My Heart to Yours

We are officially potty training our daughter who will be two tomorrow. I wonder how many times I have said, “Do you need to go peepee?” today?

I just started reading, “How Now Shall we Live?” by Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey. It is very thick. In fact about 500 pages thick. One thing that has stood out to me so far is how important it is these days to know why we believe as we do. We need to be able to give a knowledgeable and accurate reason why we believe in God. I even have a hard time reading about other worldviews that are competing for our attention because I just want to shut the book and say, I don’t care about all that other stuff, I just believe in God and I don’t need a reason why. I don’t really care why, I just do.

But after reading a little in this book I am understanding that it is important for me to know what the other world views are and what my biblical worldview is and how to defend or explain it to others. More people are asking questions these days, I guess. I guess, I am saying that Christians need to be able to argue persuasively. More than just a typical answer like, “because it is wrong”, but why do we feel it is wrong or why is it harmful.

Of course we need to persuasively argue with “gentleness and respect” as Peter says in 1 Pet. 3:15.

I am not sure if any of this made any sense. It is confusing in my brain too. Just trying to make sense of it out loud.

Peace

In my opinion, the goal of the Christian life is not about the aquisition of knowledge and it is not about learning skills or techniques, but it is about “becoming”. BECOMING!!

Throughout the New Testament Jesus is hanging out with His disciples. We need to follow this example in order to experience deep life and community together. Bottom line: To love God and each other. That is the whole enchilada.

I ran across this really cool article. Check it out.

The events, people, and ideas of the past year that Christianity Today’s news editors believe have shaped, or will significantly shape, evangelical life, thought, or mission.

Check it out.

I have been thinking about the word “trust” today and wanted to share some thoughts. Trust is the foundation of all positive, healthy relationships. Trust is the glue that holds people together throught life’s most difficult experiences. With this foundation, we can endure almost anything; without it, every interaction and every decision is a threat.

We excercise trust in virtually every interaction of our lives. We trust cars and airplanes with our lives; we trust banks with our money; we trust the resteraunt with our health. We trust others are we share our secrets. We trust a spouse with our marraige. We trust God, even though we can not see Him.

Like a hammershattering a porcelan vase, a relationship of trust can be shattered by physical, sexual or emotional abuse. Less obvious, but just as devastating are words of criticism and condemnation that wear a person’s soul away like sandpaper. This erosion of trust might happen dozens of times a day- so often that it seems normal. Trust is also eroded by the absense of love and attention.

People whose trust has been shattered or eroded feel desperate to find stability, so they try to control their lives in any way they can. Because these peole do not build positive, trusting relationships, they feel empty and disillusioned.

The hope for people with major trust issues is “learning to trust again”. How? Let’s talk about that…..

How do you think we can learn to trust again?

In God we trust, all others we virus scan.Author Unknown

Okay- I am going to come back to trust and how to regain trust but there is something else I have been thinking about and that is “attitudes”. Bad attitudes, good attitudes, teenagers with attitudes, etc. etc. It seems like I have had several people in my office lately with just downright bad attitudes. So, I have been searching the scriptures about attitudes.

Too many christians live lives of quiet desperation, always worrying and fretting. They pray, but God’s peace never seems to come to their hearts. In short, they have such negative attitudes that they are helping no one and hurting themselves. So, what can we do to exchange negative attitudes for positive ones? The prophet Micah 6:8 which, when acted upon, will have an enormous impact on attitude.

The first step towards a positive attitude is to “do justly”. We must be honest with ourselves and then live honestly. We must quit making excuses and start dealing with our own hearts and minds. We must admit and face up to our own problems. Problems begin on the inside. The heart of every problem is the problem of the heart. When we admit and confess what is in our hearts and minds we will have a positive attitude. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Eat and not drink! he says to you, but his heart is not with you” (Prov. 23:7).

The second step toward a positive attitude is to “love mercy.” In other words, we need to learn to make things right. If there are problems between people, one person needs to take the initiative to make things right- being merciful and forgiving if that’s needed. We cannot get along perfectly with everyone, but Paul admonished, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men” (Romans 12:18). When we have right relationships with others we will have a positive attitude.

The third step toward a positive attitude is to “walk humbly” with God. We need to ask God to search our minds and hearts. Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, Oh God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties: and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” The submissive mind puts Christ and others ahead of self (Phil.2:4). Resentment, thoughts of bitterness, pride or other negative attitudes will poison the heart and mind, and ultimately our whole attitude and personality. If God sees wrong thoughts and bad attitudes in our hearts and minds, He cannot give us His peace and joy. It takes faith to have a submissive mind, because humility is so contrary to the spirit of the world. Yet Jesus has said, “He who is the greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matt. 23:11) When we have humble, submissive minds we will have a positive attitude.

When we start to develop harmful attitudes- being worried, critical, depressed, or discouraged- we must stop to examine ourselves. We must ask, “Do I have this attitude because I’m not being honest with myself? Am I blaming others for my problems? Am I holding a grudge and refusing to forgive or make things right? Am I being proud? Am I forgetting to think single mindedly with Christ? Have I ceased having a submissive mind? Where along the line did I stop living for Christ?”

Next post about positive attitudes……

What do you think about this?

A positive attitude comes not with freedom from problems and difficulties, but with freedom in spite of them.When Paul wrote Phillipians, he didn’t deny that he was in prison; his attitude towards his imprisonment, however, set him free to continue to be all God wanted him to be. Our homes, our jobs, our situations, even our physical bodies with their frailties can all seem like prisons. We can still experience positive attitudes, however. Paul had learned that he could do all things through Christ- and so can we. We need to start each day with surrender to the Lord. We need to ask Him to help us do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him. We need to stay close to Him daily. This will produce a positive attitude that results in dynamic living for Christ, giving us a positive witness to each person with whom we come in contact with on a daily basis.

Tonight we watched, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. It was full of adventure and imagination. Who needs modern day entertainment when we have such wonderful family classics.

Any recommendations for other classics?