Higher Thinking

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

God’s thoughts are beyond our finite capacities. By ourselves and without His help, we would never fathom them or grasp them. To teach us His ways, God related all we need to know in an enduring ‘love letter’, inspired to tell us enough about Him to honour and love Him, how we got here in the first place, and to convey to us the plan and purpose of our existence. The Holy Bible – God’s Word, is the only reliable tool of communication from God and the sole repository of truth about the One true God, His works, ways and thoughts. Since it was given to mankind, all kinds of exertions have been made to illustrate, define, explain and analyse this divine mandate, in order to comprehend God’s revealed will and message to us.

It is here that we can learn all that is known about God, His ways, His thoughts, His creative acts, His directives and purposes, and here too, that we can focus our minds and harness our hearts to imbibe knowledge, wisdom and understanding not found anywhere else. Entire libraries of books, references and commentaries have been written over the centuries in an attempt to explain God’s letter to man and exhaust its incomparable treasury. Every week, thousands of sermons and lessons are delivered to listeners, expounding some aspect or topic of God’s Word. Although this has continued for centuries, yet this heavenly resource is not exhausted. Many have spent their whole lives digging deep into the truth and message of the Bible, only to find that one lifetime is simply not enough to plumb its depths.

In spite of the unceasing and widespread drawing from this spiritual well, the multitudes who daily drink from its living waters continue to find a quenching for their thirsty souls. Its truths, principles, concepts and applications adorn and direct the lives of people of all ages and walks of life, from all cultures and in all times. Its stories and the message they convey, teach each new generation how to live good, God-honouring and fruitful lives with the same impact and freshness that was found by ancestors of old.

The Bible has held the most prominent place and exerted the greatest authority in all areas of mankind’s development and advancement. Its principles and truths have contributed and impacted man’s achievements of an almost unending list of structures and learning including government, art, science, history and human relationships. It was the first book printed on the newly invented Gutenberg press in 1440, and has been the No. 1 bestselling book since the 15^th century, topping the sales of all other printed matter every year with an overall, staggering 6 billion copies printed! The Bible also holds the number one position as the most sold and popular digital or electronic book (e-book) in the world!

What makes this enduring product something more than a mere book of printed words on paper or electronic screens, is the fact that the Bible is God’s Word. It is a living Word, so relevant and applicable to the essence of humanity, that it transcends time and culture. It is the message which God Himself, by His Spirit and power, inspired and communicated to mankind, and which He still stand by without revision or alteration, for it was perfect for humanity from its inception. It speaks to our souls, and reveals to us who we really are, and makes known the purpose God has intended for our lives. It answers the essential questions we all ask, and explains why we are here and where we are destined to go. Its testimony of itself is that it is established forever, it is enduring and will not pass away!

God makes it clear to us that there is an unmeasurable distance between His ways and thoughts, and ours. This is what makes His Word incomparable and unsurpassable as the means of comprehending God.  God’s ways are higher and greater than anything we could ever imagine or come up with. What is more, even with God’s revelation in hand, man cannot in his natural mind and ability reach to the loftier and more profound thoughts and ways of God, he needs the Lord's Spirit to inspire, illuminate open and clarify what is revealed from God's mind and word. Without the influence, teaching, strength and ability of God’s Spirit, man cannot live and practice the ways of God consistently or successfully. Mankind is by nature weak and imperfect, unable to direct life’s affairs without the help of the Almighty. History demonstrates the obvious failure of even the best efforts that were made without regard to God’s revealed principles. This is why as humans we cannot make up our own minds about what is right and moral, but must rather enquire and learn these values from the One who is perfect in all His ways and has the authority and ability to dictate these standards.

Human nature is fallen and it has a natural bent toward sin, wrongdoing and evil. Man’s laws and restrictions are not enough. Without the influence of the Holy Spirit and the direction of God's Word, humanity is lost and hopeless lacking moral strength and destitute of any true and enduring value. We should be glad that there is an All-knowing, All-powerful and Ever-present God, who cares so much for us and whose ways are far above ours.  We ought to rejoice at the fact that He has revealed His higher ways and thoughts to us in His Word, so that we may grow towards His perfection, learning and becoming increasingly better human beings, through obedience and application of them. It should be considered our privilege to love and serve this Great and Almighty Benefactor, who more than anyone or anything else, can make such a positive and eternal improvement of our lives and destiny. What joy and great liberty we find when we are filled with the new knowledge and understanding we can gain through Jesus! This opens to us ways above our natural ways and thoughts greater, higher and deeper than our own natural thoughts. Life is totally different, new and worthwhile when we begin to 'see' things God's way! 



See also:
http://dailybiblefocus.blogspot.com.au/
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

True Peace

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Romans 8:6

Peace is the speech topic of so many world leaders and generally the aim of humanity. Represented by symbols and gestures recognized by people everywhere, this elusive ingredient to the recipe of happy existence seems, in our troubled and hectic world, harder than ever to find and harder still to maintain. Perhaps the problem is not going to be fixed on a world-wide basis, until it is fixed on a personal, individual level. Should peace truly reign in every person’s heart, then communal peace and peaceful co-existence would not be such a problem. The question then is how to get that peace in each individual’s heart and mind?! Is there an answer?

Martin Luther King is quoted as saying that “…peace is not the absence of tension, but the presence of justice”.

The daily struggle of the human family is to gain and maintain life, with peace as its highest ideal. A peaceful life, content and free from the trauma and fear which characterizes our existence seems to be everyone's ultimate goal. To that end we work, strive and labour.  All kinds of compromises, many very poor, are made in an effort to ‘keep the peace’. In vain however, we reach for this desirable quality in life, if we strive in our own strength and by our own carnal values. The carnal mind is selfish, sensual and self-serving. It limits, obstructs and narrows the flow of life; by its very values, it destroys the very peace we all seek and will ultimately results in death. 

So many wrongly think that surrendering to the carnal mindset by adopting the trends and image of the world, following what everyone else is doing, being part of the crowd, and removing the tension of living a consecrated life for God, even at the cost of their soul, is where peace may be found. Some, when they first leave the ways of God and turn their backs on obedience to His principles, sense a momentary and false peace, a release of the tension. The conflict between the flesh and the Spirit ends and the pressure appears to leave them. This is not true peace - it is surrender to the enemy. The temporary relief is due to their laying down their spiritual weapons and ceasing the fight against the tyranny of the flesh. Deceived by this seemingly ‘positive’ result they tread down the path of self-destruction. Led by an illusion, which continues to appeal to their flesh, like the proverbial donkey after the carrot, they continue to travel away from God, only to find further down the road that nothing really satisfies, and not only they have no true, lasting peace, but worse that they have sold out the Prince of Peace and are now under the yoke and slavery of a merciless tyrant! No true peace exists there, only sorrow, degradation and ultimate death.

Man’s best efforts to bring about peace, through reforms, edicts, programs, therapy and a host of other schemes  continue to fail or at best produce a very poor facsimile - the equivalent of a plastic bauble rather than the real jewel of peace. The removing of God and His principles from humanity’s efforts can only spell ruin and compromise. Peace without the Giver of Peace is neither true, lasting nor altruistic. Peace which is not true peace, is a deception; peace which doesn’t last is self-defeating; peace which doesn’t reach out to touch and bless others is selfish and highly perishable!

Here then is the bible recipe and answer for all that the human heart desires. The message is clear, real peace cannot be obtained by means other than a godly, spiritual mind. True personal peace seems to be not the removal of life’s irritations and inconveniences, but the result of a stern judgment, a sentence brought against our fallen carnal nature for the death it delivers when we subscribe to its desires and promptings. Through the power of the Spirit of God, we must judge what we think and do by God’s standards, resist fleshly desires, and say NO to our carnal nature. This may not remove the tension in the short term, but it will in due course, allow a different mind to the fore, a mind guided and led by the Spirit of God and His word.  Spiritual mindedness is a surrender to God and His ways; It is thinking of and doing life from God’s perspective not our own; it is an embracing of the values that judge our fallen nature and free us from the bondage of the sin it fosters. The spiritual mind can reason in the spiritual realm, comprehend spiritual truth and make us spiritually liberated, set free! This is where true personal peace is found! The result of the spiritual mind is life and peace!

Jesus said : "...my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you...". This is the kind of peace worth having! God-initiated, preserved and eternal peace, is the kind of peace which is beyond all human understanding and yet is ours for the having through the Lord Jesus. Lifelong, God-less efforts to find true and lasting peace any other way will fail. However a person whose mind is connected to, settled in, obedient and practiced in the spiritual thoughts and principles of God, will experience the kind of abundant life, peace and contentment not found anywhere else or by any other means. Now that's true living!

See also:
http://dailybiblefocus.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Repetitive Reminder

"O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever." Psalm 136:1-3

The Psalm is a call to all who love the Lord and know the truth, beauty and power of His mercy to present worship, praise and honour to God.

He provides unending benefits and His mercy is an everlasting flow toward us. In turn, we ought to find a constant stream of thanks issuing from our soul, heart, mind and lips!

Our praise and thanks unto the Lord is an apt and joyful spiritual sacrifice firstly for the fact of ‘What’ He is!

He is good! He is perfect in goodness even as he is just in severity. In the same way that God is love and doesn’t merely ‘have’ love, He is good in the ultimate and completely perfect sense of the word. All of His acts, motives and principles reflect this quality and attribute. We benefit from this good and merciful God in so many ways that it is impossible for us to name or count them all! We may experience some goodness as we relate to each other in this human world and at times are surprised to find someone who shows us kindness or goodness,  expecting most of the time quite the opposite. This is not so with the Lord whose goodness is not merely a part or portion of His character, but who is actual goodness and love itself in all His dealings with us. From Him, if we come in humility, we can be sure to find goodness and this should bring out the most heartfelt gratitude and praise from our souls.

Secondly for the fact of ‘Who’ He is!

He is the God of gods and the Lord of lords! Idols and man-made gods are mere figments and fantasies, but if there could exist any creature or power worthy to be deemed a ‘god’, then Jesus would be the GOD of them! He is the supreme power there is no-one higher and no-one beside Him or equal to Him! As the ultimate and superlative Deity, He cannot be mistaken, misplaced or displaced. He doesn’t have to vie for position or prove His worth, for when all that exalts itself has come and gone He will remain and continue eternally! He is what the sun is to a candle, the ocean to a raindrop, the universe to a star!

Humanity has known many lords, kings and sovereigns of all kinds, reputations and influence, but of the best among them, none can even begin to compare to the One true and ultimate LORD! He is the potentate above all and when the lights go out on the last human ruler and the door closes on the last realm, this King of kings and Lord of lords will continue eternally in the reign which He has established and has existed forever.  

Thirdly for the fact of 'what' He does!

It is with these thoughts in mind that the Psalmist repeatedly encourages us to note and remember His mercy which endureth forever. Our great God 'does' great mercy toward us! Mercy is the motive and manner of His giving to us His creation. 

Everlasting mercy can only come from an everlasting God and such ever-present, enduring, persisting and sturdy mercy, merits our highest praise and thanks! This One who is Judge overall and will endure eternally is not limited in mercy as we are. He doesn’t run out or short, He determines the extent of His longsuffering love and does not measure as we mortals do. 

The evidence of His dealings with man over the past millennia shows a mercy, which in human terms really is not only ‘unending’, but also unparalleled, unsurpassed, unexcelled, unmatched and unequalled! We owe Him gratitude, honour and praise with every breath we take. Amen.



See also:
http://dailybiblefocus.blogspot.com.au/
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Proclaim Him Worthy! (part 1)

“Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” 1Ti 1:17 

As humans we often make great proclamations and give praise and acclaim to all sorts of persons. From the appropriate applause given in the media to the praise worthy rescue officer for self-sacrificial efforts made in times of crisis, to the frequently misplaced and even excessive adulation lavished freely by many on some contemporary band, actor or performer, we clearly demonstrate that we are capable of praise and yes worship!

Sadly far too few in this world demonstrate any such passion for the One who is truly worthy of all admiration, praise, worship and acclamation. In fact in the noise of all things human that surround us day to day, entire lifetimes are spent and gone without a single solitary thought of praise, or a word of thanks to the Eternal God who made us all.

In stark contrast to this general spiritual numbness of most of humanity, the gratitude, exaltation and honour expressed by the Apostle toward God, rings a loud and reverberating reminder to all of us of how we ought to view the Lord and what we ought to express to Him.

Like a well primed pump, a ready, unrestrained praise and genuine heart-full worship should burst out from our souls as we consider this ‘blessed and only Potentate’, who is not merely a king but the KING of Kings; not just a nobleman or VIP, but the LORD of Lords; not merely a performer limited to one art or another, but the Creator of all, the author and finisher of our faith, the beginning and the ending of all things, the repository of all knowledge and wisdom -  the Almighty! He is Someone to get excited about!

Kings, sovereigns and leaders come and go leaving a distant or unfamiliar memory, or at most an historical trace in some dusty book on a library shelf, but not this King of Ages! He is ever present and endures forever. He is eternal, having been there before all others and continuing when all others will long have passed away. Everything we know, see and have around us proceeded from Him and will be outlived by Him. God is permanent in the true sense of the word! He doesn’t wear away, rust, weaken or become out-dated!

Looking in the mirror as we age, we can all see the signs and sense the effects which time has on us. We feel the deterioration in our bodies and can admit freely that ‘we ain’t quite what we used to be’! But it isn’t so with this Almighty King! He is immortal and totally incorruptible, not given to any of the decay and weakening and corrosion we are accustomed to. He is now what He has always been and will always remain the same perfect, complete, self-existing and sufficient One. When we have King Jesus in our lives we have a constant and consistent Friend who never changes, leaves or dies! Our eternal Monarch has no successors and will ever rule and reign supreme! (Continued in part 2)

See also: 

http://dailybiblefocus.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion