Taking Charge of Our Emotions

Some are surprised to discover when they read the Bible for the first time the range of emotions Jesus exhibited.  Emotions are a normal part of being human.  Jesus was emotional and was not embarrassed by His emotions;  He never tried to hide or stifle them.   Jesus could thrive within His emotions because they were perfectly aligned with the Father on every matter.  So why are our emotions out of whack?  Our failure is summarized in Psalm 4: 4.  In your anger do not sin…  When our emotions are drawn into sin, they collapse into a fit of rebellion and vanity.  The depression that forsakes God in its despair, the anger that strips fellow sinners of their humanity and the fear that immobilizes us and keeps us from being led by the Holy Spirit need a Savior.  In Psalm 68:3 we find God’s plan for the normal Christian life.  God has designed  you, regardless of your circumstances and difficulties, regardless of where you were raised or who is in your family, to live happily.  But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful. (NIV)  Of course you may think that this is impossible.  You may call it a pipe dream or something only for those who die and go to heaven.  But the psalmist is quite practical and states without equivocation what God’s plan is for you here and now.  However, you have to decide if this is something you want!  Are you ready to have Jesus rework your emotions?  Do you want God to give you supernatural happiness?  Jesus maintained His joy because He continually aligned Himself with the will of the Father.  It takes courage and faith to believe that your circumstances are Christ given, that those who surround you are placed there by God and that your body is safely in the hands of the Father.  Each time you find your emotions sweltering with panic, rage or despair, breathe deeply and whisper a prayer of child-like dependence upon Christ to rework your heart.  “God, save me.  Come to my rescue and restore to me the joy of my salvation!  I have a Savior.  I have a Father who loves me.  I am safe.  My Lord is good!”

Jesus wept. John 11:35 NIV

Spirit Intelligence

Romans 8:9 NIV

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

What Is Your Spirit IQ?

One of the great questions in the field of psychology has to do with intelligence.  What is intelligence?  Is it the ability to solve problems, how quick you think, your verbal skills, your creativity?  Do you have to be great at math to be considered intelligent or able to grasp spacial relations?  Are you intelligent if you have a great memory or are smart people forgetful?  How important is intelligence anyway?  Does it make you a happier person?

The Bible is adamant that intelligence is important but it takes a unique stance on it.  Psalm 53 gives us a measure or a standard of intelligence rarely considered but it is crucial for us to consider.  The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."  They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good.  God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. (Psalm 53: 1-2 NIV)  Perhaps we could call this “moral intelligence”” or “spiritual thinking”.  It is easy to discredit spiritual thinking by calling it impractical or just something religious people think about but it is anything but impractical.  Spiritual thinking is the most practical way of understanding intelligence because it is universal in its scope.  Spiritual thinking demands that all of our thoughts must run through the Holy Spirit or else it always comes up short.  Without God in our figuring and evaluating, we lack the most critical component of thinking, the mind that is behind the life of every mind in all creation.  It is like trying to decide what would be best to wear outside without any idea what the weather is.  In Russia yesterday it was cold and rainy despite being the middle of July.  How smart would it be to go traipsing outside there in shorts and a light blouse?  Spiritual thinking gives us the ability to think with facts unavailable to the mind without God.

Let me give an illustration of the importance of spiritual thinking from an event described in Mark 4.  Jesus was asleep in the stern of the boat when a great storm arose on the Sea of Galilee.   The panicked disciples, several of whom were seasoned sailors, shook Jesus awake when it looked like they all might drown.  Quickly Jesus reacted to the storm.  He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. (Mark 4:39 NIV)  Without God, the mind is chaotic, wild, unpredictable.  After Jesus quieted the elements, the disciples were amazed that even the wind and waves obey Him.  When the Holy Spirit enters a mind, it gains a freedom it did not possess before.  The mind can see things clearly without the wild nature it once had.  What it never noticed because it was too spasmodic to comprehend, the mind can grasp with the Holy Spirit as part of the thinking process.  Important details are processed with spiritual thinking that go unnoticed or are unattainable for the mind without the Holy Spirit directing the elements of our thinking.

The Lord told a story that helps us get a handle on spiritual thinking. There were ten virgins, all pledged to be married to a single man.  The wedding was delayed though because the groom had to be away for a while.  But when he returned, the wedding would begin.  Part of the ceremony was to have lamps ready and lit when the groom arrived.  Without them, they could not participate in the wedding.  Five of (the virgins) were foolish and five were wise.  The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.  The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.  The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. "At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'  "Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.  The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'  "'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'  "But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.  "Later the others also came.  'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'  "But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.' (Matthew 25:2-12 NIV)

What was the difference between the two groups of virgins?  All of the virgins had the same information available to them that they had to have their lamps lit when the groom arrived.  What separated the groups was the way each group processed that information.  At the time when they all fell asleep waiting for the groom and even before that, the five of the virgins thought it did not matter how much oil they kept with them.  The other five with varying degrees of urgency believed it was best to have extra oil for this crucial night.  The first group, the group without extra oil provides a clear picture of the chaotic mind, the mind without God working through the thinking.  They did not think far enough or process the information they had with enough clarity to avoid being kept out of their wedding.  The second group had spiritual thinking at work and although they may not have known why they needed to have extra oil, they took the information they had of the coming wedding and made sure they kept with them extra oil.  The second group of virgins thought in a different way than the first group of virgins and the way each group thought was critical…life altering.

There are key moments, and we never know when they will come and rarely know their importance at the time, when we need a higher intelligence, a smarter way of thinking and that is spiritual thinking.  When Jesus came across a man who had been crippled for thirty-eight years, the man had no idea the importance of that day.  But then when Jesus healed him, he started to see God’s hand upon him but because he lacked spiritual thinking, he could not process the data correctly.  For some reason, the man did not even pay attention to who Jesus Christ was, did not bother noticing even the slightest bit of information about Him.  When the Jewish authorities found the man carrying his begging mat that day and it happened to be the Sabbath with its regulations against carrying such mats on that day, he was asked why he was violating the Sabbath.  (H)e replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'" (John 5:11 NIV)  When the Pharisees demanded to know who told him to pick up his mat, the man did not know.  Of course it seems odd to us that this fellow did not even know the name of the one who healed him of his thirty-eight year disability but that is the sort of thing that happens when we lack spiritual thinking.  We aren’t able to process the data we have coherently so that it makes sense for what is important.  Later, Jesus met up with the man and told him to stop sinning or else something worse would happen to Him.  What that something worse was, the man never bothered to try and discover.  Instead he just ignored Jesus’ warning and went on with his life.  Without the power of God working through our thinking, we become arbitrary in our actions, disordered and unable to make sense of the most important factors we encounter.  Spiritual thinking allows us to see and think about what is most important and how to understand what we see.

When the rich young ruler who met up with Jesus as described in Luke 18, was told that if he wanted to inherit eternal life, he had to sell what he had, give it to the poor and follow Jesus, he mentally collapsed at the words.  He could not process how important it was to leave behind his wealth if he was to have a happier and more joyful life that could never be ruined by circumstances or even by death.  Jesus was not good enough for him and that was because of the inability he had to utilize spiritual thinking.  Zacchaeus on the other hand without even having to be told, as soon as he met Jesus, realized that he had to pay back everyone he cheated four times over and give up half of all of his possessions to the poor if he was to be happy.  You cannot be talked into such a decision.  Who willingly would do such a thing with a glad heart?  It is not logical in any way unless of course you process it using spiritual thinking.  Of the two men, who made the smart decision?  The rich young ruler met Jesus, looked carefully at him with all his mental acuity and decided it was best to hold on to his wealth.  Zacchaeus used the same mental skills as the rich ruler but added to it was spiritual thinking, and he decided to give away his wealth.  One famously went away sorrowfully.  The other was joyful in his decision.  Spiritual thinking determined the quality of life each gained.

There are two parts to spiritual thinking.  The first is a determination that the Bible is the ultimate authority in our decision making.  If this is not decided, we will be unclear in our thinking and unable to process rightly what we face.  Who knows what to think of the person who gossips about us at work?  The Bible gives a clear answer.  Who knows how to respond to being unemployed?  The Bible tells us.  Who knows what we should do if we can’t stand our neighbor?  The Bible has a plan for that.  The Bible has an answer for every moral decision we face.  The second part of spiritual thinking is that it thrives off a craving that borders on desperation for the Lord to direct us in an ever growing way.  To develop spiritual thinking, we must be eager to be led by God.  For us, it is a sort of Promised Land.  We can stand on the edge of spiritual thinking like the rich ruler of Luke 18 and watch as others enter into a joyful and intelligently peaceful life or we can enter in and be like Zacchaeus, glad beyond measure to be with Jesus.  Others may not think much of the decisions you make but you will know, as you let the Bible and the Spirit of God dominate your thinking, that you have a better life than they can ever imagine.

Happiness or Joy

1 Kings 4:20 NIV

The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore; they ate, they drank and they were happy.

What Is The Value of Happiness?

San Francisco used to have a rather famous local celebrity who was known as “the bush man”.  It wasn’t that he was from some remote part of Africa, but rather it was how he used to torment tourists who came to Fisherman’s Warf.  He kept with him a big, leafy branch that he hid behind as someone approached him on the sidewalk.  The bush man waited until just the last second as the tourist came up to him unawares and he suddenly threw his branch aside, rose up from his haunches and screamed.  Tourists would immediately scream themselves and some would drop their bread bowls and cokes, most would just jump aside in fear.  Then everyone on the sidewalks on each side of the street who were anticipating the prank would laugh and for his effort, the bush man expected the startled tourist to give him some money for being the butt of his joke.  My pleasure in all this came afterwards as I watched the embarrassed tourist walk away.  Some would smile broadly and laugh with their companions, happy to have been made a public spectacle.  Other shuffled off clearly disgruntled, perhaps their entire day wrecked by the experience.  All the rest of us in the impromptu audience of the bush man were mostly happy…perhaps because what we saw was funny, perhaps because we were glad the bush man had not humiliated us instead.

What makes us happy?  Is it good health?  Are we made happy by winning the lottery or getting a promotion?  Do children make us happy?  Are we happy on our birthdays?  Perhaps when our favorite team wins the championship…or just a game…we are happy.  Do romantic evenings make us happy or exotic vacations?  Does your pet doing a new trick make you happy?  Has an effective medicine ever made you happy or a tax refund?  Have you found happiness going to school or to a movie or at the mall picking out shoes?   Were you happy on your wedding day, your graduation day, your last day at work before your retirement began?  Have you ever made someone else happy?  Are you happy?  Do you think you will be happy tomorrow…or next week…or next year?

Thirty times or more a form of happy or happiness is used in the Bible and it nearly always describes the reaction to some sort of external circumstance.  Leah said she was happy because she had given birth to a son. (Genesis 30: 12)  The people of Israel and Judah were happy over the prosperity they enjoyed with Solomon as their king. (1 Kings 4: 20) Haman, the assistant to the Persian king Xerxes was happy that the queen had invited him to a private banquet she was hosting. (Esther 5:9)  Yet later his happiness was usurped by fury when the Jew, Mordecai refused to bow to him.  Paul the apostle recounted the observable happiness of his friend Titus who upon his return reported how refreshing it had been to spend time with the church at Corinth. (2 Corinthians 7:13)  As sick as it may sound to us, the Psalmist indicated that anyone who bashed in the skulls of Babylonian children would be happy. (Psalm 137: 8-9)  We know it is possible for this sort of happiness because we have seen it ourselves that miserable people can find happiness by bringing misery to others.

The challenge facing happiness seekers is how to sustain happiness.  It is fleeting in most cases; usually dependent on everything breaking the right way.  Some have a personality that tends toward happiness but unfortunately not everyone is so disposed.  Many have a tough time finding happiness even in normal circumstances, let alone when times are tough.  Is there any hope for the majority of us who find it difficult being happy, especially when we can’t find a good reason for being happy?

Joy is usually considered a synonym of happiness but there is a distinct difference between the two terms, particularly in the way the Bible applies them.  Joy often is no different than happiness.  It is simply the reaction to some sort of pleasure and joy means no more than the celebration of the soul over some accomplishment, acquisition or change in circumstances.  But there is another way joy is mentioned in the Bible and how this usage differs from the normal discussion of joy is the source of it and that is what we must examine now.

Nehemiah hints at the difference in the Bible’s use of the terms joy and happiness. 

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." (Nehemiah 8:10 NIV)  The reason Nehemiah needed to prod the Jews in Jerusalem to celebrate was because many of them were upset over how terribly they and their descendants had acted and the extent to which they all had violated God’s law as found in the Scriptures.  Instead, Nehemiah encouraged celebration and feasting because of God’s mercy and generosity.  He then made a critical observation.  “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”  God’s joy is your strength.  Not your joy, but His joy.  Notice also that joy is not due to circumstances as we normally think of it.  The joy is found in the existence of God.

Later in the book of Nehemiah is found this statement.  And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away. (Nehemiah 12:43 NIV)  The people of Jerusalem rejoiced because God had given them great joy.  The subtlety of this should not be ignored.  It was not because God had made their city safe that they rejoiced nor that their hard work had paid dividends or even that now they were prospering after all the difficulties they overcame.  The cause of rejoicing was as simple and complex as this.  God had given them great joy.

The prophet Habakkuk was a pioneer when it came to joy and how to gain it.  As he considered the coming onslaught of the Babylonian army and the leveling of Judah and Jerusalem, he made a determination.  Even if there was nothing left of the land and all forms of income were gone, he decided, “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” (Habakkuk 3:18 NIV) Note carefully the wording.  He is not saying he will rejoice because of the Lord or due to anything God was doing for him.  He was not going to be joyful as a result of some outcome he hoped would occur.  His joy was not about the Lord; his joy was through the Lord.  The source of joy was neither his situation nor his impression of God.  Habakkuk’s joy came directly from God like a pitcher pouring its contents into a cup.

Jesus declared this very means of gaining joy, was not only realistic, it was His promise to us that we could have joy this way.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (John 15:11-12 NIV)  It is so imbedded in our approach to life that we must somehow find an accomplishment, a purchase or a relationship to have joy that it seems almost absurd that we can have joy simply by being connected to Jesus Christ.  But He reiterated this later that same evening.  "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. (John 17:13-14 NIV)  This is certainly not a logical approach to happiness and joy.  We dig in our heels at this point.  If I get a new car or a boat, or if my wife stops arguing with me or if my husband would finally treat me affectionately or if my finances improved or if my test scores got better or if I have a great time on my date, I will have joy but if something turns sour, I am left bummed and frustrated. Paul completely flipped the normal joy equation around when he explained, For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. (Romans 14:17-18 NIV)  Not only is joy not determined by what we do or gain, it is ours as a result of God giving it to us freely.  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 NIV)

Let me use a story Jesus told to illustrate the difference between typical happiness and the joy that is infused from God.  There were two brothers who had completely different life goals.  They shared the same father, the same upbringing and the same advantages in life.  One decided to kill the golden goose and get his inheritance early.  He spent all his father gave him and wound up impoverished and in despair.  The other brother remained a hard-working productive person who never placed any demands upon his rich father.  When the younger brother returned home a beggar, to the older brother’s shock and great displeasure, the father threw a lavish party to welcome the younger brother back into the family.  The older brother stomped around and bitterly denounced his father for his actions.  The father had never thrown him a party!  He had worked faithfully in the family business and he never got so much as a barbecue.  Looking at this story from the outside, you wonder how the older son could have been so upset.  Why did he not realize that all the father had was his too?

Here is the great issue of joy.  Just as the older son forgot that the source of his true happiness was not in what the father doled out but it was the father himself, so we too err greatly here.  We fail to see that all true joy comes from Christ through the Holy Spirit and if we would keep our eyes on Him, we would have enough joy to fill the entire world.  It is when we look away from the goodness and mercy found in God and turn to all the things we wish we had or hate we now have or might have, we lose the joy that is ours at any moment.  The typical reaction when discovering that Jesus turned the water into wine is that a big deal is made out of that act as if that were the great miracle.  That was not and still is not the miracle, but rather just the sign of the miracle.  The miracle is that Jesus Christ can and will infuse us with Himself at any moment and the water transformed into wine is the sign of what Jesus can do within us if we are ready for His joy to overflow throughout our total personality.  What sort of home might we develop if the joy of the Lord entered it, what sort of work environment could we help develop with the joy of the Lord there, how could we change the way our churches operate if we had the joy of the Lord invading them?  There is plenty of joy in Christ for us to be happy if we would simply turn to Him in prayer at any moment we feel overwhelmed or disappointed or scared or angry or frustrated and just like the water was turned into wine, Jesus Christ can turn the mood of our personality to joy.

Are You Aware of the Big Picture?

There is with each of us a great mountain of unexplored territory.  Our personality is beyond our grasp, even the smallest parts of it.  That is why egotism is such a dastardly sin against ourselves because what we think we are is so far from the actuality.  Just consider your dreams and how profoundly they explore your depths.  You dream of someone you cannot recall ever seeing, create a narrative that is far more complex with plots and subplots than anything you could ever put down in writing, express fears and colossal desires you did not know existed.    In your dreams, lusts and cravings spring up from the pit of you that astound and perplex you.  That is just the brief snippets of the dreams you recall after the first minute of waking.  The boundaries of you that are versus what you think those boundaries of you are far surpass the difference between all of Asia and the little mosquito dancing near a swamp in Viet Nam.  You are not merely the sum of your parts…you go beyond all your parts and all the parts of everyone you know of those you have met over the course of your life.  The shepherds were amazed by the angels…first one and then thousands because they never imagined something so wonderful and spectacular.  Come to Jesus and you will find that what you know of Him and what you think you know of Him is even less than what you know of yourself.  Consider the wonder and awe of those first moments when the shepherds looked up into the night sky and watched the heavenly dance played out above them.  They could not have realized that what the angels announced was so much greater than what they presented of themselves.  Why are we so dreary and lackadaisical when it comes to knowing Jesus Christ?  We seem to be like the poor man who smashed his TV to get at the little people who lived in his box and talked to him from inside it..  Can we not see that Jesus Christ is mercy and love and joy beyond our wildest imaginings and that the glory of His being is the most magnificent of discoveries and one that brightens exponentially with each new exploration into Him?  Have we the persistence of the shepherds who scrambled to see the Christ Christmas morning?  Have we an idea of what consists of the “big picture“?  Do we realize how big Jesus is?

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.      Luke 2:16 NIV

In or Out

The moment we begin to dwell upon ourselves, our mental state, our condition, our circumstances, our finances, the things we have or want to have, we have lost our way.  Dwell means to live in a place and as soon as we live at what and who we are, we are stalling the progression God has set before us.  The mirror is a metaphor of our spiritual predicament.  Do we stare into it or look away to Jesus?  Is our eye fixed upon our depression, our loneliness, our discouragement, our frantic search, our health or is it looking away to the Cross of Christ where all the life of God comes bolting forth?  Jesus' statement about clothing and food and not worrying about them in the Sermon on the Mount is mostly misunderstood.  Like the disciples in the boat, we think He was talking about stuff...bread stuff...clothing stuff...car stuff...house stuff...body stuff...relationship stuff.  If that was the point of His rebuke, then Jesus aimed pretty low.  The Cross of Christ was not a triumph for the protection and distribution of stuff.  It was the devastating death blow to all sin and life is the working out in us of the life of Christ within the humdrum of all we do and think.  The moment we fix our eyes on our internal condition, focus upon what is wrong with us or right with us or necessary for our pleasure or happiness, we are like the child who stares into the sun and then can't see a thing.  Only with our eye fixed on Jesus, either through the scripture, by prayer or in doing what God tells us at the moment He tells us to do a thing can we see clearly.  We see the love God has for us.  We see the power the Lord holds in His hand.  We sense His love and mercy and care for us.  We trust God and believe Him.  We live.  Gaze at myself and I shrivel like C.S. Lewis's bus riders in The Great Divorce.  Look to Jesus and keep my mind on Him and the world shrinks and God grows large and I become more and more fit for the Glory I am meant to possess as a Child of the Great King.  As soon as the prodigal son determined to make his way back to the presence of His Father, he lost the identity of me and found Himself to be Us.  The world is too small for us when God makes us His home.

Jesus said to her, "Mary."  She turned toward him…      John 20:16 NIV

Are You Really You?

Why do the ramifications of being born again startle us?  When a child is born into a family, it is a complete revelation to the home, a revolutionary break with the old structure and forms.  Each child, even when added to large families destroys absolutely the old family and restructures it into a new dynamic that permanently ruptures all of the relationships built before.  Abortion is the ultimate fear of the new beginning.  So to think that when one becomes a Christian we are to be the same old person with a religious overcoat thrown on top of us is ludicrous.  We mustn’t let the stored memories and genetic layering fool us into believing that we are the same when Christ comes to us and makes us new.  We are new and it is not temporary.  We play mental games with ourselves thinking the old behavior patterns that made up our days before will be able to continue into our newness.  The bitterest and saddest and most disappointed people in the world are those Christians who try to keep up the charade of living and doing as they did when there was no Holy Spirit a part of them.  The adultery and corrupt business practices and snobbish indifference to grudges bottled within are not just contemptible within the Christian community, they are a sign that the believer has failed to acknowledge just how new he or she is.  Perfect peace and sustained joy are given over to us when we live freely in Christ and not when we remain bound in the chains of our old way of being.  Dogs return to their vomit but Christians grow increasingly disgusted with the old patterns of sin.  We are born again that we might become perfect and holy…it does not go another way than that.  The sooner we accept our lovely fate, the speedier will come our peaceful happiness.  Dogs gnaw on bones, bears hunt for berries, otters dart about in the water, eagles build nests in the cliffs and each species holds true to itself as the years pass.  A Christian who thinks like a prostitute, dreams like a miser, whines like a selfish prig and is petulant like an unrestrained child is good for nothing.  All the sweetness and courage and steadfastness and contentment put in him by God is wasted by the believer who will not walk in the Spirit and live by the Scriptures.  You are made good by Christ that you might live good; to do otherwise is like dropping diamonds down the drain. 

He put a new song in my mouth…     Psalm 40:3 NIV

Christian Service

To enter into Christian service you must decide if there is a stitch of the old loyalties in you.  We strut and fuss over the minister who does his work "for the money" but say nothing of the minister who serves to do a good job, to fix wrongs or set things straight.  No Christian is called to a task or a work; she is only beckoned to a person...Jesus Christ.  As soon as you lose sight of your calling, you foil the One who called you.  Jesus Christ is the beam of light that leads your way and the point at which the beam lands.  Adam thought the good was in seeing rightly when all along the good was the Lord alone.  Christians lose their minds over which strategy is best, what goal is noblest, whose vision is brightest.  What are we doing?  We have not come into this Kingdom to make something of ourselves; we come into it to gain Christ crucified.  Jesus redeems our life from all the nonsensical strivings of the world.  Why do we return to that world so doggedly.  Live in Christ and through Christ and with Christ.  The rest is hubris.  If what is seen is your work and striving, your good sense, noble ambition and successful ministry, then you are no better than the servant who buried his coin in the ground.  But if the world sees Christ when you do your work, if those joined somehow to your work become lovers of God when your day is spent and they turn to Him for life and purpose because the fires of God that burn in you now consume them, then regardless of whether you are seen or not, you have found your Way and your Way is straight and sure.  Christ doesn't come upon you to inspire your effort; He comes to be all you see and do in all you see and do.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:   2 Corinthians  5:18 NIV

Minding Your Business

Minding Your Business

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. (James 4:1-3 NIV)

Every form of anger other than righteous or holy anger generated by the Spirit of God is due to a lack of contentment with what God has given you or allowed come to you.  When you want more than He wants you to have or feel that you deserve something better than what you have gotten, whether it be better treatment, more respect or greater influence, you get angry or depressed and the peace of God leaves you.  Angry, bitter thoughts sprout within a mind that has not made Christ its center or Lord.  Cursing, complaining and angry words are always a sign of idolatry; of wanting something more than what comes out of the hand of Christ.

When Christ is not the source of your joy and peace, your mind will become less able to guide you rightly, making you susceptible to depression, anger, apathy and confusion.  Nothing weakens your mind’s ability to make sense of things more than your devotion to Christ weakening.  You are less patient, more prone to take offence, less able to forgive, more judgmental, more frustrated and your ability to make sense of your life diminished.  The mind out of sorts with the Holy Spirit lacks the most important component needed to be happy and at peace; the guidance and empowerment of God.  The mind becomes a battleground where despicable and hurtful thoughts fight with what is right and good and all too often win.

The way to clear your mind and make your thinking free of its power to mislead you is to follow the instruction of Philippians 4.  Present your requests to God rather than ponder them, complain about them or fume about them.  Be thankful rather than disappointed, keep looking for the good Christ is doing for you and do not be misled into thinking you are somehow losing or missing out.  Every circumstance is being used by God for your good so there is never a reason to be frustrated or upset about how someone treats you or the difficulties you face.  The role of your mind is to keep bringing you to Christ if it isn’t, you must discipline it to do that very thing.  Force yourself to be thankful to God or ask for His help.  If you aren’t doing one or the other, you are losing your mind to every trap and misdirection Satan may use to confuse and confound you.  It is certain if you fail to pray for help or thank God for what you have at any moment, you risk losing your thoughts to a demonic attack upon your brain, one you may even know is happening.  Depression, anger, bitterness, jealousy, despair, loneliness, lust, disgruntlement, self-pity are not from God.  They are all the fruit of refusing to either ask Christ for help or thank Him for what He has given you.  You may be snared in one of Satan’s traps or just living in the natural result of your own sin but you don’t have to stay there.  Your mind can be happy and contented but you must go back to the one thing.  Praise Christ for what you have or ask for His help.  Reclaim your mind and get on with the business of having a good life today.

A Tale of Two Minkahs Part One

Gen 4:9 NIV
Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?


What separates good people from bad? Is it what they do, how they think, or their passions that mark one from another? Are some people totally bad…others totally good? Were Cain and Abel opposites or do we have too little information to accurately judge them? Several years ago I was discussing with a good Mormon friend his theology of the three levels of heaven and asked him who it was, if even non-Mormons like me get to go to the 1st level of heaven, goes to Hell. “Well, I guess someone like Hitler!” Now that was reassuring because I as far as I know don’t have Hitler in my family tree or anyone as bad as Hitler lurking there. As poorly behaved as my kids sometimes are, none of them seem to have Hitler tendencies in them. I don’t have genocide in my background either so that seems to make it pretty safe for me. Now here is a good question! If Cain never killed Abel, would we think differently of him? Would he still stand out as one of the all-time bad guys of history along with the Boston Strangler and Joseph Stalin?

One of the most erroneous interpretations of Genesis 4 is the criticism of Cain for bringing a grain offering rather than a blood sacrifice to God. The rationale behind this is the idea that a blood sacrifice was desired by God and the grain offering of Cain was a sign on his part that he did not acknowledge his need for atonement and without the blood failed to trust in a coming Messiah. Of course none of that is indicated in the passage. God makes no complaint of lacking blood: in a sense the offerings are identical. Both brought what in Hebrew is called a minkah. But what is a “minkah”?

Minkahs are found all through the Old Testament. In some places such as in Isaiah 66: 20 and Jeremiah 41: 5 and Nehemiah 10: 33, the minkah is a grain offering, many times (Numbers 16: 15) it can be either and in other scriptures it refers to a meat offering (1 Samuel 2: 17 and here). Since both Cain and Abel brought minkahs and minkahs that are grain offerings are perfectly acceptable (Leviticus 7) and even commanded in the Law (consider Leviticus 6: 20), what separated one man’s minkah from another’s?

If there is one point that can be made which none can refute here, it is that God loved Abel’s minkah but didn’t think much of Cain’s. The text reads literally that the Lord gazed with interest upon Abel’s minkah but in verse 5 he had no such affection for Cain’s. Literally the Lord did not look at all at what Cain gave Him. I have been at social gatherings where I was completely ignored and felt the shame of it. Nothing I have experienced though drove me to murder and that is the most pressing issue in this passage and by far the most interesting. What happened here that led to such a fall?