Renewing the Mind

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Don’t be conformed to the world but be transformed by having your mind renewed. Romans 12:2

We each need a complete overhaul in our thinking. That’s not just to deal with the “evil” things in our minds, but to change the very basis by which we think. Transformation does not come by tidying up our thoughts, cataloguing them differently, adding some new ones or finding Bible references to give authority to our opinions. The ‘renewed’ mind is not an ‘educated’ mind, a Biblically literate mind or a re-enculturated mind. It is a ‘new’ mind.

One of the challenges we face in allowing God to deal with our thinking is that we have faith in our own opinions, thoughts and conclusions. Solomon pointed out that people think they are right – “Every way of man is right in his own eyes” Proverbs 21:2, “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes” Proverbs 16:2.

Because we have a high regard for our own mind and thoughts we tend to be protective of long-held beliefs and cherished opinions. We elevate these thoughts as a worthy platform for the rest of our life. Albert Einstein made fun of this tendency when he said, “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen“.

Attitudes, then, are closely linked to our thoughts. That’s why a “check-up from the neck up” (as Zig Ziglar likes to put it) should really be heart surgery. Oh, there I go again, mentioning the “heart“. Well, this is not the last time, so get used to it. You will never achieve a renewed mind without a transformed heart at the same time.

Sovereignty Experienced

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I introduced the term “Personal Sovereignty” in the past week and I want to revisit the topic and give a bit of personal experience on this subject. Personal Sovereignty is not to me some political notion or linked to some group or process. I am simply exploring a concept that I think has significant spiritual and personal implications and which we do well to think about.

I explained last time that Personal Sovereignty, as far as I am looking at it, is the right and responsibility of each person to stand before the Living God. That, I assert, is an amazing privilege afforded every person on the planet. It is a level of personal sovereignty which cannot be taken away from us.We have to submit to authority, as a parent to a child and wife to a husband. But that does not preclude our complete access to our personal sovereignty before God. A slave, prisoner, refugee, paralytic, cripple, child or illiterate fool has the same innate right that the most educated and powerful people on earth are afforded. They can come into God’s presence and ask for God’s help, face God’s judgement and otherwise do business with the God of all eternity.

That’s awesome to me. That’s a level of personal privilege which is inalienable – it can’t be taken away from us. Bankruptcy, death row, the lunatic asylum, torture or any hideous predicament can’t take from us our right to deal directly with the God who created the entire universe.

Now, I promised to share about the first time personal sovereignty was experienced in my life – at least this is a significant moment when I found my personal sovereignty – even though I did not understand the concept specifically at that time. This is the short version. If you get to hear me in public, you may get to hear the ‘colourful’ version.

As a young married man I attended a small church. The pastor was at times quite confronting toward his flock. If he saw a problem he would follow it up, visiting people’s homes to track down gossip, or to otherwise deal with something he deemed out of order. During this season I made it my business to adopt a “guilty until proven innocent” approach. By that I mean that I was very willing to accept that I may have been wrong, even if I didn’t think I was wrong, since the human heart has a way of telling us we’re OK, when we have been out of order.

Several times I was challenged by my pastor over attitudes he perceived I carried. To my wife’s annoyance I always accepted the charge and happily apologised and put things “right”, even if Susan was sure I wasn’t wrong.

One fateful day, however, my pastor visited with some issue he felt I needed to deal with and I came to the conclusion I really was innocent. I politely accepted my pastor’s suggestions, but, rather than assuming I was wrong I responded differently. I said, “I’ll certainly pray about that and see what God says.”

After my pastor left my home I stood in the middle of my humble living room, under the light fitting, and looked up. I said, “Lord, I hear what my pastor says, and You know my heart. If I have been out of order I want to put it right. But I don’t have any conviction that I am out of order. So I present myself to You. I ask You to judge me and to convict me if I am wrong. You know that I will respond as soon as you do. But until you do convict me I’m going to treat this as a non-issue. Amen”

That moment had great impact on me. I never did get convicted about the thing. I don’t even remember what it was. But I knew that I had stepped into something significant. I had stepped before God’s throne instead of before my pastor’s office. I had walked into a new experience of my personal sovereignty. 

The Bible – Authoritative

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The Bible is the most Enduring, Authoritative, Profound, Resilient, Enlightening, Impactful, Endorsed and Significant book in all of human history.

The last time I posted on this subject I discussed the fact that the Bible is Enduring. Now let me tell you why I see the Bible as Authoritative.

Some things have Endured but are of nothing more than novel significance. The great pyramids are hardly more than tourist attractions. So, impressive though the ability to endure may be, that does not make the Bible significant in and of itself. The Bible, however, is not a relic but an Authoritative source book for humanity.

Unlike other books from antiquity the Bible is authoritative in matters of history and science. Its description of and prescriptions for human nature stand up to scrutiny. This book stands tall, despite its antiquity.

There is no other work from antiquity which echoes the authority with which the Bible speaks. The Egyptian book of the dead, the Hindu Vedas, the code of Hammurabi, and so on, give us clues as to the attitudes and values of the people of past times, but they do not speak into today’s reality in the amazing way that the Bible still does, so universally today. The Bible is the authoritative source for legal, domestic, social, spiritual and scientific endeavour through history as just as much today as ever.

It’s MY Baby

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Here’s an important realization that I worked through which proved helpful for me as a dad.

Susan and I raised five sons before adding two more children to our family. The gap between son number five and child number six was fourteen years. Our “baby of the family” was a teenager when our first daughter was born. Over two years later our seventh child (our sixth son) was born.

For several years looking after the new babies in the family was made easier by the input of our older sons. Those boys learned how to bath a baby, how to clean a baby’s dirty bottom, and so on. The workload was shared around seven people.

Gradually, however, the older sons become less available, as they married off, found employment and so on. The ready helpers evaporated and an increased workload fell to Susan and me.

That’s where my own maturity had to take yet another step forward.

I found myself feeling miffed that I didn’t have the help I had become accustomed to. I found myself irritated when my plans had to be adjusted to accommodate the demands of the young children. I seemed to think that someone else should be feeling the impact of these children and not me. I had important things to do, places to go, plays to pursue.

Then it hit me! I realized one day, as the baby needed attention and there was no-one else to delegate the job to, that “It’s MY baby!” That tender young life in need of care, attention, love and affection was in my home, on the planet, because of choices made by ME, not someone else. This baby was not someone else’s responsibility. My daughter and son were not someone else’s problem, nor someone else’s distraction. They are MY children, born to me as a direct consequence of my actions, according to my hopes and dreams. Even if they had not been wanted, and they certainly were wanted and planned for, I would still have to accept full and final responsibility for them.

Coming to that realization was a wonderful release for me. I stood to my feet and headed in the direction of the crying child, with new resolve and with new energy to meet the challenges. The tiny voice was calling for Me, from My child. I found it easy then to release my sons to move off into the things for which they had been raised and prepared. I released them from being the caregivers for my baby. I released them from having to be “on duty”, with their lives on hold.

Journey of the Heart

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WHY DID GOD PUT ME IN THIS FAMILY?

Life is an Adventure – with a Sting in the Tail!

Welcome to Kindergarten!!!

 

It’s how you respond that counts!!

“Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23

 

When God chose for you to be born into your family He “set you up” for the chance to go to the top of the mountain, into the Holy of Holies and into the heights of human experience.

He did that by carefully choosing your mum and dad, brothers and sisters, grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins.

He also did that by choosing a wilderness for you to go through and giving you some tough times, then throwing in some high points – to see how you respond.

He dumped some garbage onto you and sprinkled some gold-dust as well.

 

And then He watched what you did with it all.

He gave you time, even patient when you messed it up – not giving you what you deserve as soon as you deserve it, but waiting and watching to see what your heart will do in response to all the good, the bad and the ugly of your life.

 

He did all that, as your “Kindergarten”.

 

If you flunk kindergarten you get stuck in the sandpit for the rest of your life, fighting with the other kids for the broken fire-truck and sun-bleached plastic spade.

If you flunk kindergarten you get to go back week after week and year after year to the same old squabbles, insecurities, petty jealousies, empty dreams, play acting, hurtful words and treadmill existence.

If you flunk kindergarten you get to carry a bunch of enslaving reactions and attitudes for the rest of your life.

Even when you grow old you will still be salve to the same childish struggles which trapped you in your childhood.

 

But if you succeed in kindergarten you move up to the next grade. You get to face some tougher challenges and more meaningful issues, which lead you to even more challenging situations where you can do much more decisive things which impact far beyond the sandpit. In time you may even stand on the mountain and God and see what God sees. You may hear His voice and feel His heartbeat about things that are yet generations away. You may change the course of nations and impact multitudes who don’t know your name.

 

How few ever rise above the first ridge! They tangle their tread with the cords of their selfish heart – snared by a mouth pouring venom from their beating chest. Rage and unforgiveness, outrage and intolerance, pride and indignation swirl churning in a stew of surging shame.

 

They trudge back to the sand-pit,

dirty shirted children,

bogged in a mire they cannot comprehend.

Fierce in their rebellion,

demanding explanation,

they jeer or cower or trudge on to their appointed end.

They raise a laugh and titter

and scramble for the glitter

of things that have no value, save to a vanquished soul.

They remonstrate and make demand

while others come and rake the sand,

and all this nonsense doesn’t make them whole.

 

So, is it any wonder

the world is torn asunder

and very few achieve the heights for which their life was born?

Very few have seen the light

that leads them through the darkest night

into the dazzling brilliance of the dawn.

So where are you upon this way;

in the sand-pit to this day?

Or have you found God’s Grace and made a start?

The road is very close at hand,

it starts with one foot in the sand,

for it’s a journey made within your heart.

 

Be diligent to keep your heart

from wrong reactions which then start

to poison all you have and all you are.

Forgive and trust and pass on grace,

to those around you in this race,

and you are sure to your journey high and far.

God bless you as you make a choice

to trust in God and then rejoice

in all that He has done for you and me.

God bless you as you trust Him still

and go His way each day until

you compass all that is your destiny.

 

Welcome to the Graduation!