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Friday, April 27, 2012

Thinking about Self Less

Transformation and renewal create a different way of living. Paul wrote to the church in Rome about transformation and renewal.

. . . I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Romans 12:3 ESV

He goes on to write about how that attitude changes the way life is lived.

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Romans 12:9-10 ESV

Thinking more highly of oneself, wanting others to think more highly of us, thinking lower of others and trying to get other people to think lower of someone else causes immeasurable human suffering, pain and division. The results of this kind of thinking might include jealousy, gossip, slander, bullying, lying, rejection, deception, manipulation, and control. All of these actions are contrary to Paul's admonition to love genuinely, hold fast to what is good, love with affection and to outdo each other in showing honor.

Pastor Rick Warren has described humility as “Not thinking less of self, but instead thinking of self less.” The cause of almost all human ills is selfishness - thinking too often about self. The Bible calls thinking too often about self and the actions that follow selfishness.

Clear back to Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel until this morning, the root of human suffering is thinking too much about self. Each of us need our thinking transformed and renewed so we think less about self, and when we do think about self our judgment is 'sober' or honest.

Jesus, change our thinking!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Transformation - How does it happen?

Change is never easy. In some way everyone has an aversion to change. Everyone has changed something about their life, and yet there are countless other areas that attempt after attempt to change have proven futile. What is it that produces lasting change? What is that produces real transformation in a person’s life?

Transformation begins in the mind. Transformation doesn’t happen by changing a behavior, feeling, habit or life pattern. Behavior, feeling, habits and life patterns change when through mind change. Often people define repentance as ‘turning from sin.’ Repentance in the Bible is not primarily ‘turning from sin’ but it is changing how I think.

You’ve probably had moments where you thought to yourself or even said out loud, “What was I thinking?” People think that, say that and grill themselves that way because they understand that thinking or is it were not thinking, dictates everything else a person does.

Winnie the Pooh one time asked, “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” That is a common mode of life for most people: stopping to think and forgetting to start again. Controlled thinking is an intentional way of living. Controlled thinking doesn’t just happen.

Paul wrote to the church in Philippi and said, “Brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8 NIV) Why the directive about what to think? Why write so forcefully about thinking? Because Paul understood that a person is directed by their thoughts.

In essence Paul was saying, “Think true and you’ll live true. Think right and you’ll live right. Think pure and you’ll live pure. Think what is admirable and you’ll live in an admirable way.”

Will Durant said that - the trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds. Thinking with hopes, fears or wishes is not intentional thinking. Thinking with hopes, fears or wishes is “whatever-comes-into-the-mind thinking.”

Change your thinking, and you’ll experience the transformation that God has in store for you.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Change your mind, Change your heart. Change your heart, Change your habits.

The idea of transformation, becoming the person God intends for you to become, has many facets to it. There are ways in which God desires and has designed every person to be similar. There are also ways in which God desires and has designed every person to be significantly different.

Transforming into who we are meant to be has to do with our mind, our heart and our habits. The Apostle Paul wrote to the followers of Jesus in Rome and instructed them in the process of transformation. He wrote:

Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:2 NLT)

His instructions talk about habits: Don’t copy the behaviors and customs of those around you.
His instructions talk about the mind: “…let God transform you … by changing the way you think.”
His instructions talk about the heart: “…then you will learn to know God’s will … good and pleasing and perfect.

These three components working together bring about the transformation that God has designed. Transformation is almost impossible when it fails to include all three parts of process. Transformation requires a change of habits, but changing habits without changing thinking fails to enable transformation. Transformation requires changed thinking, but just thinking alone is inadequate. Changed thinking has to be accompanied with a desire to know what is good, pleasing and perfect to God.

Most often what we want to change is habits, but habits are often the last thing to change. Change your thinking and your mind gets changed. Change your mind and your heart gets changed. Change your heart and your habits change.

Changing your mind is why the affect on your life of spending time in the Scriptures is incalculable. King David said, “I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Psalm 119:11

Change your mind, Change your heart. Change your heart, Change your habits.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Spiritual Transformation and Sailing

I am not a boat owner, I never have been. I have very little experience on the water, and I am not in any way whatsoever a sailor. I get motion sickness just spinning the kids, now grandkids, around in a circle. I start to feel sea-sick swimming in Deer Lake. I am not an expert in what I’m writing about. The idea has been stolen from one of my favorite Bible teachers, John Ortberg.

Spiritual Transformation is not an overnight event. It is instead a long trip. Transformation can be likened to a trip across the ocean in a boat. The trip is long, the obstacles are unknown, the days vary and sometimes there is ‘no land in sight.’

People approach the journey of transformation in different ways. Some of the ways seem to work and others are obvious failures. Here are some thoughts about three ways of approaching the journey of transformation.

The Row Boat
Some people try day after day to be good. They try hard to be spiritually mature and do what they are supposed to do. This could be likened to someone rowing a boat across the ocean. It is exhausting and usually ends in failure.

Adrift at Sea
Some people give up trying and throw up their hands in disgust. They decide that the only hope for experiencing transformation lies in ‘relying on the grace of God.’ This approach could be likened to someone being adrift in the boat letting the waves take them wherever the wave goes.

Neither rowing harder nor drifting is very effective in the journey of transformation.

Sailing
A better image is one of sailing. God’s Holy Spirit is the wind that can move us across the ocean to the land of transformation. None of us can control the wind. Each of us is at the mercy of the wind. We can, though, experience transformation as we lift the sail and adjust it to the blowing of the wind.

In John 3, Jesus speaks of the actions of the Holy Spirit using the simile of the wind. He talks about not knowing where the wind is coming from or where it is going. The Apostle Paul, when writing to the church in Ephesus about being ‘filled with the Holy Spirit,’ uses the language of a sail being filled with wind.

Transformation will not happen in the lives of Jesus’ followers just because they try harder or because they throw up their arms and expect God’s grace to get them there. Transformation happens because His followers lift their sail to the wind of the Holy Spirit and then cooperate with the wind of the Holy Spirit who will take them to the land of transformation.

We will be transformed and become who and what God wants us to be when we lift the sail and go with the wind of the Holy Spirit.