I digress a little here...got the idea from my friend MaryLee Glassburn.
This was kinda fun... try it!
...Posted by Sharon Seidel 1/28/10
YOUR REAL NAME: SHARON ANN SEIDEL
YOUR GANGSTA NAME(first 3 letters of real name plus - izzle): SHAIZZLE
YOUR DETECTIVE NAME (favorite color and favorite animal): BLUE DOG
I'm not really an animal lover.)
YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (MIDDLE NAME, AND CURRENT STREET): ANN NORTHRIDGE
STAR WARS NAME (The first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of Mom's maiden name): SEISHMAR
YOUR SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): RED PEPSI
(Diet, that is...maybe it should be RED DP)
YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (Mother's middle name and fathers middlename):
RHODA JOHN
YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your pets): BLACK BABE
(Daughter's now deceased dog, one of my favorite pets)
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Our Minds
There are two scriptures that talk about the mind of Christ. And they have a direct bearing on our mind.
“We have the mind of Christ,” (1 Corinthians 2:16)
“Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)
It is sometimes hard for us to agree that we have the mind of Christ. It seems more like a lofty goal, than an accomplished fact. However, if we are born again, we do have access to the mind of Christ within us. God says in Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 10:16, “This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” If God has put His law (His words) in our minds, then we do have the mind of Christ. God has given it to us. Therefore, we can choose to let His mind work in us. Not only that, we have the Holy Spirit in us to remind us of God’s Word, and to reveal it to us. (John 14:16-26)
“God has not given us a Spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) God has given us a sound mind! The NIV calls it “self-discipline”. The literal meaning of sound mind means “safe-thinking”. A sound mind is able to think right, has the wisdom to make good judgments and right decisions. It has the ability to exercise self control, and to discipline its thoughts and thought patterns. This is the mind that God has given us! It sounds a lot like the mind of Christ, or God’s mind, doesn’t it?
There are many other scriptures that talk about our minds. They give us instruction about how to enter into God’s higher realm of thought. They show us a higher way to live our lives. It is a better way, God’s way. Colossians 3:1-2 says, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek (set your hearts on) those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Here we are actually told to set our minds up there with God’s thoughts and to seek the things above. When we take heed, or pay attention to His words, we can learn how to walk and live in the Spirit, in the Kingdom of God. We do this by meditating on His Words, and by letting His Words “dwell in us richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord.” (Colossians 3:16)
Jesus says in Matthew 22:37-39, “Love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” How do we love God with all our mind? By putting His Word in our minds. By thinking and meditating on His Word until we truly know Him, know His heart, know His love for us and His love for all other people. By putting His Word in our minds until our minds are saturated with His Word, and our hearts are truly beating in sync with His, until we are expressing His love back to Him and to other people.
Jesus also said in 6: 22, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.” Two thoughts come to my mind. One is that our eyes should be focused on God, and we do that by reading His Word. The other is that we talk about seeing with or in our mind’s eye. When I see into the Kingdom, or see spiritual things, I generally see in words by way of the thoughts that come to my mind from God. This is how I see with my mind’s eye. And when I share the things God has shown me with others by speaking or writing, I share by using words. But they were originally thoughts in my mind.
Our minds are created in God’s image! They absorb and process amazing amounts of data. We talk about “inquiring minds want to know”. If we inquire of God about His Word, He will explain His Word and reveal His mind in us. Imagine the amount of God’s Word Data we can absorb and process in our minds.
“We have the mind of Christ,” (1 Corinthians 2:16)
“Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)
It is sometimes hard for us to agree that we have the mind of Christ. It seems more like a lofty goal, than an accomplished fact. However, if we are born again, we do have access to the mind of Christ within us. God says in Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 10:16, “This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” If God has put His law (His words) in our minds, then we do have the mind of Christ. God has given it to us. Therefore, we can choose to let His mind work in us. Not only that, we have the Holy Spirit in us to remind us of God’s Word, and to reveal it to us. (John 14:16-26)
“God has not given us a Spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) God has given us a sound mind! The NIV calls it “self-discipline”. The literal meaning of sound mind means “safe-thinking”. A sound mind is able to think right, has the wisdom to make good judgments and right decisions. It has the ability to exercise self control, and to discipline its thoughts and thought patterns. This is the mind that God has given us! It sounds a lot like the mind of Christ, or God’s mind, doesn’t it?
There are many other scriptures that talk about our minds. They give us instruction about how to enter into God’s higher realm of thought. They show us a higher way to live our lives. It is a better way, God’s way. Colossians 3:1-2 says, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek (set your hearts on) those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Here we are actually told to set our minds up there with God’s thoughts and to seek the things above. When we take heed, or pay attention to His words, we can learn how to walk and live in the Spirit, in the Kingdom of God. We do this by meditating on His Words, and by letting His Words “dwell in us richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord.” (Colossians 3:16)
Jesus says in Matthew 22:37-39, “Love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” How do we love God with all our mind? By putting His Word in our minds. By thinking and meditating on His Word until we truly know Him, know His heart, know His love for us and His love for all other people. By putting His Word in our minds until our minds are saturated with His Word, and our hearts are truly beating in sync with His, until we are expressing His love back to Him and to other people.
Jesus also said in 6: 22, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.” Two thoughts come to my mind. One is that our eyes should be focused on God, and we do that by reading His Word. The other is that we talk about seeing with or in our mind’s eye. When I see into the Kingdom, or see spiritual things, I generally see in words by way of the thoughts that come to my mind from God. This is how I see with my mind’s eye. And when I share the things God has shown me with others by speaking or writing, I share by using words. But they were originally thoughts in my mind.
Our minds are created in God’s image! They absorb and process amazing amounts of data. We talk about “inquiring minds want to know”. If we inquire of God about His Word, He will explain His Word and reveal His mind in us. Imagine the amount of God’s Word Data we can absorb and process in our minds.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
God's Thoughts
We talked about the importance of thinking good thoughts, and thinking thoughts that line up with the Word of God. God’s Words are His thoughts expressed in words. The Bible has much to say about God’s thoughts.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, “I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace (good) and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” The NIV says it this way, “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you.” He goes on to say in verses 12-13, “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
The Lord thinks good thoughts about us! And did you catch the part about Him listening to us? He’s a good listener (# 7. Hearing Words). Along that line, let me also mention 1 John 5:14-15, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” And do you know why? Because the Lord thinks good thoughts about us! He plans to prosper us, give us a future, and give us hope!
Isaiah 55:8 tells us, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” If you think about it, how awesome is that! He doesn’t think like we do! He thinks thoughts of good and not evil. His thoughts toward us are thoughts of peace and good. He thinks good thoughts of us. And we can know what those thoughts are! All we have to do is ask Him.
When we are born-again, God sends us the Holy Spirit, sometimes called the Counselor, or the Helper, to teach us all things, and remind us of everything Jesus said to us. (John 14: 16-26; 17:20-24) Peter also tells us that “God’s divine power has given us everything (in His Word) that we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” (2 Peter 1:3-4) There are other scriptures that talk about us knowing the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. Look for them! God wants us to know Him, to know the mysteries of the Kingdom, and to know who we are in Him.
God’s good thoughts about us are too numerous to list all of them. But I must talk about His thoughts toward us that are written in Psalm 139. I will paraphrase some of them, but I encourage you to read it for yourself. First of all, He created us, in our innermost being. His eyes saw our unformed bodies before we were born. And all the days ordained for us were written in His Book of Life before we ever came into being. He knit us together in our mother’s wombs. He made us in the secret place, and we were woven together in the depths of the earth. He knows us, every part of us, and is familiar with all our ways. He knows the words we are going to speak before we speak them. He protects us with His divine hand. There is no place we can go on this earth, or even into outer space, that He won’t be there with us at all times. He shines His light into our darkness. His thoughts towards us are so precious and vast that they would outnumber all the grains of sand. He loves us! We are the beloved of God. That’s who we are!
Think about it! He thought us first…He saw us in His mind’s eye! With His thoughts, His Words, we were created! And remember, we were created in His image! (Genesis 1:26, 27) How wonderful it is that we are that important to God. When we are tempted to think wrong thoughts about ourselves, or each other, let’s think about how God sees us. We are all His precious, beloved creation. Also, let’s remember: the thoughts that we think, if spoken and acted upon, can create what we are thinking and seeing in our mind’s eye. If we think good thoughts, they can create good things in our lives. And, if we think God’s thoughts (those found in the Bible), He also goes to work to uphold and perform His Word in our lives. (Hebrews 1:3; Isaiah 55:11)
Jeremiah 29:11 says, “I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace (good) and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” The NIV says it this way, “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you.” He goes on to say in verses 12-13, “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
The Lord thinks good thoughts about us! And did you catch the part about Him listening to us? He’s a good listener (# 7. Hearing Words). Along that line, let me also mention 1 John 5:14-15, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” And do you know why? Because the Lord thinks good thoughts about us! He plans to prosper us, give us a future, and give us hope!
Isaiah 55:8 tells us, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” If you think about it, how awesome is that! He doesn’t think like we do! He thinks thoughts of good and not evil. His thoughts toward us are thoughts of peace and good. He thinks good thoughts of us. And we can know what those thoughts are! All we have to do is ask Him.
When we are born-again, God sends us the Holy Spirit, sometimes called the Counselor, or the Helper, to teach us all things, and remind us of everything Jesus said to us. (John 14: 16-26; 17:20-24) Peter also tells us that “God’s divine power has given us everything (in His Word) that we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” (2 Peter 1:3-4) There are other scriptures that talk about us knowing the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. Look for them! God wants us to know Him, to know the mysteries of the Kingdom, and to know who we are in Him.
God’s good thoughts about us are too numerous to list all of them. But I must talk about His thoughts toward us that are written in Psalm 139. I will paraphrase some of them, but I encourage you to read it for yourself. First of all, He created us, in our innermost being. His eyes saw our unformed bodies before we were born. And all the days ordained for us were written in His Book of Life before we ever came into being. He knit us together in our mother’s wombs. He made us in the secret place, and we were woven together in the depths of the earth. He knows us, every part of us, and is familiar with all our ways. He knows the words we are going to speak before we speak them. He protects us with His divine hand. There is no place we can go on this earth, or even into outer space, that He won’t be there with us at all times. He shines His light into our darkness. His thoughts towards us are so precious and vast that they would outnumber all the grains of sand. He loves us! We are the beloved of God. That’s who we are!
Think about it! He thought us first…He saw us in His mind’s eye! With His thoughts, His Words, we were created! And remember, we were created in His image! (Genesis 1:26, 27) How wonderful it is that we are that important to God. When we are tempted to think wrong thoughts about ourselves, or each other, let’s think about how God sees us. We are all His precious, beloved creation. Also, let’s remember: the thoughts that we think, if spoken and acted upon, can create what we are thinking and seeing in our mind’s eye. If we think good thoughts, they can create good things in our lives. And, if we think God’s thoughts (those found in the Bible), He also goes to work to uphold and perform His Word in our lives. (Hebrews 1:3; Isaiah 55:11)
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