Loving God With Our Minds

Tonight, from Matthew 22:23-33, David Leonard encouraged us to consider how to love God with our minds. Dave spoke about Jesus being a philosopher and that we are called to use our mind to love Him. Here are some possible topics to discuss...

• The nature of following Christ because Jesus is the truth and not because it works for us.
• The positive aspects of apologetics. Reasons and evidence to believe. As an example of this Dave asked why John would be doubting in Matthew 11:1-6 (that would be good for us to discuss).
• The negative method of apologetics. Dealing with difficult issues or direct confrontation of another religion.
• Jesus’ example of challenging the Sadducees and His intellect to use common ground for His proof (i.e., an authority they would acknowledge).
• The connection of this story with the Great Commandment in Matthew 22.
• Your own thoughts from tonight, maybe something spurred on by singing or a conversation you had.

So Bible scholars, reflect on how we can obey Jesus' command to love Him with our minds!

Blessings!

So Dani and I were pondering and praying through this line of thought (the previous post when Jesus says “don’t worry about what you eat, drink or WEAR”) and boy did God blow our socks off on Monday afternoon (after the previous post).

Dani had gotten far enough along in her pregnancy that she needed new clothes, particularly pants. We made plans to go out and pick up ONE pair of pants in the afternoon. Around 2 PM I was sitting on the couch, waiting for Dani to get ready before we left. Literally two minutes before we were to walk out the door we received a call from a maternity clothing store…some one had anonymously given us a $ 150 gift card! WOW!!

God is good…all the time!

Our God, our Jesus is SO worthy to keep our gaze upon (remember Tozer’s definition of faith).

“See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”

I wonder what would happen if we lived like this in ALL areas of our life and ministry. Surley Jesus did not mean this to stay on some surface level of our existence but to penintrate the very core of who we are, down to our souls. To live any other way is to reject Jesus and say to Him, “I don’t need you in this area of my life. I know better how to handel this person or situation or project or ministry. I do not need to be dependant on you.” HOW FOOLISH…

This will stand in our minds to the power of God and when we seek after Him all these things will be added.

OK Jesus...ALL Things

Matthew 6:25-34

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. "

--Jesus

Thoughts For This Sunday's Celebration Time

This Sunday, at the Edge, we will celebrate what God is doing in the lives of some of our friends. Weddings and births are such joyous monuments to God’s provision! Accounting that these good things come from God ultimately point us not to our own happiness but the faithfulness of our God (James 1:17, 18).

Therefore, as the people of God gathered we will lift up Jesus in the cool things that He is doing in our friends’ lives.

Our prayer for the evening comes from Psalm 145:7, “Oh God we will celebrate Your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of Your righteousness!”

(Full text of Psalm 145 to follow as a comment.)

Faith: Gazing Upon Jesus

Tonight in the Edge we looked at Thomas and our decision of faith. Thomas’ stipulation of faith mirrors what gets in the way of our complete faith in Jesus. Poor Thomas gets a bad rap for his lack of faith but from him we learn that our faith too, is not a blind faith but reasonable and logically placed in the evidence of Jesus. Jesus told not only Thomas but also all the disciples in verse 29, “Because you have seen me, you believe; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” That blessing is the peace that Jesus gives and that our salvation is secure in him no matter what anxiety and trails we may face (you decide 2004). As Paul puts it in Romans 5 Jesus is the “grace in which we stand”.

On Christ the solid rock I stand… Our faith is on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). We often look at faith from our point of view, the guts to stand on the rock, but really we are nothing—Jesus is the rock! In fact we take our eyes off of Jesus by placing our hope/trust/faith/desire/passion on lesser things…all other ground is sinking sand.

Consider these quotes, regarding faith, from AW Tozer’s The Pursuit of God.

“We are told from whence it comes and by what means: ‘Faith is the gift of God’ (Ephesians 2:8) and ‘Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God’ (Romans 10:17). This much is clear, and, to paraphrase Thomas a Kempis, ‘I had rather exercise faith than know the definition thereof” (88).

“Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God” (89).

“It is summed up for us in the Hebrew epistle when we are instructed to run life’s race ‘looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith’ (Hebrews 12:2). From all this we learn that faith is not a once-done act, but a continuous gaze upon the Triune God” (90).

“Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all” (91).

On Christ the solid rock we stand!