Feelings are at the front of the line when it comes to our minds. People ask “How are you feeling today?”

Has anyone ever asked you, “How are you thinking today?”

Watching the news after a terrorist attack brings an unfortunate lesson in this focus on how one feels. Newscasters ask “experts” these kind of questions:

Why do you think the terrorists feel the way they do? What is causing them to feel that way about Western countries? What more can we do to understand why they feel the way they do?

No one asks the obvious.

What kind of thinking is the source of such diabolical actions? What are the ideas and images the terrorists use as their sources that fuel this type of response?

Feelings are absolutely necessary because they make us come alive and they drive our activities. We accept we have feelings and we learn to channel them in the right places and in the right way. Dallas says,

“Feelings can be good servants but they are a horrible master.”

So how do we work on a vision to transform our mind’s feelings? Next chapter, we start with what doesn’t work.

Think of an example when you started with feelings rather than thinking.

The Best Brain Medicine…

You have the vision to transform your mind. Next comes intention. The fact that you are reading this, is intention enough for me, so I will continue. How do you give access to the Holy Spirit to transform your thought-life?

The Word of God
Memorizing Bible passages is a practice that was simply a necessity for thousands of years. No books! Then, when writing comes along, it is rare and costly to write things down. In fact, most of the priests of Israel and the leaders of the early church memorized the whole Bible!

For us, memorizing and letting the Word “marinate” in our minds, is a strong defense against the ideas and images that would lead us down the wrong path. Dallas says that passages like Psalm 23 or Colossians 3:1-17, when they fill our thoughts, are like a good “scrubbing down” of whatever else is on our minds.

There are a variety of techniques to enhance memorization, but it usually looks like this:

Read a section, let it sit, read, recite it aloud, read… Lectio Divina can be a very helpful tool in this process.

Sound and Images
You want another way to fill your mind with that which points to our awesome God? Listen to music. Everyone knows how easy it is to get hooked to a song where you “can’t get it out of my head.” Well, if that is a praise song/ hymn, an encouraging or contemplative popular song on the radio, what better way to latch on to God’s Word than to let music fill your mind?

Musical tastes are about as personal as you can get. Whether it is classical, rap, hip hop, alternative, hard rock, soft rock, country, or even screamo, there are ways that Biblical passages and themes can take flight in your car or iPod. Music doesn’t just have to be about how much you hate the world or how much you like a woman’s booty, or whatever. God invented music, and so it can be about him, too, you know?

Godly images and reminders have been used throughout our faith history to connect us to the living Christ, as well. From ancient stained glass windows and icons, to WWJD bracelets, gospel t- shirts and tattoos, visual reminders are powerful and significant. We absorb much through sight that keeps us focused on our walk with Jesus.

Mentor/ Coach/ “Discipler”
Connecting with someone who is further along on the path of self-denial, being discipled and encouraged by them, is the way Jesus designed for us to be in the process of renovation. Who is your Yoda?

If you are fortunate enough to have a parent in this role, that would be amazing. It can be a peer, but there is nothing like the wisdom and model of the elder who is experiencing the joy and challenge of the transforming life.

How do you find a mentor? If you are fortunate, he/she will find you. More and more church communities today are finally doing things the way Jesus designed by focusing on making disciples. You can judge a potential mentor as one who is encouraging, challenging, gracious, and confident in Jesus, and who is authentic in their walk of faith.

What would be reasons you would use to tell yourself you don’t need to open yourself up to this wisdom?

What’s on You Mind Affects Everything Else (Part Two)

How are we to replace the ideas and images that move us away from God and his ways? We take an active role in our thinking, joining with the influence of the Holy Spirit and seeking the truth for ourselves. These are two other aspects of our thinking that make this possible.

Information
1 Thes. 5:19-21 (NLT)
Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good.

Jesus encourages us to put him to the test. The Christian faith is based on our ability to examine the evidence. We are expected to seek the information that is available to decide for ourselves. The Spirit guides this process, but we are to take the initiative.

Putting the Christian worldview to the test, comparing it to other religions and philosophies, is encouraged. Though less likely today, Christian schools, colleges and universities have historically been centers of learning to compare and contrast competing worldviews in the search for the truth.

Also, God’s desire for us to know his ways helps explain a unique quality of the Christian faith. It is so culturally transferable. The Bible has been translated into over 2,287 languages thus far, according to the International Bible Society. It is a strong mark of the “God-breathed” aspect of the Bible’s writing, that all cultures in every age are invited to read God’s Word for themselves and examine the evidence. It’s as if God is saying,

The information is there. Have at it.

Now, compare this to a religion like Islam, where the holy book, the Quran, is only truly considered the Word of Allah, if it is in Arabic. There is no movement to compare and contrast what the Quran teaches as relates to other faiths and philosophies. In fact, in some countries where Islamic law reigns, Bibles are not even allowed to be examined, and it can be a crime to talk about the Christian faith.

There are also religions that have secret books written in obscure ways, which only the most enlightened can understand. The God of the Bible wants people to understand. Seeking the truth of Jesus is an active pursuit.

Intelligence
Reason is a gift from God. As we examine the information available in his Word and in the world around us, we have the capability of understanding for ourselves that the Christian worldview is the most reasonable view of reality available.

God doesn’t demand our allegiance through blind faith. “Because he said so,” is not a Christian teaching. No, God invites us into relationship, and God creates us in his image so we have the ability to relate. He invites us to use the intelligence he gives us to begin thinking how bad ideas and images, Satan’s strongest weapons, can be replaced by the truth of Jesus.

Test this out for yourself.

The first place we move away from God or toward God is through our thoughts. The devil works through our thinking more than anywhere else. Good thinking or bad thinking are real possibilities because God gives us the freedom to choose our thoughts.

We can’t control what is in the world, but we can control what is in our own thought-life. We can choose the content of our thinking. We can’t do it perfectly, but we can make progress in filling our thought-life more and more with God’s Word and the promises announced there.

Our thinking has four parts. First, there are ideas and images. Then there is information and intelligence.

Ideas
We have been forming an idea system since we were born. We have been influenced through experience, the teachings of others, and watching the behavior of our family and community. We don’t realize what is reality and what is false reality in our lives. When we look at our ideas, we do a reality check.

To transform our personal idea system from one of ruin to one of goodness, we have to replace our ideas with the idea system of Jesus. This is the most difficult and painful process in life. To actually change our minds.

Most people have their ideas firmly established when it comes to life’s values and beliefs by the time they are 12-13 years old. It is extraordinarily rare for us to change our thinking after that. It is essential that we do so, if we want our thinking to be more and more like the thinking of Jesus.

What is an example of thinking that many people hold to, that is destructive in their lives?

Consider “relativism,” for example. This is the belief that one person’s moral ideas are equally good to another person’s moral ideas. There is no right or wrong; only what you think is right and wrong. Your ideas are valid if you are sincere. Relativism has a strong influence in our society. No values can be wrong except, of course, if you disagree with me. Then you are wrong.

Images

Along with ideas, images fill our minds. They are basic and concrete and they have a powerful effect. Ideas and images are Satan’s main tools against us. What preoccupies our thought life? Ideas and specific images.

Sexual images are overwhelming in society. We see sexualized images in advertisement and the media everywhere. Pleasure and power await us as we think of these images. The multibillion-dollar pornography business is a huge tool that Satan uses today to tie minds to an endless cycle of lust and guilt and emptiness.

Jesus uses images to move us from self-worship to self-denial. The most powerful image in this is the cross. To look at a cross is to sense his love, sacrifice, devotion and strength. The cross is a reminder of what he did, but it is also a beckon of hope of what he is doing.

As we are being transformed to be like Jesus, the key is to take the destructive ideas and images we have and replace them with the ideas and images Jesus possesses. We take on the mind of Christ. This is a possibility for life in his Kingdom now.

1 Cor. 2:16 (NLT)
How could they? For, “Who can know what the Lord is thinking? Who can give him counsel?”

But we can understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.

Where have you had challenges in your thinking?

How can we have radical transformation through the five aspects of who we are?

We take steps to change what keeps us from becoming like Jesus. We have the capability of doing this as we partner with Jesus, and begin transforming on the inside, so we might be like Jesus on the outside.

If we go step by step in each of the five areas in detail, what would this process look like? I will use the example of “anger” (note “mind” is divided into “thinking” and “feeling”).

My Heart
I may have grown up in a family where anger is normal and having a bad temper is expected.

My Mind’s Thoughts
I find reasons why I should be angry about the situation. I make sure I keep focusing on why I have been wronged.

My Mind’s Feelings
I enjoy the rush of emotion that attaches to my anger. It makes me feel so alive.

My Social Relations
I look for ways I can always have the upper hand with my friends and family members so I am the one who gets to lash out at them when the opportunity arises. I try to place them in anxiety-producing situations where they are never really comfortable around me.

My Body
Frowning and scowling are my normal facial characteristics and there is nothing so “good” as to raise my voice or whisper in a bitter tone. I find ways to get the adrenaline flowing and take on a nice red complexion.

My Soul
In all the parts of my being I just keep focusing on my rightness and everyone else’s wrongness. I am like a god of my own universe, and I am looking for every opportunity to lash out in wrath at those who would question my goodness.

Whew! Glad I got that over with!

Where has anger bitten you in the past?

VIM- Means

The “means” to live in God’s Kingdom now are to fool every part of our normal self into trusting that we can actually be transformed. In football, we would call this an “end around.” If you take the direct approach it almost always fails. Like,

This time I am really going to live a godly life! I am going to quit being so impatient. I am going to be patient and I am going do it- right now!

Whenever we take the direct approach, our whole being cries out,

It can’t be done!

Or,

Who do you think you are?!

Or,

I’ll just die if I follow through on this!!

How do we go about indirectly impacting ourselves to live the transformed life? The spiritual disciplines that Jesus practiced are the key.

Through silence and solitude, study, worship and such, we are able to focus on what is there in front of us, and it will naturally be used by the Spirit to change us from the inside.

For instance, we don’t say, “From now on I am going to be a loving person,” but rather we say, “I am going to work on becoming the kind of person whom can love.” The spiritual disciplines then become the tools that make us available for that transformation.

Think about the various types of “self-help” you have attempted.

VIM- Intention

Here is where we start to get bogged down in our spiritual growth. Two things happen.

One- we don’t really trust what we say we trust

Two- we don’t really intend to obey what we learn

We must intend to trust Jesus.

Here is where “thinking it through” is so important. There is a whole area of study that is critical to trusting in Jesus. It is called, “Apologetics.” This means, “making a case for,” or “making a defense.”

In Christian apologetics, you make a logical case for your faith in Jesus. You build confidence in the reasonability of the Christian faith. Why is it important to trust intellectually?

You cannot sustain a living, influential faith in Jesus unless you trust in what he says and does. You cannot thrive as a disciple unless you have confidence that the Bible is the Word of God, Jesus is who he says he is, and the Christian worldview is the most reasonable and rational view of reality there is out of all religions and philosophies.

Sunday School/ “Jesus loves me this I know” faith, does not survive teenage and adult skepticism in a person who is truly testing out their faith. You can get by when times are good, but when crisis and uncertainty hit, which they will, to have confidence in the authenticity of your experience and the evidence of the truth of the Gospel are essential.

The good news is: Jesus is totally trustworthy, and so we can obey his ways.

Christians are not really honest on this point. Often we talk a good faith but we don’t live it. Usually, this has something to do with focusing almost entirely on a God of love and forgiveness.

Yet, God is equally a God of justice and righteousness (right living). The God who totally loves us is the God who totally expects obedience. We emphasize all the accounts in the Bible where Jesus is caring and forgiving, but many times we skip over his call for our radical self-denial.

For example, when he tells the woman who is caught in adultery, “Go, and sin no more,” he wasn’t winking at her when he said it (John 8:1-11).

We can actually choose not to sin.

We can choose to do what is right.

It is possible to do this in this life. We are already a new creation when we place our trust in Jesus and begin to live in his Kingdom now. We do not have to give in to our old human desires for pleasure and power. The fact that we fail at times, and fall back into our sinful human ways, doesn’t cancel out the equally truthful fact that we can choose not to sin. Unless we go into this whole enterprise intending to live a transformed life, we will fail before we get started.

We can live our lives as Jesus would live our lives if he were us. He created the means.

What do you really want?

We start with a vision to be a Kingdom person. This is someone who is actively working with God in living a kingdom life. Before we can understand this we need to define “Kingdom.” Dallas Willard defines it this way:

Kingdom of God- the range of God’s effective will

We have confidence that God’s will is done everywhere. Therefore, his Kingdom is infinite because his domain is wherever there is the possibility his choices are accomplished. We pray this frequently.

Thy Kingdom come: Thy Will be done: On earth as it is in heaven.

This is the life of our possibility. Where God’s desires and our destiny are identical. We are invited to the greatest cause of the galaxies. To live our lives the way we are designed to live. Think about it this way.

Everyone in the world may be working against God’s Kingdom coming because they have given in to a life of self-worship. Yet, if we are working for the sake of God and others, we are being transformed. As a result, creation itself is being transformed because we choose to follow God’s Kingdom vision.

How could we live in any safer, richer, more joyful place than in the reality of what God wants done? Do you think he can accomplish what he intends to accomplish?

Then I would suggest we all get on God’s bus and go for a ride!

What do you really want?

What is VIM? Let me use an example.

For most adults in America, one area we frequently wish to change is being overweight. If you take all the weight loss products, all the weight loss programs, all the health club memberships, and all the diet books, then you add it all together, you are looking at billions of billions of dollars. Yet, most people simply go through a cycle of losing and gaining. Most people don’t see permanent results. Why? Could it be they went directly to means, without really considering vision and intention?

In vision you think about what you would look like if you lost weight. Would you be more attractive? The bit of narcissism in all of us would enjoy that. Then you think about what you would feel like if you didn’t have to carry around those extra pounds every day. The aches and pains in your joints. Just the overall dragging that goes on by the end of the day. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to face the world as a “lean, mean, fighting machine?” (If you haven’t seen Stripes, do so; classic Bill Murray) Do you have a vision for weight loss?

The vision is not enough. You can’t just sit there daydreaming about how great it would be to lose weight. You can’t just read testimonials. You have to carefully consider what life would be like as a slimmer you. You have to count the cost. Jesus knows that.

Luke 14:28 (NLT)
“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if there is enough money to pay the bills?”

After this careful consideration, if you are truly ready this time, then you state you intentions. Maybe you confide in a friend that this time you really mean it. You have a vision for weight loss. You have the intention to do what it takes to achieve it. Now, the final step is the easiest. How to do it. The means.

Obesity is most often spiritual at its core. David Housholder, in  Light Your Church On Fire Without Burning It Down, has this to say,

“One only has to think of our grossly overweight society, and the massive trillions spent on resulting medical care trying to cure the symptoms caused by obesity, when there is deep inner pain trying to get covered by overeating. Why not go right to the cause?”

Healing prayer will deliver a person from this inner pain. Along with this, healthy habits follow. Proper diet and exercise, and sleep are important for weight loss. A healthy lifestyle includes these three.

Healing prayer and healthy habits are the means to losing what we are dragging through life.

You can see what practicing vision, intention, and means can do for weight loss. What would it look like to change a whole life? Through VIM, you yield yourself to the power of the Holy Spirit for lasting transformation.

Where do you need healing?

Our love of God directly impacts our love of neighbor. When we receive God’s love for what it is, it becomes possible to love our neighbor as Jesus does. Not for what I can get out of them, but out of genuine generosity. Through this process, the five parts of who I am (heart, mind, body, social relationships, soul) come into proper alignment. More and more, I am living as I am designed to live.

The choices I make out of my heart are for the benefit of others. My mind is filled with thoughts and feelings that focus on good rather than tempt me toward evil. My body is used to worship and glorify God rather than pursue pleasure and power. All of this affects the people I choose to hang out with. In this way my soul is in harmony with God’s intentions.

Specifically, as I am dying to myself, I am becoming the kind of person who does not have a crisis when I don’t get my own way. It does not surprise me or bother me. I am confident that I am perfectly safe in God’s hands and will face life centered within his presence.

As I become an apprentice of Jesus, I am able to live in his kingdom now. Instead of feeling I belong away from God and becoming more and more a person who cannot want him, by dying to self, I am at home with Jesus and living my life as he would lead it if he were me. This is a reality waiting to be discovered.

Renovation of the heart is possible and it is the only option to true living. I will live as I have been designed to live all along, and I will be at home with Jesus. I will be my best, true self.

Now where do I start?

When do you support unhealthy life being lived out by a friend?