Think, Say, Believe, Change Part 2

For years Christian churches have tried to modify the behaviour of their people  by preaching do this don’t do that. Some churches harp on deeds so much they confuse believers into thinking they can loose their salvation based on their deeds, their works. But salvation has never been based on our works.

Preaching to people what they should or should not do, pastors turned God into a task master and many “believers” left the church. Or people turned to a feel good church and some even departed from the faith.

Then we see believers try to do everything God tells them to do for years and at some point they look at their life and say, why isn’t my life improving? What am I doing wrong? I know because I have done this myself. I have asked God, what am I doing wrong?

The question is not, what am I doing wrong, the question is, what am I not understanding. When we look at people from scripture, God tells us about them for examples. So we look at Joseph, Daniel and David and one thing these three have in common – they believed God and his word. David even spoke God’s word back to him. But how does that apply to us today?

Scripture tells us God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Joseph, Daniel and David hear the words of God just like you and I hear God’s word. Those words go into our head, our mind and our thoughts.  If you decide to receive the words and believe those words and then you confess out loud your belief in those words of truth, the words go from your head to your heart. They become a foundation for your faith. You may not understand everything about a situation but you stand on what God tells you from his word.

Just as salvation of your soul comes from believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, so does everything spiritual come the same way. Remember the things that are not seen physically in this world are eternal.

So when a person gets saved, the Bible/Scriptures are suppose to renew our mind. They are suppose to change our thinking. They are suppose to transform us into ambassadors for Christ.

But if a person gets saved and does not read and study God’s word, they do not know how God works. They do not change their thinking or transform their life. If they do not let God’s word modify their thinking and their mind, they get stuck in a fog. God gave us his word for the renewing of our mind. Our life does not get stuck, our mind gets stuck in a previous thinking pattern. And when things do not improve we get frustrated and wonder what we are doing wrong.

It does not matter if I like what God says or not. It does not matter if I agree with what God says. The fact is God is truth and can not lie. So if you want improvement in an area of your life, do what God says. Speak what God says. Believe what God says. Just like salvation, hear what God says, confess with your mouth what God says and believe in your heart what God says. The rain falls on the just and the unjust.

God lays out principles for us in his word. These principles we are to apply to our life, not for salvation, but for living in this physical world. Problems come in when we apply principles man has taught us and those principles differ from what God tells us. Examples are how God told Gideon to go to battle with a fraction of soldiers. David kills Goliath with a sling shot and a stone. These ways do not make sense to people in this world. But Gideon and David believed God and did what God said and won the victory.

Remember scripture tells us God’s ways are not man’s ways. Put yourself in Gideon’s shoes. Here God tells you to face an army of your enemies with a handful of people. What would you think? Or God puts you before a giant with a sling shot and stone. What would you think? God wants us to change our thinking about him. He is able to do exceedingly abundant above all we could ask or think.

When your life seems to stop and get stuck it is not that your life has really stopped, it is your mind has stopped. Your life is not advancing because your mind is not advancing. Your thinking has stopped about an issue.

We have two thinks. We have head thinking and heart thinking. Head thinking is what you wore two weeks ago on Wednesday. Head thinking is what you ate for dinner three days ago. Head thinking is what we do daily on our job. When we get up in the morning we go through a series of events, shower, eat breakfast, study God’s word, go off to work. These events are like programmed into our mind but not in our heart. When we go to work we head think.

Head thinking is where you process information. 

Heart thinking is knowing no matter what you do you know God loves you. Heart thinking is that deep rooted belief/faith that when you die you know you will go to heaven. Heart thinking is knowing, no matter what. You do not forget heart thinking because it is buried deep in your heart. Heart think is what we have when we think about our spouse or our family. Heart think is that burning desire to fly a plane, play a musical instrument, make a difference. Heart think is no matter what you will believe or do or love, no matter what.

If you understand God can not lie and when God tells you something it is truth, then your confidence and trust in the Lord can not waiver. You may not understand a matter but your faith, trust and confidence is shifted away from your experiences, away from what man says and placed firmly on the word of God.

Do not forget, God lays out principles in his word and if you follow those principles you can know (heart think) you will get the results God says. It does not matter if you are lost or saved, if you follow God’s principles you will get what God says. The rain falls on the just and the unjust God says.

And Jesus mentions these principles  in Luke 16. See if you can find where Jesus mentions this in Luke chapter 16 and we will look at that chapter next time, Lord willing.
Until next time.

.
*
TSBC2
.

Think, Say, Believe, Change

Think, Say, Believe, Change is the process that leads people to salvation but it is also the way we grow in the Lord.

Over the next few months we are going to look at foundational teaching that has been missing in the church, for years. A new year, 2020, should be a time we examine ourselves and look at our spiritual walk.

My prayer is this series will help you understand foundational spiritual truths for this age and how you can improve your life. So let’s get started.

Ask yourself, am I really saved and going to heaven when I die? How do I really know I am saved? Some people would say, I said the sinner’s prayer. Others would say they had a feeling. But what does God say about getting saved? If salvation came by saying a prayer, by words we speak, then everyone just needs to say a prayer to go to heaven. But scripture never tells us to say a prayer to get saved, does it?

Scripture tells us, God himself tells us how to get saved in Romans 10:8-10 KJV.

” But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

So how does the “word get nigh thee”? Romans 10:17 says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So the “word” is nigh us when we hear the word of God. Jesus said many times, he that hath an ear, let him hear.

Can we see God in this physical world with our eyes? No. God is Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. So we learn from this, an invisible God we can not see with our eyes in this world, speaks to us. The invisible is working in the visible world. Now we know why God says,

2 Corinthians 4:18 KJV “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

So salvation comes not from saying a prayer, but – That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

One hears the word of God usually through preaching but now a days we have apps of the Scriptures and these apps use artificial intelligence and read the scriptures out loud. And these Bible apps are free.

Once someone hears the word of truth, where does that word go? That word goes into their mind and they think on that word. Jesus called the word seed in Luke 8:1-15. If people allow the word to go from their head into their heart, they can be saved. But salvation does not come from only hearing the word.

People also have to believe the word. And no where in scripture does Jesus say believing in our head, he says believing in our heart. That means people have to move the word of truth from their head, their mind, and move it into their heart. And that is where people find it most difficult.

Often people will visit a church, hear a good message, walk forward to say a prayer and they go on about their life. What went wrong? The people have head knowledge. They never allowed the word to get planted in their heart.

Real salvation comes from – That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

The word of truth you hear with your ears and it goes in to your mind. You think on those words and determine if you will believe those words or reject the words of truth. If you decide to receive the words and believe those words and then you confess out loud your belief in those words of truth, the words go from your head to your heart and then you can be saved.

But it is not just salvation that works that way, it is everything in a Christian walk that works that way. Jesus even explains this in Luke 16.

For years Christian churches have tried to modify the behaviour of their people by preaching do this don’t do that. If you don’t do this or that, then you are “backslidden”. The word backslidden was never applied to the church, it was always applied to Israel in the Old Testament.

So in preaching to people what they should or should not do, pastors turned God into a task master and many “believers” left the church. Or people turned to a feel good church and some even departed from the faith.

I submit to you that God is not a task master and trying to keep the law does not save souls. But again, some keys are in Luke 16 and we will pick this up next time. Until next time.

.
*
TSBC1

Weariness and Change 2020

Many people make new year resolutions. Many people fail at keeping their new year resolutions and they do one thing when they fail. Do you know what that one thing is? One five letter word, they faint.

The word faint has several meanings and we are looking at the meaning to sink into dejection (fail with grief; discouraged) to loose courage or spirit, to despair, depressed.

The problems come in when truly saved people live in this world and continue to live and do things like they did before they were saved. Everything from relationships, family, jobs, environment of our life, decision making and every decision we make we often revert back to doing things the way we were taught by man. We revert back to the world’s ways.

Often people ask why, as a believer now, their life doesn’t appear to change for the better.

The world has their knowledge and their understanding of everything. Then God gives us his knowledge and wisdom. We use our mind to decide who and what we will believe.

As a believer God does not always tell us we need to understand what he is doing in our life. God tells us to hear him and apply his wisdom and teachings to our life. Another words, hear God and obey him and then you will see him do incredible things in your life.

Our struggles come in to play when our mind has been taught the world’s ways and God tells us something completely different.  An example of this is salvation.

For years people were taught the way to get to heaven is doing good. Later they read in the scriptures, good works have nothing to do with going to heaven and salvation. Salvation is based on what you do with Jesus Christ. Do you believe on him and what he did at the cross? Have you received him into your heart as your Lord and Saviour?

When I was studying something out in scripture, God gave me an ah ha moment. Look at Hebrews 12:1-3 KJV.

” 1.  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. ”

There it was, an answer. An answer how to make real lasting changes in life. Not only me and my life but you too. You can change your life.

When people get “weary” or discouraged, where does that weariness and discouragement rest? The Lord tells us in verse three, our minds.

You can know God’s word inside and out. You can memorize the scriptures. But if everything you know about the scriptures is only in your head, it will not change your life. Jesus calls the scriptures seed. We make decisions based on our mind. Our mind is where knowledge rests. But notice what Paul said in Romans 10 about how to get saved?

Romans 10: 8 – 13 KJV
” But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
12. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. ”

Notice the word mind does not appear in these verses? Scripture tells us to hide God’s word where? In our mind? No. Hide God’s word in our heart.

God’s word has got to become more than knowledge to you. Remember Proverbs 23:7, as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.

You see, God’s word has got to become more than knowledge to you. Knowledge does not produce anything. It is when people put knowledge to work in their life, they see action. People take knowledge and put it to work and come up with many inventions that change our life. Examples are the automibile, telephone, television, computers and many other examples. But if you do not put this knowledge to work, these items will not change your life.

Jesus calls God’s word seed. Seed has to be planted in good soil. That soil is our heart. We can read and study God’s word all we want and we will acquire knowledge. But we will not see God’s word come to life in our life until we let that seed into our heart where it can be turned into faith.  So how do we do that? How do we turn knowledge into faith? Believers do not live a life of knowledge,  we live a life of faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. We walk by faith and not by knowledge. Why?

Because it is the enemy’s job to put something in front of you that contradicts what God said inside you. That also explains why we live by faith and not by sight.

So we are going to explore this topic in our next few posts, Lord willing. As the new year is born, let us examine our life and things we would like to “fix” in our life or changes you would like to make. Then as we explore this topic of weariness and change, Lord willing, you will see how you can make real lasting changes in 2020.

God created you with a purpose and God has a plan for you. Will you trust him? Until next time.

*
•
.