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Saturday, January 19, 2013

When I am NOT thinking straight...

One good thing about all the mind-emotion exercises I have done before, it gives me a very good sense of when I am not thinking straight. And at such moments I am able to look at myself as an outsider and evaluate my own words and actions.

Very useful!

Right now I am feeling angry, resentful and frustrated. And though it is really tempting to just use all of that as a justification to do some wrong stuff (as Kent Henry once said, "God, just give me 5 minutes in the flesh, just 5 minutes, I'll...") I am working really hard to not let that happen.

Some things that  help keep me from flying off the handle more often:

Colossians 3:1-4 (NIV) - Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

We have to set our hearts and minds on things above in order to live in the reality of the new birth, the new life that is ours in Christ Jesus. Don't expect God to just zap you into the new life, and hope that you will just wake up the next morning with a renewed mind and a pure heart.

Doesn't happen that way!

We have to deliberately set your mind on heavenly matters. One simple and practical way to do that: take time out to read the Scriptures aloud. If you read silently your mind might drift, but when you read the Bible aloud, and take a few times through the same passage, you will end up giving the Word of God some attention. Our fleshly nature rebels against the discipline, but since when did living by the flesh give us spiritual results?

How about the heart? When we set our hearts on things above, that means we surrender the right for our emotions to run rampant. People tend to go into extremes. They either let their emotions run amok and cause them to say and do stupid things, or they are so afraid of their own emotions that they are not able to acknowledge them or face up to them. When we set our hearts on things above, we choose to value heavenly things. And also we find that the things of the earth will lose their hold over our minds and emotions.

Psalm 73: 25-26 (NIV) - Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

How do we get to that point? By entering the sanctuary of God, spending time in his presence (Psalm 73:17).

Colossians 3:5-10 (NIV) - Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Many people want to put to death what belongs to the carnal nature. Sin loses its appeal to the child of God over time. But few of them understand that God does not intend for us to start at this. We cannot put to death what belongs to the carnal nature until we first set our hearts and minds on things above. God has a pattern, a divine template for holiness for us to follow. We cannot expect God's kind of results if we do not submit ourselves to doing things his way, right? And even Paul cannot let go of the topic. When he tells us not to lie to each other, it is based on our status as born-again children of God. He cannot drop the topic.

Obviously it must be very important!

Colossians 3:11-14 (NIV) -  Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

We are God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved. If you have difficulty walking right in the Kingdom of God, that is because you have forgotten this: We are God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved. Take a few minutes right now and really speak it to your soul. Say "God has chosen me, I am holy and dearly loved!" Say it until you actually start to believe it...

Many of us feel a strong resistance to saying that, because of our lives. We know we aren't the sort of people we ought to be, as children of God. We know God is compassionate, but we often aren't. We know God is kind, but we often aren't. We know God is patient, but we often aren't.

But it is okay!

Take those virtues and put them on as clothes. When we begin, they are NOT a part of us. Come on, no one expects you to be your shirt, right? Likewise we need not expect ourselves to be compassionate and kind. We just need to put them on as clothes, something we wear for the sake of spiritual decency and to cover our flesh

Important: all this comes AFTER verse 1-4. We can do all this only AFTER we have set our hearts and minds on things above. Respect the divine order God has set. If we don't do what comes first, we can NOT do what comes after. We may be able to keep it up through sheer will-power, but after months of not getting enough sleep, or yet another crisis or disappointment, your will-power will run out.

That's when the flesh shows!

So if you want to be able to live right even when you can't think straight (like me right now), make the time and effort to set your heart and mind right. Don't wait till crisis hits, usually by then it is too late. Nobody starts building the foundations in the midst of the storm, not wise!

And if you want some accountablity in your Scripture time, do consider joining me at my Faceboook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/approved.workmen/ which I also call 2 Tim 2:15. You will see where I am in my Bible-reading plan for this year, as well as any immediate thoughts that are too big for Twitter and too small for a proper blogpost. Commit yourself to posting up what you have read from the Bible, and you will find that you do better at keeping up with it.

OK, that's it for now. I have typed more than usual (because I am too tired to edit properly) but I just want to get it all off my chest. Hope my ranting is of some help to you in some way.


Be blessed!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Guidance for Victory

Ever felt like this before?
Psalm 5:8 (NIV) - Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies—
make straight your way before me.
Most of us cannot say we have real physical enemies like King David did, unless we work in law enforcement or are leaving a former life of crime. But many of us know what it is like to have so little room for mistakes in our lives, to face tricky situations where we are on the edge of things going wrong.
And that is when we realize how much we need God to lead us!
I’m talking about seasons when time is so tight, when we have so much to do, many issues to manage, and all are important. I’m talking about times when we have just about enough money to pay for everything but we cannot afford anything else going wrong. And let’s not forget the times we have to deal fairly with family members who are so different, and what is right for one would be unfair for the other (like my two sons, for example).
In tight situations like these, time spent in the presence of God is vital. It sometimes baffles me how people can say they need God’s wisdom, strength and peace, and yet when I ask about their prayer and Bible time all I get from them are blank stares. Did they think God owed it to them to zap them full of wisdom and strength while they were pretty much ignoring him day by day?
David knew where he had to be in order to receive God’s leading. Look at the verse before his prayer for guidance.
Psalm 5:7-8 (NIV) – But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house;
in reverence will I bow down toward your holy temple.
Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies—
make straight your way before me.
This is what God says to us when we are discouraged facing tough situations:

Isaiah 41:8-9 (NIV) - “But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you.I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.”
God reminded the Israelites of that time that they were his chosen people, chosen not because of who they were or what good they could do, but because of the covenant God already made with Abraham. Likewise we too are already chosen by God,

Colossians 3:12 (ESV) - Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…

… chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).

Isaiah 41:10 (NIV) - So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

When we spend time in the presence of God, seeking him for direction and waiting upon him for his strength, he gives us victory over our enemies.

Isaiah 41:11-12 (NIV) - “All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish.  Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all.
We may not have literal enemies that rage against us physically, but unpaid bills and creditors hounding us aren’t exactly a walk in the park either. A crisis that threatens to tear the family apart or serious illness can make us want to run and hide (through drugs, alcohol or even TV).  But God promises us victory.

Some people (including me) want to wake up the next morning and suddenly discover all our problems disappear. We find a few million dollars suddenly credited to our bank accounts out of nowhere, we open the newspapers and discover that the people threatening us in court got swallowed up in an earthquake overnight (one we miraculously slept through somehow) and the argumentative spouse and defiant kids repented in their sleep and woke up as absolute angels.
And all without us doing anything on our part.

But the passage in Isaiah tells us that we are to search out our enemies, to proactively confront them. In the account of King Jehoshaphat’s victory in 2 Chronicles 20, the victory came from the LORD, the people received the victory through faith expressed in their praising God, but they still had to march out to battle and be ready for confrontation.  

Isaiah 41:13 (NIV) - For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, “Do not fear; I will help you.”
God says he will help us. He is there for us in the midst of it all. And if we seek him and spend time in his presence through worship, prayer and the Scriptures, we are able to receive his specific guidance to lead us through serious problems and tricky situations.

And those situations won’t last forever. Follow closely after God and obey him. One day you, like King David, will joyfully proclaim:

Psalm 18:18-19 (NIV) - They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

Be blessed!

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

2013 Bible Group

Hi, everyone!
 
I mentioned a few months back that I would start a Facebook group for those of us who want to be held accountable for our feeding and study of the Bible. OK, I FINALLY got it done. I call it 2 Tim 2:15 group...
 
2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV) - Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

and you can find it here at https://www.facebook.com/groups/approved.workmen/ (copy and paste the url if you can't click it via your email).
 
So head over to that Facebook Group and join in. Start posting up the passages and chapters of the Bible you have read that day, and let us spur each other on!
 


Hope to see you there!