Transformed by Grace

Four years ago, 18-year-old pianist Josiah Jackson made a promise at Chicago O’Hare International Airport: one day, he would return and fix a broken, out-of-tune public piano—for free. In 2024, he fulfilled that promise, spending seven hours meticulously restoring the instrument, bringing music and joy back to a busy terminal.

Josiah’s story is a powerful picture of the Gospel. Like that neglected piano, sin has left each of us broken and out of tune, unable to live the life God designed us for. But there’s hope: God’s grace restores us.

In my latest post, we dive into Romans 6:1-14 to see how grace transforms our lives. We are given new lives through Jesus’ death and resurrection, welcomed into a new relationship with God, and freed to live as instruments of righteousness. This transformation isn’t about trying harder—it’s about trusting God’s restoring work and living each day in the safety net of His grace.

You’ll also discover a simple two-step daily challenge to help you live in the freedom and confidence that comes from being made new in Christ.

Big Idea: God’s grace doesn’t just cover our sins—it transforms us, tuning our lives to reflect His love and purpose in the world.

I invite you to read the full post, be encouraged by Josiah’s inspiring story, and be challenged to live each day as a song of praise to the God who catches us when we fall and tunes us for His glory.

Read Transformed by Grace here.

Prayer is Essential to Change

The world that we live in is not what it should be. On a daily basis we are saddened to hear about the murders, disasters, wars, and other tragedies that dominate our headlines. 

Even though we are saddened, we know that there is little that we dan do to change the major issues that face the world. So what are we to do?

As cliché as it might sound, we who follow Jesus are called to pray. It is through prayer that we experience change.

The reality is that we have very little control over what goes on in this world, but what we do have control over is how we live. While we our actions may not result in world peace or solve world hunger or diminish crime in our communities, our choice to love, to forgive, and to serve can have a huge impact on those around us.

Here is the issue, we are not naturally loving, forgiving, or merciful. We tend to be selfish, prideful, and untrustworthy. In other words, we contribute to the problems in the world, rather than doing what we can do to relieve the issues in our part of the world.

This is why change is crucial.

If all our failed attempts to change have taught us anything, it is that we need help to change. We can’t change on our own, especially in ways that make this world a better place.

Ephesians 3:14-18 (NLT)

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.

Paul’s prayer for the people who received his letter was that they would  receive what they needed, that they would be strengthened and experience God, and that they would have a knowledge of God’s love. This was a prayer for the Ephesians to experience transformation. A transformation that allows them to know and experience God in a new way.

This is a transformation that cannot happen apart from God working in our lives. The deep work that needs to happen in our hearts and minds can only be done through the work of the Spirit. Without prayer and surrendering our wills this transformation is not going to happen.

While it is important for us to pray for healing or friends, family, and acquaintances, it is equally important for us to pray prayers similar to Paul’s for ourselves and our church families. Without God’s work, change will not happen.

Make prayer an essential part of your spiritual formation.

 

Move in the Direction of Who You want to Be

Change is constantly happening. 

That is why we can say the above quote shared by Dave Ramsey on Instagram is incorrect. Time, experience, and other forces of life are at work in and around us. No one stays the same.

Yet, these forces are often indifferent to who we would like to become. They are simply the result of life.

The point of the quote and what I think we should all consider, is that we are not going to become the person we want to be without intentional effort. If we just go along with the flow of life, we will experience change, we will be different, but we probably aren’t moving closer to the goals we have for our lives.

Two of the greatest influences we have in life that are able to determine that direction of our lives are what we learn (reading was the primary source of learning a generation ago, it is not longer the case) and the people we are around.

Reading books, listening to podcasts, watching lectures, and hearing sermons all have the power to direct our thoughts and to get us thinking in ways that we wouldn’t on our own. When we seek to go in a specific direction in our lives it pays to hear from people who have already gone done that path. To neglect the discipline of learning means we will miss out on reaching our full potential.

This is why the New Testament tells us direct our thoughts (Romans 12:2, Philippians 4:8, Colossians 3:1-4, 1 Peter 1:13). To change our worldview and our behavior we first have to change our thoughts. 

We are going to be thinking, it is one of the things God designed our minds to do, and so we have a great responsibility to direct what we are thinking about. Don’t just passively allow the news, social media, and entertainment direct your thoughts. Instead, be intentional about what you put into your mind to think about so we can become more like the person you want to be.

If you are looking for a good book to read here are some recommendations:

1. Reading the Bible: When it comes to reading the Bible, here are two books I have found helpful: Scripture and the Authority of God by N. T. Wright and The Blue Parakeet by Scot McKnight. They are similar books in that they challenge us to examine the ways in which we read and interpret Scripture. N.T. Wright wants us to see Scripture as the way God works in and through us. Scot McKnight seeks to have us read through the lens of the Bible being God’s story.
2. Productivity: Here are two books about productivity/getting the most out of your time. Deep Work by Cal Newport and the Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. Deep Work (which is in my top 10 books people should read) focuses on the importance of regularly working distraction free, because distractions prevent us from truly getting the most out of our mental energy. The Slight Edge has a lot of content that is transferable to task of discipleship. The key is to develop little disciplines that help you accomplish your goals.
3. Church ministry: Wondering how the church can enter into a new time of ministry after Covid? Two books I have found helpful are Recalibrate Your Church by Dr. Troy Jones and Analog Church by Jay Kim. Recalibrate Your Church looks at the necessity of creating a church culture that is willing to evaluate and change the ministry of the church to impact the community. Analog Church, which is in the top 5 books I have read this year, looks at the importance community and relationships in following Jesus.
4. Leadership: Leadership is a tricky thing and we constantly need teaching and encouragement on how to do it. Ruth Haley Barton’s Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership is a good book for pastors, because it reminds us that our leadership requires a connection with God. John Maxwell’s Developing the Leader Within You is a classic book that focuses on the practical things we should pay attention to in our leadership.
5. Following Jesus: Here are three short books that provide a greater insight into what it means to follow Jesus. Imminent Domain by Ben Witherington looks at God’s Kingdom and our place in it. Life in Christ by John Stott explores how we are connected to Jesus. Following Jesus by N. T. Wright explains what it means to follow Jesus.
6. Prayer: How about prayer? Here are three I have benefited from reading: With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray (one of my favorite authors), Moving Mountains by John Eldredge, and Seeing is Believing by Greg Boyd. With Christ in the School of Prayer is divided up into 31 lessons (a month long) that conclude with a sample prayer. Moving Mountains provides an encouragement to pray as well as some ideas of how to pray (Daily prayer, praying Scripture, Warfare Prayer). Seeing is Believing focuses on using our imagination in prayer, especially as we seek healing and restoration.

Start being intentional about the person you are becoming. Read a book, listen to a lecture, and hang out with the right people. These are intentional actions that will point us in the direction we need to go.

Be Humble and Pursue Truth

This tweet has been with me all the way through this year. Those closest to me know that Tom Woods has been a big influence in my life for the last decade (I discovered him sometime during Ron Paul’s 2008 Presidential run), mainly through his daily podcast.

As a person who strives to be a life-long learner, what Tom encourages people to do has been a goal of mine. I realize that the knowledge that I have is only a tiny drop compared to the vast amount of information that is in the world. It would be arrogant of me to approach life with the assumption that all my beliefs are correct. 

Over the years as I have read books and listened to lectures, sermons, and podcasts my beliefs have shifted and changed. Sometimes the change has been drastic such as going from conservative Republican to a Ron Paul Republican to a libertarian and finally to a anarcho-capitalist/Christian anarchist. Some changes have been more subtle like moving form a staunch young earth creationist view to being open to other possibilities. 

The apostle Paul in Romans wrote: “ Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (Romans 12:2, NLT)

God transforms us through the renewal and change of our thinking (see also Philippians 4:8 and Colossians 3:1-4). The thoughts and beliefs that are rolling around in our heads and hearts effect everything else about us. They form the structure of our worldview and they guide our actions and emotions. This is why God needs to change our thinking before transformation occurs in our lives.

Followers of Jesus also need to be confident that all truth is God’s truth. This means we want to be on the side of truth, whatever that looks like, because we know all truth comes from God. This gives us the freedom to admit that we might be wrong about things and to re-examine what we believe.

I will offer one bit of advice here: In our pursuit of truth we need a bedrock truth that is able anchor us in faith. Otherwise we are in danger of believing whatever sounds good to us.

For me, and I think for any follower of Jesus, that bedrock belief needs to be the resurrection of Jesus. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 wrote (1 Corinthians 15:14, NLT), “And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.”

Because I think there is credible evidence to believe in the resurrection of Jesus, I secure my hope there, and let that be the foundation of my worldview.

As we enter the last month and half of 2020 may we set our faith in Jesus and allow God to guide our thinking, so our lives can be transformed.

Trust Jesus for Transformation

In this time of COVID-19 isolation I am recording my sermons so we can do "church" online.

This is the second sermon in the Trust Jesus series.

It Begins with Jesus

Very few people are completely satisfied with who they are. I think many people would like to make at least minor changes to their lives. When we consider our lives it is easy to find flaws that we would like fixed.

This is why we make New Years Resolutions because it means that we can start with a clean slate. We hope we can whip ourselves into shape so we can be happier with the person we have become. Yet, it seems, the older we get the more cynical we become with trying to change our lives.

We have tried many times before only be be met with failure time after time. Reality hits us right in the face. Our strength, self-discipline, and wisdom all fail us. Rather than becoming new people we discover the old person gains a stronger hold on us.

I want to encourage you. We can be transformed. It is very possible for you and I to become different people. We can become the people God created us to be. In other words we can experience life the way it was meant to be lived.

Erwin McManus wrote:

Transformation is both the miracle of God and the stewardship of man. Godliness is a result of divine activity and human action. God promises to do what we cannot do ourselves, and He commands us to do that which He will not do for us. There is both miracle and responsibility. 

Stand Against the Wind, p. 46

See more at Paul's Ponderings: It Begins With Jesus

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Devotional: Prepare to be Holy

The transformation God desires for our lives is for us to be made holy.  Holiness is the result of God's miracle and our choices.  What are the choices that we need to make in order to experience holiness? That is the question this devotional from Paul's Ponderings seeks to answer.

{1 Peter 1:13-16; ESV} 

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. 

Becoming the person God created us to be isn’t easy nor does it happen overnight. This transformation is the result of God’s grace, which is primarily seen in the Holy Spirit working in our lives. We experience the Holy Spirit’s power in our daily surrender to God and His will.

There is this mysterious mix of God’s power and our choices which come together to transform our lives. While we are powerless to change by our own effort, there are certain choices which God demands from us that make transformation possible.

The transformation of our lives results in holiness. God expects us to be holy.

What does it mean for us to be holy? To be holy means that we are separated from the ordinary. Just as God is separate from His creation and is free from sin, we are to be separate from this world and be purified from our sinful behavior.

Continue reading Prepare to be Holy » Paul's Ponderings.

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From Evernote:

Striving to be Authentic

Authenticity is one of the core values of our society.  We want people and products to be real and not some cheap imitation.  For this reason authenticity should be highly valued.  On the flip side is if a person or product is naturally bad, useless, or harmful authenticity is not something to shoot for.  We have all witnessed people, in the name of authenticity, be cruel or demeaning.  These people will say things like, "I am just the type of person who tells it like it is." When authenticity leads us to be unloving then it is time to rise above simply being authentic to truly becoming the person God created us to be.  That is what true authenticity is all about.

While we might be deceived into believing that following certain primal instincts is what true authenticity looks like, the reality is that we cannot be truly authentic until we embrace the person God created us to be.  Only God, the Creator, can tell us what it means to be truly human.  In Jesus we discover what. It truly means to be an authentic human being.  The reason we are so often dissatisfied with the way the people live and act is because in the deepest part of our hearts we know they are not authentically human.  We are being deceived about who they really are.

I believe this is why the New Testament teaches us not to be a hypocrite.  It is hard for a person to put their trust in God after a self-proclaimed Christ follower has deceived or hurt them.  Please understand this: what we accept as true depends on our perceived trustworthiness of the source.  Why would a person accept the Good News of God's love and forgiveness when Christians are gossips and grudge holders?  If our lives do not bear the fruit of the Gospel then people will reject the Gospel, no matter how will we might present it.

In order to communicate the Gospel we need to do more than just claim to be a Christian, we must demonstrate that we are truly following Jesus. How we live is the most crucial evidence we can offer for truthfulness of the Gospel.  Remember what the apostle Peter wrote: 

Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ (1 Peter 3:15-16; NLT).  

When Jesus sits on the throne of our hearts the way we live will be different.  Living lives of hope, peace, and love in the midst of a life filled with tragedy, despair, and broken dreams will compel people to ask about the difference in our lives. To live like Jesus in this world will make us stand apart from everyone else.

How do we begin to live like Jesus?  In Romans 12:1-2 the apostle Paul gives us four steps to help us become authentically human:

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect (NLT).

The first step is that we must remember (I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you). God has graciously given us many blessings.  From the gift of life to the provisions we need to the blessing of salvation.  We need to be intentional and reflect on all the ways God has blessed our lives.  This will help develop an attitude of thanksgiving in our hearts which will overflow into the way we live.

The second step Paul gives is a requirement we must obey (give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable). If we are to be authentic human beings we need to understand what our Creator requires from us.  Paul here uses the illustration that we are to be living sacrifices to God.  In the Old Testament we discover  sacrifices offered to God were to be without blemish and the best portion of the flock or the harvest.  The sacrifice always came at great cost to the worshipper.  How does this apply to our lives?  We need to recognize that the life of faith is will be costly to us.  Being authentic in a world of fakes is not easy. We are no longer pursuing the agenda that the world gives to us, rather we surrender to the original purpose of our Designer.  In other words our lives are to be totally devoted to what God is doing. We give ourselves totally over to God's way of life.

The third step that Paul gives us is the reformation of our minds (Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think).  We are not transformed or reformed by our own efforts.  As we surrender our lives to God He will transform us.  This reformation is a reformation of heart and mind. It is a transformation that is noticed in the change of our attitudes, desires, and thoughts.  The more we surrender to God the more we are changed from the inside out.  Understand that for this reformation to really have an impact we have to use it to change the way we live.  Reformation is God's way of directing us to the things He wants us to do.  If God transforms our hearts and minds and we do not respond by changing the way we live then we are being poor stewards of His grace.  We will return to the old way of thinking and being directed by the old passions.  When we respond to God's reformation of hearts that is when we will become more authentically human.

The last step Paul provides is discovering the reason for our life transformation (Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect).  The reason we need to be transformed is so we can live out God's purpose for our lives.  The bottom line is that is the only way to truly be authentically human.  We need to live out the original purpose of the Designer to be authentic people.  

To be effective in our communication of the Gospel requires us to be authentic.  It is through authenticity that people see the true difference Jesus makes in our lives. People can know what we say is true because they see it in our lives.  This is why we need to strive to be authentic.

Wide Awake the Live Blog: Chapter 3

The Alchemist

Very few people are able to live the life of their dreams.  I think most people have a longing in their hearts to do something meaningful, to accomplish something which will echo through eternity.  It is certainly true for me.  While I may be working with men who have a mental disability, my desire is to write books which will connect people with the Scripture and to train people to hear God's voice.

Erwin McManus begins chapter 3 by attempting to connect with this common experience in our lives.  He then goes on to write; "You can't escape that there are hopes and passions inside you, waiting to come alive" (p. 60).  Stop and consider that reality for a moment.  If money was no object and you had no responsibilities holding you in place, what would you do? Do we believe that God has the power to make our wildest dreams come true?

The life of faith is a life of mystery.  God doesn't hand us a detailed map of our lives, rather He sent Jesus and tells us to follow him.

For most of us, walking with God is a mysterious journey of faith and discovery.  I wish that  the moment we entered a relationship with Jesus, God would send us a memo that spelled out everything.  Erwin, this is what you need to do and give your life to.  Here is what you're going to be really good at, and attached is the paint-by-numbers version of how to create the life of your dreams (p. 61).

A life like this would lack faith and the vital experience of trusting God in the unknown.  It would also hinder us from taking the risk to discover the life God created us to live because everything would be just handed to us.

I like this thought:

If you're going to engage in a journey with God, if you are going to follow the God who created you, if you're going to explore mysterious, dangerous, unknown, uncertain places—then you need to know how to reinvent yourself.  You have to learn how to adapt (p. 63)

Over the last few years I have reinvented myself.  My political views have been radically changed, my understanding of Scripture has been transformed, plus I got married.  Change always occurring in life.  One of the things we must decide is whether or not we want to direct that change.

What a wonderful truth to remember; "Your circumstances do not determine your opportunities" (p. 66).  There may be all sorts of circumstances set against us, but no circumstance can complete block us from faithfully following after Jesus and the life God created us to live.  We can take initiative back and begin to live the life God created us to live.

Erwin McManus goes on to write; "Your circumstances do not equal your opportunity, because your opportunity is shaped not simply by your external factors but by the internal factors of who you choose to be and become" (p. 68).  Part of faith is choosing the path of life, the path God laid out for us to follow, rather than quitting because of the circumstances which are set against us.  Daniel and Esther, the two people he focuses on in this chapter, persevered even though deadly circumstances were staring them in the face.

This require humility.  "Part of learning to reinvent yourself is learning how to be teachable, resourceful, and flexible" (p. 70).  We are able to reinvent ourselves through the help of other people.  We should never allow our pride to get in the way of surrendering to God's will.  To become content with who we are is to establish a roadblock to becoming the person God desires us to be.  Humility helps us understand the areas of our lives that we need to change and the voices we need to listen to in order to make that change possible.

Here is an important lesson to remember; "You either adapt when you face circumstances you cannot control, or you allow them to become the boundaries of your life" (p. 72).  Obstacles, tragedies, and unforeseen circumstances make up the journey of our lives.  If we are going to rise up these things and live the life God created us to live then we have to be flexible.  We cannot allow the circumstances of our lives to hold us back, but rather we need to seek wisdom as we look for a way around those obstacles in our lives.  It is by being teachable and seeking out the guidance of other people that God will direct our paths around the roadblocks of life.

As we follow Jesus and seek to do the good works that He has created us to do we need to be teachable and we need to be resourceful:

But when you become resourceful and start pulling out the stuff God has place inside of you and start drawing on that creativity, intellect, talent, and experience that God stored within you and start becoming resourceful, then you become extraordinary and begin to develop your own uniqueness (p. 73).

Each one of us has a unique set of talents, experiences, education, and resources at our disposal.  When we allow these things just to set and collect dust all we have is potential, but when we decide to use these wonderful blessings God has given to us then we begin to influence our part of the world for God's Kingdom.

I like this; "Improvisation is not the result of shooting from the hip but knowing where you're aiming" (p. 77).  It is easy to "just wing it" because our lives are full and we don't always have time to prepare.  This isn't bad, especially when we have enough experience and resource to draw upon.  A good jazz improvisation is beautiful because of the experience and talent of the musician.  The musician knows what he is aiming at.  Improvisation and flexibility should never be an excuse to be lazy and not to prepare, for true improvisation is the result of being so prepared you are able to handle the unforeseen circumstances that come your way.

While we need to be flexible we should never surrender our identity or core beliefs.

If you want to reinvent yourself, you have to know who you are and who you long to be and not violate that on the journey.  At the same time, you must strengthen your core in order to be flexible in every other area of your life (p. 82). 

When it comes to adapting and reinventing ourselves we first need to have a firm foundation to build upon.  Several years ago when I encountered my crisis of belief and considered walking away from faith I had to come to grips with what I truly believed.  What I discovered was that at my core the belief that I never doubted was that Jesus was the Christ the Son of God and that he was killed and resurrected.  There are a lot of things I don't understand or don't know, but it was this foundation that I began to remodel my life upon and I have never looked back.  Jesus is the core of my identity and all the changes that happen in my life must fit with him.

I think this thought is a great way to bring this chapter to an end; "While our dreams may be different, and each of us has a unique path to walk, this I know is true for if Jesus Christ guides your life—your life can never be simply about you" (p. 85). What more can I say?  As we seek to reinvent ourselves and to adapt our lives to the circumstances of our lives we must constantly remember our lives are about Jesus.  He is the source of our lives and when we surrender to his will he will get us to the place he wants us to be.

Erwin McManus, Wide Awake, Thomas Nelson (2008)

Daily Thought: A Christian is...

A Christian is, indeed, one whose views are enlightened, whose heart is renewed, whose relations to God and the moral universe are changed, and whose manner of life is according to righteousness and true holiness.

Alexander Campbell, The Christian System, Gospel Advocate Company (2001), p. 46

Daily Thought: A Different Kind of Humanity

The first and most important step in the process of becoming genuinely authentic is to be once again authenticated by the original designer.  This is a part of the divine side of human change.  God desires to place within each of us a new heart, a heart that reflects him not only in action, but in desire.  The Scriptures speak of this transformation as a metamorphosis.  We are literally transformed into new creations, not a different kind of creature, but a different kind of humanity.

Erwin McManus, Uprising, Thomas Nelson (2003), p. 68

Linkage: The Power of Implementation Intentions

One of the realities that we discover as we follow Jesus is the need for constant change.  We realize that we need to change our attitudes and well as our behaviors.  Yet time and time again we discover we don't have what it takes to change, and our good intentions remain good intentions.

The good news in this is that this change that needs to happen in our lives is not entirely our responsibility. The apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 5:22-23; "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law" (ESV).  One of the truths that Paul wants us to understand is that this changed life we are to live is the result of the Spirit working inside of us.  Our changed life is the fruit that the Spirit produces in our lives.  So when it comes to making changes in our lives we first need to surrender to God and ask Him to bring healing, wisdom, and strength to us through the Spirit.  We need God's help to change.

With that being said we have to realize that we have a part of play in our transformation as well.  Ultimately God wants us to be people who freely choose to do what is right.  We need to learn how to make the right choice, so that the right choice becomes second nature to us, something that we do without thinking about it because it is how we are.

Dallas Willard in his book The Renovation of the Heart provides a formula for the human side of transformation: VIM.  Vim stands for Vision, Intention, and Means.  We have to have vision of what that transformation will look like in our lives, we need to have the intention to bring that vision to reality in our lives, and then we have a means on making it happen.

It is in that last point, the means of turning our intentions into reality, that this article from the Art of Manliness about.  I hope that you find it helpful in your quest to become the person God created you to be.

If you’re like many men across the world, you probably set some new goals for yourself on January 1. Maybe it was to work out regularly or get into the reading habit. Or maybe you wanted to pay off your debt or increase your productivity. 

Perhaps you did okay for the first week or two, but have already fallen off the goal-achieving wagon. Oh well. There’s always next year, right? 

Hold on there, chief. No need to wallow in regret for the awesome life that could have been. There’s still hope for you yet. 

To end this month-o-motivation, I set out to do a comprehensive post about all the ways to increase your chances of reaching a goal. 

But as I waded into the research, what I found was that 1) summarizing all of the information required more of a book than a blog post, and 2) a lot of the methods didn’t personally strike me as all that helpful.

Continue Reading A Formula for Success: The Power of Implementation Intentions.

Daily Thought: There Has Been a Change

"There was a life in you that used all the members of your body in the interest of self. But there has been a change. You were made a new creature. The life you once had was put to death--was crucified; then Christ stepped into your heart, and now he uses all the members of your body for himself. You still live, yet not you, but Christ lives in you. Once you did things for yourself; now you them for Christ. Just as you once lived purposely and intentionally for yourself, now you do things purposely and intentionally for Jesus, because it is he that lives, and not you yourself."

Orr, Charles Ebert (2004-11-01). How to Live a Holy Life (p. 11). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Minds Prepared for Action

{1 Peter 1:13-16; NASB}

Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,  but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;  because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

One of the obstacles that I am facing right now in my obedient walk with God are unhealthy thoughts and attitudes.  I feel like I am on the cusp of the next thing God has called me to do, but I am distracted from doing it, not by outside forces, but by the workings of my mind.  These distractions take the form of dwelling on past failures, doubts about my ability and God's call on my life, and retreating into procrastination to avoid the hard work breaking through.
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Peter tells us that the first step in obedience happens before the task is set before us for we are to prepare our minds for action.  One of the exercises some top athletes will use before the big game is imagining what the game will be like and thinking through how they should respond if a certain situation arises in the course of the action.  Not only do these athletes use their imagination, but they will also use their knowledge and they will learn the play book, the signals that come in from the sidelines, and the terminology the team uses so they can know precisely what they are expected to do.
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Let us pause for a moment and ponder what implications that has for us as we follow after Jesus. First, we need to think about how we will respond in certain situations.  Imagine the difficulty you would have to respond in obedience to Jesus' command to sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and come follow Him.  By imagining such scenarios it makes it easier for us to respond in obedience when similar situations come our way.  Second, we need to spend time using our knowledge to learn what God's Word says about who we are, what we are to do, and the means that we have at our disposal to make those to things a reality in our lives.
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If we are to avoid the former lusts, the way of the flesh that guided our way of living before Jesus, then it is absolutely essential that we start with our minds.  Peter says that we lived that way because of ignorance.  We didn't know the will of God, we didn't know the weakness of our flesh, we didn't know the promise of life and new creation that is available in Christ Jesus, and we didn't know the great of the Holy Spirit who works with us to transform into the image bearers that God created us to be. To live in ignorance is to live below the wonderful life that God makes available to us in Christ Jesus.
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How do we do this?  I think it begins with surrendering our lives daily to God.  The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12:1 and 2:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (ESV).​

We come to God and offer our lives, each day, as a living sacrifice to Him.  It is no longer our life that we live, but it is His life.  As we surrender our lives we ask God to show us His will and to transform our minds.  Ultimately we need to remember that we don't have what it takes to bring about this transformation on our own, we need God's help to make it possible.  This falls into line with what Paul prayed for the Colossians:

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God (Colossians 1:9-10; ESV).

Pray that God will fill you with the knowledge of His will and with spiritual wisdom and understanding, that is the only way it will be made real in our lives.  Third, is we need to dedicate our selves to doing what God has called us to do.  This of course ties in with the first point of surrender, but it is one thing to say the words, and it is another thing to obey.  James writes:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if ​anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 1:22-25; ESV).​

If we are not committed to doing God's will, then we when push comes to shove we won't do it, instead we will do whatever is easiest to do.  In the process we will miss out on the blessings God wants us to experience in life, blessings that can we can use to bless those around us.
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To be obedient children we must first prepare our minds for action.  Don't neglect this, for it will enable you to do what God has planned for you to do.

Daily Thought: Transformed Through Service

"The primary reason Jesus calls us to servanthood is not just because other people need our service.  It is because of what happens to us when we serve." ~ John Ortberg, The Life You've Always Wanted, p. 117

Daily Thought: We Need the Mind of Jesus

"What is more unlike humans than to treat all kinds of people with equal truth and love?  The ideas and images that govern unredeemed humanity make it impossible, except in highly selective circumstances in in very recent societies strongly influenced by Jesus and his followers.  Paul knew we can only escape being conformed to a fallen humanity by receiving the mind of Christ himself (1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5).  Spiritual formation in Christ moves toward a total interchange of our ideas and images for his." ~ Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, p. 102

Can't Rush the Process

Here is a pondering I discovered in an old notebook that I have never shared before.  It was written sometime between March 2006 and September 2006 when I was working at Bruegger's Bagels in Coralville, IA.

On Saturday as I worked at my job baking bagels we experienced a rush of people who wanted to buy a dozen bagels.  I went from having baskets full of bagels to empty baskets in a matter of minutes.

The problem was that I could not bake the bagels fast enough to meet the demand during that period of time.  You have to understand that the way we bake bagels requires a certain process which cannot be rushed.  There are certain steps that must be followed for the bagels to come out of the oven looking right.

Since our bakery uses frozen dough the first step in the process is  to take the frozen dough and set it on a fiberglass board so it has a chance to thaw and rise.  This little task is called slacking.  You can imagine the little jokes I have heard while slacking the dough.

The dough is then put into the walk in cooler where it stays until it is ready to be used.  When it is ready to be baked, about a day later, it is taken out of the cooler where it needs to stay for about 5 minutes to bring it up to room temperature.  Once the raw bagel is at room temperature it is put into a vat of boiling water. Why boil? Boiling gelatinizes the starch in the outer layer of dough, giving the bagels their characteristic chewy crust. (I couldn't remember why we boiled them and so I Googled it, so this information is from All Recipes.)

After being kettled for 90 seconds the dough is strained and put onto baking sticks, five per stick.  If the bagels require a topping you place them face up and cover them with the right topping, and then you flip them over so they are face down on the stick.  Non-topping bagels naturally are placed face down from the start.  This whole procedure can take another 3 to 4 minutes.

Once the bagels have been properly placed on the sticks they are finally placed in the revolving oven for  5 minutes.  After 5 minutes you reach in and flip and remove the baking sticks to allow the bagels to finish baking on the shelf face for another 13 minutes.  Then it was time to remove the bagels and put them in a basket so they could go out front.

When you are feeling rushed it is easy to begin to think that you can take a short cut, like not kettling the bagels for 90 seconds, but if you do that then the bagel doesn't get the nice chewy crust it is supposed to have.  Trying to shorten the baking times means the bagel won't have the nice brown color it should have.  In the end any short cuts that a baker takes results in an inferior bagel.

This is where I would like to make an application to our lives.  When Abraham was 75-years-old God promised him a son.  Abraham and his wife Sarah waited and waited and there was no son.  Somewhere around 10 years later Abraham and Sarah thought they would give God a hand, and Abraham had a son with Sarah's servant girl, a perfectly legitimate solution in that culture, but it wasn't what God had in mind.  It was another 15 years or so that God blessed Abraham and Sarah with the son of promise, Isaac.  In that time of waiting God was preparing the couple for the son who was to come, but because of their shortcut things didn't turn out like they should have.

You and I are impatient.  We want God to transform us now and give us the big assignment that will turn the world upside down, but God has a process that He wants to take us through.  There is no shortcut, you can't take a test and skip a step or start going to worship twice a week for extra credit.  God, like a good baker, is taking His time to make sure we turn out exactly like we are supposed to.

What do we need in this process?  We need wisdom.  Without wisdom we will miss out on how God is using the experiences of our lives, including our pain, to mold us into the people He created us to be.  Remember what James wrote:

Dear brothers and sisters,​ when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking (James 1:2-4; NLT).

In this process of transformation, instead of looking for a shortcut we need to ask God for wisdom, because only then can we do our part as we seek to become the people God desires us to be.

God Cares

{1 Peter 5:6-7; NLT}

So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

There are times in our lives when we are convinced that no one is able to understand what we are going through. Even when we know that other people have been through a similar circumstances we tell ourselves that what we went through is so much worse.

What happens in these circumstances is that we have our focus in the wrong place. Our focus is all on us and what we are feeling, which then leads us to get so consumed with our feelings that we lose sight of everything else. It becomes a vicious cycle that will guarantee that we will continue to feel worse and worse and more and more isolated until something is able to come in and break it.

That is why Peter’s command in 1 Peter 5:6 is so vitally important. Humility helps us put things in their proper perspective, which allows us to deal with them more effectively. It also allows us to open our eyes to see what is happening to other people, which will allow us to realize that many people are worse of than we are. Finally, humility helps us to remember that God is still on His throne working out His plan to bless the entire world through Christ Jesus, which allows us to remember that we are just playing a small part in a bigger story.

If we continue to look at what Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5:6 he goes on to say that at the right time he will lift you up in honor. God does not intend for you to stay in the depths of hardship, misery, and tragedy which should add comfort to our lives, for nothing lasts forever, not even our pain.

Yet it is in these depths that God molds us into the people He created us to be. Much like the refining process which requires heat and fire, the hardships of life help refine our character and faith. As painful as these time are God is able to use them for our good. God loves us so much that He will not waste the pain we experience in our lives, but He will use it to make us more like His Son Jesus.

I want you to stop and ponder this thought for a moment. God doesn’t waste the hardships of our lives! What a wonderful thought to remember! He will use this awful experiences for our good. When Peter says that God will exalt us, he is implying two very important realities: the hardships of life are useful in our character development and they will not go on forever.

While hardships are necessary and God uses them to bring change to our lives, that does not mean that He is indifferent to our fear, pain, and suffering. God loves you! The fact that God experienced the pain of death of His Son Jesus reminds us that God knows what pain is and that He is willing to do whatever it takes to rescue us from this world of sin and death. That is why Peter, who knew about pain and tragedy, is able to write that God cares about us. What a wonderful promise this is, and one that we often forget.

Since God cares for us that means that He is not bothered by the hardships and pain in our lives, even if think they are insignificant. God wants us to come to Him with everything on our hearts and to ask for His help and guidance. That doesn’t mean that He will make everything better, but it will mean that He will give us the strength and wisdom to get through the situation.

James tells us:

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking (James 1:2-5; NLT).

The only way we can look at life’s troubles with joy is if we have God’s wisdom to guide us. It is also the only way we will be able to understand that God cares about us when we are in the middle of a tragedy. God loves us and when we go to Him in prayer He will give us what we need to get through whatever we are experiencing.

God desires that we experience life, but the problem is that in order to experience life we have to be changed. Change, as we know, often requires hardship and difficulty, which is never easy. It is in moments like those that we have to hold on to the promise that God cares about us and turn to Him for help. I believe that if we turn to God in the moment of crisis He will provide the encouragement and the strength we need to get through to the other side. Why do I believe this? I believe it because God cares about what happens to us.

Set Our Minds

One of the reasons it is essential to be people of the Book is because it allows God to use the truth it contains to capture our attention. What amazes me is that God will use certain books or passage to really hammer home truth into our hearts. One of the books that God has been using over and over again in my life is the book of Colossians.

This morning I was reading through Colossians once again when I was struck by verses 1-4 of chapter 3. In this passage the apostle Paul writes:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (ESV)

I want you to keep in mind, because it is foundational to what I have to say, that salvation and transformation begins and ends with God. It begins with God’s promise to bless all the nations of the world through Abraham and his descendant, it continues through Christ Jesus (the promised descendant of Abraham), and ends with the return of Jesus and the coming of the Kingdom in all of its glory.

Without God’s initiative, without God’s promise, and without Christ’s faithfulness we would have no hope, no matter what choices we might make. Our hope and our lives are bound up in the actions of our loving heavenly Father.

Yet, that does not mean that we have no part in the transformation process. Paul tells us that there is something that we must do, a choice that we must make. We are to set our minds on the things that are above. This requires an act of the will, for if we don’t choose to set our minds on the things of God, then it will not happen.

So what must we do if we are going to set our minds on the things that are above? First, it requires us to get rid of the negative and earthly things that grab our attention and focus. It means going through our movie collection and chucking those movies that take our hearts down paths that we shouldn’t go. It means buying software that will limit the access that we have online so that we are not tempted to view things that we shouldn’t see. It means saying goodbye to friends that lead us town dark pathways and away from God.

It is not good enough to get rid of the old, but we also have to replace the old with something new. Part of this means that instead of putting junk into our hearts and minds we are putting positive and God-honoring messages into our lives. I think we understand this truth, and many of us have made it this far. We have shunned the negative and we have embraced the positive, but things are still not what they should be. The distractions still come and pull us off course taking us down the paths of sin.

I believe that there is another step that we must take. We have to make the decision to add to our lives certain spiritual disciplines that will help us gain control of the flesh and will help us live more fully by the guidance of the Spirit. We need disciplines like Bible study (private and group), prayer, fasting, simplicity (living a simple life), generosity, and service. Being devoted to these disciplines will allow our hearts to be opened up to God truth, and will make it possible for us to implement that truth to the way we live our lives.

Not only do we have to add spiritual disciplines to our lives, but I think we also have to speak about what God is doing in our lives. So much of the time I think we miss out on what God is doing in our lives because we are not focused on what God is doing in our lives. We miss out on the connection between the changes that are taking place and God’s activity. By speaking out about God and changes in our lives helps us to make that connection, it sharpens our focus on God and His activity in this world, especially His activity in our lives.

God took the initiative to save us from sin and death. Let us respond to that initiative by focusing our lives on the things that come from God. Let us set our minds of the things that are above.

Let Transformation Happen

“But God’s purposes are not the same as ours. We want him to indulge us; he wants to transform us (Rom. 8:29).” ~ Henry and Richard Blackaby; Hearing God’s Voice

Wouldn’t it be nice if God simply gave us everything our hearts desired? After all what better way to show people that He is a loving God than to grant their every request. I want to marry this lady; zap, it happens. I want this job, zap, I have it. I want to win the lottery, zap, time to go to the bank.

While it might seem to be wonderful for God to simply answer all our requests we know that it is not the best thing. All we have to do is remember that spoiled child we have run into. You know the one whose parents never say no and give him or her everything they want. That child is not better off because he or she gets their way. It could be argued that they are put at a disadvantage since they never able to learn how to work for or save for something they want.

Even before sin came into the world God intended for man to work and not simply given what he wanted. It is through this process of obedience and toil that we are able to grow in a relationship with God, becoming more and more of what He wants us to be. God isn’t interested in making us simply happy; He wants to make us holy. If you come to God hoping to be made happy you will be disappointed. Happiness is not the goal, rather it is the product of the holiness we have.

Transformation doesn’t happen by God zapping change into our lives. Transformation is a process, and it is process we have to choose to be a part of. If we are unwilling to participate in the process God is unable to transform us.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. ~ Romans 12:2; NLT

“Let God transform you,” the Apostle Paul writes. Sure God could zap us and transform us into the moral people He wants us to be, but we would miss out on the love and the trust we gain from going through the process. Just as if I were to take a pill that would remove 30 pounds of fat from my body. I might be the person I want to be, but I have missed out on gaining the discipline and work ethic that I need to stay there. While a pill would be nice, in the long run it is what I learn in process that really matters.

God’s way is not my way. I want Him to zap me and remove all the temptation and all of the problems I have in my life. God wants me to love and trust Him, and allow Him to lead me through a process which will transform my life for eternity. To God, the process is just as important as the final result.