April 17, 2009

It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming

HDJT. How did Jesus think? For years we have asked the question “What Would Jesus Do?” I wonder how Jesus would think. Paul tells me in Philippians chapter 4.

The context is Paul addressing two prominent women in the church, who are fighting. They had been coworkers. They had contended with him in the cause of the Gospel. That's why it distressed him to know that these two women were not getting along with each other. They evidently were the ones who were engaged in a rivalry (see Phil. 2:3), they were not of the same mind, and this conflict was jeopardizing the gospel being proclaimed to this community.

Paul even asks a third party to get involved. He wants this party to bring peace. And notice this, the Holy Spirit, through Paul, is not concerned about sparing the consequences of the sin of these two women. We know their names. They will be remembered forever—for a fight. How would you like to have your life summed up in this way in one sentence?

Working with others in the church can be difficult. There is an old poem that goes like this --

"To live above with the saints we love,
oh, that will be glory.
But to live below with the saints we know,
well, that's another story.

We are not called to agree on everything, but we are called to be agreeable.

Notice Paul's prescription for this conflict. In chapter two, he had already told them to have the mind of Christ. And how did Christ think? I think in Phil. 4:4-9, we see the mind of Christ:

4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Paul’s points reflect the mind of Christ. Jesus had a joyful attitude, he was gentle, he bathed everything in prayer, he was thankful, and he had a mind of peace. Jesus was constantly open to what God could do in his life. Gentle means, Jesus was not about his own agenda, but about God's agenda. But that's not all, the following verses also demonstrate the mind of Christ:

8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Jesus thought about true things, noble things, excellent things, pure things, and lovely things. He did not worry; he was not anxious. So Paul encourages us to program our minds like Jesus.

You know our brains are capable of great things. Kent Hughes writes there are 12 to 14 billion cells that make up our brains. Each cell sends out thousands of connecting tendrils so that a single cell may be connected with 10,000 neighboring cells. Each one of these are constantly exchanging data impulses. That means 12 to 14 billion brain cells times 10,000 connectors are working together. Wow! What a computer!

Someone has compared the human mind’s activity to a thousand switchboards, each big enough to serve New York City, all running at full speed as they supersede and send messages and orders. That is to say, there is more electronic equivalent of one human brain than in all the radio and television stations in the entire world put together.

I don't know about you, but sometimes it seems to me that everyone of those switchboards is racing as I worry about a problem. And that is not good. This mind needs to be harnessed in the power of the Holy Spirit. This mind was created to be like the mind of Christ. That is the mind redeemed. John Milton wrote, "a mind is its own place, and in itself/can make a heaven out of hell, and a hell out of heaven...." I believe that.

I suspect what is happening here, these women are burning a tremendous amount of emotional energy nursing their wounds, trying to gather allies, trying to get their way. And this unforgiving competitive spirit is stealing the joy and peace out of their lives.

So, we let Christ take over our minds. "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (II Cor. 10:5.)

Who said the following?

Let’s take a quiz. Who said the following?

“No one wishes for hardship. But as we pick through the economic rubble, we may find that our riches have buried our treasures. Money does not buy happiness; Scripture asserts this, research confirms it. Once you reach the median level of income, roughly $50,000 a year, wealth and contentment go their separate ways, and studies find that a millionaire is no more likely to be happy than someone earning one-twentieth as much.”

"A consumer culture invites us to want more than we can ever have; a culture of thrift invites us to be grateful for whatever we can get. So we pass the time by tending our gardens and patching our safety nets and debating whether, years from now, this season will be remembered for what we lost, or all that we found."

A. Franklin Graham B. Mark Edge in one of his sermons
C. Time magazine

Answer? C.

This is from the latest issue dated April 27, 2009.

Help! I’m Being Adopted

I told you last week that our family was going to LTC. On the way last Friday, we stopped by a shopping mall in Arlington. On the way out, we were exiting through the Barnes & Noble bookstore. I was engaging in horseplay with my second oldest daughter, Abby. She said something and I grabbed her. And in fun she hollered out, “Help! I being abducted.”

My son, Timothy, who is age 6, heard Abby. He thought that was pretty funny and he immediately began hollering out the same thing. Only, he had never heard the word “abducted,” and he did not know what it meant. Consequently, he thought Abby had said “adopted.” So Timothy begins hollering out, “Help! I’m being adopted!”

I’ve got to admit, I lost it. Of course, Timothy was adopted a few years ago. Who knows? Maybe he was having a Freudian slip. Still, I thought it was pretty funny.

Out in the parking lot, I repeated to Judy what has become my new mantra, “I love having grandchildren.” I’m years away from it, but I am old enough to have had grandkids several years ago. This is all part of my strategy of going with the flow in the midst of chaos. “Mind over matter.”

Great Lines from Kids

My friend, Scott Fosse, is the president of East Texas Christian Academy. They meet on our campus and we share many of the same facilities. I am proud of our association, and even have the privilege of teaching the senior-level Bible classes.

Yesterday, I came across one of our kindergarten teachers, Amanda Arrington. And she was telling me that earlier this week, she was trying to get Scott's young son, Devon, who is in kindergarten, to take a nap. She was gently patting him on the back, I suppose thinking he would go to sleep, and he looked up and said to her, "You know my daddy is the president of this school."

She replied, "Yes, I know that."

Then Devon said, "He can do whatever he wants."

Any temptation that I had to be depressed for the day was removed when I heard that story. Rumor has it that our president blushed greatly when reported the news from “Romper Room.” No need; we all know what it’s like. Don't you just love kids?

Five things I think I think (a tip of the hat to Peter King for this idea)

1. I was shocked and somewhat sad to hear of the retirement of John Madden. For years, Madden represented the big game. You knew if John Madden was announcing a ballgame, it was the big game of the week. When Madden replaced Tom Brookshire on CBS back in 1981, I, like Pat Summerall, was not pleased. But in time, he grew on me and I learned to respect his work. I also respect the fact that he became among the best in two separate fields -- coaching and broadcasting. (His NFL winning percentage of .750 is the best of all-time.) Add to that, his tremendous success in lending his name EA Sports videogames, and you have a tremendous success story in business as well. He will be missed.

2. Last week, I found a copy on sale of Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four. It was written by John Feinstein. Feinstein may be the best non-fiction writer on sports today. I have read a number of his books and have never been disappointed. Feinstein could write about moss growing on a septic tank and make it sound like a fascinating experience. This book is a must-read for college basketball fans. The setting is the 2005 Final Four of men's college basketball, but it is in essence a compilation of stories of some of the greats who, through the years, were part of the Final Four.

Favorite story: John Wooden pushing his wife, seated in a wheelchair, through the lobby of a Seattle hotel during the Final Four in 1984. Wooden is headed for the elevator, that will take him and his wife to their floor. They are going to retire for the evening. The lobby is crowded with the greatest men’s basketball coaches in America. Suddenly, someone begins to applaud. Then others. At last, hundreds of people are giving John and Nellie Wooden a standing ovation. It was her last Final Four; she died a few months later.

3. I received this week’s Time magazine this morning. It’s a good issue to take a look at. The aforementioned Time magazine article is a good one to read. It is the cover story called “Thrift Nation.” Also, there is an interesting article about top-tier universities who are offering free public online access to their best lecturers (p. 43ff).

4. Tony Woodlief wrote a thought provoking article in the latest issue of World magazine entitled “Practical Atheism.” He argues that our danger as churches is to sacrifice sermons and teachings on Scripture and God for messages that are “relevant.” This is symptomatic of practical atheism, which is not the pursuit of godlessness. Rather, it is what Woodlief calls “the slow slide into lives where God is irrelevant.” Words worth pondering.

5. Frost/Nixon comes out in DVD next week. I want to rent it.

Have a great weekend!