Kingdom's Keys Fellowship
Where God's Kingdom Meets Man's Heart.
Pentecost 83 Runaway Minds in a Runaway World
Pentecost 83 Runaway Minds in a Runaway World
Years ago Michael Green wrote a book called Runaway World in which he showed that the world is running away from spiritual reality as presented in Jesus. It was brilliant in its analysis and theme. Consider our language. ‘Hold that thought’ ‘Keep in mind’ ‘Bear in mind’ ‘He’s out of his mind’ ‘Mind what you say’ ‘I’ve got to think it out’ ‘It isn’t logical’ ‘Give me a reason not to’ ‘The mind does funny things’ ‘It blows my mind’ ‘I wonder what’s on his mind?’ ‘I’m not a mind reader” are just a few expressions that we use to explain that thinking process in our brain. Our mind is the inner factory producing ideas, reasons and conclusions. It is where we ponder, agonize and deliberate. When we are frustrated we rationalize our conclusions and justify our resulting behavior, ‘This is why I thought that…this is why I did that.’
Therefore, the real need of the mind is to arrive at some basic truth, some basic principles, some logical reasons, that we can believe in to process life and act it out with confidence. We just have to admit that without something really solid we can believe in, life, daily living, is just a matter of survival. Without belief the mind does not function. The mind was made to believe. Even so called non-believers believe. They may not believe in what we believe but they believe. Atheists believe in not believing in God. Agnostics believe in saying ‘I just don’t know.’ People who avoid or just plain deny the need to believe anything believe in denial and avoidance. Human beings were just simply made to believe. They are just ‘running away’ from truth.
That brings us to getting people to see the need to face not only what they believe but also asking them, ‘Is what you believe in working?’ “Is it giving you security of thought, a sense of confident identity and a patient stability in relationships?’ ‘Do you feel the need to win arguments, defend yourself in the face of unwarranted criticism, have a snappy temper and constantly find yourself adjusting to the attitudes and opinions of others in order to ‘fit in’?
All of the foregoing is processed in the mind. Of course it ends up influencing the heart and the spirit but what you think is based on what you believe and what you believe is who you really are. That is precisely why we who believe in Jesus need to demonstrate the patience, prayer and perseverance necessary to reach the minds of those who avoid and/or deny Him.
The way a non-believer usually rationalizes not believing in Jesus is to argue the usual suspects; hypocrisy of Christian leaders and their followers, existence of suffering, ‘religion causes all the wars,’ ‘I tried it and it doesn’t work,’ ‘everyone has his own truth,’ ‘death is the end’ and ‘we’re all going to the same place anyway.’ But these are just ploys a non-believing mind wants to sidetrack you with. They want to argue to get you angry in order to prove that what you believe is not worth anything. Your anger proves them right. This is one way they continue to run from the truth.
It is what their mind relies on, believes, that is the essence of their denial and avoidance. What they don’t want is to face the real issue and that is the person of Jesus Christ, who He is and what He says. To face Him is to face what they are avoiding and that is spiritual reality. It is getting them to see Him as the face of spiritual truth as opposed to what they are presently concluding and believing. Our task is to get people to think spiritually.
Paul got it right when he said, “Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you (Romans 12:2 Message Bible).”
Spiritually thinking? Stay tuned…….
Years ago Michael Green wrote a book called Runaway World in which he showed that the world is running away from spiritual reality as presented in Jesus. It was brilliant in its analysis and theme. Consider our language. ‘Hold that thought’ ‘Keep in mind’ ‘Bear in mind’ ‘He’s out of his mind’ ‘Mind what you say’ ‘I’ve got to think it out’ ‘It isn’t logical’ ‘Give me a reason not to’ ‘The mind does funny things’ ‘It blows my mind’ ‘I wonder what’s on his mind?’ ‘I’m not a mind reader” are just a few expressions that we use to explain that thinking process in our brain. Our mind is the inner factory producing ideas, reasons and conclusions. It is where we ponder, agonize and deliberate. When we are frustrated we rationalize our conclusions and justify our resulting behavior, ‘This is why I thought that…this is why I did that.’
Therefore, the real need of the mind is to arrive at some basic truth, some basic principles, some logical reasons, that we can believe in to process life and act it out with confidence. We just have to admit that without something really solid we can believe in, life, daily living, is just a matter of survival. Without belief the mind does not function. The mind was made to believe. Even so called non-believers believe. They may not believe in what we believe but they believe. Atheists believe in not believing in God. Agnostics believe in saying ‘I just don’t know.’ People who avoid or just plain deny the need to believe anything believe in denial and avoidance. Human beings were just simply made to believe. They are just ‘running away’ from truth.
That brings us to getting people to see the need to face not only what they believe but also asking them, ‘Is what you believe in working?’ “Is it giving you security of thought, a sense of confident identity and a patient stability in relationships?’ ‘Do you feel the need to win arguments, defend yourself in the face of unwarranted criticism, have a snappy temper and constantly find yourself adjusting to the attitudes and opinions of others in order to ‘fit in’?
All of the foregoing is processed in the mind. Of course it ends up influencing the heart and the spirit but what you think is based on what you believe and what you believe is who you really are. That is precisely why we who believe in Jesus need to demonstrate the patience, prayer and perseverance necessary to reach the minds of those who avoid and/or deny Him.
The way a non-believer usually rationalizes not believing in Jesus is to argue the usual suspects; hypocrisy of Christian leaders and their followers, existence of suffering, ‘religion causes all the wars,’ ‘I tried it and it doesn’t work,’ ‘everyone has his own truth,’ ‘death is the end’ and ‘we’re all going to the same place anyway.’ But these are just ploys a non-believing mind wants to sidetrack you with. They want to argue to get you angry in order to prove that what you believe is not worth anything. Your anger proves them right. This is one way they continue to run from the truth.
It is what their mind relies on, believes, that is the essence of their denial and avoidance. What they don’t want is to face the real issue and that is the person of Jesus Christ, who He is and what He says. To face Him is to face what they are avoiding and that is spiritual reality. It is getting them to see Him as the face of spiritual truth as opposed to what they are presently concluding and believing. Our task is to get people to think spiritually.
Paul got it right when he said, “Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you (Romans 12:2 Message Bible).”
Spiritually thinking? Stay tuned…….
Views: 5
Comment
About
© 2024 Created by HKHaugan.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Kingdom's Keys Fellowship to add comments!
Join Kingdom's Keys Fellowship