Mind Change Moments

God Does Not Tire of Us

2012-01-15T22:52:00.003-06:00

Those of you who have listened very long to this Web cast or read my book, Mind Change, know that I find in the Old Testament Psalms some of my greatest encouragement and inspiration. I decided a year or two ago to read one psalm each day and make some notes as I went along.

One of the things that strike you as you go consistently through this wisdom literature is how often David or the other psalmists say things like “Hasten, O God, to save me. O Lord, come quickly to help me” (Psalm 70:1). Close to fifty times the psalmists implore God to give “help” using that specific word.

As I read the prayers and cries of these men that God thought enough of to want to preserve their writings for us, I am encouraged. I am encouraged to see that I am not alone in feeling that life is too much for me to handle. I am not alone in often feeling that I need a lot of help.

But there is another more important reason that I am encouraged. I can sometimes wonder if God grows weary of hearing me asking for his help again and again. After all, how would a friend feel if I came to him this often with requests? But the fact that the Holy Spirit wanted us to have the Psalms reminds me that God absolutely does not tire of our cry for help. The book of Revelation says our prayers, and that would include these for help, come up to God like sweet smelling incense. Be amazed. Be encouraged, and be helped. God does not tire of us in our need.

Focus Scriptures

Psalm 70:1-5

For the director of music. Of David. A petition.

Hasten, O God, to save me;

O Lord, come quickly to help me.

[2] May those who seek my life

be put to shame and confusion;

may all who desire my ruin

be turned back in disgrace.

[3] May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!"

turn back because of their shame.

[4] But may all who seek you

rejoice and be glad in you;

may those who love your salvation always say,

"Let God be exalted!"

[5] Yet I am poor and needy;

come quickly to me, O God.

You are my help and my deliverer;

O Lord, do not delay.

Psalm 18:6

In my distress I called to the Lord;

I cried to my God for help.

From his temple he heard my voice;

my cry came before him, into his ears.

Psalm 88:13

But I cry to you for help, O Lord;

in the morning my prayer comes before you.

Who is King and Who is Not

2012-01-09T12:12:00.003-06:00

From time to time with a Web cast like this one, that might seem to someone to represent another positive thinking approach, I think it is a good idea to remind listeners of something. Everything we try to say here is built on the ultimate and most vital mind change of all.

Years ago a Galilean man with a simple Jewish background, said to the people who would listen: “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Change your minds, and believe the good news.” From an obscure village in a poorly regarded region came the stunning announcement that the kingdom of God was breaking into this present age. Those who would receive it must turn their minds from the standards of this age to the standards and values of the new kingdom.

With this word, Jesus was not introducing “Helpful Tips for Staying Positive” or “A New Plan for Personal Success.” He was bringing the message of ultimate reality and calling for the most drastic and radical reorientation of the mind and heart that is possible. That mind change started with the acceptance that in Jesus of Nazareth the future kingdom of God was breaking into the present. That was the good news. What the Jews had long awaited, had come, though not at all as they expected.

One American president famously wanted to take what he considered the moral teachings of Jesus while leaving aside all the business about the kingdom of God. He even put together his own shortened version of the New Testament. How foolish. Trying to live the ethics of the kingdom without the kingdom or the king is like trying to run Mac software on your PC. Wrong operating system!

Some today try to find encouragement in the Scriptures, without changing their operating system. It cannot work. Every mind change we talk about here involves first changing your thinking about ultimate reality and your heart about who is king and who is not.

.-----------------------------------------.

Mark 1:15

"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

Luke 6:46

"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?

Luke 9:20-26

"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

Peter answered, "The Christ of God."

21Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."

23Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 26If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

John 14:5-6

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Hope for the Simple

2012-01-01T22:12:00.004-06:00

In Psalm 116:6, the psalmist writes:

The Lord preserves the simple;

I was brought low, and He saved me. (NASB)

Life can be very challenging and I can wonder sometimes if I am up for it. Actually “sometimes” is not the best word. If I look back at things I have felt over the years or read through some old prayer journals, the word “often” is probably a lot more accurate.

Before our first child was born, I remember standing by her bed that was all ready for her appearance and praying, “Lord, I am not sure I am ready for this.” Thoughts like that I have come to me in a variety of situations, both before and after.

But I find great encouragement in this verse from Psalm 116. “The Lord preserves [or protects] the simple.” Most of us don’t like to be called “simple.” The Hebrew word used here is not one that was flattering. It describes those who need a lot of help.

But, hey, that’s me, and Scripture says that the Lord preserves or protects people like that. Read the whole Psalm. You will find that the writer was one who felt overcome by life, with eyes full of tears and feet that were stumbling. He did not feel like your “sharp all-together guy.” But also pay attention to the tone of the Psalm. The writer was humble and grateful.

That is the key. If we are humble enough to admit our “simpleness,” we can claim the promise that God will be faithful in our lives, and in this case “simple” will mean “saved.”

Focus Scripture

Psalm 116

1 I love the LORD, for he heard my voice;

he heard my cry for mercy.

2 Because he turned his ear to me,

I will call on him as long as I live.

3 The cords of death entangled me,

the anguish of the grave came over me;

I was overcome by distress and sorrow.

4 Then I called on the name of the LORD:

“LORD, save me!”

5 The LORD is gracious and righteous;

our God is full of compassion.

6 The LORD protects the unwary;

when I was brought low, he saved me.

7 Return to your rest, my soul,

for the LORD has been good to you.

8 For you, LORD, have delivered me from death,

my eyes from tears,

my feet from stumbling,

9 that I may walk before the LORD

in the land of the living.

10 I trusted in the LORD when I said,

“I am greatly afflicted”;

11 in my alarm I said,

“Everyone is a liar.”

12 What shall I return to the LORD

for all his goodness to me?

13 I will lift up the cup of salvation

and call on the name of the LORD.

14 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD

in the presence of all his people.

15 Precious in the sight of the LORD

is the death of his faithful servants.

16 Truly I am your servant, LORD;

I serve you just as my mother did;

you have freed me from my chains.

17 I will sacrifice a thank offering to you

and call on the name of the LORD.

18 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD

in the presence of all his people,

19 in the courts of the house of the LORD—

in your midst, Jerusalem.

Praise the LORD.[a]

God in a Food Trough

2011-12-18T20:12:00.002-06:00

God—omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. God Almighty. El Shaddai. Just trying to think about him can blow your mind. But to think that God, who is by definition limitless, would choose to take on the greatest limits that we know, can certainly trip all your circuits.

And yet, that is the message of the New Testament. Who would have ever thought this up? Certainly it wouldn’t be the logical conclusion of Judaism—the religion of God, the exalted and high and holy one.

However, right in the midst of first-century Judaism, the story arose. Immanuel—God with us as a helpless child, totally dependent on others for everything. Immanuel—God as one of us. The image here is powerful—the pre-existent Son of God, who fine-tuned the universe, being born in a stable. The one who can do anything he wants whenever he wants is wrapped in torn strips of cloth and placed in a manger, a food trough—the best they could do for a make-shift crib.

God in a food trough! God showing us how far he is willing to go to be near us and part of our experience, showing us that God and man were meant to be together—not in different worlds. The God of the universe broke into our world as a baby to show us that getting down in the trenches with one another is more important than getting one up on one another. What matters in life is not how high you go but how much you give of yourself. What matters is love. That’s the message of God in diapers sleeping in a food trough.

Wanting Life My Way

2011-12-11T18:05:00.000-06:00

My wife’s favorite movie, Lost in Yonkers, is one most people didn’t get that excited about. (She just has better taste than most!) The main character, played by Mercedes Rule, is Bella, a woman in her mid-thirties living in New York in the 1940s. Bella has a very childlike personality and is a bit on the slow side. After meeting a guy who wants to marry her, she decides to get her family (mother, aunt, brother and nephews) together to announce the big news.

After dinner she begins to seat everyone in the parlor just where she wants them to be. All of this is driving her brother, played by Richard Dreyfuss, absolutely crazy. He keeps pacing around the room, refusing to sit down. Bella pleads with him to come over and sit in his designated spot, but he refuses. Finally, in desperation she cries out, “No, no! You can’t sit there. This is not the way I pictured it.”

The truth is that this is the way a lot of us are about life. We get attitudes toward other people or we get attitudes toward God because things aren’t working out “the way I pictured it.” We practically canonize our own expectations and treat them as the 67th book of the Bible. We somehow think God has the responsibility to make it all work out just as we pictured it.

We need to change our minds about life. Life is a gift. It comes from someone else, and it comes to accomplish his purposes, not ours. When you change your mind about this, it changes the way you look at a lot of things.

Focus Scriptures

Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Isaiah 29:16

You turn things upside down,

as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!

Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,

"He did not make me"?

Can the pot say of the potter,

"He knows nothing"?

Enjoy Others

2011-12-05T14:13:00.000-06:00

Last week I spoke to you about remembering to enjoy God, taking seriously David’s call for us to delight ourselves in the Lord.

In writing to Timothy, Paul said something else we need to hear. In the midst of a challenge to those who have wealth, he spoke of putting our hope in God “who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”

If we think sometimes that God’s real intention is that we live with a kind of grit-your-teeth, gut-it-out kind of endurance, we need to let Paul’s words change our minds. We live in relationship with a God who “provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”

This doesn’t mean that everything we do will be enjoyable. There are certainly days when we have to “resolutely set out for Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51) and do as Jesus did when he leaned into his pain. But it does mean that we need to open our eyes to things that God is providing for us and realize that he gives his gifts for our enjoyment.

Consider one example: If you are in a fellowship of disciples, look around you. God has given you these people for you to enjoy. Sure, there are challenges in relationships, but we need to learn to enjoy our brothers and sisters. We need to enjoy our differences and the special things that each person can bring into our lives. You can focus on the things that annoy you or you can look for things to enjoy, and if you seek, you will find. This week remember to enjoy.

Enjoy God

2011-11-28T23:23:00.002-06:00

This passage from Psalm 37:4 is a good one for me this week and maybe it will be for you as well:

Delight yourself in the Lord

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

David's statement here in Psalm 37 literally means it is God's will for us to take great pleasure in him. It is not his plan that we just obey him and trudge along the road of faith, grimly trying to hold on until the end. Yes, we need to fear, honor, obey, serve and glorify God and at the same time, enjoy him.

David's words are in the form of an admonition or command. That would seem to indicate that enjoying God isn't always the natural thing to do, even by those who know him quite well. There are times when we just need to be told: "Look at life differently. Delight yourself in the Lord. Just enjoy him and what he is doing.

Someone may say, "But if you have to tell a person to enjoy something, isn't there something wrong with the picture?" Not really. At different times in my life, I have had friends tell me "Tom, what you need to do is go home and enjoy your family" or "What you need to do is take your wife to dinner and just enjoy her." These were always helpful challenges that brought good results.

We need to ask ourselves from time to time, "Am I enjoying God?" If we are not, we don't have to wait for some feeling to mysteriously wash over us or for the church to plan some special program. We can remind ourselves that our God is an awesome God, focus on the reasons that is true and decide that we are going to delight in him.

Focus Scriptures

1 Timothy 6:27

Command those who are rich in thie present world not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Psalm 28:7

The Lord is my strength and my shield;

my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.

My heart leaps for joy

and I will give thanks to him in song.

Father of the Bride

2011-11-20T23:04:00.004-06:00

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Today, November 20, was a special one. Many in my family will write it on their calendars or store it in their computers. Today our second daughter was married to a man of character, heart and faith.

In the last ten years no one has seen me walk 60 feet, even with a walker, and I had not planned to try it today. But when I came into the Loveless Barn in Nashville and saw that I aisle, the adrenaline must have shot up and the Spirit moved, because I decided to walk (using the walker) my Bethany down that aisle to meet her man. I felt the great crowd of witnesses cheering me on and with Bethany's encouragement and the prayers of my new son-in-law's father, I made it. And it was worth it!!

Earlier today, I sat here at this computer and typed out a few words of advice for Bethany and Adam to take along on their honeymoon, even though they may not need some of it for a while. Let me share with you what I wrote:

Be each other’s best fans.
Pray together regularly.
Oil the hinges every day, doing little kind things, saying lots of “thank you’s” and “I love you’s” and words like “I appreciate this about you."
Number 3 above is also called “filling each other’s emotional bank accounts.” Find out each other’s love languages and make many deposits. You will need them for the challenging times when it comes times to “write some checks.”
When you are feeling unhappy with the other person, stop and list all their positive qualities.
In the middle of a bump when you feel stuck, STOP and pray together—right in the middle of it! One of you will need to say “I think we need to pray.” It will change everything.
Seek first the Kingdom…together. Pray “OUR Father, your kingdom come, YOUR will be done in our lives right now as it is in heaven.”
Stay humble. Stay humble. Did I say “Stay humble?” Quirky singer/songwriter Roger Miller wrote “Pride is the chief cause of the decline of the number of husbands and wives.” God gives grace to the humble and in marriage we need lots of grace.
Ask for help. Let others into your marriage. You will not always be able to see yourselves accurately.
Smile, laugh, have fun, even if you don’t have funds. Keep on the sunny side.

With much love, Dad

Give Anyway

2011-11-13T23:34:00.004-06:00

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I once spoke with someone going through something very difficult. I asked him how he wanted to handle a certain change that challenging circumstances had dictated. “As painlessly as possible,” he said. “I’ve been through enough.”

This person has lived a life of giving to others, but in that comment he revealed the weakness we all have in the face of strong natural feelings. His pain was causing him to feel a bit like a victim—a victim who had suffered enough.

Like Job, he had run a good race but was becoming weary in the battle. Like Job, he may have been thinking, “This doesn’t seem fair.” Knowing this person as I do, I was confident he would not stay at that point. I knew he would read Scripture, pray, and not stop giving; but his words reminded me that the pull toward self is extremely strong.

I don’t know anyone who does not face such temptations. How often I have struggled with thinking that I should not have to give or serve because of my own limitations.

Some of you are reading this because you are going through something that is as tough as anything you have ever faced. There is a powerful temptation to think primarily about yourself and to excuse yourself from your responsibility to others.

But we must change our minds. We must realize that nothing helps us to overcome any more than the deliberate decision to love others and give to them whatever we have to give.

Focus Scriptures

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, [4] who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. [5] For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. [6] If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. [7] And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

Galatians 6:9

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Philippians 4:12-13

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. [13] I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

The Key to Overcoming

2011-11-06T21:18:00.004-06:00

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Everything begins in the mind. “As a man thinks—so is he” is still true. Many have pointed out that in every situation there are two significant elements: (1) the circumstance itself and (2) the way you think about it. Of the two, however, the second is far more important than the first.

As I write this, I am reading a book by a man who was paralyzed in his youth by polio and has had only the use of some toes on one foot throughout most of his forty plus years, and yet he has earned and has become an author who types his own manuscripts. His circumstances seem overwhelming, but because of the way he came to think about them, he has been able to overcome.

The point is that overcoming never happens without a mind change. Overcoming involves facing certain circumstances that would appear to be formidable enough to stop us, but then experiencing a mind change that enables us to push through, climb over, or in some other way, move on to do the will of God.

As I have faced my challenges, I have come to believe that in every situation there is a right and spiritual way to think that will enable us to overcome whatever challenge we are facing. In every situation (no matter how difficult it may be), we can experience “a mind change” from wrong and unspiritual thinking to right and spiritual thinking. Now, it may take some struggle to get to this point, but once the right kind of thinking is at work within our minds, we are well on our way to overcoming our circumstances.

Focus Scriptures

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. (Romans 8:5–6)

Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:1–2a)

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set you hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (Colossians 1:1–2)

Always a Choice

2011-10-30T20:45:00.000-05:00

Some people just have a naturally optimistic and cheery attitude toward life. They don’t seem to have to overcome much of anything to get there. It just seems to be in their DNA.

If you aren’t really acquainted with the Psalms, you might read some of the statements of David and assume that he was one of those sanguine happy souls.

You might hear him say this in Psalm 31:

But I trust in you, O Lord;

I say, "You are my God."

My times are in your hands…

And you might think, I wish I could be like this. He makes it sound so easy. But this is one of those times when you need to look carefully at what led up to that statement.

Not many verses before this one, the same David said: “Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.
My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.”

It is after more laments that describe something worse, we hear:

But I trust in you, O Lord;

I say, "You are my God."

My times are in your hands…

Cheeriness didn’t seem to be in David’s DNA, but I have learned so much about living from him. This ancient man understood that in the midst of miserable feelings that we can come out of the pit and overcome by declaring our faith. Even in the lowest times, we have a choice.

Psalm 31:9-10, 14-15a

Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;

my eyes grow weak with sorrow,

my soul and my body with grief.

10My life is consumed by anguish

and my years by groaning;

my strength fails because of my affliction,

and my bones grow weak.

…

But I trust in you, O Lord;

I say, "You are my God." My times are in your hands;

Psalm 56:1-4

Be merciful to me, O God, for men hotly pursue me;

all day long they press their attack.

2My slanderers pursue me all day long;

many are attacking me in their pride.

3When I am afraid,

I will trust in you.

4In God, whose word I praise,

in God I trust; I will not be afraid.

What can mortal man do to me?

The Kingdom -Vol. 2 -Another Excerpt

2011-10-23T15:29:00.002-05:00

My friend Steve Brown and I are excited to see our second volume on the Kingdom of God now available. To give you just a taste of what this book that is all about -- Jesus’ great sermon on the Kingdom life -- we will share this week another excerpt from the Introduction.

Realize there is no way to live this life on our own power. The more we read these teachings of Jesus, the more we may find ourselves saying, “God have mercy on us.” The Sermon starts with a beatitude (“blessed are the poor in spirit”) that is a confession that we are spiritual beggars…that we cannot do this without help. But each of the Beatitudes is a reminder of the grace that God intervenes to give his people. Of the “poor in spirit” Jesus says, “theirs is the Kingdom”! They taste the powers of the coming age (Hebrews 6:5). They receive strength to turn and live a new way.

In Matthew’s Gospel before the Sermon, we have this statement of Jesus in chapter 4: “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near’” (v17 Holman). In calling people to repentance (metanoia), he was calling for a radical change of mind and heart that would not only involve a commitment to a whole new way of conduct but to a whole new dependence on God for the power to live that new life.

It can be no accident that as Jesus gives these teachings, he includes two vital sections on prayer—one in chapter 6 and one in chapter 7. If we fail to trust in and rely on the “much more of the heavenly Father” (7:11), we will find our engine sputtering on Jesus’ narrow road, our wheels stuck in a rut, or the car careening off a ledge. We can agree that the Sermon makes us even more aware of our need for God’s grace and mercy, but we must also hear that God will give both.

As Glen Stassen and David Gushee say in their recent book, Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in the Contemporary Context, what is described in the Beatitudes is “participative grace.” In contrast to the “cheap” and one-sided grace Bonhoeffer so famously described, participative grace grasps us, teaches us, trains us and empowers us to live the new life.

Trying to live the Sermon on the Kingdom life without the grace of God is like an ordinary person trying to climb Everest without oxygen. Apart from God’s grace, the message of this sermon will either wear you out or turn you into a legalist who wears everybody else out. In neither case will you find the Kingdom.

The Kingdom, Volume Two

2011-10-16T17:31:00.003-05:00

My friend Steve Brown and I are excited to see our second volume on the Kingdom of God now available. To give you just a taste of this book that is all about Jesus’ great sermon on the Kingdom life, we will share a few excerpts from the Introduction this week and next.

Can the most challenging words we have ever read also be the most encouraging? Can a serious call to live an impossible dream not depress us but transform us? The answer to both questions is “yes” if those words are the message of Jesus that we usually call tthe Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5–7.

In our first volume on the Kingdom of God we pointed out that the Kingdom of God was Jesus’ primary message. We described how Jesus announced the in-breaking of God’s future into our present age. We saw it was his plan for the people of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to start living “on earth as it is in heaven.” But what does this type of living look like?

Jesus did not leave us guessing. He delivered what we usually call the Sermon on the Mount or what we think could better be called the Sermon on the Kingdom. We insisted in volume one that the Kingdom of God is not just a future to look forward to but a life to be lived here and now. While the Sermon is not a detailed handbook on every aspect of that life, it is also not a vague statement leaving hearers wondering what they just heard.

In the Sermon are promises about the kind of character God will bless and new commands that are contrasted with their Old Covenant counterparts. In the Sermon we find direction about how to pray and what to be sure of as we pray. Not some announcement of feel-good, self-indulgent religion, the Sermon has stunning words for those who think they are aligned with God but do not really know him. But like Jesus who gave it, the Sermon is full of grace and truth.

Reading the Sermon is not like reading a science book or a tome on the law. What we hear will in large part be determined by the condition of our hearts. Those who read it and are eager to receive the Kingdom will hear a call to a challenging but exciting venture into age-to-come living. Those who want a relationship with God without the Kingdom heart will hear annoying restrictions or find themselves shifting immediately to a myriad of “what if” questions and “surely it doesn’t mean that” replies.

This is why, through the centuries, the Sermon has been ridiculed by some, treated as a wild ideal or ignored by others, and embraced as a way of life by very few. But that, of course, only underscores the validity of the one who spoke these words, for he said that the way is narrow and few are those who find it.

This much is certain: Jesus’ main message was the good news of the Kingdom. After calling people to repent and come to the Kingdom, Matthew’s Gospel gives us the Sermon in which he specifically refers to the Kingdom eight times. The very reason the Sermon seems so unreasonable and impractical to some is that it is describing the Kingdom life—the life of these “aliens and strangers” from the future. These are the people who are living right now as though they were already in heaven or at least as though they are taking all their direction from heaven, and acting as if their citizenship is really there.

Get your copy of The Kingdom of God, Volume Two and join us on an exciting adventure.

Showing Kindness to God

2011-10-09T23:05:00.000-05:00

One of the most frequent prayers found in the book of Psalms is some form of “Lord, have mercy on me.” The Hebrew word used here carries the idea of “Lord, show me your loving kindness and devotion.”

But in Jeremiah 2:2 we find the word used in a very different way. Through Jeremiah God says to the people, “I remember the kindness [devotion] of your youth, your love as a bride” (KJV). By the time of this writing Israel was showing God little of this, but God could remember when Israel showed kindness to him and was devoted to him with the loving kindness of a bride.

We would probably agree that God does not need our mercy or our grace, but who among us, including God, does not appreciate a demonstration of kindness? In this passage God speaks to Judah and tells them he can remember those encouraging days when they showed him such loving kindness. As hard as it may be for us to fathom, God can be encouraged and he is by the loving kindness we show to him.

Most of our prayers are like those in Psalms and involve our beseeching God for his kindness and mercy, and given our need for him that is as it should be. But as we mature in our relationship with him, there should be just as much a desire to encourage him and show back to him what he has shown to us.

What would you do this week if you changed your mind and asked how you might show loving kindness to God? I wouldn’t be surprised if it touched his heart.

Scriptures:

Jeremiah 2:2

"Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:

" 'I remember the devotion [loving kindness] of your youth,

how as a bride you loved me

and followed me through the desert,

through a land not sown.

Luke 7:44

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

John 4:7

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?"

Matthew 25:37-40

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

We Need Other People!

2011-10-02T21:29:00.003-05:00

Some years ago, as I struggled with my illness and battled with a tenacious depression, I had some very mature and wise people in my life who could not figure me out. They wanted to have the answers. They wanted to find out how to fix me, but they will tell you today that they were perplexed. But in spite of their frustration and limitations, they did the right thing: They kept loving me. And, fortunately, I did the right thing: I let them.

Looking back, I know they said things that helped. They gave me insights that were useful. But nothing was more important than the fact than that they made me feel respected, appreciated and valuable when I had a hard time believing any of those things were true. Their love kept me in the race until my mind finally became capable of locking on to the truth.

So keep your balance. Take responsibility for your own life. Realize you hold the key to what will happen to you. Develop your own faith, your own convictions and your own walk with God. Never blame anyone else for what is happening to you.

At the same time, don’t try to be the Lone Ranger or the solitary warrior. Look at life through the mind of Christ, and see how he bought with his blood a fellowship in which we will both get help and give it to others. Be honest enough to tell others where you need help. Be humble enough to receive the help. Always make it your goal to give as much as you get and pass on to others the help you yourself have received from God (2 Corinthians 1). This is a sure formula for overcoming.

See God in Circumstances

2011-09-25T22:06:00.000-05:00

See God in Circumstances

I don’t always like my circumstances. But I am learning that God would not allow them if they were not opportunities for me to do something more important than I would have been doing without them.

What looks to me like something that is hindering the work of God (like Paul’s thorn in the flesh) is often a vehicle God plans to use for one of his patented surprise attacks. Change your mind about circumstances.

Don’t think: “This is terrible.” Think: ”This is terribly important.”

Don’t think: “This is awful.” Think: ”This is an awfully interesting challenge.”

Don’t think: “Why did God allow this bad thing? Think: “What is God going to do with this bad thing?

You may read what I have written and say: “My mind doesn’t change easily.” My question for you is how much do you want to be an overcomer? How persistent are you willing to be?

You may say, “My problem is that I change my mind, but then it changes back. I can’t get it to stay put on the right things.” I can relate to that one. Several years ago I told several friends that I must have a Teflon mind because nothing seemed to stick to it.

But you see, even that very circumstance is allowed by God. Circumstances will reveal how much you want to find God’s thinking and how persistent you are willing to be to hold on to it.

Focus Scriptures

Genesis 50:18-20

His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are your slaves," they said.

But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? [20] You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

2 Cor. 1:3-5

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

Simply Listen

2011-09-11T22:16:00.002-05:00

I remember a man who stopped me once after a church service to tell me some of his troubles. He was not happy with some of the developments in his life and seemed to believe that telling at least one person how he felt would give him some satisfaction. I listened for some time as he described some decisions he had made that resulted in much difficulty.

Eventually I got a word in and asked if he felt anyone had pressured him to make those decisions. “No,” he replied. “It was actually the opposite. I was given much advice to do something different.” The conversation then went on with him doing most of the talking.

As he spoke, I prayed for wisdom, and finally I said to him, “I really have just one word to share with you, and that word is ‘listen.’” He seemed to believe that his greatest need was to talk, venting his anger and frustration. Knowing he had often done this, my challenge to him was to change his mind and decide to listen.

Some of the things that we get most disturbed about happen in our lives because we have not listened. We have not listened to God. We have not listened to wise counsel. We have not listened to someone who did not say what our itching ears wanted to hear.

Few prayers will make more difference in your life than one that says, “God, help me to listen and really hear.”

Focus Scriptures

Psalm 85:8

I will listen to what God the Lord will say;

he promises peace to his people, his saints--

but let them not return to folly.

Proverbs 1:5

let the wise listen and add to their learning,

and let the discerning get guidance--

Proverbs 12:15

The way of a fool seems right to him,

but a wise man listens to advice.

Proverbs 15:31

He who listens to a life-giving rebuke

will be at home among the wise.

James 1:19

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,

Your Trump Card

2011-09-04T21:34:00.000-05:00

According to The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, here is the definition of a trump card: “the suit designated as having precedence over the others. In general, it is something capable of making a decisive difference when used at the right moment as in ‘The prosecutor played her trump card by calling a surprise witness.’”

There have been more than a few times in my life when I did not like the hand I was dealt. It looked like there were too many things against me, and I found my unreliable emotions taking a dip. But in those times, I have learned something. I have learned that God has given us the ultimate trump card.

Without using the term, I think I was getting at this in several of the power thoughts in my book Mind Change.

Number 13 says, “Relax. Your God Reigns.” Number 15 says, “In all things God works for your good.” Number 19 says, “Be ‘unreasonably,’ ‘illogically’ joyful because your name is written in heaven.”

You see, no matter what hand we are dealt, how ugly it looks, or how challenging it feels, God still reigns. He is still at work for our good, and we can still rejoice because our names are written in heaven, no matter how illogical such joy might appear to someone looking at us in our trial.

If the hand you are dealt looks pretty crummy and the opponent across the table thinks he has you, just remember that you have something from God capable of making a decisive difference. Use it in those defining moments. Play your trump card!

Focus scriptures

Philippians 4:10-13

1 Samuel 17

The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength

2011-08-28T21:20:00.001-05:00

Most of us quite naturally think that joy comes when we feel strong; when we have done well and when things work out as we think they should. If we are feeling weak, uncertain, ill-prepared, disappointed, guilty or hurt, it hardly seems that joy could be in our hearts at the same time.

But consider a verse in Nehemiah. This verse comes after the people have been listening to Ezra, the priest, read to them from the law of God over several hours. As they hear it, they are weeping, apparently realizing their failures.

But in 8:10, “Nehemiah said, ‘Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.’”

We think strength comes first and then we can have joy. But Nehemiah’s words give us a different order. First, we grasp the joy of the Lord—the joy that comes from God’s presence, God’s grace and God’s commitment to us—the joy that comes from things not dependent on our emotions or experiences at all. And embracing the joy of the Lord then gives us strength.

No wonder Paul would say to one first-century church: “Rejoice always” and to another: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

Such rejoicing definitely is unnatural. It requires a deliberate mind change. But when such a change is made by faith, it brings a strength to face the chaos, the confusion and the challenges.

Focus Scriptures

Nehemiah 8:1-17

Psalm 5:11

Psalm 28:7

Christian, I Hear You

2011-08-21T21:35:00.000-05:00

A few days ago an old friend shared with me what he had been reading from Psalm 143. Two days later as I was encouraging another friend, I turned to the words that had been shared with me, and again the power of Scripture was seen. Moved by this result, I decided to spend time every morning for a week focusing on this passage.

That Psalm opens with this verse:

O LORD, hear my prayer,
       listen to my cry for mercy;
       in your faithfulness and righteousness
       come to my relief.

What we find here is a man like ourselves—a man in some distress, a man who doesn’t have it all figured out, a man aware of his need to pray and unashamedly to cry out for mercy. But this man, David, is one who has taught me so much about the power of a mind change. In his crying out, did you notice what he does? He declares God’s faithfulness and righteousness.

Focusing on those words, I found myself hearing God on the other end of a prayer like this. I say, “Lord, hear my prayer.” His response is, “Tom, I hear your prayer.” I say, “Listen to my cry for mercy,” and I hear him say, “Tom, I am listening with compassion to your cry for mercy.” I say, “In your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief,” and I hear him say, “Tom, in my faithfulness and righteousness you can count on me coming to your relief.”

As you pray, think of God’s faithfulness and righteousness, and I expect you too will hear his voice.

Focus Scripture
Psalm 143

Raise the Volume

2011-08-14T21:45:00.002-05:00

Sometimes a mind change is made quietly as you contemplate Scripture or as you pray or maybe even as you work or drive your car. You confront your circumstances, take note of your faulty thinking and decide to lock your mind on to God’s thoughts instead.

But sometimes I find that the only way to make a mind change is to be loud and passionate.

This week I went to a place to pray and as I began, I was constantly distracted. I know we have all had that experience. We want to connect with God, but there are all kinds of things going on in our minds. As I paid attention to those distracting thoughts, one thing was clear: It is hard to admit, but they were all about me. They were about how hard something is for me. They were about how unfair some things seemed for me. They were all about how others could not understand me.

Now I suppose I could have quietly said, “Tom this is not good. You need to adjust your thinking.” But these thoughts seemed not only wicked but insistent and determined. It seemed no quiet response would do. Thinking immediately of Jesus’ rebuke of Peter, I blurted out with considerable force: “Out of my sight, Satan! These are not the thoughts of God but the thoughts of men!”

My explosive response seemed to be just what was needed. The “what about me?” demons ran for the hills. I was freed up to focus on God, his calling and his provision. Some of the things that try to lodge in our minds can only be expelled with force, power and maybe even considerable volume. When this is needed don’t hold back.

Focus Scriptures

Matthew 4:1-11

Matthew 16:23

Conflict

2011-08-07T21:46:00.000-05:00

[This "moment" first was published three years ago]

My wife, Sheila, and I recently confronted a mild but persistent pattern of conflict in our marriage. At first we tried to think our way out of the problem, but then we saw it as a call to rely more on God in prayer. The conflict has now led us to come together in prayer more often which means our marriage has grown that much stronger.

While there are a few people who seem to thrive on conflict, most of us would rather avoid it. We are attracted to things pleasant and we look forward to happy interactions. Dread is the emotion that most of us feel in anticipation of conflict. Some of you are probably feeling it right now.

In several of our Mind Change Moments we have looked at how challenges can really become opportunities. Conflicts would certainly fit into this category, and we will be well served if we can change our minds about conflict.

I don’t go looking for conflicts in my marriage, with my family or in any other relationship. I believe as far as it depends on me I should be at peace with everyone, just as Scripture teaches.

However, when conflicts do occur, I need to see them as opportunities—opportunities to learn something about myself, to learn something about another person…or an occasion for a relationship to go much deeper. Most of all, I need to see the opportunity to depend on God and see him work in difficulty.

Next time you dread a conflict, try changing the way you view it.

Hebrews 12:14

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Romans 12:18

Ephesians 4:1-6, 29-32

Pinhead Faith

2011-07-31T20:12:00.000-05:00

I heard a man talk about faith. He asked how many of us have pinhead faith. The fact that he even asked the question most likely didn't give anyone a good feeling--especially since he asked it of people who are supposed be known for their faith. It is embarrassing for most of us to admit that our faith is so infantile.

But then the speaker helped us change our minds. He pointed us to a surprising and amazing truth taught by Jesus. He said, "If you have faith as small as mustard seed--the smallest of all the seeds--you will be able to move mountains."

As you contemplate Jesus' words, you realize he was saying the problem for us is not that we don't have magnificent and impressive faith. He was saying that humble, struggling pinhead faith, mustard seed faith is quite enough. And so when there is a problem, it is not found in the diameter of our faith but in the disuse of our faith-whatever its size.

Some of us are tempted to look at some situation in our lives--like something we need to change or something we need to overcome--and think "I just don't think I have enough faith."

But do you have pinhead faith? "Sure," you say, "that pretty well describes what I do have."

Well, Jesus says you have enough-enough to move a mountain. And surely the issue in your life is not bigger than that.

Luke 17:3-6

Mark 9:20-24

James 5:13-18

True Colors

2011-07-24T21:06:00.001-05:00

Some years ago Aderonke moved from her home in Nigeria to the United Kingdom. In Manchester, England, she met Christians who taught her the message of Jesus. In 1998 she shared in Jesus’ death and resurrection in baptism, becoming his disciple.

When she became ill some months later, her mother came from Nigeria to be with her and persuaded her to go back home for two weeks.

When the two weeks ended, she was stunned when her family did not allow her to return to England. They would also not allow her to attend church in Nigeria. For almost three years she struggled, feeling alone and disappointed, but she held on to the truth she read in the book of James. Listen to it from The Message translation:

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. 3You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. 4So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

When life looks bleak and circumstances aren’t changing, we still can change our minds and say “But, God is not through. He is still at work and is at work with me.”

In ways she would not have expected, God did bring Aderonke back into fellowship with believers, and she’s there today. Her faith did show its true colors.

Psalm 91:15

James 1:2-4, 12

1 Corinthians 10:13

2 Corinthians 1:3-11

Some Mornings

2011-07-18T17:23:00.000-05:00

Some mornings I wake up with a mind full of ideas. I can hardly wait to get to the computer to start putting them down.

And then there are mornings like this one when all I seem to think of are how many things there are to do and how little energy I seem to have to get them done.

Some mornings I wake up with a gleam in my eye. Other mornings I feel a burden is on my back. Can any of you relate?

When the latter happens in a mind like I have, such thoughts can start me on a downward spiral. It doesn’t take me very long to start feeling like a sorry fellow who wonders “How in the world did I ever write a book, and why in the world did I ever commit to doing a podcast that I think someone might actually listen to?”

But the truth is that it was in the middle of muddled and negative thinking just like this that God helped me understand the whole idea of a mind change. I tried to learn to set my mind like a thermostat before I went to bed so it would be at a certain place when I woke up. Unfortunately that never worked.

But what I did learn was that the thoughts I have when morning breaks don’t have to dominate and determine the outcome of my day.

No, the God who gives a new day can also give us a changed mind.

The Beekeeper

2011-07-10T22:51:00.001-05:00

Reuben Shubaugh’s story was recently featured on a Wichita TV station. He is known in his neighborhood as the beekeeper or the “bee man,” a title he has proudly worn for more than 50 years. His neighbors see him outside going from hive to hive collecting beeswax and honey, continuing an acitivity that may have been practiced first in ancient Egypt.

But as the reporter pointed out, something far greater is going on in Reuben’s house every day away from a watching world. Inside Reuben cares for Zelma his invalid wife, who is unable to do anything for herself. They have been married for 65 years. He says, “I thank God for the opportunity to care for someone” as he takes a moist towelette and wipes her mouth.

In my book Mind Change I have written:

“We need to understand the liberation of love. Love—that decision to take our eyes off ourselves and put them on others—liberates us from the ugly prison of selfishness where so many stay locked up.”

Reuben has learned that lesson. Some would see his life with Zelma and wonder if they could handle the burden. To Reuben it is no burden. His challenging circumstance is transformed into a blessed opportunity by an attitude of gratitude.

Why don’t we let the bee man teach us how to make life a lot sweeter?

In my book Mind Change I have written:

Why don’t we let the bee man teach us how to make life a lot sweeter?

Independence Day

2011-07-03T16:00:00.002-05:00

On this Independence Day in the United States let me give you a few mind-changing thoughts from Jesus. Given the nature of Jesus' teaching, we should not be surprised to find that these are for the most part counter-cultural.

First, Jesus was supremely disinterested in national independence and supremely interested in the Kingdom of God. He came at a time when everyone he grew up with would have been talking about “Independence.” It was time like the one John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington found themselves in. Talk of independence was everywhere. But Jesus put his emphasis someplace else (Matthew 22:20-22). So Jesus' life says being politically independent is not the most important thing in the world. I can be thankful to live in a country where we have many freedoms, and yet still recognize that I have brothers in Christ living under totalitarian regimeswho are more free than my neighbors across the street celebrating the Fourth of July with their fireworks.

Second, nationalism is often divisive and exclusive, but the Kingdom of God is inclusive. Nationalism is devotion to the interests or culture of one's nation and usually causes you to focus much more on your nation and much less on those in other nations. USAmericans make up 4.75% of the world—95.25% of the world are not USAmericans. But as those in the Kingdom of God, we have been called to be concerned about all nations. The more nationalistic we are, the less we are focused on most of the world. But kingdom thinking opens us to mission, friendship and communion with every tribe and tongue (Galatians 3:26-27).

Third, citizenship in a country can have its strengths and weaknesses. But citizenship in heaven has no weaknesses (Philippians 3:20-21). There are some great strengths to US citizenship, but there are also weaknesses. Our system is not perfect. Every nation on earth lives by the world’s wisdom. Only in the kingdom of God is there a commitment to live by the wisdom of God. And so in Christ, our citizenship is in heaven. And there we have the ultimate freedom—freedom from sin, freedom to know God and freedom to taste the powers of the age to come. That’s the song we sing and the flag we fly, whether we live in the United States, Venezuela or China.

Fourth, Jesus was clear that loyalty to God must supersede loyalty to country. Jesus said disciples must love him more than father, mother, son, daughter, yes and their own lives, also. It is easy to see that country would also belong in such a list. When we are disciples, we are pledging our ultimate loyalty to Jesus. And he does not disappoint.

So in that vein, being a citizen of the Kingdom of God is far more important than being a US or Vietnamese or Nigerian citizen. If we are USAmericans our passion as disciples must not be to Americanize the world or to talk as some politicians about “American exceptionalism," but to bring the Kingdom of God to those in every nation of the world.

Not the Way I Pictured It

2011-06-26T22:16:00.000-05:00

One of my wife’s favorite movies is Lost in Yonkers. In it Bella, a sweet, mentally challenged woman who is probably in her late 30s eventually meets someone who she believes is the man of her dreams. She calls a family meeting to share with them her plans to marry Johnny, an usher from the local movie theater.

As she gets everyone to sit in just the right place for the announcement, her impatient and irascible brother, played by Richard Dreyfuss, will have none of it. He insists on standing. Finally, Bella cries out “This is not the way I pictured it.”

How often is life like that for many of us: Not the way we pictured it? I can remember playing tennis in my early 30s and looking at a couple of 70-year-olds on the other court and thinking, what’s great about tennis is I will be able to play in my old age.

But then MS came calling. First, I was walking with a cane and now use a three-wheel scooter. This is not the way I pictured it. That is why in my book, Mind Change, I have Power Thought Number 15 which says:

In all things God works

for your good.

No exceptions and no lapses.

Even in what happened yesterday.

Even in something that caused great pain.

Even in something that dashed your hopes.

All things means all things.

Scriptures to study:

Isaiah 49:15-16

Jeremiah 29:11

Romans 8:28

1Peter 4:12ff

The Lowest Valley

2011-06-12T22:04:00.000-05:00

I am a fan of bluegrass music. That works well living as I do now in the Nashville, Tennessee, area. I was not always a fan. It took a movie directed by two Jewish gentlemen from Minnesota to turn me into one, but a crazy film titled O Brother, Where Art Thou? did the trick. If you were to ask me, “What’s on your IPod?” chances are the answer will either be Alison Krauss or Ralph Stanley.

Just before I moved from Boston to Nashville a friend gave me a Ralph Stanley album of gospel songs. One of the tunes is called “The Lowest Valley,” and the refrain says “When I’m in the lowest valley, I can climb the highest hill.”

Though not a classic with banjo, I like the song because it really talks about having a mind change. We all walk through low valleys, and the shadows in those valleys can get very deep. But in those spots we can affirm that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness, and by faith we can see ourselves climbing the highest hill.

In my book, Power Thought #47 reads,

You may be challenged

and weak, but you can

still have radical faith.

Never think radical faith is only for the strong.

Faith is most radical when it seems most unlikely.

The lowest valley just may be the best place to look toward the highest hill.

Not too Much

2011-06-06T13:46:00.002-05:00

Dru has suffered from so many debilitating physical problems that you need a scorecard to keep track. Her battle with diabetes caused her to lose her vision. She had kidney failure, regular dialysis and finally a kidney transplant. She has had at least two surgeries for cancer. Her schedule for doctors’ appointments seems like a fulltime job. Her husband, Paul, is at her side when not working, and he suffers vicariously with her.

But…it doesn’t sound quite right to use the word “suffers” in regard to them. I know it is an accurate description of things they must feel, but together they face their trials with such faith and humor, that it is not the first thing you think of when you picture them. They are encouragers, always thinking of how to strengthen others who face challenges.

In my book, Mind Change, Power Thought #29 reads:

God has not given

you too much.

If there is something you have to

face, you can face it.

If there is something you must

overcome, you can overcome it.

To paraphrase C.S. Lewis:

”When something must be done, there is no use talking

about whether or not it can be done.”

It looks like Dru and Paul have an unfair load. But they show us that “God has not given too much” and that living a life of love is something they can still do with joy.

Not too Much

2011-06-06T13:46:00.000-05:00

In my book, Mind Change, Power Thought #29 reads:

God has not given

you too much.

If there is something you have to

face, you can face it.

If there is something you must

overcome, you can overcome it.

To paraphrase C.S. Lewis:

”When something must be done, there is no use talking

about whether or not it can be done.”

It looks like Dru and Paul have an unfair load. But they show us that “God has not given too much” and that living a life of love is something they can still do with joy.

The Spiritual Battle

2011-05-29T22:08:00.000-05:00

King David was aware of his enemies. He writes:

For I hear the slander of many;

There is terror on every side.

They conspire against me

And plot to take my life.

My enemies are just as real as David’s. They are those powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil that Paul describes in Ephesians. They are called “powers” because they are strong and are to be reckoned with. They conspire against me and want to ruin my life. This is not paranoia; it is just facing the facts.

They infiltrate my mind, causing a kind of spiritual auto-immune disease, so my mind can conjure up every possible reason that my failure will be eventual if not quick.

After facing the hard facts, David has a mind change. He says

“But I trust in you, O Lord;

I say “You are my God, my times are in your hands.”

He turns away from fear of his enemies and declares his faith.

Learning from David, I can hear the slander those evil powers broadcast against me, and turn my mind to God saying “But I trust in you, O Lord, You are my God, my times are in your hands.”

In my book, Mind Change, power thought #25 reads:

Don't resent the spiritual battle.

Be thankful you have the weapons to fight it.

Be glad you are on the winning side.

A Spiritual Way to Think

2011-05-22T23:02:00.000-05:00

When we entered the room where Bill was waiting for us, the first thing I noticed was the broad smile. He can no longer move his limbs except for the lower part of one arm, but with that smile he was giving us a warm hug.

Bill has Lou Gehrig ’s disease. Two years ago he was traveling the country as an active expert in the field of sound. Today he is confined to his high tech wheelchair.

He smiled that day we were with him, but a year after his diagnosis Bill wasn’t smiling. One morning with his wife, Susan, and their son away, he drove his wheel chair into their swimming pool to end his life. But, by God’s grace, Bill had a mind change, and with it came the joy of trusting God. In my book, Mind Change, Power Thought Number 1 says:

In every situation there is

a right and

spiritual way to think.

It may take me some time to find it.

It may take some discipline to embrace it.

But it is always there, and it is always best.

It is always the key to overcoming any challenge.

It took Bill some time, but he found that spiritual way to think and he embraced it. He keeps his focus on Scripture so he will not lose it. He helps others to find it. And he smiles.

If Bill can do that, we can all do that.

(Bill would eventually pass on to be with Christ, but not before making a difference in many lives.)

Enjoy the Challenge

2011-05-15T21:09:00.003-05:00

In the New Testament the apostle Paul says, “[God] comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.”

This is the painful truth: God allows pain. Most of us don’t like it. We profile those who do like it in the abnormal psychology books. But the God who allows pain, for purposes we may not fully understand, also gives comfort. And one of the reasons he gives us comfort is to make us part of what we might call a “comforting chain reaction.”

We are all familiar with a “downward spiral” where one bad experience leads to another one. God wants to create an “upward spiral.” I may get knocked down by something painful. But rather than fall into a downward spiral, I can change my mind, look to God and allow him to give me his comfort and strength…then I can be there for someone else who has taken a tough hit. As I help that person, we are both encouraged, and we are both equipped to encourage someone else.

In my book, Mind Change, Power Thought #20 reads:

Decide to enjoy the challenge.

If it is going to be there, you might as well enjoy it.

God is allowing it for some good purpose.

Like, Jacob, don’t let go of it until it blesses you.

Remember that problems prepare you to give to others.

Accept with Faith

2011-05-08T20:28:00.002-05:00

Karen was fifteen when she developed a rare form of muscular dystrophy known as Friedrich’s Ataxia. When she was around thirty she had to use an electric wheelchair that she operated with one hand. She soon required a personal assistant to dress and bathe and prepare food. She met a man named Rich who also used a wheelchair, having been paralyzed from the waist down by polio as a child.

Ten years ago I did their premarital counseling and performed their wedding ceremony. Everyone in the wedding party was seated, including me as the presiding minister because I have MS. The best man was a quadriplegic and, of course, in his wheel chair. I have performed a number of weddings throughout the years but never one more inspiring or more memorable.

Can you imagine the negative thoughts Karen and Rich had to overcome to envision a marriage with their severe disabilities?

But these two special people have learned the power of changing their minds. Karen says, “As my disability has progressed, I am constantly reminded to rethink my attitude, and have a godly focus, realizing that I am given the opportunity to pray much more diligently. I have learned to laugh, instead of getting frustrated.”

In my book, Mind Change, Power Thought # 4 says:

Accept whatever

comes. . .with faith.

Disappointment? Faith.

Unfairness? Faith.

Fear? Faith.

Thank you, Karen and Rich, for showing us faith in difficult circumstances.

The Kingdom -- Final Thoughts

2011-04-25T22:09:00.002-05:00

This is going to be my last videocast before we began to replay some of the mind change moments we've done over the last four years. I was in graduate school and beginning to grow long sideburns while wearing bell bottom pants in 1971 when I first picked up a copy of John Bright’s classic book, The Kingdom of God. It strikes me now that I was all most through a Master’s program in theology, but had heard almost nothing about Jesus’ concept of the kingdom.

Looking back I find it amazing that this message on the kingdom which now almost all scholars agree with Jesus main message received virtually no attention. I found the book intriguing, but I don't remember allowing it to affect me in that great of a way.

Three years later I would buy a copy of George Eldon Ladd's massive volume titled Theology of the New Testament. He begins his discussion of Jesus' message with a lengthy section on the kingdom of God, seeing it as the key to understanding what Jesus was all about. This time I was affected in a big way.

This was followed by a reading of John Howard Yoder's recently published book The Politics of Jesus. Though I now know I probably didn't understand half that he said, his teaching on the kingdom combined with that of Ladd's was helping me to enlarge my view of the kingdom and see it as much more than just the church – a common understanding among those of us raised in what is been called The Restoration Movement.

But I see now that I was still not connecting a lot of the dots. I was teaching and practicing concepts of discipleship that very much fit with the message of the kingdom, but was not in many cases seeing the relationship between the two. I was very much taken by things I was learning about the contrast between the world's wisdom and God's wisdom, and I was seeing that as a theme that ran through Scripture. But I again I didn't see how closely all of this was tied in to the message of the kingdom.

Ten years ago when I wrote a book on Jesus titled No One like Him, I included a chapter on the kingdom, the kingdom attitudes, and the kingdom life and my view of how many things fit together seem to be maturing.

However, it was three years ago when Lee Camp’s book Mere Discipleship lit a fire within me to really explore what Jesus meant by the kingdom and how it relates to everything else the New Testament teaches and to every aspect of our lives. Lee would later give input on the book we would write.

I've been joined in this study and on this journey by others, including my good friend, Steve Brown, who is co-writing with me what we hope will be a three-volume series on the kingdom.

As I look back on my own experience, I'm reminded of how right something is that I said right at the beginning when I first began to teach some new lessons on the kingdom a little more than two years ago. I said you may never have used some of the terminology that were going to use and you may never have understood some of the things in Scripture that were going to talk about but that doesn't mean you aren’t on the Kingdom and haven't been living a kingdom life.

I went on to say that if you get up every morning just wanting to live with Jesus as Lord, you’re in the kingdom your living the life the kingdom. But, then I went on to say, “but with all going to enjoy the kingdom so much more and were going to be able to live it so much more if we understand even more of what God has in mind.”

But this weekend I was reminded of something else that I have said almost every time I teach, and that is that is exciting and challenging as I have found kingdom teaching to be, I have found that it is a deep well and there's always so much more to be learning and how in our fellowship with each other we can be helping each other to learn so much more. I was in another city and didn't get home till 12:30 AM. An elder in my congregation and I were conducting a workshop focused on three themes Kingdom, Disciple and Church.

After the first two messages one member of the leadership team in this congregation, who works as a physical fitness trainer, asked me if I had read a book titled Jesus--the Jewish Theologian. I had to admit I had not heard of it. He said “I think you would enjoy it,” so I made a note. However, on Sunday, my new friend brought me his copy of the book and said, ”Here I want you to have this.”

As I ate breakfast this morning, I began to browse through it. Certain passages caught my attention, and I found myself riveted to certain ideas about the kingdom that were new to me. Indeed the well is deep and I have more to learn.

But I want to end these videocasts by saying something I probably said before. As exciting as I think the concept of the kingdom of God can be and the way it amazingly ties together so many things in Scripture, none of that really matters unless we put it into practice. In our book we talk about seven things the kingdom is in the New Testament and the last one is it is a life to be lived. I believe we need to study it. I believe our thinking needs to be straight about the kingdom because wrong ideas about it have led to many wrong things. However, it's when we began to do God's will on Earth as it is in heaven that we become the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and begin to make a huge difference in people's lives.

So, let's keep studying and learning.

Let”s keep on receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Let’s allow more and more waves of it to keep coming into our lives

Let's keep tasting the powers of the coming age.

Let's keep appreciating God's amazing plan and the servant King who came to fulfill it.

But finally. Let’s not just listen to the word but put it into practice.

May God bless you as you keep praying, “Your Kingdom come!”

Kingdom #5: The Kingdom and the Church

2011-04-17T17:06:00.004-05:00

In the Scriptures there is a dynamic relationship between the kingdom of God and the church. The kingdom of God was the dominant theme of Jesus preaching and teaching. In the person of Jesus the New Age was breaking into the present age. Through Jesus and those who would become his disciples, God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The phrase kingdom of God in Greek is the term baseila tou theo which can also be translated the reign of God or the rule of God. Because of Jesus and through faith in him men and women can begin to live under God’s rule and reign right now in this present age.

To be in the Kingdom is to live a certain lifestyle and to treat people in a certain way—a way very different from the way we have all been taught by the world. As we said last week it is to live conscious that your citizenship is in heaven and you take your direction from there.

· So what about the church? Is the church the same as the Kingdom? No, that would not be the right way to put it. Well, is the church in some way the Kingdom of God on earth? While there is definitely a crucial relationship between the church and the Kingdom, to put it that way would also be to diminish the scope of the kingdom and make it something less than what it is.

The Kingdom was being proclaimed by Jesus and was making its appearance through his life before he established his church. The Age to Come was dramatically breaking into the Present Age through his teaching, his exorcisms, his miracles and ultimately through the cross and his resurrection.

The Kingdom is so expansive in its meaning that Jesus found the best way to let us see it was to tell many different stories about it and give us a variety of views of its reality. The church, on the other hand, is something more tangible and easier to describe. The word for church is the word ecclesia means “those called out.” It means a group of people selected for a certain purpose.

There were a lot of “ecclesias” in the first-century world. That is not to say that there were a lot of religious denominations, but to say that there were a lot of groups selected for certain purpose—most of them quite secular. But Jesus said “I will build my ecclesia—I will call out my group for my purposes.”

It is not best to say that the ecclesia is the Kingdom of God. But the ecclesia has the purpose of making the Kingdom of God known to the world.

Think of it this way:

· The Kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God.
· The ecclesia is the fellowship of those who have said “yes” to God’s rule and reign and now are helping each other to live out the Age-to-Come lifestyle right in this present age. Just as Jesus said, “I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God” (Luke 4:33), the ecclesia must follow Jesus first in living the Kingdom of God and then going and proclaiming it and showing the world why it is such good news.

To pull together several things we have said the last few weeks:

The ecclesia should be the place

where you find people, praying earnestly, “Your kingdom come, your will be done in our lives on earth as it is in heaven,”
where you find people living with their citizenship in heaven,
where you find people who are committed to living the wisdom of heaven as they find it in the Sermon on the Mount,
where you find those who are going to all nations to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom.

To say the ecclesia is not the Kingdom is in no way to diminish its importance. God has but one plan to show the Kingdom to the world and that one plan is the ecclesia of Jesus Christ.

Kingdom #4--Citizenship in Heaven

2011-04-10T18:25:00.004-05:00

“Our citizenship is in heaven,” Paul says in Philippians 3:20.

When some people hear this phrase they think “Heaven is eventually where I will go.” Paul seems to have something else in mind. The Greek word for citizenship can mean a form of government or citizenship. Paul is saying that the form of government disciples of Jesus are under is ultimately the reign of God and as such our citizenship is in heaven… or if you will “our political thinking comes from heaven.”

A citizen is a native or naturalized member of the state or nation who owes allegiance to its government and can feel entitled to its protection. A citizen is to be distinguished from an alien or a foreigner.

It is most significant that Paul makes this statement to the Philippians, for their city was highly favored by the Emperor, and he had granted most of the people there Roman citizenship for which they were extremely proud. But Paul reminds the believers that their citizenship is really not Roman but it is in heaven.

Peter, perhaps writing about the same time, says to Christians in another place:

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 1 Peter 2:10-11

Here is our main point today: Kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of God are drastically different. We will often have to decide which one has our ultimate allegiance. Those in the Kingdom of God are called to be submissive to human government, for human governments are ordained by God to keep order in society. However, our ultimate allegiance must always be the Kingdom God. Our citizenship is in heaven, we are citizens who operate by the standards of the age to come. This will inevitably mean there will be clashes between what human government wants us to do and what "your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven" will mean in our lives.

Some of you watching or reading this live in the

United States

(where I live and am a citizen). Others of you live in other parts of the world –

Venezuela

China

Singapore

Indonesia

South Africa

Russia

, the

Ukraine

and many other places. Your earthly citizenship is different from mine, but we are one people, part of one holy nation because our ultimate allegiance is to the Kingdom of God. That citizenship trumps all others.

Different countries have different standards and operate by different principles. Some are more repugnant to believers in Jesus than others, but every country, every nation, every kingdom of this world operates by the principles of "worldly wisdom" and so that means that regardless of which country we live in and which earthly citizenship we may have, because we pledge allegiance to the Kingdom of God, that makes us aliens and foreigners and strangers in this world.

In 2 Corinthians Paul tells us that we must not be yoked together with unbelievers, asking, “For what does light have to do with darkness? Here is one of the important implications of the Kingdom of God. Our allegiance to our King and his kingdom will mean that we cannot yoke ourselves together with those trying to accomplish plans by worldly wisdom that conflict with the wisdom of God.

Instead, we must advocate for kingdom principles which usually sound crazy to the world. Otherwise, the salt will lose its saltiness and we will no longer be the salt of the earth, light of the world, the city set on a hill.

The implications of all of this are serious. If we have disciples in the

United States

who are fervently patriotic and nationalistic, and we have disciples in

China

who are fervently patriotic and nationalistic , the body of Christ will be torn asunder because we have an idolatrous relationship with our countries and are not pledging ultimate and complete allegiance to the kingdom of God.

Too many disciples bring with them into the Kingdom their views of government, patriotism and politics and never place those views under the rule and reign of God or allow God's wisdom to transform their thinking.

Disciples of Jesus in

United States

do not have the mission of spreading democracy and capitalism to the world. Disciples of Jesus in

China

do not have the mission of spreading communism to the world. Those in the

United States

and those in

China

and those of every other nation on earth who are in the Kingdom of God must be concerned about bringing men and women from all cultures and all economic systems to be a part of God's Royal priesthood and God's holy nation. This is one of the crucial meanings of the biblical concept of God’s Kingdom.

Next week: The Kingdom and the Church

Kingdom #3: The Sermon on the Kingdom

2011-04-03T15:20:00.001-05:00

In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus comes announcing the in-breaking of the Kingdom. And then Matthew presents to us what we usually call The Sermon on the Mount. We have come to call it the Sermon on the Kingdom, or, if you will, the sermon on kingdom living. This is the core of Jesus’ message and he almost certainly repeated many of the teachings found here on other occasions. Luke, in chapter 6 of his gospel, tells us about at least one of these times that is often called the Sermon on the Plain.

If we are serious about the kingdom of God, living as disciples of Jesus, and obeying everything Jesus taught, this sermon on the kingdom must get a great deal of our attention. But we will not really get the sermon on the Kingdom unless we get the Beatitudes that are found at the beginning.

In my book No One Like Him, I called these the Kingdom attitudes. They are the essential attitudes that must characterize one’s life if he or she is going to have a kingdom heart. When we think of the relationship of the Beatitudes to the rest of the sermon, numerous analogies and metaphors come to mind.

If we envision the life this sermon describes as a great spiritual mountain that we wish to climb, the Beatitudes should be seen as the boots that every climber will tell you are so essential. Without a grasp of the Beatitudes, our journey through the rest of chapter 5, into chapter 6 and on through Chapter 7 will be quite miserable. We will have some pretty severe blisters and will likely take a big fall when we come to something like "don't resist an evil person."

To change the image, the Beatitudes are like the alphabet: you must learn them early, but you will be using them for the rest of the way. Try to skip them and your spiritual life will end up being only so much gibberish. In a similar way, trying to live this sermon on the kingdom without internalizing the Beatitudes, would be like trying to play basketball before you ever master the art of dribbling and passing. And just as a coach will often bring his team back to focus on these basics when their play becomes ragged and sloppy, so we must be brought back to these crucial attitudes again and again as we seek to live this kingdom life.

It is interesting that we call these the Beatitudes, for these are the essential kingdom attitudes that need to be in all our lives. (Of, course, that play on words works in English, but we’re not sure how it will come out when it is translated into another tongue.) When we find Jesus’ words in this sermon irritating us, frustrating us or seeming to be a burden, a key rule for the road is go back to the Beatitudes. When we find our relationships with others who are traveling the road with us to be broken or not close, go back to the Beatitudes.

It is our observation that just about everything we are called to do in the rest of the Sermon, or in the rest of the New Testament for that matter, can be traced in some way back to the Beatitudes. We will benefit greatly by focusing carefully on them. Jesus is going to go on to some specifics and to some things that sound to some like new laws, though that would probably be to miss his point. However, before he goes on examples of specific behavior he starts with “the inside of the cup” knowing that when that is right the outside takes care of itself. The Beatitudes then are about the new heart one has on the inside after hearing the call to the Kingdom and repenting (Matthew 4:17).

In our second volume on the Kingdom, Steve and I will be focused completely on this sermon on the kingdom life and we will spend considerable time at the beginning on the Beatitudes but I hope you won't wait for that book to start meditating on these crucial qualities and attitudes as you pray for God's kingdom come will more fully to your life.

Kingdom #2: Kingdom Humility

2011-03-27T22:00:00.000-05:00

Having said last week that I want to talk to you more about the Kingdom of God and urge you to study this subject seriously, I want to make something as clear as I can. I do not consider myself an expert on the subject. I have been seriously studying Jesus’ teaching on this vital subject for the last thirty months. My friend, Steve Brown, and I have written a book on the topic, but I am still very much a learner and a student, and expect I always will be.

The Kingdom of God is as majestic and monumental a topic as you can find in Scripture. One of the key verses that has captured my attention during our study has been Hebrews 12:28-29: “Since we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us worship God will reverence and awe.” Two key insights come from this text.

First, the Kingdom is so magnificent and rich that we have to keep on receiving it. You may have received it, but there is much more to receive. As we point out in our book the Greek word for “receiving” here is a present active participle which indicates continuing action. The Kingdom is something we continue to receive. But then second, there is something about this Kingdom and its unshakable nature that is awe-inspiring and humbling. The receiving of it is all tied in with worshipping God with reverence and awe.

What we have seen in our study is that the Kingdom is full of paradox—we might even use the word “mystery.” It is now but is not yet. It is already but it is still coming. It can be known, but in this age we will not fully know it.

Jesus’ main way of talking about it is to tell stories and say “The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed or king who threw a banquet or treasure hidden in a field or a net let down in the lake.” Each of his stories reveals something about the Kingdom, but this way of teaching about it, and the fact that Jesus never gave a dictionary style definition of it, shows it cannot be reduced to some simple description. May God forgive any of us who ever thought it could be summed up with a dozen passages of Scripture or its dimensions being the sum of the members of any one group of churches.

In our book I describe how I love mountains. I was never a big climber and this point in my life with MS that is not an option. But I love to drive around a mountain and behold its majesty from different angles and at different times of the day. And then I appreciate it even more when I hear the poets write about it and the singers sing about it.

There is something about the Kingdom that is like that. By the grace of God we can grasp this about it or that about it—and those things will be life-changing, but we must stay ever humble before it, because there is always much more to understand.

Steve and I have published Volume one of a three-part series. We are working on volume two which is all about Jesus’ famous sermon on the Kingdom (usually called the Sermon on the Mount), but if we were to write 10 volumes, there would still be much to say or at least much to learn and live.

Jesus told the disciples that unless they humbled themselves they would never enter the Kingdom. And so the point of today’s message is that humility may just be the most essential characteristic of Kingdom life. And anyone who proudly says “I’ve got it and I can teach you all about it,” doesn’t have it at all.

Scripture #1: "Kingdom Come"

2011-03-20T16:36:00.002-05:00

To view today's presentation as a video click here.

Today represents a bit of a milestone for us as it is our 200th week to send out a Mind Change Moment. Sheila and I want to thank you for so much encouragement and support that you have given us so to help keep these messages going out. After today were going to take a break, and not be sending out any our regular podcasts for a while. But I do want to talk to you about something else we're going to make available.

Over the last few weeks I've been sharing with you some of the passages of Scripture that made the biggest impact on my life. I've said several times that we are not trying to countdown to Number One. However, the passage that I share today has certainly been the most important one to me over the last 2 1/2 years.

It comes from what most people call the Lord's Prayer, and here's the familiar verse:

Matthew 6:10

your kingdom come,

your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

No biblical concept has gripped me more in the last 30 months like the subject of the kingdom of God, and no passage that I've studied has given more insight into the kingdom than this one.

Jesus' message of the kingdom is that the age to come and the rule and reign of God have broken into this present age so that the disciples of Jesus become a colony of heaven in a broken and dark world. Their continual prayer is "your kingdom come, your will be done right here, right now on earth as it is in heaven."

Understanding that my life is not so much about "going to heaven when I die," although that is very important, but that it is about living heaven right here on earth before I die has represented a massive mind change. It has made sense of so many things in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. It has fit with Paul's statement that though we lived here, our citizenship is in heaven. It has made clear why Peter would say we are aliens, foreigners and strangers in this world.

One day the kingdom will come in all of its fullness, but now it is coming like waves of an invading force breaking in here and there, and then there and here in this world. Our goal is not to wait until heaven to be filled up with the righteousness of God, but to hunger and thirst for it now so that we might treat all men the very same way that we will treat everyone in heaven.

After months of study, my friend Steve Brown and I wrote a book that we prayed would cause hundreds and thousands to dig deeply into this crucial message. But this week I clicked on to a website operated by our book distributor to check on how sales were going for this book. I was a little stunned at what I saw. I guess you could say the sales have been respectable, but nothing like what I would've expected or hoped.

Some people tell me that disciples today really don't want to study that deeply but that they just want a thought or two to get them through the day. I have to admit that makes me wonder if that contributes to the popularity of Mind Change Moments. Is it that people want to take just a moment, have the equivalent of a spiritual five-hour energy drink? As Chicagoans once said to shoeless Joe Jackson "Tell us it ain't so, Joe."

I don't know what the real situation is, but because of my passion to have more people study and then live out the message of the kingdom, I'm going to record several more videos like this one over the next few weeks in which I will give you more of my convictions about the kingdom of God. If you only have a moment, this will likely be too long for you, but if you want a challenge to go deeper, this may be the place.

Thanks very much. I hope to see you next week.

Scripture #2: See to It

2011-03-13T21:08:00.002-05:00

Hebrews 3:12-13

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

With only two passages to go, here is one of many in the New Testament that shows just how much we need each other to live a kingdom-first life. With the use of the phrase "see to it" and the phrase "let us" which is used an astonishing twelve times in Hebrews, the writer is calling us to be involved in each other's lives.

Visiting someone when they are sick, taking them dinner or helping them move are each important and encouraging expressions of love. But with this statement the writer is surely calling us to something deeper. He is calling us to be our brother's keeper. We are to take action to keep another person from developing a hard, unbelieving heart. Scripture would not issue such a call unless this was a very real possibility.

All of us can let our hearts get in some bad places.

A leader abuses his position.
A friend disappoints us.
A tragedy happens and it seems so unfair.
Another Christian hurts us and seems to have no remorse.
We develop a chronic illness that turns our world upside down.
Or, on the other hand we make a ton of money or have some great artistic success.

We can let these kinds of events harden our hearts. Because of such times we must both see our need for others and see our need to be there for others. Any expressions of Christian faith that don't practice these kinds of relationships are going to miss the mark. And it's all so important because only the pure in heart will see God.

Scripture #3: The Much More of the Heavenly Father

2011-03-06T18:46:00.000-06:00

With only three weeks to go I am down to the last three passages of Scripture that have greatly influenced my life. As I have said earlier, these are not in any certain order, like you would get on the David Letterman Show or the Top Forty Hits. We aren’t counting down to number one.

Today’s passage comes from Matthew 7:11 and is not one you hear quoted that often. In the Sermon on the Mount, which Steve Brown and I call the Sermon on the Kingdom, in the context of teaching on prayer, which we believe must be seen in the context of Jesus’ Kingdom teaching, he says:

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Many see Jesus’ famous sermon as a soaring ideal; most see it as full of impossible expectations. I could talk here about how this passage and the verses around it ought to transform the way we look at Jesus’ message, but instead I want to focus on one phrase that has affected my thinking. The phrase is: "How much more will your Father in Heaven.”

Years ago I read a powerful little book by Vernard Eller titled The Simple Life. (Just Google it. It’s free on the Internet.) Eller emphasizes this verse and talks about "the much more of the Heavenly Father." That phrase embedded itself in my mind, and has encouraged me in countless situations.

Eller's book in many ways focuses on the last part of Matthew chapter 6 and Jesus’ call for us to not lay up treasures on earth, but to lay up treasures in heaven. He keeps this phrase, rightly, in the context of the Sermon on the Mount and emphasizes how those who seek first the Kingdom with experience "the much more of the Heavenly Father."

On so many occasions, when my thinking tended to drift toward the negative, this promise of "the much more of the Heavenly Father” turned me in a good direction and gave my faith some muscle. Probably like many of you, I have always delighted in giving gifts to my children. And I have no desire to mock their requests. But if that's the way we are, though we are evil, how much more will the Heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. That is a mind-changing passage.

Scripture #4:Seek First

2011-02-27T19:45:00.001-06:00

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

How could this one not be on my list? In all our lives there is going to be something we seek first. What is it for you? It may be something noble like the good of your marriage or the good of your family. For a few people it may be their country. It may be a long time dream or something you want to achieve. It may be something not so noble like your own pleasure or your own self-centered

happiness. Something is going to be first in all our lives.

Jesus brought the kingdom of God—the life of the age to come right into the present age. The kingdom is the rule of God, the reign of God, and he says “Here’s how to live: seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness… and all these other needs we be taken care of by God.”

Jesus is giving us a Truth North, a clear direction, something that can simplify life even as it challenges our character. To seek the kingdom is decide nothing will get more of our passion than finding and doing the will of God. It means listening carefully to what Jesus taught us about the Kingdom life and wanting to follow him whatever the costs.

When I decide something will be first, it shapes how I handle everything else. It means I will not compromise my pursuit of it, no matter what. It means I will sacrifice for it because I value it above all else. If it is really first, it is more important than life itself.

Because I trust Jesus more than I trust anyone, there is no question about what is going to be first.

Create in Me a Pure Heart, O God

2011-02-20T17:46:00.002-06:00

Counting down toward number one, this passage is a slam dunk for my list. Thirty-three years ago it sprang to life in me and helped set me on a new course. I had been a follower of Jesus for ten years, looking for ways to be used by him, but slowly and unknown to me my heart had grown hard.

I still preached and taught and wrote, and I still sat down with others and shared my faith. I still gathered my wife and children, and we worshipped God in our home. But I had become a negative presence. I had let bitterness come in and set up shop.

And then I heard a friend, a brother and a preacher talk about Hebrews 3: “Don’t harden your hearts.” And as he spoke conviction from God worked its way into those places of bitterness, and light from God began to help me see. I saw where I was and who had become. Thanks be to God for spiritual friends.

Then I reread Psalm 51 written by another man who had seen what he had become, and I began to pray with him,

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

And now thirty-three years later I am still praying that prayer and thanking God that he can create that which I cannot.

The Power of the Cross

2011-02-13T21:14:00.002-06:00

Passage number six is 1 Cor. 1:18:

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

The first book DPI published was: Thirty Days at the Foot of the Cross. Now some 200 plus books later, it is still one of our most popular. In the introduction, eighteen years ago, I focused on this passage and then wrote the following words that describe my convictions:

Twenty centuries ago the God of the universe made a surprise attack on the forces of darkness. He did what hardly anyone was expecting. He came as a baby and died on a cross. We are badly mistaken if we think that was easy for first century people to believe, but hard for people today. It was hard to believe then. It was hard for those closest to Jesus to believe. To many people it was downright foolishness. But to those who believed, to those who looked closely and decided there is good reason to believe, it was nothing less than the most powerful revelation ever received from the living God.

Nothing tells us more about life than this death. No event shows us more the character of God. No speech ever spoke so clearly about the values we all need. What happened when Jesus of Nazareth went to that hill outside the city gates will never in this world be fully understood. No scholar, preacher, or poet can really take us to its depths. No one can fully fathom the mysteries that are here, but the closer we can get to it all, the better we will be. God wants a mighty movement in our day that will advance against darkness on every continent. But he will bless no movement that is not centered on the cross Of Jesus Christ.

a Challenge to Husbands

2011-02-05T19:21:00.002-06:00

The seventh passage I want to share with you is Ephesians 5:25-26:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.

Some of the passages are on my list because of the encouragement and hope they give me. That has been true of most of the passages I have shared so far. But some are on my list because of the direction and challenge they give. This verse definitely belongs in the second category. More than forty-one years ago a most wonderful young woman became my wife (by the grace of God), but I know myself well enough to know that without words like these found in Scripture, I could have moved from those exciting days of young love into a very selfish and ungrateful way of living.

However, thoughts like this one, and especially this one, kept calling me to treasure what I had been given and to focus on her and not myself. The number of times I have failed to do that is just testimony to how much I needed this challenge and direction and correction.

I understand that God’s message to wives is one that must be accepted with much faith, but his message to husbands sets the bar as high as it can be set. To love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her—those are words that humble me even as I say them. But that is God’s word for me as Sheila’s husband, and our marriage is blessed when that word toI take it to heart.

My Times Are in Your Hands

2011-01-30T20:40:00.002-06:00

In my list of the top ten most influential passages for my life I would have to put Psalm 31:14-15, but before we look at what it says, let me tell you the context of it. If you go back about five verses you find David felt about as troubled as a man can feel.

Words like anguish and groaning are there, as are ideas like weakness, sorrow and distress. He pretty much sums it all up by saying he feels like a piece of shattered pottery. We would not be surprised to hear him say he is ready to give up, but instead come these words:

But I trust in you, LORD;
I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hands;

Like David I have had times in my life when I felt troubled. I have probably had many more times when I just felt uncertain, perhaps anxious about what was going to unfold. Like you, I am sure, I have had some bad experiences and can’t help but wonder if the future will bring more difficulty.

However, so many times I have taken David’s words as an expression of the faith that I choose to live by. “But I trust in you, Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hands.”

Again and again those words have summed up my confidence in God’s faithfulness and in his sovereignty and focused my heart on why I do not have to live in anxiety. Our outlook is transformed when we say, “My God; my times are in your hands.”

Through Weakness

2011-01-23T15:44:00.000-06:00

I am taking a few weeks to give you eleven passages of Scripture that I believe have had the greatest impact on my life. We have talked about number 11 and number 10 and that brings us to number 9, and I cannot count the times this one has kept me going. It is 2 Cor. 12:9:

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Some of us seem to be more in touch with our strengths and others of us are more in touch with our weaknesses. Most of my life I have been in the latter category. Just naturally wired this way, I then developed a chronic disease that can make even the most buoyant and self-confident fellow feel amazingly weak. I honestly believe that had it not been for this passage I likely would have lived a life characterized by doubting, withdrawing, pulling back and giving up.

Again and again I have been confronted with various feelings of weakness—that gut level emotion that says, “I just don’t think you have what it takes.” But if there is a reason that I am not known as one who retreats from the battle, it has to be found in the promise and the spirit of this verse.

I claimed this promise when walking into college dorms to lead Bible studies; when traveling across the country to speak or to take on the task of putting together a book. But I also have clung to it when seeking to lead my family and be the husband and dad I did not seem to have the strength to be. In my flesh I prefer for God to work through my strengths, don’t you? But one of the greatest miracles is that he works through weakness.

Grace to the Humble

2011-01-16T16:07:00.001-06:00

For Scripture number 10 (and these are not in any order of importance), I have 1 Peter 5:5:

Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

Thirteen years ago, I wrote about this text in The Prideful Soul’s Guide to Humility, and I still have deep conviction about what I said.

Passage after passage in the Scriptures make it clear that humility is the way to God’s heart. The proud find the door closed to his inner sanctum, but those who demonstrate humility are welcomed there again and again. By some measures of performance the former group may outshine the latter, but never mind. God does not receive us on the basis of performance. He receives us on the basis of heart, and no quality of heart is more important to him than humility.

There is nothing more important for a disciple of Jesus than humility. We are not overstating the case to say that we will not be in the kingdom of God at all if we do not heartily embrace the words in this text.

You can be successful with God without being highly intelligent, quick with your wit, clever in business, outstanding in appearance or skillful in athletics (praise God!). But you cannot be successful with God without humility. God can work in your life in remarkable ways even if you do not have great conversation skills, a naturally winsome personality or a quick recall of facts. But remarkably, you will not be in his kingdom at all without humility.

Yes, God promises to bless humility. This clearly means it is something he wants us to pursue. The nature of humility, however, is such that we will never be able to stand at its summit, like victorious climbers, and proclaim that we have arrived. The more we pursue it, the more aware we will be that we need it. The reward for this quest never comes in achievement. The reward for pursuing humility is found in the fact that it draws us ever closer to the heart of God—the very place for which we were made.

In Grace I Stand

2011-01-09T17:28:00.000-06:00

I am sure you have been counting and so probably know that this Mind Change Moment number 190. :) To get us to an even 200, I will use the next eleven Mondays to share with you eleven passages that seem to have most impacted my life. Once we reach that milestone, we will be stopping, at least for a while. DPI will be rerunning previous weeks for those of you want to continue to receive them.

So this week we start with passage number 11 and it comes from Romans 5:1-2:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

If salvation was on any other basis than by grace, through faith, I would not live with much peace. If it depended on always waking up with a great attitude, I would be in trouble. If it depended on scoring a 97 on the 100-point disciplined life scale, I would be sunk. If it came by living flawlessly in all my relationships, I would be shaking. If it were only available to those who make an A+ in doctrinal correctness, I wouldn't make the cut.

I am committed to doing well in all those areas along with others, and I take responsibility for my failures, but I do have peace—at least most of the time-- because I have gained access by faith into the grace in which we now stand.

Last week I saw pictures of people in California standing in two feet of mud—in their houses. There is a lot of difference in standing in mud and standing in grace.

Trying to earn your relationship with God through great accomplishments and a high-scoring performance is a lot like standing in mud. It brings a feeling of hopelessness. On the other hand, standing by faith in grace brings peace and a great hope in the glory of God.

Of Legs and Life

2011-01-02T21:02:00.000-06:00

It will not surprise you that I watched some football on New Year’s Day. After all I live in North America. I also enjoyed black-eyed peas and cornbread with family and friends and played a fun game of “Catch Phrase.” But football was the main thing on the schedule. I only watched one game from beginning to end (Roll Tide), but I saw some of all the others.

When I watch football I am most amazed at the legs of the men. Maybe that’s because my own will hardly move, but I am in awe of the legs that propel players with blinding speed; legs that keep churning for more yardage, even when two or three opponents are on the runner’s back; legs that enable a player to leap high above a defender to make an amazing catch. Legs are crucial. When a coach sends in a new running back, the announcer will often say it’s to give the team some fresh legs.

But just about the time I get too impressed with all this, I remember this passage from Psalms:

"His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love." Psalms 147:10-11 (ESV)

As I begin a new year, I am thankful God is moved by internal qualities like respect for him and hope in his love, and that my ability to be used by him has nothing to do with being able to a run a 4.47 forty or even to able to walk to the mailbox.

This has been Tom Jones with the first Mind Change Moment for 2011.

Additional Scripture

Psalm 33:16-22

No king is saved by the size of his army;

no warrior escapes by his great strength.

17A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;

despite all its great strength it cannot save.

18But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,

on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,

19to deliver them from death

and keep them alive in famine.

20We wait in hope for the Lord;

he is our help and our shield.

21In him our hearts rejoice,

for we trust in his holy name.

A New "Do"

2010-12-26T20:27:00.001-06:00

Someone has defined New Year’s resolutions as a to-do list for the first week of January. After a week it seems most folks are back to the same same-old, same –old. “One and done.”

On the other hand, there are at least a few who will decide that the turning of that page on the calendar offers an opportunity to do some serious growing and they will begin something in January that leads to real change. In my experience these are people who understand two things.

First, they understand the need for resolve. They are not just following the annual rite of winter. They are people who put the “resolute” into resolutions. They will have the attitude seen in Paul when he wrote these words:

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

Second, they understand the need for help. We just do not make changes alone. For disciples of Jesus that help comes from the “fellowship.” Listen to John’s words:

”We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).

Fellowship here is that great Greek word koinonia and it refers to the help, support and love we have with each other and with God and his Son, and the way all these relationships interplay in our lives in a transforming way.

With resolve and help we can be a lot more than a people who are “one and done.” We can follow through with a new “do.”

God in Diapers

2010-12-19T16:13:00.002-06:00

What I will share with you today first appeared in a magazine article I wrote almost twenty years ago. I believe it is all still true.

At the heart of the New Testament faith is a God who does almost nothing the way he is supposed to. Who would have ever expected he would show up on our planet? The God of the logicians and the philosophers would never do that. Even if we thought he might appear, who would have ever expected him to come…in diapers? To think that God who is by definition limitless, would choose to take on the greatest limits that we know, can certainly trip all your circuits. And yet, that is the message of the New Testament.

Who would have ever thought this up? Certainly it wouldn’t be the logical conclusion of Judaism—the religion of God, the exalted and high and holy one. And yet right in the midst of first-century Judaism, the story arose. Immanuel—God with us. Immanuel—God with us as a helpless child, totally dependent on others for everything. Immanuel—God as one of us.

But why? Because he cares about relationship. He wants to draw near. He wants to be accessible. He wants to be known. He is willing to go where gods don’t go. He is willing to know the weakness we know. He is willing to start at the bottom. Incredible! His coming in Jesus the child reveals to us that God, of all things, is humble! Who would have ever thought it? Whose courses in logic or philosophy would have ever led us to that conclusion?

God in diapers! God in diapers showing us that he has a heart, showing us how far he is willing to go to be near us and part of our experience; showing us that God and man were meant to be together—not in different worlds.

Do we get the point or has one too many Christmas pageants dulled our thinking? The God of the universe broke into our world as a baby to keep us from being deceived by the glitter and power and the prestige and the politics, to show us that in his Kingdom getting down in the trenches with one another is more important than getting one up on one another. What matters in life is not how high you go or well you promote yourself, but how much you give of yourself and how you connect with others around you. What matters is love. That’s the message of God in diapers.

May God bless you and let this message flow through you this Christmas season.

SAD and BET

2010-12-12T19:02:00.000-06:00

Here in North America it is that time of the year when the days are at their shortest. It is supposed to be a joyful season, but some people have what is called seasonal affective disorder or SAD. This is a generalized depression that seems to be brought on by the reduced amount of light. Many of us are probably affected by this phenomenon, but for some people it is a serious challenge requiring professional help.

The Scriptures recognize that we will become down, discouraged and even depressed for various reasons. And, of course, we can get into one of these states at any time of the year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t more common during this time of long nights.

At any rate the writer of Psalm 42 gives us what we might call biblically effective therapy (or BET) that can help us deal with those dips in mood whatever their cause. And what is at the heart of this therapy? Brace yourself. It is learning to talk to yourself. Twice in the Psalm he asks himself this question:

Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

And then twice he talks back to himself with these words:

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation and my God. Psalms 42:11 (ESV)

Most of us are going to be downcast, sometime, for some reason. There are times when the solution is not simple, but there are many times when the best thing is not take it lying down, but to talk to ourselves, and speak the truth in love.

Psalm 42

For the director of music. A maskil^[^c^] of the Sons of Korah.

¹ As the deer pants for streams of water,
   so my soul pants for you, my God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
   When can I go and meet with God?
³ My tears have been my food
   day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
   “Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember
   as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
   under the protection of the Mighty One^[^d^]
with shouts of joy and praise
   among the festive throng.

⁵ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
   Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
   for I will yet praise him,
   my Savior and my God.

⁶ My soul is downcast within me;
   therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
   the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep
   in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
   have swept over me.

⁸ By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.

⁹ I say to God my Rock,
   “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
   oppressed by the enemy?”
¹⁰ My bones suffer mortal agony
   as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
   “Where is your God?”

¹¹ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
   Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
   for I will yet praise him,
   my Savior and my God.

Unchanging Truth

2010-12-05T22:24:00.001-06:00

Psychologists and psychiatrists have a big book called the DSM. It is sometimes called the bible for mental health professionals. This week the committee that revises the DSM announced that the new edition will no longer include narcissistic personality disorder.

Times, they are a changing. The committee seems to be saying that it is no longer considered abnormal to be completely focused on yourself or believe that you deserve everyone’s admiration and attention. In the era of Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter and reality TV, it seems it is quite normal to have grandiose ideas of your own importance and to think the world basically revolves around you.

Of course, this is not to say that those who use cyberspace for social networking are all into themselves, and it is not to say that modern technology has made us worse people. We are simply observing that men and women continue to do what we have done for centuries, and that is try to legitimize our selfishness and pride. We convince ourselves that our sin is acceptable because it is not abnormal.

When Jesus said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me,” he was not speaking words people in his time wanted to hear. When he said, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it,” he wasn’t happily fitting in with the latest trends. No, he was calling us to have a revolutionary mind change, and he was promising that it is the way to life. I am confident that will never seem normal, but I am sure it is right.

The Choice is Yours

2010-11-28T18:03:00.003-06:00

“Do you believe in God?” Steve Kroft asks J. Craig Venter on a recent edition of 60 Minutes. “No,” answered Venter. He is a world famous microbiologist. After a lackluster time in undergraduate school he somehow went on to get a Ph.D. and now is considered one of the leading scientists in the world, having described the first genome, mapped the complete human genome, and now having created the first synthetic cells with man-made DNA. Kroft goes on to describe Venter as one known by his peers as a brilliant man with an out-sized ego.

After he replied to Kroft’s question Venter added: "I believe the universe is far more wonderful than just assuming it was made by some higher power. I think the fact that these cells are software-driven machines, [and] that software is DNA and…truly the secret of life is writing software is pretty miraculous…pretty stunning."

Back on June 26, 2000, Venter had stood beside President Bill Clinton to announce the completion of the mapping of the human genome. On the other side of Clinton that day was an equally famous scientist, Francis Collins, who is given as much credit as Venter for the project. Later Collins would write a book titled The Language of God, making it known why he believes the 3.1 billion letters in the human genome supports his conviction about God’s reality and his commitment to Jesus.

So there you have it: Two acclaimed scientists carefully studying some of the most astonishing facts about human life, both saying it is all stunning and even miraculous. But one says he does not believe there is a God who wrote the software and the other says he does.

Quite interesting. No matter how much we learn, we all have the same simple choice, and one that will guide our lives for the rest of our lives.

Thanks and Giving

2010-11-22T00:05:00.006-06:00

I have always loved the Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States. For many years it meant having dozens of college students and single adults in our home from a variety of cultures and backgrounds. More recently, it has been a quiet day with my Mom and Dad and any of our children that could make it. Absent all the hype and commercialism of Christmas, it is just a good day to relax, relate, reflect and, of course, be thankful.

A week or so ago, however, I saw something different when I looked at the word “Thanksgiving.” I saw, of course, the word “thanks,” but it was as though the word “GIVING” just jumped out at me in big bold bright letters, and what I was thinking of was more than giving thanks, as important as that is.

What occurred to me was that as we give thanks for what God and others have done for us, we need to be filled with a spirit that wants to give. We don’t have to be wealthy to give—the poor widow in the Gospel story and the poor Macedonians of 2 Corinthians 8 show us this. It is said that indifference looks for an excuse, but love finds a way. In the same manner, a thankful heart will look for and find a way to give.

The world is always full of people in need. A global recession just means there are even more. Food banks and other groups report that demand for their services is up 25%. This same recession means that many of our churches have less than what they need to keep advancing the message. Some of us know individuals with big debts from medical expenses. And then there are the people of Haiti.

This year, how about we offer thanks, but put some fresh emphasis on our own “giving.”

God's Timing

2010-11-14T21:07:00.000-06:00

I received an email this week and was surprised to see the name of the sender. We had not had contact for probably eight years, when for several months we were meeting most every week. Another friend and I were seeking to help him overcome his doubts and return to life as a disciple of Jesus. While he seemed to appreciate the time we spent, our visits ended without him making any changes.

Now all these years later, I was reading that he had recommitted himself to Jesus and was devoted to the fellowship of the church. He not only was writing to tell me this news but to say how much impact our times together had on him and how much he had appreciated all my efforts to help him.

I was reminded of the story of the farmer whose crops failed and a conversation he had with an unbelieving neighbor: “So where is your God now?” the skeptic asked. “Ah, my friend, the farmer replied. God doesn’t settle all his accounts in October.”

Sometimes it appears that our efforts are not bearing fruit, but we never know just how God is working and when seeds that have been sown will have an impact. It turns out that this last year Ron was stunned with the discovery that he had cancer and that served to clarify his vision. Then many things started to change. Faith and courage began to grow in adversity.

If you are struggling or doubting and wondering if your efforts to give to others are really making a difference, just remember that God doesn’t settle all his accounts in October.

The Three Stages of God's Work

2010-11-07T21:37:00.003-06:00

A friend of mine likes to send me text messages with encouraging quotes. This week he sent one by Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary to China. It said:

"I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done."

Sometimes a brief statement says something so well, and this one immediately connected with me. I found myself more inspired than I have been by full-length sermons and well-written articles.
To participate in the work of God is to face and then accept a daunting challenge. That is true in the case of certain specifics but it is true of kingdom living and the kingdom mission in general. “Mission impossible” seems to apply. We accept it and embrace it not because it seems so possible but because it is the work of God.

And then as we find ourselves in the middle of God’s work, we don’t stay with it because it is easy but because it is the work of God. I heard about a book on Christian relationships titled Relationships: A Mess Worth Making. Relationships can be messy and difficult, but we stay committed to them because they are the plan and work of God.

Stage one—impossible. Stage two—difficult. Stage three—done. Yes, in spite of the odds, in spite of the difficulties, God works through his Spirit. In his own ways he still gets things done through us—not perfect things, not flawless things, but sometimes things that are amazing and always are things that matter.

Even in "This"

2010-10-31T18:43:00.002-05:00

One night this past week I woke up with a doozy of a case of heartburn, officially called acid reflux. Ouch, those tasty ribs I enjoyed at dinner came back to bite me. New rule, I guess: no more ribs for me. Another ouch. On top of that, I had a bad dream, maybe related to the heartburn, who knows. So a pretty tough night, but, here is what I have learned: even in that, God can work, or at least in spite of that, God can work. My tough night did not have to define the new day.

As I am processing some things about my father’s death even while involved in the details of settling various aspects of his affairs, I am finding what my reading always told me: grief work is often a messy journey with an irregular and unpredictable course. And my reading also told me this will likely be true for a good long time. But here is what I have learned: even in this, God can work and heal and teach and bring change that I need.

Another element of my life does not look like it is going that well right now. (This unnamed element is not, by the way, my marriage, which is of great encouragement to me.) But this is what I have learned: God allows plenty of challenges, disappointments, and even some moments of despair, so we will learn deeper dependence on him.

Paul said it this way:

Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (2 Cor. 1:9)

Life can bring heartburn, pain, and challenge. But there is a powerful and faithful God who is at work in it all.

Scripture

2 Cor. 1:3-11

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

8We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

Treasure in Jars

2010-10-24T21:38:00.003-05:00

First, I want to thank all of you who have been so encouraging and supportive during this time after my father’s death. Your words have been much appreciated.

This week I want to let the words of our good friend Linda Brumley encourage us. Linda has a new book titled My Beggar’s Purse, and as you read it, you find that God has filled her purse with lots of wisdom. Today I want to share with you this gem from Chapter 2.

In spite of all the trouble God has gone to in the Bible to explain our fallen state, we still feel we need to somehow do something to deserve salvation. We try to be perfect Christians and we get defensive if anyone points out that we are not, all the while beating ourselves up because we know we are not. It is such an exhausting contradiction.

Don’t get me wrong—aiming for perfection is the right thing to do (2 Corinthians 13:11), but claiming it is a lie (1 John 1:8–9), and going around in a constant state of angst because we are imperfect is a miserable way to live. It is not what God had in mind.

God doesn’t want us to be comfortable sinning, but he does want us to be comfortable with the fact that we are sinners. I think we work so hard to be the treasure instead of being entrusted with the treasure:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

We are jars of clay—the muddy-colored, misshapen kind; not the elegantly glazed, hand-painted, porcelain kind. And God has chosen to fill us with a treasure:

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

So, this is my identity. I am a jar of clay. My job is not to “find myself,” but to die to myself (Luke 9:23–26). At what cost? Just clay. But I’m so excited that God can use me anyway! It is because of the treasure within—the knowledge of the plan of God for the salvation of all mankind—that my life has meaning and glory.

Thank you, Linda. For more great thoughts from Linda check out her new book, My Beggars Purse.

Thank You, Dad

2010-10-17T19:48:00.004-05:00

This has been a difficult week. After a number of years of failing health, my father died on Monday night. Knowing this day would likely come, I had tried to prepare myself for it. To some extent I had done that, but, then one can never fully prepare.

He may have been only 5’8” but my dad had been a large figure in my life for my entire life. That is true of no one else except my mother, his wife and companion for 64 years. When one of the greatest influences in your life is no longer there, you know you are being affected in ways you are not fully in touch with. When you cannot call someone you have talked to almost every day for the last five years, you feel a sense of loss.

Right now I am sitting in the room where he spent most of his last years and where I spent a lot of time with him. A few minutes ago something was reported on television. It was the kind of thing I would have called his attention to, and we would have talked about it for a while. In fact, when I heard it, I looked across the room, almost expecting him to be there. But not this time and not any more.

So many of you have been there. You have felt what I am feeling. If we live long enough, we will all feel it. Tonight I know a mother and daughter who are feeling it.

Sometime ago, sitting in this same room I asked my dad and my mom, “What is your favorite passage of Scripture?” Without a moment’s hesitation, my dad, began to quote, from the King James Version, John 14:27 :

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Thanks, Dad. I will hold on to those good words.

New Heaven and New Earth

2010-10-09T16:14:00.003-05:00

With this week’s episode we will wind up our moments related to our new book on the Kingdom of God. One of the key truths about the Kingdom is that it is both now and not yet. It broke into history in Jesus. It is being lived out in history by the disciples in the church who pledge alliance to King Jesus. But while it is now, it is also not yet. It is not yet in its ultimate fulfillment.

As exciting as it was to explore the meaning of the Kingdom in our lives today, it may have been even more amazing to write about the consummation of the Kingdom in the new heaven and new earth. Some of our concepts of heaven are sadly influenced more by Greek philosophy than by Scripture leaving us with vague ideas not much related to experiences we find meaningful.

The Bible in Isaiah 65, 2 Peter 3, Revelation 21 envisions God’s Kingdom coming to fulfillment in a new heaven and new earth. In a remarkable and often overlooked passage in Romans, Paul tells us that at the present time the creation itself groans as in the pains of childbirth and longs for redemption and liberation from its bondage to decay. It seeks, Paul says, to share a glorious future of freedom with the children of God. And then he makes it clear that this is not wishful thinking, but a solid biblical hope that we wait for patiently.

The Kingdom in all its slendor. New people in glorious resurrected bodies in a redeemed and transformed earth. No more jealousy or pollution, no more selfishness or earthquakes, no more lying or cancer, no more hatred or heart disease. God’s transformed people in God’s redeemed earth. Won’t it be a time? ...but it won’t be over yonder.

Scriptures

Romans 8:18-25

18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21thatⁱ the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

2 Peter 3:13-14

13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

14So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

The Unshakable Kingdom

2010-10-04T07:57:00.002-05:00

Those who have entered the Kingdom of God now have their citizenship in heaven. They pledge allegiance to Jesus as King and Lord, but because the Kingdom of God with its age-to-come quality is so different from this world, its citizens will be, in Peter’s words, aliens and strangers in this culture. It’s like they will be from another planet.

But that brings us to our mind-changing, even mind-bending, thought for today and it comes from Hebrews 12:28-29:

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29for our "God is a consuming fire."

The world may think Kingdom people are on the strange side. But all the little kingdoms they are building for themselves will be shaken. We are in the Kingdom that cannot be shaken.

I may have a bad day, as I did this last week, one where I just felt out of sync, one where my weaknesses were on display, but I could look at another Kingdom man and say, as I did, “You know I still mess, up, by thank God I am in a Kingdom that cannot be shaken.”

The churches we are in will be shaken. Some of us have been through a few earthquakes. Our health can be shaken, our plans can be shaken, but God Almighty reigns. His faithfulness is unmoved, steady, and solid, like a rock and as we keep on receiving his Kingdom, as we pray for it to keep coming to us in new ways, we will survive and we will thrive.

The Kingdom is unshakeable. “Now, Lord, help us have an unshakable faith in that which cannot be moved."

Scripture

Hebrews 12:22-29

22But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 24to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

25See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." 27The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken--that is, created things--so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29for our "God is a consuming fire."

The Kingdom and the Church

2010-09-26T23:52:00.000-05:00

The foundation of our new book is that the kingdom of God was Jesus’ main message. Interestingly, he hardly mentions the church in the Gospels, but it is prominently discussed in the New Testament letters. So what is the relationship between the two?

Careful study of Jesus’ kingdom teaching shows, first, that the Kingdom of God is not the church, but that the church plays an indispensible role in God’s kingdom plan.

Second, it is really the kingdom as it is embodied in Jesus that creates the church. The church is brought into existence to serve and advance the Kingdom.

Third, it is the task of the church to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom in word and in deed. Jesus embodied the Kingdom. Now the church is called to be the body of Christ, follow in his steps and show the Kingdom life to the world and use words when we must.

Today’s church must be passionate about the Kingdom. It is not enough to be a slightly more biblical or improved version of evangelicalism. Serious disciples must be shaped by the Kingdom, with a conviction about obeying all that Jesus commanded.

We must understand that the church is not to just be religiously committed, but uniquely committed to the kingdom thinking that is not of this world.

FOR FURTHER STUDY:

Appendix 1

From THE KINGDOM OF GOD, VOLUME ONE

The Kingdom and the Church

The Issue of Chronology

The contention that the church that began on the Day of Pentecost is interchangeable with the idea of the Kingdom runs into severe problems when passages such as these found below are considered. They all show that the Kingdom was coming in the life and ministry of Jesus and that when Jesus preached the good news of the Kingdom it was because people could respond and receive it through his ministry. The coming of the Spirit on Pentecost was a most significant event, but the Kingdom had ready been breaking in as we see in these verses where emphasis has been added.

Matthew 4:23

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

The good news of the kingdom was that God was breaking in to rescue his people as evidenced by the works of healing. This was good news right then and there. It was not just good news that they could become part of the church in two or three years.

Matthew 5:3

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:10

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In these “bookends” for the Beatitudes Jesus was giving people a message to put into practice and realize the fulfillment of the Kingdom in their day. With attitudes and action they experienced the reign of God. Notice “theirs is” the kingdom, not “theirs will be...”

Matthew 21:31b–32

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”

The prima facie meaning is that disreputables of society “are entering the kingdom of God” because they believed the preaching of John and responded in repentance (and, of course, in the baptism he always administered). Not only were people entering the Kingdom before Pentecost; they were entering it before Jesus even fully began his ministry or at least before John’s death.

Matthew 23:13

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”

In Jesus’ own life before his death and resurrection and before the Spirit was sent on Pentecost, the Pharisees were not entering the kingdom, but by their lives they were shutting the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. They weren’t entering, though they could have entered then. So in Matthew 21 and Matthew 23, we have the starkest of contrasts: The prostitutes and tax collectors were entering the Kingdom during the life of Jesus, but the Pharisees were keeping themselves and others out. If we try substituting the word “church” for “Kingdom” in these texts, we end up with something that clearly does not work. At this point no one was entering the church.

Luke 11:19–20

“Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.” (NASB— has “come upon you”)

Though the Pharisees argued that Jesus drove out demons by Satan’s power, seemingly no one doubted that they were driven out. Jesus’ point is that this is evidence that the kingdom had come upon them right then and there.

Luke 17:20–21

Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ’Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” (NASB)

Whether this rendering is used or the more questionable “the kingdom of God is within you,” Jesus is still speaking in the present tense. The kingdom was there right then and there in the ministry of Jesus.

Matthew 11:12

“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.”

While Interpreters differ on the meaning of last part of this passage, there can be no question about the portion that says “From the days of John until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing…” As has been shown throughout this book, the Kingdom was coming in all kinds of ways and waves in Jesus’ ministry, and here even since the days of John, who was long dead before the events of Pentecost.