Week Four Is No More

Well we are all currently watching The Proposal. Yes. The brilliant film with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. It's truly an instant classic of a Rom Com. (For those of you who aren't up to date on the hip lingo that means Romantic Comedy). Ryan Reynolds is truly a marvel for the world of Hollywood and man I really want to go to Alaska. Anywayyyyy. I turned 21 this weeeeeek. TURN UP. But seriously, I cannot even begin to describe how thankful I am for the loving gifts and cards from my family and friends. My amazing mother sent me a package, and then my two amazing leaders Clarence, and Jeanine put all of the contents of the package into a Happy Birthday bag (also sent by my mother). From making me laugh so hard it made me cry and simply bringing me to tears. What is interesting is that although I was not with any of my family and friends from home this year for my birthday, I have honestly never felt so loved and so encouraging by them all in my life. So Mom, Chuck, JJ, BIL, Bae, John Roper, Rick Bell, Giioo (you a 5), Autumn Prater, Shep Martin, Paul Harrison, Andrew, Kimberly, and Chris Evans, thank you so much for everything. I love you all so much that words cannot even describe it.

This week has truly been amazing (like all of the other ones) and I am so grateful for the upcoming week. This week was the first week in which we were able to go to all of our outreaches. One of the biggest highlights of the week actually came yesterday at one of our youth outreaches.

So we were at this park in the area called Sin Fin where we were going to reach out to the children in the city. However, we arrive there and there were only two kids there who are aged maybe 3 and 4. After a quick walk around a couple of the blocks, we prayed. We prayed that kids would come to the park and that God would just open up the door to speak to these kids and just talk to them. After maybe 10 minutes then one kid came, then two, and before we knew it there were over 20 young people there! It was truly brilliant. I am always blown away with how God works and answers prayers to glorify Him. I absolutely love it. Words really cannot describe how excited I am to just continue to be a part of the city and pour into the hearts of the young people in this community. 

Now I just finished my second book report write up and I really wanted to just share it with you all. I know I referenced "Thinking Loving Doing" last week in the post but the book was just marvelous from beginning to end that I cannot hide the information!

Most memorable quotes: 

“I pray that you will love God with all your mind—that you will engage your thinking as fully as possible for the sake of knowing God as fully as possible, for the sake of treasuring God as fully as possible” (p. 133).

“Our minds are broken by sin. Which means we cannot trust even what we think, ourselves. Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” We have an amazing ability to lie to ourselves. You do it all the time. So do I. We lie. We tell ourselves that things aren’t as bad as they really are. We tell ourselves that things are better than they really are. We tell ourselves that were doing okay when were not doing okay. We’re telling ourselves it’s no big deal when it is a big deal. In fact, the Bible tells us that you cannot be trusted to tell yourself the truth... because all sin begins with a lie. The Bible says Satan in “the father of lies” (John 8:44). And if he can get you to believe a lie he can get you to sin. Anytime you sin, you think that you know better than God.” (p. 28)

“When we begin to develop character and do good habitually-daily Bible reading, regular fasting, regular praying, regular days of prayer, regular witnessing-when these become the habits of our lives, the more we do them, the better we will get at them.” (p. 39)

“In the third chapter in Genesis, we read of the fall-the universal story that explains the intellectual crisis in which we find ourselves. In Adam’s fall, we all fell. Adam and Eve demanded to know what they were not to know, and once they knew it, they knew themselves as rebels. They became the enemies of God. We do not rightly know who we are without the biblical revelation of the fall. First the consequence of death created separation and alienation from God.” (p. 54)

Glossary:

1. Captivate: To attract and hold the interest and attention of. We need to not only pursue our minds and its thoughts, but we need to have the interest of it as often as possible.

2. Surrender: stop resisting to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority. In this instance, our sinful minds are an enemy to God. We must give up our minds to The Father and to His desires for us.

3. Guard: Protect against damage or harm. Satan does not relent from attempting to damage our minds. We need to guard our mind from garbage. What goes in will stay in.

4. Diligence: It is about being intentional in chasing a mind that glorifies God as much as possible. Pursuing such a mind is one that has to be done with a carefully working demeanor.

5. Intellectual Fatigue: With the fast pace of modern life and the multitude of matters pressing for our attention, we can begin to fell depleted in our intellectual capacities and mental reserves.

6. Sufficient: Enough. Adequate. We need to be absolutely satisfied in God and His desires for us.  

From not only a theological standpoint, but as well as an encouraging and challenging standpoint, the content of this book absolutely has changed the way that I look at thinking. The Bible directly tells us that our minds are depraved, sinful, dull, blinded, corrupt, and so much more. We have so much reason to question every single thought. We cannot believe everything we think. If Satan is the “father of sin” then why would he not desire to fill our heads with lies? This particular book has taught me that we simply have blind spots in our brains. We are preconditioned by the fall to have flawed thinking that is not wholesome and flat out against God. That one particular portion of the quote on page 28 really stuck out to me. “Anytime you sin, you think you know better than God.” Sometimes we can forget that we are doing that anytime we lie. That is the truth though. Whenever we worry, lie, deceive, we think that we know better than God. If God doesn’t desire it then neither should we. If it is not from God then Satan would love us to believe it. Had we not sinned, we would all share a right to accurate perspective. Our minds are unregenerate. We are to love God and glorify Him with all that we do. That includes our thoughts. Not just our actions. Proverbs tells us that the wise man will seek out knowledge. The wise man does not seek out things that simply cloud and clutter up our minds with negativity.

The content of this book has challenged me. Challenged me to change the way I think and to change what goes into my brain. That includes absolutely everything I read, listen to, watch, and do. We cannot expect to be effective in our own growing with God let alone our evangelism if what is going into our mind and what we are thinking is not glorifying to God. How can I glorify God if I am not thinking what would bring Him glory? It was in the fall where man’s thoughts and mind absolutely destroyed the relationship between man and God. In Adam’s fall, we fell. We suffer from total depravity and it is not by magic that our thinking is going to get any better.

The book has taught me we need to be skillful and practiced in winning the daily battle for our minds. Ecclesiastes 10:10 says “If the ax is dull and its edge is unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success.” What is interesting to me is that it doesn’t say prayer will bring success. Yes, prayer is absolutely vital to our faith and our relationship with God, however if all we do is pray every second of forever then we are missing the point. There is so much more that God has. He has given us direct commands such as the great commission that cannot be ignored. Yet, in order to efficiently, effectively, and accurately preach the Gospel-like with edification of our faith-it takes much effort and practice to do so. We need to develop skills. If you are chopping wood and you are using a pair of scissors instead of an ax or chainsaw, then you are going to have a tough time chopping wood. A farmer can pray all that he wants, but if he tries to harvest a wheat field with a grape picker, the job will not get done. The bottom line is that we have to have the right skills. “Sharpening our ax” will never have negative repercussions. The Bible specifically instructs us to sharpen our thoughts and minds. If we are skillful in all of the things stated on page 39, then we will be able to be immeasurably more effective in not only personal relationship with God, but in evangelism as well. That’s what I desire. I desire to be growing in the way I not only am having The Holy Spirit evangelize me, but I desire The Holy Spirit to be able to evangelize through me more effectively because I place what God wants me to think about over what I want to think about. After all, if His thoughts are higher and His ways are better, then why would I not want to have His thoughts?

Isn't that just awesome encouragement from God? I thought so. I again want to thank everyone so much for all of the prayers and financial support throughout all of this. I can't wait to share with you what God is doing here in Derby next week! God bless you and peace be with you.