing you to be molded into the image of Jesus is what Christianity is about. If you try to hang on to your own life it works against God’s purpose.
Is your life your business?
Freewill, Choices and Character
Posted by: | CommentsIts very important for Christians to understand what God is trying to accomplish in us. Many believers are amazed to learn that God’s purpose for their lives is to conform them into the image of Jesus! God’s goal is to use all things in our lives to help us think like Jesus, act like Jesus and see life and the world as Jesus sees it (See Romans 8:28-29).
Every human being has the power to make choices from their free will. It is through the choices we make that God is able to shape the development of our character and move it toward replicating the character of Jesus. I don’t think most believers understand that God wants them to be conformed to Christs character and that such conformation is possible in this earthly life. While its probably true that we will always fall short of attaining the perfection of Christ in this life, the Apostle Paul urges us to press on toward that goal.
The choice God wants us to make in our earthly affairs is to choose to love as Christ loved. This is where it gets tough because choosing to love means that we choose to be patient when we don’t want to be. We choose to be kind when we don’t feel like being kind. We choose to forgive when we really want to hold a grudge. We choose not to seek for ourselves when we are fearful of not getting what we think we need and want. We choose not to be angry when we are wronged. And we choose not to be fearful when we are threatened (See 1 Cor 13).
For genuine believers who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, it is possible to grow into this kind of character and that same character is built by the choices we make out of our own free will.
