Don't Judge Me

How's your Monday going? I hope it is off to a beautiful start. Here in RVA, the sun is shining and the temperature is PERFECT! It's an unbelievable gorgeous day!  

Here's a phrase that is pervasive in popular culture these days: "don't judge me!" I don't really know exactly where the popularity came from, but I suspect it may have started with Tupac Shakur and his popular adage, "Only God can judge me." Where ever it originated, the idea is pervasive in our culture. I've been thinking about this a lot since last Wednesday. I've been wrestling with this idea. I looked to the Word of God, and the texts there seem to say conflicting things. When I prayed about the tension between some of the Biblical references, I believe God gave me some clear insight about this.  

Matthew 7:1 is probably one of the most well known scriptures in the entire Bible. In his own words, Jesus says, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged." It seems pretty straight forward, right? Don't judge! But there are questions that this passage leaves behind. What about sin? Do we ignore it? If no, how do we deal with it without judgement? This is where the tension exists for me. This is where I've struggled — even within myself. How do I deal with  my sin?  

As I prayed about this I found myself coming to terms with one of the reasons why I've experienced tension here. For so many of us the Bible is abstract. We read it like a set of rules to be followed. Lots of times tensions arise in our understandings because we don't put ourselves  in the Word of God. We pull the scriptures a part — separating words from intentions and actions. I think this "don't judge me" thing is one of the places where this is true.  

When I put myself  in the scriptures — looking around at the landscape, watching Jesus work with people and situations a trend emerges. Jesus didn't ever sidestep sin. He didn't hesitate to call sin what it was. However, he also rarely spent time chastising sinners. When we put Jesus' words together with his work we see a perfect example of dealing with our own sin and dealing with other people who are struggling with sin, themselves. Jesus' approach was always steeped in compassion and ours should be as well. 

I think one of the profound things about Jesus' dealings with sinners was just the fact that Jesus always addressed root causes. Over and over again in the gospels we find Jesus reading people. We find him being perceptive about what was going on insidepeople — in their hearts and in their heads. He wasn't taken by people's  actions like we are. Jesus always dealt with the root of the problems of sin he encountered.  

So what does that mean for us? I think as Christians we are called to have a profound interest in  people. I believe this is the Jesus way. I believe we are called to follow Christ's example of not getting stuck on why people do what they do. I believe we are called to look deep within ourselves and within others to try to see their hearts. When we do this, we learn to bypass judgement. When we do this, we learn to care for people with compassion. This is  exactly what enables us to love our enemies and pray for those who use us! 

I even think how Jesus dealt with other people is instructive to us in how we deal with ourselves in our own sins. I think his example shows us how to break sinful habits in our own lives through prayerful consideration of the  causes  in our hearts. I believe Jesus' example of dealing with sin keeps us from creating the debilitating baggage of guilt and shame. I believe his loving care for others is instructive to teach us — not just how to love others but also how to be loving toward ourselves.  

All the way up to the cross, Jesus was pushing aside the veneer of people's actions and looking to their hearts. Even in his agony, he was looking deeply into people to see their spiritual illness and praying for them in that space. Oh what an example he gave us! What a picture of love — not just in his death but in the details of his living!  

This week, as we observe so much going on in the world let's try together to pay special attention to this aspect of Jesus' example. Wherever we encounter sin — even when it isagainst us or  in us — let's ask God to open our eyes to what is really taking place. Let's ask God to help us remember there's more to every situation than we can see. Let's ask him to give us the clarity to see total truth and deal with ourselves and others in a way that is consistent with Jesus' example. Let's ask him shape in us a spirit that is courageous to be honest about sin and compassionate to suspend judgement and see the roots of sin that need prayerful care and healing! 

Questions for the week

• Am I judgmental?

• Is my perception of righteousness based on a judgmental paradigm?

• How do I deal with my own sinfulness? Do I beat myself up? Do I take time to understand where my sin is rooted? 

• How do I deal with sin when I encounter it in others?

Untapped Treasure

It’s Monday!!! I hope yore weekend was incredible. Mine was! I had some new experiences and some much needed time for rest and relaxation. I’m excited about the week ahead. I hope you are too!

This week I wanted to share some thoughts I’ve been having about a part of the greatest sermon ever preached in history: The Sermon on the Mount. In this epic sermon, Jesus touches a bunch of subjects. Of all of the pieces of this sermon, the portion that is most resonating with me these days is prayer.

What if you got a phone call from the White House today and the person on the other line said:

“President Obama invites you to contact him directly with your requests and he will see to it that you get whatever you need based on those requests.”

You’d be blown away, right? You’ve just been told that the President of the United States has invited you to make requests AND has said that he will reply to them. No, it’s even better than that. He isn’t just saying “request, and I’ll look into it.” According to the statement you’ve been given, the President has already said that he is inclined to respond affirmatively to your requests!

The idea that the President would hear and genuinely give consideration to our individual requests is an astonishing one. There are 319 million people in our country. The privilege to submit requests and be confident that they are given real consideration by the uppermost leader of our country is not something we’d take lightly at all. Right?

If we find this Presidential scenario to be unbelievable, then we should be in absolute awe at what Jesus said about prayer during the Sermon on the Mount!

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

- Matthew 7:7-11

What Jesus said here is mind blowing, really. Jesus says in plain language that the almighty God - creator and sustainer of everything - invites us to bring him our requests! Not only this, but Jesus also says that God is inclined to GIVE to us according to our requests!

If you grew up in church with me, then I imagine you’re pretty familiar with this abstract from the Sermon on the Mount. For a lot of us, the power behind these words is a bit lost because we’ve become so accustomed to hearing it. But, this is something we should savor! Prayer is a treasure - an unbelievable gift from God. We are invited to connect directly with him. We are invited to lay our requests before him and we aren’t given a limit!

In Luke 18, Jesus tells his disciples not to feel squeamish about coming to God with persistent requests. Jesus tells a parable about an ungodly judge who acquiesced to persistent requests for justice from a widow under his jurisdiction. Luke says Jesus tells them the story about this widow so they will learn they should “pray and not lose heart.” It is interesting that Jesus uses the same contrasting rhetorical tool here that he used in his teaching about prayer in the Matthew passage above:

“Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.”

- Luke 18:6-8

So, we are not only encouraged to make our requests, but also to keep making them until we hear directly from the Almighty in response to them. Again… this is incredible!

I don’t know about you but sometimes I take prayer for granted. Sometimes I catch myself going through motions with it. I repeat cliches. Sometimes I do it mindlessly.

This past weekend I asked myself if I would take an audience with President Obama with the same casual attitude that I approach my open audience before God. I found the implications of that question to be rather alarming. I think I’ve done a lot of under appreciating prayer as something I’m just supposed to do. What Jesus says puts things into perspective, though. Praying is not a ritualistic practice. Prayer is a supreme privilege to be savored and treasured!

Questions:

• What am I praying about these days?

• Is my communication with God forthright and honest?

• When I pray how is my concentration? Am I more or less engaged than I would be in the presence of a dignitary or world leader?

• How persistent am I in my prayers? Do I make a request and give up if I don’t get a response from God immediately?

Veiled Vision

Good EVENING! 

That’s different, right? This week’s email is super late and I really do apologize for it. I hope your Monday has been a good one. Here’s a little bit of what’s been going on with mine:

Today was the first day of our elementary summer program at Richmond Prep. The day started around 5:45 am. I woke up, did a quick prayer and devotional, did a morning run with my dog, Max, ironed my clothes, showered and jetted straight out of the door. The day was full-steam-ahead from there: staffing issues, adjusting budgets, running errands around town… It was just a little bit insane. 

I got home a few minutes ago and sat down and thought “you’ve forgotten something.”

Isn’t it easy for things to slip our minds? Isn’t it easy to forget important things, getting carried away with the minutia of the day to day? That’s exactly what happened to me today. I sat down and it struck me - “what was today’s email?” I prayed a quick prayer asking God to forgive me for being so derelict and to guide me with what to say. He said to me “be honest.” So, here I am.

Even though a lot of the stuff on my plate today was important to various areas of my life, writing this email is supposed to be top priority for me each Monday. God gave me clear guidance to do it at the top of the year. Today, I fell off. I got distracted.

Last fall, I was seeking God on how to get my mind straight; how to think more on his terms. I found myself on a trail through the scriptures that began at Romans 12:2. That trail of scriptures ran straight through 2 Corinthians 3:18:

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

At the time I was all about the “transformed” part of this verse, but today, another piece leaps out at me. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory.” In the context of this day, this ‘A’ section of the verse is resonating: “unveiled faces.”

Straight up, today I was so laser focused on my agenda, that I completely forgot about the agenda that God had set. The veil of my own plans, goals and concerns was in the way. These are the breaks! I was so busy "doing" stuff that I missed the most important priority on my work agenda for the day.

This verse has some redemption in it that is keeping me from getting down on myself, though. Yeah… I had some stuff in the way of my clear view of what God wanted me to do today. But, I’m glad to know that his spirit is continuously working in me to remove the veil - even when I don’t think to try and see my way clear of it.

Maybe that’s what happened when I sat down just now, before running to a couple of evening meetings. Maybe the Spirit came by my house and lifted the veil for a second. In fact, I’m sure that’s what happened! Otherwise, I would’ve gone right on with my day. The verse says this “comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” So, in spite of me today, I’m humbled that God was so gracious to slow me down, and pull back my distractions so I could contemplate him and his completely satisfying glory!

One thing I’m learning in my walk with God is this - he really is for me. He knows my heart and he knows my weakness. He isn’t sitting by waiting for me to screw up or forget his assignment, or lose faith. He is ever beside me to encourage me and remind me and rebuild and pull back all the distractions that can sidetrack me from him and his supreme love and glorious grace. He is always there quietly reminding, signaling, pointing the way. Even when I forget what I’m supposed to be doing, he’s there to pull away my veil!

So, as I sit here writing this email, I’m really grateful to God - joyful even. I’m so glad that he moved all the junk of my day aside so I could see him - even if I had forgotten about the assignment he'd given me. 

I’m also repentant. I’m asking God to help me to keep space clear so I can see him. I want to see eye-to-eye with God, and my prayer is that God will help me see the world that way in increasing measure every day! I’m praying the same for you, too. 

So, I apologize for the late email today, but (at least for me,) there was a pretty good lesson that came as a result.

Enjoy the rest of your week. Here’s to living life without the veil!

Questions? I got em!

• What does it even mean to contemplate God’s glory?

• What are some of the things that distract me from fellowship with God?

• Do I leave margin in my schedule for interaction with God or am I always rushing around?

• What kinds of indicators do I see in my life that may be God’s way tugging at my proverbial “veil”?

Drink Up!

Happy Monday!

I apologize for not writing last week. I was on the sick and shut-in list with a nasty flu-like bug. Thank God I’m back in the swing of things this week. 

When I was a kid, I loved soda. I mean I REALLY loved soda. I mean, if I could have had a Sprite IV installed on my left side. I would have done it in a heartbeat! I really loved soda.

One day I was working in my uncle’s yard and grew thirsty. I asked him if he had any soda to drink. He laughed at me and asked “have you noticed the more soda you drink, the more soda you want? It never quenches your thirst does it? What you need is water.”

He was right. I was really thirsty that day in his yard. If he’d have brought me some soda, I would’ve only wanted more and more. My thirst wouldn’t have been quenched. Water wasn’t what I wanted to taste, but it was what I needed to drink.

In American popular culture these days, “thirst” has taken on a slightly different connotation. In pop culture “thirst” indicates a lust for something - an insatiable desire. The term is applied to lusts for attention, sex, money, and the list goes on and on.

In John chapter 4, we find Jesus dealing with a woman who probably would have been labeled as “thirsty,” by our cultural standards today. Reading the story, it is rather clear that Jesus intentionally positioned himself to encounter the thirsty woman as she came to draw water at the well that day. When she arrived Jesus made her an offer - the same offer he makes to you and I:

Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

John 4:14

You and I aren’t much different from that woman. We all have our own individual thirsts. Just like when I was a kid in my uncle’s backyard, we think the objects of our thirsty desires will fulfill us. The truth about these kinds of thirst is a lot like what my uncle said in his backyard that day. The things we have thirsty tastes for aren't often able to satiate our thirsts. In fact, the more we get of what we think we want, the more of it we need. We're never satisfied. We need living water - the kind Jesus promised. We need the kind of water that quenches our thirsts once and for all!

Jesus knew this woman’s particular thirst just as he knows ours. He knew she had been moving from man to man searching for something. He also knew that no man would ever be able to satisfy her soul’s deepest desires. He knew her soul needed water. Nothing else would suffice. 

As we set out into this week, let’s do some self-examination and find our own thirsts. As we uncover these areas of desire in our lives, let us pray that God will teach us not to rely on our emotions and thoughts to drive us toward the salty, syrupy, dehydrating substances the world offers up. Let us pray that God will continually develop in us a taste for the purity of his living water. Let’s ask God to develop in us a taste for that which completely satisfies. Let’s ask him to pour out in us the pure and refreshing water he promised that woman all those years ago!

A strange thing happens when we pray prayers like these. Not only do we find ourselves fulfilled, but we also find ourselves glorifying God in the process of being fulfilled. One of my favorite theologians, John Piper, puts it this way:

“God is most glorified in us when we are more satisfied in him!”

Drink up!

Questions for this week

• What is an area in my life where I am thirsty - where I’m making questionable decisions or cutting spiritual or moral corners to get my way?

• What is the root of my desire? Is merely that I desire this thing or person really bad, or is it something deeper than the object of my desire, itself?

• Do I believe this desire of mine is outside the will of God? If not, why have I considered cutting spiritual or moral corners?

• How can I look to God to fulfill me in this space of desire in my life?

BONUS THIS WEEK!!! Here's a song by Phil Wickham that helps in meditation and prayer on this week's subject. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. "Thirst" by Phil Wickham

Eat This!

Good morning!!!! It's Monday!

It is a lovely day here in VA! Hopefully you're enjoying the beauty of the day wherever you are. If this is your first time getting one of these emails, I hope you find it useful. If not, there are unsubscribe links on the top and bottom of the message. 

Today's email takes a look at something Jesus said during his 40 day fast in the wilderness. The Bible says that Satan came to temp Jesus while he was in the wilderness. Knowing that Jesus' physical body was weakened from being without food, Satan tried to exploit the opportunity and makes a suggestion to Jesus: "Why don't you just turn those rocks into bread and eat them?" (my paraphrase.)

Jesus' response to Satan's sly suggestion is our focus today. Jesus said:

"It is written: 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Matthew 4:4

Obviously Jesus is quoting scripture to deal with Satan, here. (This is a good point of note for all of us as we deal with Satan's attacks!) He's making reference to Deuteronomy 8:3. See, God had fed Israel with his word before, during their wilderness journey from Egypt to Canaan. Israel was hungry and God fed them with something they'd never known before - manna (which literally means, "what is it?"). The Israelites had no idea what the food substance was, but the Bible says they were literally fed with the word of God! Brilliant work, Jesus! (As always!)

Let me stop you. No, I'm not suggesting that we look for God's word to fall from the sky in a and land on our plates for dinner tonight. But, what I am saying is that God's word is spiritual food and we should eat it, spiritually. We should savor it the same way a foodie savors the confluence of flavors at the finest restaurants. We shouldn't rush through it. We should digest the word of God with deliberation and thought.

Eugene Peterson wrote a book, "Eat this Book," based primarily on the experience of St. John during his vision recorded in the book of Revelation. Peterson's whole book focuses on Revelation 10:9-10 and offers this paraphrase of what the angel metaphorically instructed John to do in those verses:

"Eat this book. Get this book into your gut; get the words of this book moving through your blood-stream; chew on these words and swallow them so they ca be turned into muscle and gristle and bone."

(Peterson, Eugene. "Eat this Book". pg 38.)

I've been on a fitness binge for a few months now. I subscribe to Men's Health Magazine for tips, workouts, motivation, etc. The magazine has a weekly feature called "Eat This!" that's all about enjoying foods that are good for you instead of gorging on fatty and carb laden foods (let the church say AMEN! lol). It is a column about choosing dietary alternatives that provide rich nutrition while minimizing all the bad stuff you have to struggle to burn off at the gym.

In the same way Men's Health prescribes better dietary choices for me, I'm learning to "Eat This!" "This," being the richness of God's word. I'm learning to chew on his word more and digest less of what the world and our culture presents. Whenever I go to today's cultural buffet, I walk away with spiritual fat to burn off - disatisfaction, anxiety, worry, greed, guilt, jealousy and so much more. Quite frankly, I don't need any more spiritual baggage! I'm trying to shed the fat I've got already - around my waist AND in my spiritual walk!

Instead of the fast food our culture serves up, I'm learning to appreciate the unbelievable richness of God's thoughts as revealed through his word. Instead of being a cultural consumer, I'm learning to enjoy the feast God has laid out before us. I'm learning to say with King David, "How precious to me are your thoughts, God!" Psalm 139-17a

So, this week I challenge you to make an attempt at savoring the word of God, more. Pace yourself. If you're not racing through 25 chapters a day, it's cool. Even one verse of God's word is substantial! It isn't about how much we can consume at all once. It is about how much we appreciate and take away from what we do consume. I believe with God's grace we'll find ourselves in much better shape to interact with, worship and serve God if we learn to "Eat This!"

...and the questions for the week:
 

• Do I believe the Bible is really God's word?

• When I go to the scriptures do I go for answers or do I go hoping to learn more about God's thoughts?

• When / if I do read the Bible, how much do I usually read? Do I read to fulfill a quota?

• Evaluating my thoughts, what do I think about most? How might my life look different if my thoughts were more centered around God's revealed word?

Go for the Glory

You really don’t have to search very far in the Bible to find out that God is very concerned with His glory. He says it over and over again throughout the good book. The theme is inescapable, God is the “King of Glory.”

As I thought about this, I found myself at this thought - “God must have a huge ego problem.” I mean, c'mon. I'm human. That's what my brain thinks when I read some of this stuff in the Bible. Isn’t that what we’d say about any other person we encountered who constantly talked about their glory and how awesome they are? You know I’m right! What would you think of a friend who said stuff like “I am Tom and beside me there is none other,” or “I am a jealous Tom,” or “Thou shalt have no other Toms before me,”? Its safe to assume that friendship wouldn't last too long, right? Right!

I’m glad the scriptures reveal God isn’t at all self-obsessed. He doesn’t have an ego problem. It does look like it when we parse scriptures down to Biblical sound bites, but when we look at the whole Bible, we find a very subtle indicator of God’s genius. We find that God is so serious about getting all of the glory because He knows humankind cannot handle glory for himself.

I wasn’t the best history student when I was at college, but I do know this much: we don’t have to look very far into history to see what mankind does when he gets glory for himself. First and foremost, we recognize that mankind is never ever satisfied with glory he gets. In fact, the more he gets, the most desperate he becomes to get more. Glory in man’s hands is almost always an addiction that drives him to do insanely destructive things. He kills, he steals, we destroys - he does the work of the Devil - to keep himself on top! When we taste glory for ourselves, we’ll stop at nothing to keep getting it.

God’s genius plan is that we give glory to Him! He doesn’t need us to do this. He’s infinitely glorious already. In fact, all glory that man can ever possibly get is already God’s property anyway - just like everything else in the earth (See Psalm 24:1 ). God’s designed things so that He gets glory and we get satisfaction.

When we give (the better word is return,) glory to God, we look to Him and are fulfilled. We don’t get self absorbed, or trapped in an addiction to self-gratification. We look away from ourselves to the source of all glory. We look away from ourselves to the source of our strength, Who enables us to do whatever it is we do. When we look away from ourselves and at Him glory becomes that much more glorious! In our hands glory is just a trifle. In His hands our little contributions of glory become awesome and we are supremely satisfied!

This is some good stuff, here! Learning to just relish the glory of God is amazing and rewarding beyond words. It turns even the most mundane, small and tedious actions into a deposit into God’s bank of glory! It changes everything! This is why we are instructed:

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. - 1 Corinthians 10:31

Whether it’s going for a run in the morning, or taking out the trash or washing the car, when we learn to try to make every action a deposit into God’s bank of glory, every little task becomes something potentially spectacular - something to be relished and enjoyed. In this process, God’s glory becomes the source of our joy!

As we set out into this week, let’s purpose together to keep a keen focus on the glory of God. In even the tiniest little things we do let’s look for opportunities to make deposits in His glory bank. At the end of the day, we can look to Him and say - “Look what you enabled me to do today, God! Look how you lifted my head!” I promise, if we get good at doing this, everyday can be breathtaking. Everyday can be the kind of day where we are pumped and excited to go for the glory and give it all back to God!

Here are some questions to help keep us locked on our goal for this week:

• How do I think about giving God glory? Is it just a church thing? Is it just about big triumphant moments? Do I think about giving Him glory in the small things I do?

• When I do things to gratify myself or make myself “look good,” am I ever really satisfied with it?

• Do I look to God’s glory with any regularity? Do I acknowledge Him as the source of all my resources and abilities?

• How would I change the things I hate doing if I started thinking of them as actions for God’s glory?

Ready to Lose Your Mind?

Happy Monday! I took a break from writing last weekend for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I hope you enjoyed the day reflecting on the life and work of Dr. King.

Let’s talk about our thought lives. What’s on your mind these days?

Here’s what’s on mine: relationships, plans for the future, trying to save money, music... lots and lots of music.

I’ve learned a lot in the past year about the mind and how it works. The more I learned, the more I started to pay attention to what was going on in my own brain. I found some pretty surprising stuff going on up there!

The Bible has a lot to say about the life of the mind. Having spent so much time thinking about what’s been going on in my own head, I decided to take a bit of a trip through the scriptures to discover what they had to say about thinking.

The Biblical reference that started it all for me was Romans 12:2:

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will."

I was stuck on this passage of scripture for a really long time. I wondered “how do I get a renewed mind?” and “what does a renewed mind think about?” I found answers in 2 Corinthians 3:18

"And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are beingtransformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

If I’m reading this the right way, this verse shows us that an undivided concentration on God's glory opens the door to the Spirit’s work of transformation in our minds and thinking. This scripture also makes it clear that we can’t transform our own minds. The Holy Spirit does the transformation; not us. This is pretty straight forward, right?

Now that we know how to get a renewed mind, let’s go back to the Romans 12:2 piece. The verse says “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is.” This answers the question of what the renewed mind is thinking about. The renewed mind that’s thinking on God’s terms is thinking about God’s will.

So, we can now answer the two questions we started with. But we’ve got one last piece to tackle in Romans 12:2. The verse says “Do not conform to the pattern of this world.” What is the pattern of this world? Answer: self gratification.

It is easy to see how this kind of thinking gets in the way of thinking about God's glory, right? If we are consumed with thoughts about our desires, our issues, our hurt, our pain, or our fears then we’re without that “unveiled face” that the scripture says we need in order to get transformation in our minds. Transformation is interrupted when we cannot see beyond ourselves to recognize the glory of God.

I believe faith is the key to removing this veil of self. Faith takes everything that concerns us and cast those cares on God, ( Psalm 55:22 , I Peter 5:7). Faith trusts Him to include our best interests in His plan. I don't think there's any other way to keep focus on what God is doing and bring Him glory. This may be one of the main reasons why the Bible says "Without faith it is impossible to please Him." - Hebrews 11:6.  

Another reason why we have to get beyond ourselves and put trust in Him is this: while thinking and acting with a transformed mind is exhilerating, it isn’t exactly the norm. Thinking about things on God’s terms will sometimes (or a lot of times) lead us to do and say things that go against the grain. People are likely to think we've lost our minds. Check your Bible! People thought Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David and countless others had completely lost it! And in a manner of speaking they had!  

So here’s the question... Are you ready to lose your mind? Essentially, that’s what it comes down to. In order to be transformed, we have to be willing to let go of the old self-gratifying brain we’re used to and allow it to  replaced by a new one that is focused on God’s glory and His will. One more time. Are you ready to lose yourmind in order to gain His?

Paul had a great answer when folks thought he’d lost his scruples: "If we have lost our mind, it is for God"- 2 Corinthian 5:12a

Here are some questions to help you as you consider the "renewed mind" through this week.

• What do I think about the most?

• What are some of the ways God has most spectacularly manifested His glory in my life?

• How often do I think about those events and others where God has made His glory present to me?

• Do I take notice of God's glory in small ways - the sky, the air, interactions with people?

• What would my life look like if I were to shift attention away from the things I'm currently thinking about the most and think more about God's glory?