A renewed mind.

It struck me today that anything we've ever done has been the result of a thought that we had first. We will never find ourselves doing something that we haven't at some point given a moment to thinking about.
Which is why we're told to take our thoughts captive in 2 Corinthians 10:5. If everything starts as a thought, we must learn to distinguish the right type of thinking from the bad and take every thought captive and bring it under the authority of Christ. If we master this, our actions will follow.

The thoughts we have will even determind how we react in situations... think about it...We sow what we reap right? So if we're sowing bad/negative/rubbish thoughts, all we're going to reap are bad/negative/rubbish actions. If we sow good/pleasing/Christ-like thoughts, all we're going to reap are good/pleasing/Christ-like actions. Seems simple enough really.

Proverbs 23:7 says that we become what we think about. So if you're trying to break the habit of speaking negatively, start by not thinking negatively. Every time a negative thought comes into your head replace it with something positive, but more than that, replace it with the word of God.

We can't develop 'right thinking' unless we first know what it is to think right. Colossians 3:2 tells us to set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. And we learn what these things are through reading the word and letting it dwell in us. Philippians 4:8 says "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." It's easy to think about lovely things when everything is going our way but it's when things get tough that our thinking is tested. How many of us can say that when someone offends or upsets us our first thought is 100% pure, noble, right, lovely and even admirable? (That's ok if it's not, but now it's time to change. =D) Sometimes we can feel like we have a right to feel upset or offended and that we are owed something if we are wronged. But it all comes down to a choice. Only we can choose to pick up an offence or to have a bad attitude. Therefore we can choose to respond in love. Train yourself to think about the things of God and the more you do the more change you'll see in your siituations and your everyday walk with Him. :)

Dream Big

"Clear lots of ground for your tents!
   Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big!Use plenty of rope,
   drive the tent pegs deep.
You're going to need lots of elbow room
   for your growing family.
You're going to take over whole nations;
   you're going to resettle abandoned cities.
Don't be afraid—you're not going to be embarrassed.
   Don't hold back—you're not going to come up short.
You'll forget all about the humiliations of your youth,
   and the indignities of being a widow will fade from memory.
For your Maker is your bridegroom,
   his name, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
Your Redeemer is The Holy of Israel,
   known as God of the whole earth." Isaiah 54

Dream big. There's no place for small dreams. Too many people loose sight of the dreams they once had because they're bored of waiting or downsize because they think they got carried away in the moment. Just look at the promises of God!  "Don't be afraid—you're not going to be embarrassed." It's time to dream again and put in the work to see it happen without fear of failure. Without a dream or a vision, we're going no where. Take time to think about you're dreams and ambitions and don't be afraid to believe for more.

Time for a work out.

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." (John 4:34)

When we think about food we think about the consumption of things that are edible. We need food to keep us alive, it sustains our bodies, giving us energy and the right nutrients and vitimins we need to live. Without food we would slowly wither away. Just as we need food to sustain our physical bodies, we need something to sustain us Spiritually. That something is Jesus, Gods living word. Matthew 4:4 says “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” Here, Jesus is telling us that we need to feed on Gods word in order to live.

Diet
We're all fully aware that a bad diet leads to alot of health issues. Likewise, if we're feeding the soul with anything other than Gods word (the perfect diet set out for us) then we're only damaging ourselves. For example, if we spend all our time watching bad tv shows or hanging out with the wrong type of people we're feeding ourselves junk. It may 'taste' good at the time but we know it's bad for us in the long run. Also, we shouldn't just be nibbling or snacking on Gods word when we feel like it. We should be completely devouring it. There's nothing better than a good meal with good company, so what could be better than feeding on Gods word whilst in fellowship with God Himself? Why wouldn't we want to get stuck in?

Anyway, as important is this is, it isn't my main point for now...no matter how much we eat, if we're not implementing my next point, we're at a huge loss.

Exercise
If all we do is eat, eat and eat some more then we're going to get fat. Jesus said that His food is to do the will of God who sent Him to accomplish His work. I'm sure Gods will wasn't for Jesus to remain constantly full and do nothing about it. No. If we eat but don't work it off, it soon becomes fat. Likewise, if we hear (eat) the word of God and don't act on it, it's just going to become fat, extra weight, useless. Just like we exercise to keep ourselves looking good, we act on Gods word allowing ourselves to be changed/matured into the likeness of Christ. For example, the church can meet every Sunday and be taught on the same topic week after week but until it is applied/acted on by each individual, it remains head knowledge and can quickly become dead religion. God's word is living and active so it's time to work out. It takes hard work, effort and discipline but the results are well worth it. Your 'muscles' are going to ache but you know you've worked hard when you can feel it. If you stop exercising it's going to be just as painful when you start again and it may seem easier and less painful to just give up but this is when we have to persevere to see the breakthrough.

Discipline yourself to eat right and keep moving and let His word be life to you.



Feelings.

Act out of who you are, not how you feel.

Sometimes is easy to act out of an emotion. For example, I could send someone an agressive message out of a moment of anger or frustration, or I could change my facebook status to something negative because I've had a rough day so i'm feeling down and upset. Or I could sit in a room of people with my arms folded and a frown on my face because I don't feel like being sociable today. However, all of these things are a result of what I am feeling and go totally against who I am.

How do I know who I am?

"Feelings are an insufficient guide to who you are...the Bible is the mirror that tells you what you're like." (Andrew Caughey) So quite simply, if I want to know who I am, I look to what Gods word says about who I am and then my actions should fall into line with what it says. For example, If it says I am an overcomer, my confession will always be that of an overcomer. And it is a choice that I have to make. I can either choose to allow myself to be ruled by my emotions, or I can bring my emotions in to line with who God says I am. Even when we find ourselves in situations that don't seem to have any positives, we can choose to stand on Gods word and allow our actions and our words to reflect who we are instead of how we may be feeling at that moment in time. Feelings always change but Gods word is unchanging.

Growing Pains.

"Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity..." (Hebrews 6:1)

Ever considered that maybe 'going on to maturity' requires growth and change? And that that growth and change may result in some kind of discomfort or effort?
Lately I've found that maturing in Christ is alot like growing up in the natural. An active, growing child is likely to experience growing pains - all their muscles and joints are telling them that their body is going through a change.
You will find that an active Christian will experience something similar. Not in their physical bodies but in their character. I say 'active' because it is easy for a Christian to hear the word of God but not act on it. The first step to maturity is putting your faith into action by applying it to your every day life. When we start applying the word of God to our lives we will experience change. We may go through seasons where these changes are more obvious than others and it is undenyable that these changes will be accompanied by the odd 'growing pain'.
I like to define growing pains as the lead up to the result. Sometimes the lead up can seem like it's lasting forever and it would seem easier to give up but Romans 5:3&4 tells us that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character and character produces hope. However, the reality of it is, is that suffering produces moans and grumbles and moans and grumbles produce bad character and bad character produces hopelessness. But in Romans 5, Paul isn't talking about the common experience. He's coming from the view point of being justified by faith and it is by faith that we can persevere. If we are to become mature sons, we must persevere. This morning, Nick Matheson preached about a faith that perseveres and he was spot on when he said "Perseverance is the difference between children and mature sons." The only thing that will stop us from reaching maturity is giving up. And it really is as simple as that... never give up.

So, "let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." (Hebrews 12:1)



Love.

So I was going for the theme of faith, hope and love because 1 Corinthains 13:13 says "and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

In my other posts I've talked about how our hope allows us to overcome anything thrown at us because of our future promise but to keep our hope alive we have faith which is believing in something that we don't see and requires us to be active. It means stepping out of the norm in boldness because we are sure of what we hope for and certain of what we don't see. The next one then is love and 1 Cor 13 tells us that this is the greatest of the 3.

Now, the natural perception of love is a matter of feelings. It's that little flutter in the pit of your stomach when your eyes meet from across the room and you know that it was 'love at first sight'. Or it's that romance thats portrayed in every chick flick or novel when they live happily ever after. But its that type of 'love' that gets thrown around and becomes meaningless. It's easily broken and has the tendancy to leave you disatisfied.
However, the bible tells us about a love that never fails.

This is love;

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (1 Cor 13:4-8)

1 John 4:16 says "God is love." and therefore God is, by very nature, everything you just read about love. He is patient, He is Kind, He does not envy, He does not boast, He is not proud. He is not rude, He is not self-seeking, He is not easily angered, He keeps no record of wrongs. He does not delight in evil but He rejoices with the truth! He always protects, always trusts, always perseveres. He never fails. That is such an amazing truth. To know that God loves each of us with that kind of love, that his love for us is that which perseveres, He never gives up on us. It is impossible for God do go against who He is and if He IS love then He does EVERYTHING in love.

Jesus tells us that we are to love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34).

If we are showing this love, then we are showing the very nature of God. Jesus went on to say to His disciples that people will know that they were His disciples by the way they love one another because it wouldnt be a love that the world knew, it would be the love that God showed by sending His Son to die for us. It is because we have His Spirit living in us that we are able to do everything in love and we can be like Jesus in the way we love eachother.

The bible even goes as far to say that if we do something without love, we are nothing. Which means that, as Jesus did, we are to do everything in love.

The world will know us by our love.

Faith

After writing my last post, my brilliant brother popped up on facebook to tell me that although it's good to have hope, if you only have hope, you soon become hopeless. We need faith to keep our hope alive.

What is faith? Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we don't see. It isn't merely a way of thinking...Faith is an action word. James 2:26 says that faith without deeds is dead.  We are required to put our faith into action. In James 2:14 he asks the question, "what good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?" The basis of his question was this; That even the devil believes in God in that way, but it won't save him from God's judgement. It's not enough to just believe, our actions need to mirror what we believe. Faith expresses itself through obedience and therefore true faith will show in the way we live our lives. This doesn't mean living according to a set of rules and regulations, we are justified by faith, not by the law and therefore we live by faith. This requires us to believe in what we don't see, and live each moment by the power of the Spirit (cool!) and not by our own human effort. Our faith has to be in Jesus and not in our good deeds or our striving to please God by living by the law. It means that when God speaks, we move. When God asks, we obey.

In Luke 18:8 Jesus asks "when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
To have faith is to carry on, sure of what we hope for, without giving in. Even when we're not seeing the immediate results, we see the ultimate end where our hope is anchored and that is how we can live by faith.

So when Jesus returns, will he have a people who have given up hope or a people who say an almighty "YES LORD" when he speaks?

Will he find faith?