thoughts

May 20, 2023

“Whatever Is True, Whatever Is Noble…”

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. – Phil 4:8 NIV

Rejoice!

Some of the things that Paul wrote are hard for us to understand. “rejoice in the Lord always” and “pray without ceasing” come to mind. In our busy society how does one spend 15 minutes a day rejoicing and praying, much less continually, and still get everything accomplished. I believe that what seems impossible is the key to how we accomplish Paul’s admonitions. Happiness is caused by externals and is temporary. We sometimes confuse that with joy, which is internal and eternal because it is given to us by God. “The joy of the Lord is my strength.”  What God gives to us cannot be taken away from us. We can lose our focus on the joy but it is still there all the time. Praying is a gift from God as well as an attitude, not a body position. We can mentally pray while doing anything else. Verse 8 is the key to being prayerful and joyful all the time. We need to change our thought patterns so that they focus on the goodness and mercies of God instead of the sin in the world around us.  Then we can enjoy the joy and thank God for it.

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

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March 20, 2022

“Alive and Powerful”

12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.– Hebrews 4:12 NLT

Hebrews 4:12-16 NLT

God knows our hearts and our innermost thoughts. His Spirit searches our heart and minds to reveal any sinfulness or sinful thoughts that we might have. He reveals that anger we have been harboring and we have to deal with it. God wants us to be totally committed to Him. He will not accept being the #1 God in the race, He wants us to understand that He is the only God  He can ask this of us because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. He understands that we will fail. If we could accomplish this on our own, then Jesus died in vain. But He has made a way for us by allowing us to come into the throne room and ask His forgiveness. He is always faithful to forgive us and help us when we repent and return to Him. He is ALWAYS there to help when we need Him and especially when we need Him the most.

10 For you are great and perform wonderful deeds. You alone are God.​— Psalm 86:10 NLT

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

February 27, 2022

“Fix Your Thoughts On What Is True”

8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. — Phil. 4:8 NLT

Philippians 4:4-8

If we follow Paul’s advice, we will pray and be thankful for all things that God has done for us. We must continually guard our thoughts and the desires of our hearts. We need to focus on things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, excellent and worthy of praise. Then we will become God-conscious. Witnessing for Jesus will be a natural outflow of this kind of thinking. Our actions will be Christ-centered and people will know that we have something they don’t have. If we let our guard down, satan will rush in and have us thinking about the pleasures of the flesh. Then, satan will keep telling us about all the things we don’t have. After listening to that for a short while, we become sin-conscious. In that state of mind, we are of little use to God, ourselves or anyone else. Fight the good fight and stay focused on Jesus. Then we will enjoy God’s peace, joy will overflow and it will be completely natural for us to praise Him for His goodness.

Phil.2:1-5 NLT

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

January 19, 2022

“My Thoughts Are Nothing…”

8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.— Isaiah 55:8 NLT

Isaiah 55:8-11 NLT

It is impossible for humans to know all of God’s thoughts and plans.  Just as He created the whole universe by His spoken Word, He holds it all together by the power of His Word.  How could our finite, human minds even begin to understand the intricate details of how nature works?  Our scientists fit a little piece here and a little piece there, but they can’t put it all together.  Just as the people of Babel thought they would build a tower to the heavens, we may think that we can figure it all out.  But just as God confused their language and made it impossible for them to work together, He will confound our human plans. The wisdom of humans is foolishness when compared to the wisdom of God.  As Job could not answer God about the intricacies of nature, neither can we answer Him.  We, as Job did, can come to only one conclusion and that is this: “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. Job 19:25 (NLT)  Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  The question is not “Will I do this?” The question is “When will I do this?”  Accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord today and enjoy spending an eternity with Him.  He is the One who made it all possible  by dying on a cross for our sins.

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

November 29, 2021

“…And Begin to Live…”

6  Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live;  learn to use good judgment.” — Proverbs 9:6 NLT

Proverbs 9:1-6 NLT

The Hebrew word (mashal) that is interpreted as proverb comes from a root word that means “to be like” or a parable.  The book of Proverbs is a collection of thoughts or sayings teaching us what we should be like.  The Proverbs and there are many proverbs in the Bible that are outside of the Book of Proverbs show us aspects of our lives and how we should look at them and how we should respond to them.  In other words, Proverbs gives us a picture of the lifestyle of a Christian versus a non-Christian by contrasting how we respond to situations.  Proverbs teaches us to respect wisdom and to seek wisdom for every decision we make.  As in the passage we are looking at today, we are invited to partake of God’s wisdom as we would of food and drink.  We need to sit with Jesus and ask Him for Godly wisdom before we make our decisions.  Not just the decisions that we would consider as major, life-changing decisions but all of our decisions because God is concerned with the smallest things in our lives.  Whether we turn left or right at the next intersection (be it on the physical highway or the Spiritual highway) could be the difference in whether we make it home safely or not.

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

October 25, 2021

“…For Their Own Conscience and Thoughts…”

15 They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. — Romans 2:15 NLT 

Romans 2:10-16 NLT

It is said that on a dark night with no obstructions, the human eye can see the flickering flame of a candle up to a distance of thirty miles.  How is this possible?  Even the smallest of lights will dispel darkness.  This is true of that quality that we refer to as “good”.   Good dispels evil.  As Edmund Burke put it:  “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  Even those who have never read God’s law or those that say there is no God know this is true.  All humans innately know the difference between good and evil.  For most humans, it is natural to choose to do good whether they believe in God or not.  That innate knowledge (we call it the conscience) that God has put in the heart of a human is what prevents total chaos from occurring on the earth. Even those who have never read the Bible or heard the Gospel know the difference between right and wrong.  That knowledge becomes more real and more powerful when we receive the Holy Spirit.  An atheist can only be an atheist because his/her beliefs are based on a wrong assumption.  If the foundation is faulty, then the whole house will crumble.  So, good men and women, let us build our house on a solid foundation of truth, light our candles and be a shining light in a world of darkness and evil.  Only God knows how much darkness each of our lights will penetrate, just let your light shine.

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

December 2, 2020

“Everything Is Uncovered”

12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. — Hebrews 4:12-13 NIV

Since God knows our every thought we need to be very careful of the thought patterns that we allow to develop. Of course, thoughts drift into our mind and that is beyond our control to a point.  But we do have control over whether or not we dwell on those thoughts.  In Corinthians, we are instructed to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”.  We can also take some control of our thought patterns by making better decisions about the things we read, the things we see, the conversations that we have and the people we associate with daily.  We must be careful that our pride doesn’t lead us into believing that we are influencing others more than they are influencing us. The things and the people that we spend the most time with are the ones that influence us the most. Pride says “I would never” but we all have at some time or other done or said those things that we are not proud of later.  Those things that we did and the words that we spoke are results of thought patterns that we have developed over the years.  We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us purify our hearts and minds. We can help by studying God’s Word and making it a bigger part of our daily thought patterns.

 11 I have hidden your word in my heart
    that I might not sin against you.— Psalm 119:11 

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,and renew a steadfast spirit within me. — Psalm 51:10 NIV

23 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. — Phil. 4:7 NIV

23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. — Proverbs 4:23 NIV

 “The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

August 25, 2020

“No One Can Know”

11 No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. ​ – 1 Cor. 2:11 NIV​

1 Cor. 2:9-11 NLT

God has prepared a place for us that no human can conceive or even imagine. He has revealed a part of that to us through His word, Our God is very organized, he has a plan and a time for everything in the plan to happen. God’s Holy Spirit is indwelling each of us. He (Holy Spirit) has the ability to search and know God’s thoughts. That is why we must always involve the Holy Spirit in our prayer life.

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.—Romans 8:26-27 NIV

No matter how we may stumble and stutter through our prayers, the Holy Spirit cleans them up and presents them to God. Even better, while all this is going on, Jesus is standing at the right hand of God interceding for us. With the whole Trinity involved, how could our prayers not be answered? A great prayer is the one Peter prayed while he was walking on the water. “Save me”. You don’t need great words or lots of words to pray, you just need to be humble and sincere.  We are all quite familiar with Romans 8:28 which says:

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

We tend to focus on the first part of the verse, but the important part is the last four words of the verse; according to his purpose.  Our prayers do not change God’s plan for us, they are designed to get us in line with His plan. 

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” -Anonymous

June 21, 2020

“Giving Thanks Always”

20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, – Ephesians​ 5:20 ESV

Give Thanks 

God knows that we have work to do and relationships to maintain, so how can we “always” be giving thanks? I think we have to put this verse with the verse in 1 Thess. 5:17 where Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing”. To give God thanks always and to pray without ceasing are not commands for us to go around orally praying and giving thanks at all times. Neither do our prayers and thanksgiving have to be with lots of fancy words. One of my favorite prayers in the Bible is Peter’s prayer when he takes his eyes off Jesus and starts to sink in the sea. “Lord, save me”. That prayer was very short and effective. Our lifestyle, which is determined by our thought patterns, should always be one that is ready to pray and give thanks. We should be as quick to say “Thank you, Lord” in the good times as we are to say “Save me, Lord” in the rough times.

​1. ​I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.–Psalm 34:1 (ESV)
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,​ my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;​ in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,–Psalm 63:3-5 (ESV)
8 Bless our God, O peoples;​ let the sound of his praise be heard–Psalm 66:8 (ESV)


“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” -Anonymous

February 3, 2020

“We Do Know That We Will Be Like Him”

2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. ​ – 1 John 3:2 NLT​1

John 3:1-3 NLT

God’s example of unconditional love is something I can’t really grasp. Hopefully, you can do a better job than I do. How does a Creator have such love for creatures that He has to give His only Son to redeem? Thank God that His “thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways”. How exciting it should be to each of us to know that we are not “going to be” His children, we are ​ALREADY​ His children. While we are not able to grasp all that really means and we don’t know exactly what the end result of it will be, let’s just revel in it here and now! Enjoy His love today expecting greater things tomorrow and things that we cannot even imagine in the future!! Our lives should be so full of joy that everyone around us wants to know why we are so joyful! No matter the situation, “count it all Joy”!!

Praise Him for His goodness and mercy! God loves to hear His children singing regardless of what it may sound like to those around us. Make a joyful noise!!!“

The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” -Anonymous

Post 02-03-2020