Keep Your Mind On It

I Corinthians 14:15 I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.

I am blessed to be a good reader.

          I can read almost anything without giving a bit of thought to what I am reading. 

          I can read a whole page of a book and not be able to tell you what I just read.

I do not always have my mind on what I am reading.

I am blessed to hear well (with the help of my hearing aids, that is). 

          I can sit in a group and hear everything that is said but when the group disperses, I cannot tell you what was said.

          I can sit at the dinner table and hear everything my hubby says, but I cannot tell you what he said when he is finished talking.

I did not have my mind on what I was hearing.

I cannot sing very well, but I do enjoy singing with the congregation at church.

          I can an entire song without thinking about a single word I sang.

I do not always have my mind on what I am singing.

In chapter fourteen of First Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is pointing out how the spiritual gifts God gives to believers are given to individuals for the benefit of the entire body of believers of which that person is a part.  (Gifts such as faith, discernment, teaching/preaching, speaking in tongues, and others mentioned in various locations in the New Testament). 

But did you notice what the Apostle Paul said in the verse quoted at the top of the page?

Pray and/or sing with my mind as well as my spirit.  

Keep my mind on what I am doing or saying. Don't do it mindlessly.

Pay attention to it. 

I must not let any of what I do or read or sing become so perfunctory that I do it mindlessly.

I need to pray, sing, read, and act in my spirit, doing it wholeheartedly and genuinely, but also in my mind. 

I need to KEEP MY MIND ON IT.

There Are No Accidents

 After being without the internet for a week, I am glad to have it back and be able to make a new entry on this blog!

Acts 18:2 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.

Aquila and Priscilla had been through a lot of turmoil when the Apostle Paul met them.  

They had been uprooted from their home and their livelihood in Rome for no reason except that they were Jews.

They had to travel to find a new safe place to live, which ended up being in Corinth.  

 It had to have been a traumatic and emotionally challenging experience for Aquila and Priscilla.

But it was no accident that Claudius commanded all the Jews to leave Rome at this very time in history.

It was no accident that Aquila and Priscilla chose to settle in Corinth when forced to leave Italy. 

It was no accident that Paul’s travels brought him to Corinth after Aquila and Priscilla had settled there. 

It was no accident that they and Paul had the same trade so that Paul could not only stay with them but also work with them to support himself while he shared the gospel with the people of Corinth.

It was no accident that the Apostle Paul was able to establish a church there in Corinth that met, where else, but in the house of Aquila.  

There are no accidents with God.

Even the Emperor of Rome himself, a hater of the Jews, was part of God's "no accident" plans for Paul, Aquila and Priscilla, and the newly formed church in Corinth. 

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good ..." (Romans 8:28). 

Paul knew this from his personal experience, and we can trust that word for ourselves as well, because there are no accidents with God. He plans and uses even what seems bad to turn our situations into good outcomes if we are loving Him and living for Him.

I don't know about you, but I need that reminder regularly.

There are no accidents with God in control of my life.

The Capital-Letter-L Life

Acts 5:20 Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.

I really like the way my Bible has this verse that tells what the angel told the apostles when he miraculously released them from the jail cell that eventful night.  They had been arrested because of their activities in ministering to people.

The angel said to tell the people all the words of this Life (with a capital “L”).   

That capital-letter-L-life is a good enough life to be capitalized. 

It is not just a plain, ordinary life.   

We don’t know exactly what the apostles said about “this Life,” but as I think about what I know and have experienced for myself as a follower of Jesus, several things come to mind.

"In Him [Jesus Christ} was life..."  (John 1:4). 

The life of Christ becomes light for others. "... and  the life was the light of men." (John 1:4). 

In faith in Jesus Christ, I find eternal Life. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life"  (John 3:16).  

Jesus came to give me abundant Life. "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." (John 10:10).  

I can only have capital-letter-L Life by having the Son of God in me. "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 John 5:12).

The bottom line is that the capital-letter-L Life carries a lot of meaning and is to be desired over all other little-letter-l life.

That Huge Immoveable Stone

 

Mark 16:3-4 They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back – it was very large.

Yesterday I had a conversation with someone who was facing some very challenging, very difficult, issues in her life. When I read the account this morning of what happened to the two Mary’s and Salome after Jesus’ death and burial, I thought again of the conversation. 

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Salome had lost a very close friend and son and were coming to the tomb with anointing spice per the custom of the day. 

They were mourning. They fully expected to continue their mourning as they did the only thing they knew to do under the circumstances, but with an additional trial – how to get to His body, hidden behind a heavy and huge stone. 

They knew they could not move the stone, but they came prepared with spices anyway. They did what they knew they could do, all the while discussing how to handle the obstacle they knew they would face when they arrived.

But when they arrived, the issue had already been resolved in more ways than one. 

They did not have to move the stone. An angel had come from heaven and moved it for them.

They did not have need of the spices – Jesus had risen. 

I see a lesson for me in this. 

I plan and prepare as best I can for for what appears to be the inevitable outcome of my situation, but I do so with this reminder: God may be working in ways that I not only do not expect, but also in ways I will only know later. 

God will move my very large stone in His time and way, and I will see it, but maybe only after He has done the work. In the meantime, I continue to do what I know I can do, all the while recognizing that I do not know the end of the story that is unfolding in my life.

When Jesus Appears

 

Matthew 24:30 … then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

I was struck by the description of how people will respond to Jesus’ second coming.  

I always think of that event with great anticipation and had never considered it in any other way.  After all, this is the culmination of my faith and I look forward to the inexpressible joy it will bring as I see my Savior and Lord face-to-face.   

But as I thought about this verse, I realized in a new way that for those who do not know Jesus as their loving Savior, this event will be quite different.

His appearance will bring sadness and suffering to those who have not followed Christ.  

They will mourn at His appearance.  

For some, it will even represent a big bite of humility as they are forced to acknowledge His power and glory that they have ignored or even mocked in their lifetime.   

Philippians 2:10 says that "every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord."

Some will bow with joy and delight, while others will bow in mourning and trepidation.  

It is sobering to realize that not everyone will have the same pleasure that I will have when Jesus appears.

The Level Playing Field

Matthew 19:25-26 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

This conversation between Jesus and His disciples came because of the interaction of Jesus with the wealthy young man who appeared unable to give up his wealth to follow Jesus.

I think the disciples were like most of us – we feel like the possession of money must surely have some value in life. Surely it should be able to give one success and happiness, if nothing else.

This rich man had everything we would think you need to succeed. 

He was young.

He was religious.

He was wealthy.

How could that combination not be a successful one? 

What Jesus reminds us, however, is that salvation is totally a work of God. 

There is nothing that we can bring to the table, so to speak, as a bargaining chip towards salvation and eternal life in heaven. 

Even what we think ought to be, or could be, leverage for us, has no real value because God is the source of our salvation. 

It certainly levels the playing field of salvation for all of mankind because no one has an advantage over others when it comes to who can have salvation.

It all depends on our decision to let God have all we are and all we have.

It all depends on our decision to put aside our youth, or health, or wealth, or religiosity, as secondary to God's request for our heart, our devotion, our repentance.