Imitation of God

When a boy imitates his dad, or a girl her mother, it is certainly flattery, because the child thought the person they were imitating was worthy of their doing so. Thought of another way, the child values the parent enough to spend time and effort to be just like them.
Recently, I again saw this true-ism:

Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian
any more than standing in your garage makes you a car ...

It is true that the transformation must be in substance, not just in location.

In my mind - oh, wait, that's where the battle is: in our minds. Our thought-life is key to the way we live our lives.

Recent articles I have read about the synapses in the brain discuss neural pathways, and that science still cannot exactly pinpoint the process of how the brain stores memories, or how certain medications actually help people suffering depression or other mental illnesses. Yet, several articles did say that the use of either toxic drugs like crack, or viewing pornography, create neural pathways that transform the brain, and alter the ability of a person's gray matter to recover to a state of normalcy. It is well-documented that crystal meth use over time literally turns the human brain into something akin to swiss cheese - holes in the gray matter.

Now to the point: trusting God starts in our thoughts. We have to think, but we get to choose what we think about at any given point in time. The mind can be trained to focus on one thing, or to notice tiny details, or to discern musical pitch, or a wide range of things that interest us. As followers of Jesus, we choose to think about who He is, and what He has done, and what that means for us each day.

When we stand in His garage called a church, He wants to go to work improving our life performance. He wants to replace old thoughts with new ons. He wants to give us cleaner input like a breath of fresh air so we can work freely. He wants the fuel of our lives to be pure so we can go and do things that we are designed to do: love, forgive, encourage, rejoice with others, cry with them, have compassion, check how they are doing; all because we are clean-breathing and purely fueled people of His workmanship.

The kind of transformation is our choice - or that we will be transformed at all. We can tell God to stop working on us, and not even realize that we have stopped the process. We can just stand in the garage, if we want. Or, we can get interested in what positive effect His work will have one us. He never gives us something bad. And if there is something bad in us, He transforms it into something good in the long run. He has our best interests at heart.

Thanks be to God for His grace that covers us even if. or rather when, we choose badly, and need His care again the next Sunday.

Our heavenly Father is worth imitating.

Humility, or rather giving up pride

I recently ran across this quote that got me to thinking:

When I first became a Christian, about fourteen years ago, I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my rooms and reading theology, and wouldn't go to the churches and Gospel Halls;.... I disliked very much their hymns which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But as I went on I saw the merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren't fit to clean those boots. It gets you out of your solitary conceit.

(Clive Staples) C. S. Lewis

I've never read much C.S. Lewis, but what I have read shows that the man was a thinker, very insightful, perhaps even seminal. His comments above are close (at least) to the target of today's society - prideful human beings because they are isolated from certain thoughts: I am my brother's keeper, the Bible engages in a lot of 'group' or 'nation' thinking, without you I am diminished, attitude determines culture, and paradoxically - humility is the most important virtue.

Here is my thought, and I would ask your view: Humility as a quality, and humbleness in interaction with others, puts us in the very best possible connection with one another, and with the Almighty.

Or put another way, we are all just trying to figure life out, and when we stand at the foot of the cross, we begin to understand life, and our proper place in all of life..

Life date: 21,810 - the start of this blog

Wow - the Lord has given me so many new days - thanks, God! You are more gracious than I deserve.   Psalm 90:12              Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

I would like to use this blog to discuss what is on your heart as I share my heart. Please feel free to comment, react, and challenge whatever I post here. I do want the heart of wisdom Psalm 90:12 talks about, and the Holy Spirit may just use you to help me grow.

As a discussion starter, there is a lot that could be said about worship. The issue to raise here is - do you feel that God is serving you with His gifts when you come to a service? And what do you not get that you think you should when you enter a worship center? Are His servants getting in the way of the connection that you wish you had made with the Almighty?

I am looking forward to your point of view.....

Pastor Joe