Tag Archives: Kingdom Living

Being of Two Minds

16 Monday Aug 2021

Posted by in Walking in the Way

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I haven’t finished reading Hannah Whitall Smith’s The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life.  It’s not a book I can race through and be done.  There are sentences that arrest me and I have to think on them for a time before I am ready to continue on.  One such is a quote Hannah Whitall Smith included from another book.  She doesn’t give the name of the author nor the book she got it from but writes; “Years ago I came across this sentence in an old book: ‘Never indulge, at the close of an action, in any self-reflective acts of any kind, whether of self-congratulation or of self-despair.  Forget the things that are behind, the moment they are past, leaving them with God’.” 

She goes on to say; “This has been of unspeakable value to me.  When the temptation comes, as it mostly does to every worker after the performance of any service, to indulge in these reflections, either of one sort or the other, I turn from them at once and positively refuse to think about my work at all, leaving it with the Lord to overrule the mistakes, and to bless it as He chooses.”

This paragraph in particular struck me because I found I was indulging in reflections at the end of last week.  Hannah Whitall Smith says these reflections are of two sorts: “either the soul congratulates itself upon its success, and is lifted up; or it is distressed over its failure, and is utterly cast down.”  I tend toward the latter and such were my reflections.  I rehashed every word I’d said, pictured the faces of those I’d spoken to, and tried to decide how my words had been received, whether I’d said things I oughtn’t, and whether or not I’d been a worthy living epistle.  If such thoughts weren’t exhausting enough, I began to think about things other had said, sidelong glances I was sure I’d caught, became convinced I was being talked about behind my back, and was certain what was being said wasn’t positive.  Not that I’d heard anything myself, but I had a feeling…

Looking back, I am struck by how all this felt.  The more I dwelt on what were no doubt my own shortcomings and the little betrayals from so called friends, the smaller my world got.  I felt everything constricting around ME and my body reacted.  Muscles got taut, a band tightened around my head, and my mind was trapped on a hamster wheel of “what if they said this” and “you shouldn’t have said that” and ultimately, “why do you even bother at all?”

I thank God that there does come the “wait a minute” moment.  First, I had to take myself in hand regarding being talked about.  I did not know for certain that what I was thinking was even the truth.  My Mom tells a story of how she was once having similar thoughts and her mentor said to her that no one thought about her nearly as much as she thought about herself.  Harsh words, perhaps, but they stayed with Mom and I have found them of great use in my own dealings with other people.  Chances are I am not nearly as important to people as they are to themselves and the odds of them thinking about me enough to be talking about me are slim.  Even if my feeling was correct and I was being talked about, it isn’t any of my business.  Others do not decide my behavior: the leading of the Holy Spirit decides my behavior so, no matter what, I am to love others with the same love that is freely poured out into me, forgive as I am forgiven, and put everything in His hands. 

And so, this was not a pleasant evening for me but it was educational.  I was astonished at the difference in feeling when I am focused on myself as opposed to living in the flow of the Holy Spirit.  The first is, as I’ve shared, constrictive.  If I’d continued to wallow in it, my life would have become stagnant whereas life lived within the flow of the Spirit is expansive.  I noticed a change in my body the moment I turned my focus from myself and onto Jesus.  My posture improved, my chin lifted, and what was promising to be a raging headache disappeared.

Joyce Meyer has a book called The Battlefield of the Mind.  I haven’t read it but the title has always stuck with me.  I have been thinking of how a battle does take place in my mind.  Romans 8 is one of my favorite chapters in the New Testament.  I return to it over and over and always find something new there and ended up looking at last week’s experience in light of Romans 8.  I hardly know where to start quoting and where to finish because it all flows together so beautifully!  For the sake of space, I will quote verses 5-7: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.”

Here is warfare indeed.  I have a carnal mind but I also have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).  I choose which mind I am going to have at any given time.  Will I set my mind on things of the flesh or will I set my mind on things above, not on things on the earth? Because I have been raised with Christ Himself, I will seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.  I will remind myself that I have died and my life is now hid with Christ in God.  (Colossians 3:1-3).  I will not worry about what others are thinking about me or what they may or may not be saying about me.  No, I will cast all my cares upon Him knowing that He cares for me (1 Peter 5:7) and not forgetting that He cares for them as well and desires that they too come to know the love of Christ.

I will choose to live a life of trust because, as Hannah Whitall Smith says, “having committed ourselves in our work to the Lord, we shall be satisfied to leave it to Him, and shall not think about ourselves in the matter at all.”  Lord hasten it!

Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from:

The New King James Version of The Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

All other quotes are from The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith, New Spire Edition published 2012 by Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan, “Service”, Chapter 15, Pages 183-194.

Fruit of the Spirit-Faithfulness

17 Monday May 2021

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“The fruit of the Spirit is…faithfulness” Galatians 5:22

I was certain I knew how this week’s study would go.  I know what “faithfulness” means.  Indeed, when I went to my dictionary, I anticipated no surprises. Nor did I find any, except that “faithfulness” didn’t appear in my dictionary on its own but at the end of the entry for “faithful”.  No matter.  There were no surprises in the definition of “faithful”: keeping faith, maintaining allegiance to someone or something; constant; loyal.  That is God, I said to myself, and knew what scriptures I would use to declare His faithfulness.

Well, He is faithful and faithfulness but that isn’t the word used for this particular aspect of the fruit of the Spirit in the original Greek.  The Greek word here is pistis (G4102) and it means faith.  If faithful, or even faithfulness was meant, the Greek word pistos (G4103) would have been used.  I had to double check with The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament and the fruit of the Spirit is pistis-faith.  What’s the big deal?  Am I getting nitpicky?  I don’t think so because I am aware of controversy surrounding the meaning of faith.

I looked up “faith” in two separate dictionaries and found the same definition.  The definition in The New World Dictionary of the American Language does start out with the word’s origins which include fides (Latin) meaning confidence, belief.  No controversy here.  But then, the first definition is “unquestioning belief that does not require proof”.  The World Book Dictionary puts the word origins at the end of the entry and starts with “a believing without proof”.  I have to read down to definition #5 in The New World Dictionary before I find a semblance of what is meant by “faith” in the Bible: complete trust, confidence, or reliance.  The World Book Dictionary does eventually give me “confidence, reliance” as well.  Confidence, trust, and reliance is not possible without proof. 

I am going to set pistis and its meaning aside for the moment and ask myself the question, does the Bible require me to have blind faith-faith based on no evidence whatsoever?  I cannot see that it does.  Quite the opposite.  In his first epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul tells them to “test all things: hold fast what is good” (1 Thes. 5:21).  In his second letter to Timothy, Paul says, “Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing–rightly handling and skillfully teaching–the Word of Truth” (2 Tim. 2:15, Amplified).  I’ve already written posts on 1 John 4 but this is an excellent chapter on the necessity of testing as is Romans 12:2.  The expectation of the New Testament writers was that believers would be active in their beliefs, investigators, and would not blindly follow after anyone. 

Neither do I find an inference of blind following in the original Greek.  The definition of pistis is: persuasion, credence, conviction, assurance, belief, faith, fidelity.  I do agree a person can have all of these things without proof or evidence but the root of pistis is peitho (G3982) and contains the meaning “to assent (to evidence or authority).” No blind following is inferred here.

There are voices today who insist there is no evidence for even the existence of God and that, because that is so, my faith is not only blind I hold to it in the face of evidence proving the opposite.  That is not true.  My faith is based on evidence.  Greater minds than mine have done this work: minds like Dr. John Lennox, Dr. Stephen C. Meyer, and Dr. David Berlinski for the science-minded among you.  There are so many other men and women, brilliant minds, who believe in God and did not have to set aside their intellects to do so.  I encourage anyone and everyone to test, investigate, study, and decide for yourself.  Do not blindly follow anyone.

While I am grateful for the scientists, philosophers, and theologians I have read over the years who have shown me I am not irrational for believing in God, I have the very best proof of my faith in another source.  That is, of course, God Himself.  The word pistis is relational.  The Dictionary of New Testament Theology tells me the following about “faith”:

“The words dealt with here are basically concerned with that personal relationship with a person or thing which is established by trust and trustworthiness (including their negation).  If this relationship comes about through persuasion or conviction, the vb. peithomai is used.  The perf. tense pepoitha expresses the firm conviction and confidence that has come about.  The words of the pistis group are derived from the same verbal stem.  They denoted originally the faithful relationship of partners in an agreement and the trustworthiness of their promises.  In a broader sense, they came to denote the credibility of statements, reports, and accounts in general, both sacred and secular.  In NT Gk., they gained a special importance and specific trusting acceptance and recognition of what God has done and promised in him” (Page 588).

I have come across many instances where study has led to a belief in God but leaves Him remote.  He’s an “intelligence”, “a mind”, but uninvolved and uninterested in His creation.  I think Andrew Murray says it best: “Nature speaks of God and His work; but of Himself, His heart, and His thoughts of love toward us sinners, nature cannot tell” (Holiest of All, Page 43).  There comes a point where evidence of the existence of God is not enough.  Without a revelation of Himself; His personhood, His intentions, and His nature, faith becomes belief without proof.  At the very least, it is not the faith that is the fruit of the Spirit.  This faith is a living, breathing, person centered in Jesus Christ. 

In Galatians 2:20, Paul says; “I have been crucified with Christ: it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  There is a mistranslation in this passage and it’s “I live by faith IN the Son of God”.  The true translation is “l live by faith OF the Son of God.”  It’s a subtle difference and yet it’s all the difference in the world.  The Greek word for in, en, is not the word here.  It’s tau (G5120) and it appears twice in the sentence:  OF (tau) the Son OF (tau) God.  It means “of this person, his.” 

This faith that is the fruit of the Spirit, His Spirit, has nothing to do with us.  It’s very good to have evidence for our beliefs but we do not live this Christian life because we have built up our own faith in Jesus.  We live it through His faith, His relationship to the Father, which is also our relationship to the Father through His Spirit living in us.  The proof is in the person, in this case.

Isn’t it wonderful?  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Amen!

And Amen.

Unless notes otherwise, scriptures are quoted from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc. 1982

References:

The Comparative Study Bible, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1958

Barnhart, Clarence L., The World Book Dictionary, Volume One, Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, Chicago, Illinois, 1970

Brown, Colin, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Volume I, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1967

Guralnik, David B., The New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Company, Cleveland • New York, 1976

Murray, Andrew, Holiest of All: A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews, Whitaker House, New Kensington, Pennsylvania, 1996

Strong, James, LLD., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

Fruit of the Spirit-Joy

29 Monday Mar 2021

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“But the Fruit of the Spirit is…joy” Galatians 5:22

This week, I am looking at Joy.  It has been an interesting week.  It has not been the headlines in my country alone that have been full of violence, hate, anger, and despair.  No, the violence that has and is taking place in my own country is taking place around the world.  In the midst of all that is going on, how can I talk about Joy?  Is it cruel to even mention Joy as a Fruit of the Spirit when there is so much suffering?  I must talk about Joy because it is part of our inheritance in Jesus Christ and is not affected by the evils of this world.  It would be cruel of me if I presented Joy in the Spirit as something we believers could have if we were just better Christians and if I suggested that, since we suffer, we must be failing God in some way.  That is not true.  That is not in the scripture.  That is not what I find in the heart of the God who loves me.  Our Joy is His Joy and it is the gift freely given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour.

There is a fallacy regarding the Christian life and I don’t have to look very far to see it perpetuated.  This fallacy is that somehow, we who are partakers of this New Covenant Life in Jesus Christ, have the best of everything, are never touched by sorrow or disease, and lack nothing.  If we do not have the best, experience loss or sickness, and have any sort of need, we have failed in some way to lay hold of our inheritance.  I do not find a scriptural basis for this without doing some serious carving up of the New Testament.  In order to believe this, I have to hold very tightly to a few select scriptures and utterly ignore everything else.  When I look at scripture as a whole, I find the opposite is true.  Jesus Himself tells me, “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)  The truth of this is carried into the Acts of the Apostles where the souls of the disciples are strengthened by the words, “We must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God.”  (Acts 14:22)

The word translated “tribulation” is the Greek word thlipsis (G2347) and has the definition of pressure, affliction, anguish, burden, persecution, tribulation, trouble.  Thlipsis comes from thlibo (G2346) which means to crowd, afflict, narrow, throng.  Here I see a picture of being surrounded by so many problems and difficulties, and sufferings, there isn’t room to move or even breathe.  I have a story that might help give you a picture of this, if you’ll bear with me.

I have always been a lousy athlete especially when it came to team sports.  Basketball in particular was my nemesis.  I can’t count how many times I would be practicing dribbling the ball, the ball would hit the top of my foot, and go shooting off like an arrow.  I spent most of my time chasing the ball and hurting myself than I ever did actually playing basketball.  However, the town I lived in was small and everyone had to have a chance to play.  Now, there was another girl who was a fabulous athlete.  No matter what sport-team or otherwise-she took part in, she excelled.  I am simplifying a bit but the odds of my scoring any points, no matter how often I “kept my eye on the ball” and “followed through” were astronomical.  And so, my one job, if I could manage it, was to get the ball to this girl.  There came a time during a game when I’d managed to retrieve the ball on the rebound.  I couldn’t do much with it and the other team was coming for me.  I found myself on my knees, curled around the ball, staring at the feet of the members of the other team while they all surrounded me.  I was completely hedged in.  There was nothing I could do.  I couldn’t get up.  I called this girl’s name and, all of the sudden, saw a pair of hands I recognized.  I got the ball to her and every member of that team lost interest in me.

I do not mean to trivialize the horrors that beset us in this life.  I tell this story because this is what I picture when life does this to me.  There are times when I am on my knees, curled around myself to protect myself, so beset by tribulations I can’t see anything else.  But I am of good cheer because there is a name I can call on and He is always there.  He lifts me in His hands and I can trust Him to work all things together for good because I love Him and I know I am called according to His purpose.  (Romans 8: 28, paraphrased) When I deliberately picture myself in His hands, when I focus all my attention on Him, my sorrow is swallowed up in Joy.

How can I say this?  Life is not a basketball game.  There is terrible suffering and there is death.  How can I say death is good?  I do not.  Death is an enemy.  I do not know how God is going to take all the horrible things humans have done to each other since Cain slew Abel, all the sicknesses and diseases we have suffered, and work them for good.  I do not have a satisfactory answer on why God continues to allow such sufferings other than the one I find where, while speaking of humankind, the Writer of the Hebrews says, “For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him, But now we do not yet see all things put under him.  But we see Jesus…” (Hebrews 2: 8-9)

I see Jesus.  I see the One despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, the One who bore my griefs, carried my sorrows, was wounded for my transgressions, bruised for my iniquities, the One by whose stripes I am healed. (Isaiah 53: 3-5, paraphrased).  I count myself among the blessed mourners, blessed not because I mourn but because I am comforted.  My comfort comes from the Holy Spirit dwelling in me, the Comforter Himself.  I am not ashamed because I do not always feel joy.  My heart breaks, I grieve, I get tired of living a life in pain: all of this is real and I feel it.  But, I look through all of that to Jesus in whom I live, and move, and have my being.  My life is hid in His.  I am aware of Him always with me, undergirding me, infusing His strength in me.  It is His Joy that is my strength (Nehemiah 8:10) and my feelings eventually align with this truth.  It is no longer I who live, it is Christ who lives in me and I rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.  (1 Peter 1:8)

My life flows on in endless song;
Above earth’s lamentation,
I hear the sweet, tho’ far-off hymn
That hails a new creation;
Thro’ all the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing;
It finds an echo in my soul—
How can I keep from singing?

What tho’ my joys and comforts die?
The Lord my Saviour liveth;
What tho’ the darkness gather round?
Songs in the night he giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that refuge clinging;
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth,
How can I keep from singing?

I lift my eyes; the cloud grows thin;
I see the blue above it;
And day by day this pathway smooths,
Since first I learned to love it,
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,
A fountain ever springing;
All things are mine since I am his—
How can I keep from singing?

-Robert Wadsworth Lowry, 1868

All scriptures quoted from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1982