The Bullet of Truth: The Goal is Goodness not Happiness
No Christian can live with meaning and power until he realistically embraces a philosophy of triumphant suffering. This doesn’t mean that we are to throw pity parties for ourselves or foolishly and passively accept a defeatist attitude. Far from it! Our obedience to the cross (Hebrews 5:8) reveals to us a glorious secret. Jesus Christ did not die primarily to make us happy but to make us good! A truly good man is destined for horrendous conflict in a basically evil world.
One of America’s foremost Christian psychologists, Dr. Larry Crabb, states the modern Christian’s most profound error, “They are frantically seeking relief from their problems rather than embracing the necessary painful change that will make them like Jesus Christ.”
I am convinced that there is a bedrock, key question that must be answered first if we are to unlock the keys to all the other questions of our lives. Here it is … we must make up our minds what kind of price we will pay and what pain we will endure to be obedient to Jesus Christ. All other issues hinge on that determination.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Bullet of Truth: Choose to Strive
As I see it, most Christians and churches today, even those who proclaim to embrace the truth of Jesus Christ, are in slavery to “Babylonian” American images and values. The true person of God is called daily to break the bonds of captivity that prohibit him/her from being God’s total man or woman.
The men I know who are serious about the Master face tremendous mountains of opposition. We find ourselves battling for our homes, our wives, our children, our jobs, our churches, our country and often feel overwhelmed in the conflict by our own inner weaknesses.
During the Civil War the great Union General Sherman stated, “The beaches of history are bleached with the bones of those who at the moment of victory sat down to rest.” Even though American culture shouts to us to pursue the life of leisure and self-centeredness, we know that call is a lie. Life on earth for the followers of the true God is a life of conflict and battle. We cannot stop sin from doing its deadly work, but we can discover our own inner peace that “passes understanding” and work in the harvest to bring others to the joy of our light.
As I see it, most Christians and churches today, even those who proclaim to embrace the truth of Jesus Christ, are in slavery to “Babylonian” American images and values. The true person of God is called daily to break the bonds of captivity that prohibit him/her from being God’s total man or woman.
The men I know who are serious about the Master face tremendous mountains of opposition. We find ourselves battling for our homes, our wives, our children, our jobs, our churches, our country and often feel overwhelmed in the conflict by our own inner weaknesses.
During the Civil War the great Union General Sherman stated, “The beaches of history are bleached with the bones of those who at the moment of victory sat down to rest.” Even though American culture shouts to us to pursue the life of leisure and self-centeredness, we know that call is a lie. Life on earth for the followers of the true God is a life of conflict and battle. We cannot stop sin from doing its deadly work, but we can discover our own inner peace that “passes understanding” and work in the harvest to bring others to the joy of our light.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Bullet of Destruction of Worry: Victory Over Circumstances
The majority of people who are chronic worriers make the ridiculous mistake of waiting in agony until the circumstances engulfing them change. This will never work. You must change the circumstances or change yourself to conquer the circumstances.
We will always have circumstances or, as the Latin puts it, “things that stand (stances) around (circa)!” A man is a fool to be “under” the circumstances when he can be “on top” of them. Our Lord was overwhelmed with tragic circumstances but not a single one conquered Him! He promises us the same kind of experience if our mind is not divided but set on life’s one great priority … the Kingdom of God! (Matthew 6:25-33).
Happiness is not a state of becoming. It is a state of being! You don’t acquire happiness. You assume it!! God loves me!! In Jesus Christ He offers me His kind of life. All of His riches … power, love, peace, joy, forgiveness … are mine … if I listen to Him and obey Him! The greatest discovery a person ever makes is when he begins assuming that Jesus Christ is right. Obedience to God’s commandments will revolutionize your life! His power to obey is available to anyone who asks Him. Have you ever asked Christ to be your Savior and Master? His Lordship is God’s cure for the divided mind!
The majority of people who are chronic worriers make the ridiculous mistake of waiting in agony until the circumstances engulfing them change. This will never work. You must change the circumstances or change yourself to conquer the circumstances.
We will always have circumstances or, as the Latin puts it, “things that stand (stances) around (circa)!” A man is a fool to be “under” the circumstances when he can be “on top” of them. Our Lord was overwhelmed with tragic circumstances but not a single one conquered Him! He promises us the same kind of experience if our mind is not divided but set on life’s one great priority … the Kingdom of God! (Matthew 6:25-33).
Happiness is not a state of becoming. It is a state of being! You don’t acquire happiness. You assume it!! God loves me!! In Jesus Christ He offers me His kind of life. All of His riches … power, love, peace, joy, forgiveness … are mine … if I listen to Him and obey Him! The greatest discovery a person ever makes is when he begins assuming that Jesus Christ is right. Obedience to God’s commandments will revolutionize your life! His power to obey is available to anyone who asks Him. Have you ever asked Christ to be your Savior and Master? His Lordship is God’s cure for the divided mind!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The Bullet of Destruction of Worry: The Divided Mind
Worry is one of … if not the … greatest illness of modern man. Anxiety is as great a stress to one’s emotional health as too much exercise is to one whose body is out of shape. For example, ask a man who is in poor physical condition to do fifty push-ups and he’ll never finish. He will also be exhausted from the eighteen or twenty he completed! Worry … physically illustrated … is life trying to do fifty push-ups a day when you can only handle twenty. Exhaustion eventually disintegrates the emotional health. Worry is a subtle and deadly killer.
The word for worry in the Greek language is merimnao, composed of two words: merizo which means “to divide” and nous which means to “mind.” Worry is having a divided mind. The mind is divided between what is real and worthwhile as opposed to that which is empty and futile. If a person give himself only to what’s worthwhile and spurned the futile, then worry would cease! (Concern would continue, but there is a vast difference between worry and concern. Jesus was concerned but never worried!) Man’s dilemma comes in knowing and wanting what is real and worthwhile. Thousands of worldly options are being peddled, but Jesus Christ states that He alone can give us the ultimate lesson in reality and value. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). “Without Me there is no going! Without Me there is no knowing! Without Me there is no living!”
Worry is one of … if not the … greatest illness of modern man. Anxiety is as great a stress to one’s emotional health as too much exercise is to one whose body is out of shape. For example, ask a man who is in poor physical condition to do fifty push-ups and he’ll never finish. He will also be exhausted from the eighteen or twenty he completed! Worry … physically illustrated … is life trying to do fifty push-ups a day when you can only handle twenty. Exhaustion eventually disintegrates the emotional health. Worry is a subtle and deadly killer.
The word for worry in the Greek language is merimnao, composed of two words: merizo which means “to divide” and nous which means to “mind.” Worry is having a divided mind. The mind is divided between what is real and worthwhile as opposed to that which is empty and futile. If a person give himself only to what’s worthwhile and spurned the futile, then worry would cease! (Concern would continue, but there is a vast difference between worry and concern. Jesus was concerned but never worried!) Man’s dilemma comes in knowing and wanting what is real and worthwhile. Thousands of worldly options are being peddled, but Jesus Christ states that He alone can give us the ultimate lesson in reality and value. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). “Without Me there is no going! Without Me there is no knowing! Without Me there is no living!”
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The Bullet of Creative Circumstances: All for Our Good
Part 4 of 4
The Father’s love for us and His purpose to make us like Christ are clearly visible in the problems that come into our life. These practices sessions in Christlikeness take on their proper significance when seen from this perspective. In the worst circumstances there is cause for rejoicing.
James 1:2-3 tells us to “count it all joy when testing and frustrating circumstances come our way, because these testings make us mature.” Paul further adds in Romans 8:28 that “all things (circumstances) will work for our good if we keep on loving God … seeking His purpose in everything!”
All of us will be tested by various circumstances! Let’s use them creatively and become more like Christ! That’s the reason the Father has allowed them into your life!
Part 4 of 4
The Father’s love for us and His purpose to make us like Christ are clearly visible in the problems that come into our life. These practices sessions in Christlikeness take on their proper significance when seen from this perspective. In the worst circumstances there is cause for rejoicing.
James 1:2-3 tells us to “count it all joy when testing and frustrating circumstances come our way, because these testings make us mature.” Paul further adds in Romans 8:28 that “all things (circumstances) will work for our good if we keep on loving God … seeking His purpose in everything!”
All of us will be tested by various circumstances! Let’s use them creatively and become more like Christ! That’s the reason the Father has allowed them into your life!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The Bullet of Creative Circumstances: Problems are Practice
Part 3 of 4
Coaches and orchestra conductors work with their players to improve their performance where it is inadequate. So it is with our Heavenly Father. In His purpose to make us great human beings like His Son, “He works us where we are weak.” He uses our blindness and the weaknesses of others to put us into circumstances that will develop our strengths, make us tough minded and grow us into “overcomers.”
If you have trouble loving people, He’ll see to it you are surrounded by unlovable people! Christ loves us even when we are unlovable. If you are exceedingly impatient, He’ll put you into a situation where you have no choice but to be agonizingly patient! We need to be as patient with others as God is with us!
A student who keeps putting things off is assigned three tests in three different courses for the same day. His laziness rebels, but, if he would discipline himself, he could do it! God loves a disciplined life … Christ learned obedience through His pressures (Hebrews 5:8).
If you are highly critical of other people, the Father will probably put you in a leadership position where other people will cut your weaknesses to pieces. We need to understand people’s problems before we ever consider criticizing them. God doesn’t criticize us because He understands!
Part 3 of 4
Coaches and orchestra conductors work with their players to improve their performance where it is inadequate. So it is with our Heavenly Father. In His purpose to make us great human beings like His Son, “He works us where we are weak.” He uses our blindness and the weaknesses of others to put us into circumstances that will develop our strengths, make us tough minded and grow us into “overcomers.”
If you have trouble loving people, He’ll see to it you are surrounded by unlovable people! Christ loves us even when we are unlovable. If you are exceedingly impatient, He’ll put you into a situation where you have no choice but to be agonizingly patient! We need to be as patient with others as God is with us!
A student who keeps putting things off is assigned three tests in three different courses for the same day. His laziness rebels, but, if he would discipline himself, he could do it! God loves a disciplined life … Christ learned obedience through His pressures (Hebrews 5:8).
If you are highly critical of other people, the Father will probably put you in a leadership position where other people will cut your weaknesses to pieces. We need to understand people’s problems before we ever consider criticizing them. God doesn’t criticize us because He understands!
Thursday, August 07, 2008
The Bullet of Creative Circumstances: God at Work!
Part 2 of 4
It is at the point of changing oneself by using the circumstances creatively and constructively that the meaning of God’s purpose for one’s life should become clear! Those of us who have embraced Jesus Christ as our authority are called upon to put negative circumstances into proper focus. The ultimate purpose God has for each of us is to recreate us like Himself. The goal of life is to become like Christ (Romans 8:29). All other values are secondary to this purpose from the mature Christian’s point of view. Most human misery is caused because people devote their years and energies to inadequate goals of existence!
Now how does God create His character in us? Simple! He continually seeks to teach us to use our problems creatively. Illustration …. A football player who is having problems learning to block isn’t assigned extra passing drills by the coach! He works on blocking. A conductor who notes that the French Horns are playing one section poorly doesn’t work them extra hard on another portion they are playing right. He works them where they are weak!
Part 2 of 4
It is at the point of changing oneself by using the circumstances creatively and constructively that the meaning of God’s purpose for one’s life should become clear! Those of us who have embraced Jesus Christ as our authority are called upon to put negative circumstances into proper focus. The ultimate purpose God has for each of us is to recreate us like Himself. The goal of life is to become like Christ (Romans 8:29). All other values are secondary to this purpose from the mature Christian’s point of view. Most human misery is caused because people devote their years and energies to inadequate goals of existence!
Now how does God create His character in us? Simple! He continually seeks to teach us to use our problems creatively. Illustration …. A football player who is having problems learning to block isn’t assigned extra passing drills by the coach! He works on blocking. A conductor who notes that the French Horns are playing one section poorly doesn’t work them extra hard on another portion they are playing right. He works them where they are weak!
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
The Bullet of Creative Circumstances: Recognizing the Problem
Part 1 of 4
Most of us make the frustrating and non-productive mistake of fighting our circumstances rather than using them creatively. I have know scores of people (I’ve not escaped the trap myself) who allow themselves to be depressed, discouraged and unhappy simply because of negative circumstances.
Let’s face it, we’ll never escape or change circumstances (from the Latin, “the things that stand around”). If you are surrounded by critical, negative people you have to realize that most probably they will not change to fit your ideas. Their prime purpose of existence isn’t to make you happy! Before one tries to change his circumstances he had better try to change himself! In fact, the only immediate control one has over bad circumstances is to instantly change himself by using the circumstances creatively and constructively.
Part 1 of 4
Most of us make the frustrating and non-productive mistake of fighting our circumstances rather than using them creatively. I have know scores of people (I’ve not escaped the trap myself) who allow themselves to be depressed, discouraged and unhappy simply because of negative circumstances.
Let’s face it, we’ll never escape or change circumstances (from the Latin, “the things that stand around”). If you are surrounded by critical, negative people you have to realize that most probably they will not change to fit your ideas. Their prime purpose of existence isn’t to make you happy! Before one tries to change his circumstances he had better try to change himself! In fact, the only immediate control one has over bad circumstances is to instantly change himself by using the circumstances creatively and constructively.
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