Mind Over Heart
When I don't feel like reading the Bible,
When I don't feel like reaching out to friends who need to know the love of Jesus,
When I don't feel God is near me,
It is time for me to stop letting my heart rule my entire being
by what I "feel",
It is time to let my mind tell my heart what to do.
My mind will direct my heart.
Because my heart can be so prone to fail to detect what is REALLY the best for me.
But...
Would that mean...that I am being dishonest to myself?
Would that mean...that I am not being true to my feelings?
No.
Because,
What good is it to me, if I am so "honest" and "true" to my feelings,
But, yet I lose grip of the best thing about life: God?
I do know one thing,
It never was about me, to begin with.
Solitude
Everything in its time, Father.
I look to You, Father.
To You...
Father.
R.E.A.L. Fellowship
Are we having real Fellowship?
One of the 5 purposes of a Christian's life is Fellowship.
However, how often do we truly fellowship?
Is having a drink at a coffee house, fellowship?
Is having lunch together, fellowship?
Though these are ways which allow us to connect with one another well,
we have to be aware that the biblical definition of fellowship differs quite a bit.
In Acts, we see the lifestyle of the early followers of Christ as being closely-knitted where they broke bread frequently.
There is something about the time spent together for those early Christians.
They grew stronger and deeper in Christ as they spend more time together.
On this note, I began to take a closer look at the type of activities we label as fellowship...and realise that more often than not, we may fall short in this area.
R - Readiness to share about life's happenings.True fellowship always opens up one to another.
This first layer of Fellowship is whereby we spend time updating our lives, the interesting happenings of our lives, the good, the bad and the ugly, to one another. Perhaps over a bite or a drink too.
However, we must never stop at this level, as to do so would render the gathering nothing more than a social gathering.
E - Expressive about spiritual walk.This aspect of Fellowship breaks the resistance to talk about the 'sensitive' topic of our private walk with our Lord.
More often than not, we may find this coupled with reluctance as we may either find it as something too intimate to share.
Or we may just be guilty for not walking right with God recently.
To be expressive about our spiritual walk therefore allows us to encourage and spur our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ with how God is speaking and working in our lives.
Similarly, it serves to remind those who have wandered off, to return.
A - Acknowledge personal weaknesses.I personally find this area important especially for a group which is readily willing to share deeply about the things of God and their journeys in Christ.
A constant sharing about the goodness of God is right and good, but bearing in mind that there will always be some of us who may be in the desert, we ought to have a conducive atmosphere for some of us who are finding hard to see God in their lives at the moment.
Besides, spiritual pride is easily fostered in a group which do not value the confessing of our weaknesses to one another.
L - Look to God.The last aspect of true Fellowship is that we always look to God at the end of the day.
No matter how weak we may be, no matter how bad things may be, our ultimate focus should always be directed back to our Abba Father, the Maker of all things, to Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith and the Holy Spirit, who speaks to us continually in our hearts.
A session which lacks this aspect, seldom lifts a person spiritually.
And if the session is peppered with much complaints and grumbles, it will result in a group of Christians indulging in a very worldly time together.
Looking unto God and repenting, will therefore be an inevitable step to close that session.
Fellowship
What is fellowship?
What is REAL fellowship?
Do You Know What Can Defile You?
Do you know what is the one thing that can best destroy a Christian's faith?
In Mark 7:20, we see clearly,
"...What comes out of a man, that defiles a man."
My past readings of these verses were somehow interpreted as...
"what comes out of a man's mouth will be the impression that is being perceived by others...in other words...if I always speak negatively or fill my mouth with curses, others will look at me in a bad light."
However...I began to realise, this is only partially true.
As I read and meditate more on it, I realise that what the Bible is really saying...is that
when I talk negative talk, I personally defile myself. In fact, this becomes so true when you and I realise that words carry power to heal or kill when they exit from our mouths.
So when a negative word is released, the first person it attacks is the speaker himself, before it goes on to attack others.
The speaker himself may often than not, not realise the harm he is doing to himself...until much later, when he finds himself full of wounds.
He himself becomes filled with negativity and weariness in all attitudes towards life.
May God help us and teach us to tame our tongue.
More Like Who?
As the years of your being a Christian increases...
Do you find yourself becoming more and more like Christ...
or...
Do you find yourself becoming more and more like a Christian?
If you and I are not careful,
We may profess to want to be more like Christ...
But we will have to confess that we are just becoming more like a Christian.
This is especially true...if you and I have been doing all the Christian things...
But deep within us, we fail to detect an insatiable hunger for more of God.
So...
Who do you find yourself becoming more like?
The F.A.C.T. about Faith
Soren A. Kierkegaard once described the Christian's Faith in God as something which has no rational ground for that belief in God to be based on.
In explaining his thought, he coined the term "leap of faith", to describe the Christian's trust in God as something that is like a blind act of will.
Today, many Christians still struggle with the notion of having Faith in God in daily living.
1. Is Faith something void of rational basis?
2. Is Faith a blind act of the human will?
3. Is Faith in God simply a state of mind?Understanding the F.A.C.T. about Faith - Faith
is
Acting upon
Certainty of
Truth
Christians should not be unfamiliar with Hebrews 11:1 which states that "...Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.".
But what exactly is it that we are "sure" and "certain of"?
The answer cannot be clearer, that it is our destiny of eternity with God our Father, through the redemption of Christ our Lord.
Knowing this, we ask ourselves, what is the basis of our Faith?
Based on what do we believe what we do?
3 Fundamental Bases for the Christian Faithi) The Logos Word of God - The Holy Bible.
It cannot be clearer. The Bible says in Romans 10:17 that "...Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.".
ii) The accounts of saints in the past.
In Hebrews 11, we see the Bible made a record of the many people who obeyed God by faith and prevailed. Besides the saints in the Bible, we also have historical records of men and women of God in modern history (George Mueller, D.L. Moody, Billy Graham, John Sung, just to name a few...), who testified to a faithful God in their lives. If great men and women of history stood united in a certain stand as such, surely their testimonies cannot be taken lightly.
iii) Personal testimony.
If you are a Christian, surely you can recall the many occasions when God showed up when you stepped out in faith. One of the main reasons why we often fail to step out in faith is due to our inability to remember the acts of our faithful God in our lives. Once we remember, we will be able to trust God for what we do not know, because of what He has shown us that we do know.
Therefore, based on the above, we can easily see that everytime a Christian needs to step out in Faith, he or she is not committing an act of irrationality.
And because stepping out in Faith is not an irrational behaviour, and precisely because it is a fully rational one, Faith in God is therefore...
Not taking a leap into the unknown!
Faith in God is thus, not a blind act of will...but a rational response made in obedience to trust God in a situation that requires it to arise.
Now, we are left with the last question to tackle...
Is Faith simply a state of mind?
The answer cannot be clearer when we understand what is being taught in James 2:17-18.
"Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." – James 2:17,18
Faith was never a state of mind.
The kind of Faith mentioned in the pages of the Bible always appears in an ACTION form.
From Abraham bringing Issac to be killed...to Moses taking up the mission to deliver the Israelites...to the four friends who did everything in faith to save their friend in Mark 2...the list goes on...
We see every time in the Bible...
Visible Faith.
Faith is thus, not a state of mind, as some may simply brush off as.
Faith is, in all instances of the Bible, an action word.
A person who claims to have Faith, will in the time of test, have to respond with a work birth out of the Faith which he or she claims to possess in Christ.
Growing in FaithWith the understanding of what Faith essentially is, we will have to ask ourselves...are we growing in Faith?
So many a times, I hear people saying..."I wish I have more faith!"
Well...the question I would so much like to pose them in response, would be,
"How much are you then, living in obedience to God?"
You see, Faith in God is essentially an action which is done in obedience to God in times when it is hard to do so.
When such an obedience is observed, the Faith of the Christian naturally grows, because he or she will have then witnessed for himself the goodness of God and peace deposited in his heart.
Most of all, he would have seen with his own eyes, how real God works in his world.
With such an experience, the Christian's confidence in trusting God's Word is boosted.
When such obedience is continued without a hiatus, growth in Faith is almost guaranteed.
As certainty of truth leads to an action of obedience, an action of obedience will further enhance the very certainty of truth.
And Faith in our mighty God of universe, naturally grows.
Faith - What Does It Mean?
Reflect.
And detect.
Rediscover the facts.
See if they are all still intact.
What does it mean to have faith?
What does it mean to be sure of what we hope for?
What does it mean to be certain of the things we do not see?
Think about it.
Check your response with mine...in the next entry.
