kicking fear out of "the driver's seat"

A dear friend of mine posted this jewel of wisdom from a contemporary "philosopher".


"Maybe mistakes are what make our fate... without them what would shape our lives? Maybe if we had never veered off course we wouldn't fall in love, have babies, or be who we are. After all, things change, so do cities, people come into your life and they go. But it's comforting to know that the ones you love are always in your heart... and if you're very lucky, a plane ride away” ~Sarah Jessica Parker

While it is doubtful SJP has a Kingdom mind and thus insight into God's truths, ALL truth is God's truth and there may be some truth in this "philosophy". Generally, fear is the consequence of not wanting the shame or blame associated with making a mistake. Thus, fear constrains our willingness to move out in the midst of uncertainty. BUT God calls us to walk in faith, which by definition is an assurance in the midst of uncertainty or when things look impossible ("in hope without hope believed" Abraham).

What is it we can be sure of so we can "move out" in faith and not be fearful? The Kingdom mind says we can be sure that God loves us and nothing can change that, he wants the best for us, he is in control, and His grace is sufficient (for all our well being).

I may be repeating this but one of my favorite scriptures (and one I read to my youngest daughter when she was a teen) is

"fear not little flock, for your heavenly Father has chosen gladly to give you His Kingdom."

While we do not purposefully go out and destroy our lives, we can move out knowing that we cannot!!!!   something to ponder ...

"Christ in me, the hope of Glory"

"she captured my heart and hearts became braided, then she trivialized me, demonized me, threatened me, and finally betrayed me, This was a devastating human experience, BUT I still love her because God gave me His love (agape) to give her and it has NO conditions."   @akw




Over the years I have heard many stories like this person's story. It is not uncommon. It illustrates the contrasts of minds (carnal vs Kingdom). Whether the "she" in this story is a person (woman or man) or something else we give our affections to (possessions, job, achievement, pleasure. etc.), the carnal mind seeks to exchange our affections for something that gives us significance (glory), BUT when our expectations are no longer met, we are highly disappointed, if not devastated and our well being is diminished.

Yet the Kingdom mind flows from grace where we trust that our significance comes only from the life we receive from Jesus, not what we can extract from the world's system. Further, the second part of this story illustrates that we don't even have any love of our own to give another person for "we love because God first loved us" (I John). Any agape love we have for another was first given to us to give to the other person, so what the other person does with it is not the issue for us. Its God's business.

My Kingdom mind tells me
"my life is not my own, it's been bought with a price .... it is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me."

The only assurance (hope) of our significance (glory) is that I have His!!!   I ponder this a lot, BUT ....
(oh, how that carnal mind is a menace!!)

the "monster" in me

                 

Occasionally throughout life our "flesh" (carnal mind) overwhelms us. We think we have "it" (life, our self, take your pick) figured out. We act as if we have it all together, we understand and accept God's grace and then we are surprised by the effect of someone else's actions on us.

How is it that someone else can call into question everything we pride our self in? Oh, that's it, we cannot get away from "priding our self"!! When someone else "makes a mockery" of my heart, its amazing how angry and destructive I can become. None of us are exempt from this, no matter how "spiritual" we become.

many believe that "people are basically good and sometimes do bad things." The bible says (paraphrasing) we are all capable of finding one day the "ugly truth", we are in bondage to the "monster in me". (kind of Romans 7 stuff)

This should be evidence enough that I need a Savior!!  Certainly, something worth pondering ....

making sense of courage

Courage is generally understood as action in the face of fear not acting without fear.

From a carnal mind we explain courage through motivation (a psychological process to direct our attentional resources). As such, courage occurs when the outcome of our 'courageous action' is more salient (relevant) or has more valence (value) than not acting.

From a Kingdom mind we explain courage as trusting our well being to Jesus. We believe that our action is a call on our lives (an unction of the Spirit) and that circumstances do not determine the nature of the outcome. We do not fear because fear is the antithesis of faith, which is a gift to us by His grace.

We know His grace is sufficient so we are 'courageous'. To God be the Glory .....

A tribute to my bro’ and his legacy of grace

Many gathered tonight to celebrate my brother Phil’s 60^th birthday. When a person is that age, we tend to focus more on legacy than potential. I wore pink to draw attention to his legacy of girls - Skissy, four daughters and now Paisley Grace. Looking back over his life, I think there was some early prophecy about Phil and girls. He’s the youngest of three brothers and was highly anticipated to bring the parents a daughter.  As a young child he had thick curly blond hair. One of our uncles used to kid him about being a Brownie Scout. However, as many boys do, when he reached school age, he was quite awkward looking, overweight, glasses, buck teeth. When first married, Skissy would put Phil’s school pics on the refrigerator as birth control and she would say, “I am never having children.” J

We grew up in Montgomery, Al where the culture strongly favored achievement and athletic prowess, especially football. Phil was one grade behind me, which made the contrast between my athletic and academic accomplishments and his even more apparent. I later found out from mother that instead of this difference being a problem for Phil, he would use the fact he was my brother to his advantage with his teachers and other students, particularly the girls.

I moved through life quickly, making things happen as fast as I could. I received my masters Degree four years from graduating high school. I am not sure how long it took Phil to “get through” Troy, but he wasn’t in a hurry. My youngest daughter was graduating from college when Phil’s youngest was born. One of my fondest memories was when Phil finally graduated from college he had not begun to look for a job. He returned home and spent his days on the couch watching TV. Mother would say to him every day, “you’ll never get a job laying here on the couch.” Well, after some days passed of more of the same, the phone rings (while Phil is on the couch). Mother calls, “it’s for you Phil.” Phil comes back from the call saying, “I got a job!” J

We both had spiritual awakening as adults, Phil’s occurred before mine giving him a special role in mine. This ultimately made us brothers in a special way beyond just biological brothers. Instead of being cynical about our differences, we admired the differences in each other. Phil would admit he wished he were more aggressive and risk taking (like me). I longed for the sweet spirit and patience that everyone saw in Phil. I remember visiting Phil when the girls were small, the quieting calm that permeated their home as he held the girls in his arms and sang to them. Later when they were older and we would get in the car to go some place, he and I would be in the car for 10 minutes or so ready to go before the girls would start appearing. They would come as they were ready and Phil would just patiently wait. Once all girls were in the car, I thought we would crank up and depart. No way, I looked at Phil and he would say, “one or more of the girls have forgotten something and will have to go back into the house before we could leave.” J

As with many of you, Phil has been a spiritual mentor for me. Years ago when life was beating me up pretty badly, Phil gave me some wisdom on marriage. He said, “God ordained the institution of marriage as His workshop to teach us to love Jesus and like Jesus. Everything that happens is to this end.”  This Kingdom perspective has transformed my life for many years. Although I have been jealous of one thing about Phil. God moved mightily in both of our lives. However, for me I was tossed to and fro and beat over the head by a 2x4 by God to come around. When Phil would share how God broke him, he just had to quit smoking. Somehow that didn’t seem fair.  J

While Phil may be more known for his legacy of girls, I have found looking back over his life that his real legacy is one of grace. When our older brother visited Phil a few months ago for the first time in many, many years, all he could talk about was the unique nature of Phil’s family. How they love, respect, and support each other and how much they love Phil. My response to him was, “it’s pure grace in motion, pure grace!!” 

Thank you God for using Phil to show us all a picture of Your Grace. 

Getting our feelings hurt - is this a sin?

My oldest grand daughter is really "on fire" for Jesus right now. She often posts scripture on FB that challenges people to "live for Jesus". Recently she posted the following verse form James
"Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires."  James 1: 19 - 20


My response to her (as is normal) was to consider that Jesus is more concerned with our heart than our behavior. I reminded her people are defiled from the inside out. I got a starry glazed look back :-)   To help her understand I used the following example:


I asked, "do you ever get your feelings hurt?" She replied, "of course, all the time." I then said, "have you ever thought that getting your feelings hurt is a sin?" She knew it was wrong to hurt others BUT she looked at me a bit cocked eyed on this question and I got the response I expected, "I don't understand." So, my explanation was as follows:


In order to get our feelings hurt we must have the right to get offended by another person. Is "our right to be offended" from a carnal or Kingdom mind? Did God stand on His right to be offended when Adam (and thus all mankind) turned against Him? No, He responded on OUR behalf to fix OUR problem (the Cross). Jesus explicitly says in Sermon of the Mount that the Kingdom of Heaven is like this - if someone makes you go 1 mile, go another (although they have no right to ask you to go but 1 mile). If someone asks for tunic, give them your cloak as well (although they only have a right to ask for your tunic).


Standing on our rights is carnal minded, thus sinful. Being in harmony with the Kingdom of Heaven (righteousness) involves being transformed by Grace. This means that the grace we have received removes from our heart the negative response to being offended by others. So while the James 1 passage is right in terms of our behavior, it fails to remind us that it is being in harmony with the Heavenlies that makes us righteous, not refraining from bad behavior.


My grand daughter often says, "just trust Jesus." I say, "for what?" No answer. I remind her that being in harmony with the Heavenlies is trusting Jesus for our well being. When that happens, then how can anyone else offend us? I hope my grand daughter gets this, but then it took me years to and I fail all the time. She's asking the right questions and headed in the right direction and that brings joy to a Pop's heart :-)