Good Morning Friends,
The Western Church is a bit unhealthy really and to get well it needs to have more members with a transformed attitude. And I hope you can see that the Holy Spirit is working this out in us as we worship and work to the glory of God. Part of it is being humbler when we deal with other people and not be wise in our own estimation. But there is something else here that blurs everything into a different reality. Friends, if the Church is going to be healthy, then it needs to embrace the Hebrew mindset of those that came up with the idea of Church in the first place. Sure, each one of us must be transformed by the renewing of our thoughts. Our minds need to find in us a way of reflecting the thinking of Jesus…and learn as the disciples learned. But we are not used to thinking Hebrew. It is about doing, not about knowing. So we have an active part in the renewing process. We are a product of what we put into ourselves. So, we need to be filling ourselves up with the Word of God and processing it like Jesus and learning by doing. Friends, we will never be transformed by the renewing of our minds unless we are filling them through actions that Christ intended. Yes, we can change but that is not progress. We really need to have a more traditional attitude and mindset of Christ in us that is old not new. We are to discover ourselves to be what God intended us to be. So, Do You Have The Mind Of Christ In You?
Scripture: Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (NRSV)
Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.
Matthew 5:37 (NRSV)
Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and his anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, with trembling kiss his feet, or he will be angry, and you will perish in the way; for his wrath is quickly kindled. Happy are all who take refuge in him.
Psalm 2 (NRSV)
Message: Some of us will not be excited about what I am going to tell you now, but I believe it is true that as believers the more we have of the mind of the Christ the less we have and perhaps even want of the rugged individualism of personal achievement that the world considers blessings. Friends, we are saved to serve both Christ and others and once we realize that the Holy Spirit prepares us for a mature spiritual nature, we realize that to really learn the lessons of Christ we have to act in faith and not claim the outcomes as our own. Here our faith and God’s grace gets us an invitation to have the experience of an abiding love. Here the Holy Spirit is empowering us to exercise our faith. But the most important thing the Holy Spirit is doing is bringing us the opportunity to receive salvation by helping us gain the mind of Christ. Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ is opening up to us a way that is beyond linear time but has a focus on truth. You see the mind of Christ is the hidden wisdom of accountability, preparedness and commitment needed for salvation. Jesus is concerned about godly living not so much doctrinal orthodoxy. When it comes to thinking more like Jesus we should hear the Father’s directions, the Son’s determination, and the Spirit’s voice of decisiveness. God does not want a revolt but to have a resolve that honors Jesus with our yes being YES and our no being NO. Friends, loving is how we develop a Christ-like character. Jesus is not some kind of good luck rabbit’s foot granting us our wishes.
And So, we must resolve to love in the face of rebellion and rebuke. It is the only reasonable approach to living. You see we are to be part of a group with structure and order where the supernatural gives us security and cooperation in all things. We are to have a knowledge-based faith accountable to God in a way that preserves the significant truths and meaningful memories of life. Jesus wants us to think on these things in His Way. And it is not the way most of us live. So we need to change what we do so that we can think more clearly about the love God intends for us.
Pray we not listen to the voice of rebellion but to the words of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Pray we do not resist them.
Pray
we not resist the Spirit of God. Pray that we do not ridicule the Holy Spirit that has been placed in us as a down payment for our redemption. Pray we understand that the Holy Spirit is God. Pray that God reveal to us by His Spirit spiritual truths. Pray we resolve to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Pray we realize we have been freed from the penalty of sin, but that God’s security is better for we will be judged by our works, nevertheless. Pray we realize that our reward is based on what we can accomplish in this life in and through the work of the Holy Spirit in cooperation with others. Pray we therefore share the mysteries of love. Pray that all of us would learn to love with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Pray we live in the truth, not going our own way but in experiencing the mind of Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Pray we have the mind of Christ in us, but not count equality with God as something to be grasped.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 