Pentecost 98 The Eye of the Mind

[HKHaugan]

Pentecost 98 The Eye of the Mind

If we perceive something, say an attitude, can we trust the conclusions we make about it? That is, are we reading that attitude accurately? We have to remember that our sinful nature tends to work for safety out of fear and pride. We may have a correct assumption but it will still be processed to put us in control not only of how we think about it but also how we react to it. How do we really see it in our ‘mind’s eye?’

This is precisely why we consider everything that enters our mind to be spiritually founded and grounded. We need a filter to not only read with our mind but to process with our heart. We need to get an accurate read for our perception. Again, if our perception can be understood as our ‘first impression’ then what do we do with those ‘first impressions?’

The only place we can begin to recover our ‘mind’s eye’ is to gaze at the ‘eye’ the Lord has given us to recover our perception, Scripture. It’s also called “Keeping your head.” In Scripture is God’s perception of Himself, His Creation, His people and His environment visible and invisible. It is not until we see things from His perspective that our perception can be accurate. What has to happen is rethinking everything spiritually because that’s the way God thinks. It’s the spiritual environment that determines the deeper issues lying behind everything we see, feel, hear and touch.

Let’s take a simple issue that besets the present culture, gender. If we start with the idea of our beginnings and leave God out of it what do we conclude? First, the obvious, we are physically male and female. But it gets sticky from that point on because we have to start with what we perceive. There is more to being male and female than we can see. We know that there is an invisible difference but just what is it?

This is when we scramble around for ideas and usually turn to some secular authority for a conclusion. Here we get a spectrum of opinions. Let’s take one. There is a male and a female nature. As human beings grow they absorb both from their parents and we find that there is a blend of the male and female in each of us. Men may have a feminine side and women a masculine side. If a man cries that’s his feminine side coming out. When a woman is assertive that is her male side coming out. This kind of thinking then becomes justification that we are born with two sides and if one side dominates that is what we are thus opening the door to all kinds of gender confusion and behavior confusion. It even affects the way we define and treat one another.

It even reaches into the way we think of God. We impose our ideas on Him (called anthropomorphism). If we are created in the image of God it is logical that since we are male and female He must be both as well. Not only that He creates people who are heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual and asexual. This changes and undermines our relational perception. In fact how we talk about God is changed. He is no longer a ‘He’ but also a ‘She’ and an ‘It.’ This means there are ultimately no limits on the way people define and justify anything, no moral limits. Now we refer to people not as ‘mankind’ but as ‘human kind’ because someone male of female may be offended. Ouch! Political correctness born in the manger of the Tower of Babel. Can we see the devil’s hand in all of this getting us to concentrate on differences and change our perception to separate us from God and one another?

The Bible clears all of this up in Genesis. If you read it carefully you will see He created Adam and Eve, male and female. They are created by a spiritual God to be physically male and female. But even more importantly God created the idea of male and female. His purpose was to create a physical universe for persons who would perceive and share His spiritual reality of love, relationship and reproduction. He desired images of Himself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to be experienced in the physical. He is a God of love and relationship. His nature is not male and female but spiritual, personal, Holy, all-perceiving, all-seeing and all-knowing. He is above and beyond His Creation yet intimately involved in every detail of it. When He became a man In Jesus it was to recover our spiritually relational nature, restore our perception and bring the visible back into order through it.

It was the devil who worked hard to separate our minds and hearts from God and one another. When the devil tempted, and Adam and Eve chose, to think apart from God, it was then they experienced ‘perception-separation’ from God and one another. They perceived through the lenses of sin, pride and fear. Thus began mankind’s descending trek down the road of lonely speculation about who and what they were.

‘Humankind?’ What does Gen. 5:2 say? Male and female He created them and He called them, ‘Man.’ Put them in proper context. Male and female are a physical creation. Man is first spiritual and his mind can only find its definition and purpose in the ‘eye of God’s mind,’ Holy Scripture.

“1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry (2Tim.4:1-5 NIV).”

Stay tuned……..