I love this track from the newest TobyMac LP, Eye on It. Speak Life is all about using our speech to lift others up and not tear them down.
With so much negativity and pain in the world, much of it caused by our misuse of the gift of speech, the song is a great reminder.
Of course, it's naive to think that we can successfully resolve to use our mouths the way God intended. Our experience with busted new year's resolutions should tell us that. Our sin gets in the way. We get in the way.
That's why Jesus warns us, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in Me and I in them bear much fruit [by which Jesus means when we believe in Him and are so connected to Him, we're supplied with His life and goodness, and so life and goodness spring from us], because apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
If we are to "speak life" and not death to the world, enlivening others with the love and goodness that comes from God, we must retain our focus on Jesus Christ, God the Son, Who has brought love into our world. (We need to keep our eye on Him!)
And when our attention wanders onto the lost, dead pathways of this self-centered world, we need to return to Christ, turning from sin and trusting Him with our past, present, and future.
I love Paul's words in the New Testament book of Philippians: "Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Philippians 4:8).
Think Christ.
Trust Christ.
Then, you'll speak life!
(And if you're the praying type, ask God to help me practice what I just preached.)
Showing posts with label Philippians 4:8. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philippians 4:8. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Thoughts, Actions
This was sent out today via email by my colleague, Pastor Glen VanderKloot.
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A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Thoughts lead on to purposes;
purposes go forth in action;
actions form habits;
habits decide character;
and character fixes our destiny.
Tyron Edwards
Scripture
Philippians 4:8 NIV
Finally, brothers,
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.
Prayer
Lord, help me to center my thoughts on those
things that are good and useful and may they
lead me forward. Amen
*************************************************
Saturday, November 15, 2008
When Virtual is Real
Did you hear about the woman who caught her husband cuddling with another woman--and that some months after finding him with a prostitute--then filed for divorce?
Sure, you may be thinking, that's a story I've heard lots of times.
But this story has a twist. Amy Taylor found her husband David Pollard cheating on her virtually, in a Second Life chat room. The Second Life world, in which people take on alternative online identities and pursue "second lives," has apparently become an obsession with lots of people.
But, no harm, right? I mean, in neither instance was Pollard really having sex with another woman. It was just harmless cybersex, some might say.
But undermining this argument is the fact that Taylor and Pollard themselves began their relationship online. And Pollard himself apparently thought his virtual relationship was real enough to tell his real wife that he wanted to end his real marriage.
These may be extreme examples of Second Life obsession, but they hold up an important truth: The wall between our thoughts and our actions is highly permeable.
Psychologists and medical researchers have been telling us for years about how obsessive thoughts of ill-health can lead to the conditions that hypochondriacs dread or to psychosomatic symptoms simulating them. And for decades, pilots, astronauts, and surgeons, among others, have used increasingly refined simulators to prepare them for their work.
But, at a more basic level, thinking about things as Mr. Pollard did at his computer screen--a seemingly harmless indulgence--is more than virtually doing them.
More than once, Jesus talked about the implicit connection between thoughts and actions. For example:
28
Years ago, Norman Vincent Peale told about a man who came to his office for counseling. The man, a Hollywood type, had made a mess of his life. For some time, he'd been fantasizing a relationship with a particular young actress. Peale said that, repeatedly in his mind, this producer had run and rerun a casting couch scenario resulting in a sexual encounter. In Jesus' eyes, this man, married, had already committed adultery. But then, his fantasies became father of the fact. The casting couch scenario was enacted and the starlet became pregnant, threatening the man's marriage and his self-respect.
We live in crasser times than those when the Hollywood producer visited Peale. We're more boorish in our relationships, both real and virtual, less likely to see the harm in our thoughts and fantasies.
But what if we acknowledge that there's little difference between what we think about and what we do? What if we want to live in ways that please God? A few thoughts:
91. Understand that there's nothing we can do to earn God's favor. "God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us," Paul writes in Romans 5:8. And then later, he reminds, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works..." (Ephesians 2:8-9). We all fall short of God's expectations of us, whether in our thoughts or actions. But God forgives sinners like me and you. In this lifetime, we'll never purge our brains of every destructive thought. That's why we need to rely constantly on the grace of God.
2. God is willing and able to help us when we consider being destructive of our relationships with God and others or of our own psyche and well-being. We can turn to God-in-the-flesh, Jesus, Who understands:
*Anger, in itself, is not a sin as I talked about here.
**I love Martin Luther's explanation of this commandment in The Small Catechism:
Sure, you may be thinking, that's a story I've heard lots of times.
But this story has a twist. Amy Taylor found her husband David Pollard cheating on her virtually, in a Second Life chat room. The Second Life world, in which people take on alternative online identities and pursue "second lives," has apparently become an obsession with lots of people.
But, no harm, right? I mean, in neither instance was Pollard really having sex with another woman. It was just harmless cybersex, some might say.
But undermining this argument is the fact that Taylor and Pollard themselves began their relationship online. And Pollard himself apparently thought his virtual relationship was real enough to tell his real wife that he wanted to end his real marriage.
These may be extreme examples of Second Life obsession, but they hold up an important truth: The wall between our thoughts and our actions is highly permeable.
Psychologists and medical researchers have been telling us for years about how obsessive thoughts of ill-health can lead to the conditions that hypochondriacs dread or to psychosomatic symptoms simulating them. And for decades, pilots, astronauts, and surgeons, among others, have used increasingly refined simulators to prepare them for their work.
But, at a more basic level, thinking about things as Mr. Pollard did at his computer screen--a seemingly harmless indulgence--is more than virtually doing them.
More than once, Jesus talked about the implicit connection between thoughts and actions. For example:
28
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:27-28)Jesus also said that unreconciled anger, even if you keep it to yourself, is virtually murder.* And thoughts of taking what belongs to one's neighbor were deemed so destructive of our relationships with God and others that the Ten Commandments contain not one, but two, prohibitions against coveting:
You shall not covet your neighbor's house. (9th.)**Both of these commands deal with thoughts for the simple reason that thoughts aren't harmless.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his cattle, or anything that is your neighbor's. (10th.)***
Years ago, Norman Vincent Peale told about a man who came to his office for counseling. The man, a Hollywood type, had made a mess of his life. For some time, he'd been fantasizing a relationship with a particular young actress. Peale said that, repeatedly in his mind, this producer had run and rerun a casting couch scenario resulting in a sexual encounter. In Jesus' eyes, this man, married, had already committed adultery. But then, his fantasies became father of the fact. The casting couch scenario was enacted and the starlet became pregnant, threatening the man's marriage and his self-respect.
We live in crasser times than those when the Hollywood producer visited Peale. We're more boorish in our relationships, both real and virtual, less likely to see the harm in our thoughts and fantasies.
But what if we acknowledge that there's little difference between what we think about and what we do? What if we want to live in ways that please God? A few thoughts:
91. Understand that there's nothing we can do to earn God's favor. "God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us," Paul writes in Romans 5:8. And then later, he reminds, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works..." (Ephesians 2:8-9). We all fall short of God's expectations of us, whether in our thoughts or actions. But God forgives sinners like me and you. In this lifetime, we'll never purge our brains of every destructive thought. That's why we need to rely constantly on the grace of God.
2. God is willing and able to help us when we consider being destructive of our relationships with God and others or of our own psyche and well-being. We can turn to God-in-the-flesh, Jesus, Who understands:
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)3. Make a conscious effort to keep your thoughts on what's good, helpful, and wholesome. Paul writes: "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Philippians 4:8). God can displace our destructive thoughts.
*Anger, in itself, is not a sin as I talked about here.
**I love Martin Luther's explanation of this commandment in The Small Catechism:
We are to fear and love God so that we do not desire to get our neighbor's possessions by scheming or by pretending to have a right to them, but always help him keept what is his.***Here's Luther's explanation of the Tenth Commandment:
We are to fear and love God so that we do not tempt or coax away from our neighbor his wife or his workers, but encourage them to remain loyal.
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