MIND OF TRUTH

What is it you want from the Lord? What do you want in life? The self-centric person seeks their own interests, but the man centered in Jesus seeks the will of the Father. Our joy and fulfillment in life flow from our oneness with Jesus. Frustration, fear, bitterness and slander of others does not come from the Christ centered person. James 4 states it pretty clearly. If we truly desire the things of God, we will have them because we serve a good and loving Father. He will not grant self-destructive, self motivated requests, but only that which builds up His Son and all those who are hidden in Him. Let go of pride and bitterness. Let go of self desires, and love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. 1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not

As a teacher of the Word, I have come to the conclusion that good Biblical teaching today must involve a deconstruction process. At least for those who are teaching as they're led by the Spirit. I think many "Bible teachers" think they are constructing, equipping, and building up the faith and doctrine of believers, but in reality they are adding layers of complexity and spiritual pride upon a poorly constructed foundation. We have not done a good job of teaching the elementary principles and consequently we have not been able to move on from there. It seems no matter what I teach, I have to first deconstruct the self-centric and circumstantial thinking that overwhelms the minds of most believers. Once the Holy Spirit is successful in helping people unlearn what they have learned, we can proceed with an open mind and spirit to build a good foundation. That foundation is the simple truth that Jesus Christ is the center of everything. When a person is fully submitted

"Then the glory of the LORD departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. Ez 10:18" God is in control and He will have His way no matter what. It is already done. He has already won. We have been given an opportunity to be one with Him and join with Him to see His will done and His glory come. What do you say? Will you loose your life to gain it? Now is the time to overcome, and pour out our moments to our Lord. I'm afraid many today have taken a different path. They have chosen to serve the Lord with their own heart, with their own strength, and for their own purposes. I believe we will yet see the glory of God depart from the church as we know it now. He will guard His glory, protecting and preserving it for those who truly call upon His name and sacrificially and willingly center themselves in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Father will release His glory on His Son in whom He is well pleased. He will release it upon those who are

It seems like never before we are living in a time of Chaos. The enemy is seeking to steal kill and destroy and He is using chaos as a tool to brings fear, confusion, and doubt. Chaos will rip us apart if we try to control it in an attempt to bring order and peace to our own life. God is the only force in the universe that can work all things together to bring about His good, perfect, complete, and ordered will. That doesn't just happen in spite of how often we wrongly quote Rom 8:28. We are co-laborers with Christ and God requires our participation to bring about the ordered good of His purpose, and the focus here is not good for me, but the good for him. My life will receive good and be blessed when I line up with the Father's will. A life not centered on Jesus is dark, meaningless, and chaotic at best. We can thrive in chaos if we completely release our will and purpose to God. We can embrace each day in a chaotic world if we blindly follow His Spirit. We need to le

I heard someone ask today "Is Christ really the center of your life"? I want him to be the center of mine. That means I need to make a choice. I have found most people, including myself, really don't understand dying to self and having a life hid in Christ. We have allowed the separation of sin to form within us an individualistic mindset. I am not myself with my own agenda, I am a part of the rock, a branch on the vine, and as such, I can do nothing except serve the purpose of the Father which is to glorify His Son. Everything in life seems to revolve around me or others or ministry or living life or whatever, but its seldom just about Jesus. We need to finally die to our own will, our church methods and programs, our great visions, our efforts to save the world, and everything else. We need to finally die so the Holy Spirit can resurrect us into a new life of complete devotion and service to our King. "For by him (Jesus) all things were created: things in h

I've been thinking about something I heard Andy Stanley say in a leadership podcast the other day. Lies gain power in our mind when we believe them or allow them to remain as we dwell on the possibilities. When our focus is not centered on Christ we can easily accept subtle deceptions and counterfeits that come our way. This usually starts with our focus shifting. We usually don't even notice when we turn from a Christ centered focus because our relationship with Jesus is often not the center of our life. If we serve God out of duty or obligation or religious habit, or whatever, we will find our focus shifting all the time. In other words we are tossed to and fro and we are unstable in all our ways. Sometimes its just stress or difficult circumstances we are facing that turn our focus. Whatever the reason, when we take our eyes off Jesus we are vulnerable. The enemy know how to plant subtle lies in our heart and mind. At first they often seem like a good idea or the an