July 11 – Your Mind; God’s Thoughts (Colossians 3:1-10)

“Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”(Colossians 3:10)

IN WORD:
When we are born again, we are spiritually renewed. The Bible makes that clear. We are a new creation — the old has passed away and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). What does that mean for our hearts? Though they were hard and resistant to God, they are now soft and inclined toward Him. What does that mean for our minds? Paul tells us here. We are given a new knowledge.
This new knowledge isn’t just a change of opinion. It’s an invasion of truth into our once-deceived souls. Now we have a radically new perspective, a vital understanding of who God is and how His Son has saved us, and a new means of making decisions. We also have a kindred wisdom with our Creator, an ability to think His thoughts and live His life. We are in a holy process of becoming like Him.
Isn’t that amazing? While many cults and false philosophies make us gods unto ourselves, Jesus makes us humans with God’s mind. It’s a foundational principle of Christianity: We who were fallen and dead are now inhabited by the One who is risen & alive.
Does that mean our thinking will never err? That we will never disagree? That our logic will be infallible? Obviously not! But it does mean that, to the degree we submit our thinking to Christ, we can have His mind. We can be led & guided, renewed & transformed, crafted ever increasingly into the divine image.

IN DEED:
Are you aware of God’s goal for your thought life? It is perhaps the most challenging battleground for a Christian. We all too easily give in to depression, negativity, deception, misconceptions, and all sorts of false perspectives. God changes that, if we will let Him. He wants us to think like Him. You do not have to convince Him to do so — He loves to. Shed the old and embrace the new. Be conformed to His image daily in your mind.

“Think through me, thoughts of God.” -Amy Carmichael-

July 10 – Escape to Reality (Colossians 3:1-10)

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
(Colossians 3:2)

IN WORD:
The core of wisdom, the heart of this transformation that we call sanctification and Paul calls the renewal of the mind, is summed up in this verse. We set our minds on different things than we once set them on. In our thinking, we exchange the temporal for the eternal, the worthless for the valuable, the profane for the holy, and the self for Christ. We no longer pursue darkness, only light. We no longer pursue money, only treasure. We no longer pursue our reputation, only His. We stand in a radically different place.
That place is where Christ is. Did you know that we are with Him? That’s the basis of Paul’s declaration: We have been raised with Him. We are seated where He is seated, and He lives in the depths of our hearts, where we once thought we reigned. It only makes sense, then, that we would be thoroughly absorbed in our new dwelling and our new life. Not to be preoccupied with eternal realities would be ridiculously out of touch with the fact of our new nature. We would be escapists, fantasizing about worthless things and neglecting unimaginable riches. We would be like pigs transformed into princes, but who still prefer slop. We’d have no sense.
Yet this is where many Christians live. We have a hard time thinking about the reality we can’t see, though it is very, very real. We’re well trained in the ways of this world, immersed in false philosophies. We harbor old thoughts. So Paul must instruct the Colossian believers who, like us, are hounded by false perspectives. Set your minds where Christ is and where, in fact, you are too.

IN DEED:
This is a discipline. We’ve perhaps been taught that disciplining the mind to think in a certain way is similar to brain-washing, an artificial escape from reality. But for us, setting our minds on the things above is an escape into reality. It puts us practically where we are positionally. It renews our minds and it makes us truly wise.

“May the mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to day.”
-Kate B. Wilkinson-

July 9 – Beautiful Timing (Romans 8:18)

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
(Ecclesiastes 3:11)

IN WORD:
Some flowers will bloom within days of their planting. Others will not bloom for years, and then only for a short time. What is the difference? Only the God who has ordained the beauty of His creation to be made manifest in different ways and at different times.
You probably know people who bloomed as soon as they were planted. Perhaps you are one of them. Many of us, however, find the early bloomers frustrating. They remind us of what we would like God to accomplish in our lives. We grow impatient with the seasons of God, wondering if He will ever bring us into our own personal promised land, as we once hoped He would. We forget the valuable lesson of this planet’s diverse flora. Growth, maturation, and fruition vary widely among species. And in God’s mind, every Christian is a distinct species. We are all different.
We are all one in Christ, of course. But nowhere in Scripture do we find a God who deals uniformly with His people. There are people who never seem to suffer, and people who seem to suffer incessantly. There are people who bear fruit nearly their whole lives, and those who bear fruit only for a moment. There are people who live for decades and people who live for brief minutes. And God has His hand on all of them.

IN DEED:
Are you a people watcher, frustrated with how bountifully God has dealt with other Christians and wondering if He will ever do the same with you? There are many possible reasons for the delay, ranging from sin in your life to the special nature of the gifts he has given you. But consider the God who makes all things beautiful. He is crafting a global testimony to His glory (Habakkuk 2:14). Why would He leave you out?
Consider the promise of Romans 8:18: Current sufferings do not compare to future glory. The set your heart on the future glory. Know that in His time, God will make all things — even your life — extremely beautiful.

“God’s fingers can touch nothing but to mold it into loveliness.”
-George MacDonald-

July 8 – God of All Seasons (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

“A time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak.”(Ecclesiastes 3:7)

IN WORD:
If we really want to understand how this passage is to play out in our lives, we need only to look to Jesus. We could make a case that every time under heaven was fulfilled appropriately by Him. A time to be born? Yes, in the fullness of time, in fact. A time to die? Yes, at God’s appointed moment. A time to kill or to tear down? Yes, an evil climate of false beliefs had to be assaulted. A time to heal or to build? Yes, and He is still healing and building today. Moreover, He scattered and gathered, embraced and refrained, tore and mended, was both silent and outspoken. He loved people and hated sin — He still does both. He declared war on the kingdoms of this world and proclaimed eternal peace, the “shalom” of God. Jesus did not make his seasons either/or propositions. He understood God’s timing better than any other.
We need to be similarly discerning about God’s timing. We need to know the circumstances that call for war against evil and those that call for peace instead of conflict. We need to understand when to violently plow unbroken soil and when to gently plant seeds. We need to remember how God confronted us with our own sinfulness and yet patiently led us to repentance. We need to consider the God who has a time for everything from bold opposition to humble encouragement. Most of all, we need to dispense with the idea that Jesus came to affirm everyone and take hold of the idea that He came to radically change and reorient people, cultures, and kingdoms. And we must remember: The new creation will not co-exist with the old one forever.

IN DEED:
By observing God’s own activity, we can know that there is, in fact, a time for everything. The God who stepped into His once-perfect, now-rebel world has a plan for uprooting and planting, killing and birthing, warring and making peace. Blessed are those who understand what He is doing and get in on it.

“The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God.” -Leo Tolstoy-

July 7 – Fruits of Sin (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

“A time to die . . . To kill . . . To tear down . . . To weep . . . To give up . . . To throw away . . . To hate . . . For war.”
(Ecclesiastes 3:2-8)

IN WORD:
Far from giving us license to kill — or to hate, destroy, or any other such negative activity — the Scriptures give us perspective on the fruits of fallenness. We live in a broken world, and we are broken people.
If everyone got along, living according to God’s righteousness, there would never be a time to kill or to go to war. But such is not the case. There is evil in this world, and there are times to oppose it, even violently. If sin had not introduced death into this world, there would never be a time to uproot, to tear down, or to throw away. But again, such is not the case; there is decay in this world, both physically and with our projects, ideas, and dreams. Seasons cultivate productivity, but they also imply an end to it. The cycle of life includes both origins and expirations, celebration and sacrifice. Such is the stark reality of trying to build permanence in a transient world. It can’t be done. Nature and God dictate against it.

IN DEED:
Think of Ecclesiastes as a description of life in a fallen world, and contrast it with the promises of God’s Kingdom. Are all of these times inherent in both? No, the Kingdom of God will not be a place of war and weeping, death and destruction, or any other such evidences of corruption and decay. The Kingdom of God will flourish with life, love, and a Lord who does not change with the seasons. It will take our former futility and turn it into future fruit.
But for now, understand the broken world we live in. Don’t try to dress it up as your heaven. Don’t hope for the times of love and faithfulness while ignoring the times of grief and despair. God has not redeemed a nation of escapists; He is cultivating a people of perspective. We understand the nature of our world, and we look forward with hope toward the nature of His Kingdom. Even now, we have begun to get seasonal glimpses of it — all in His time.

“The world rings changes; it is never constant but in its disappointments.” -Thomas Watson-

July 6 – A Time for Good (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

“A time to be born . . . To plant . . . To heal . . . To build.”
(Ecclesiastes 3:2-3)

IN WORD:
We have no trouble seeing God as the source of life, health, and happiness. But those who are alienated from God, both within the body of believers and without, may consider themselves excluded from such blessings. For people whose lives have been marked with pain and strife, the blessing of God seems far, far away. Perhaps they’ve even lost sight of the benevolent, loving God. Perhaps they’ve grown hopeless.
Dark seasons in a person’s life will do that. They will obscure the goodness of God and make us think that we’re all alone in this world. They turn faith into skepticism, hope into cynicism. In the dark night of uncertainty, people who once held onto God will either hold Him tighter or let go altogether. When the temptation to let go comes, it’s important to remember: There’s a time to be born, to plant, to heal, to build. There’s a time for life and blessing. There’s a season for the goodness of God in the life of one who believes, and it’s certain to come.
A popular interpretation of this passage — perhaps aided by the melodies of past generations — implies that a season for everything means we can take just about any approach to life we choose. “A time for everything” can mean, if misinterpreted, that anything goes. But the heart of this passage is all about discernment. It keeps us from becoming proud and reckless during times of prosperity and from becoming dark and dreadful during times of scarcity. It keeps our perspectives in balance so that we don’t get too high during high times or too low during low times. And it reminds us to discern the difference, knowing that our actions depend on the big picture of changing seasons, not on the weather today.

IN DEED:
If you are a believer going though a low time, know that it will end. God has His seasons, and many of them are good. He never deprives His children of all good seasons. The light will come, the cold will thaw, and God will bless your life — in its time.

“See that you are not suddenly saddened by the adversities of this world, for you do not know the good they bring.”
-John of the Cross-

July 5 – Constant Change (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”(Ecclesiastes 3:1)

IN WORD:
The human experience is filled with anticipation of the good things and dread of the bad. We have dreams, goals, hidden desires, and needful impulses. When we most expect fruit and fulfillment, we find none. Often when we expect barrenness, God gives fruit. The seasons of life frustrate us.
The writer of Ecclesiastes — Solomon, most likely — is aged and philosophical, and while he does not embody the hope that Christians have been given, he knows a thing or two about finite life in this physical world. He has seen emptiness and futility. And, apart from God, he has seen meaninglessness. If there is no God, if no afterlife, if no hidden hope that we cannot see, then there’s no point to any of this life that we’re living. And still, blind to a discernible purpose, Solomon is able to say: “There is a time for everything…”
Solomon has seen seasons come and go. He knows the cyclical pattern of living is not just a matter for meteorologists, it’s also a matter for relationships, labor, and the myriad emotions we have. In our lives, there will be unfruitful seasons. There will be times of discouragement and even despair. There will be pointless tasks and conflict. Interspersed with all the joys of the human experience, there will be latent seasons, periods of fallow ground and backward regress. It won’t be all good, all the time.

IN DEED:
That’s important for us to know. We’ll drive ourselves crazy if we don’t understand that there are seasons in our lives. If you’re particularly fruitless now — or even fruitful — know that it’s only for a time. If a relationship is difficult — or even perfect — it, too, is only for a time. We have to get used to constant change.
Many Christians kick themselves or question God when life isn’t running smoothly. Don’t do that. It’s only for a season. Do not expect your entire year to be warm & sunny. Part of it will be cold & rainy. And if you’re in winter now, know that spring is on its way. It’s time always comes.

“After winter comes the summer. After night comes the dawn. And after every storm, there come clear, open skies.”
-Samuel Rutherford-

July 4 – One Birth (Psalm 62:5-10)

“Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath.”(Psalm 62:9)

IN WORD:
We human beings have all sorts of ways of dividing ourselves. In some cultures there is an overt, recognized caste system. In others, it is much more subtle. The western world, for example, tends to classify people in terms of economic status, race, or skill level. We’ll do nearly anything to define ourselves in tight, distinguishable groups.
There’s nothing wrong with identifying with a group of like-minded or similar-background people. The problem comes when we attribute relative worth to our different groups. We get hung up on ideology and education, pedigree and ancestry, or spending power and net worth. There’s a reason Wall Street barons and welfare mothers don’t usually hang out together, and it’s not just because they have little in common. Our sociology is not just an accident. We like our class distinctions and we want to keep them.
We are naturally divisive, but the Kingdom of God makes no such distinctions. We will all commune together at the throne. When members of every tribe and nation meet together to praise Him, there will be no borders between them. When rich and poor are gathered in His name, there will be no first-class seating. The Kingdom of God knows only one species of human beings: His children.

IN DEED:
If the Kingdom of God in heaven looks like a united fellowship of saints, shouldn’t the Kingdom of God on earth look pretty similar? The psalmist is right: In God’s eyes, there is no difference between the lowborn and the highborn. Centuries later, Jesus’ teaching would make only one distinction — between the born again and the lost. Only one kind of birth matters in His Kingdom, and it has nothing to do with pedigree. It’s all about grace, right now, here in this world. So are we.

“The union of men with God is the union of men with one another.” -Thomas Aquinas-

July 3 – The Word of Power (Psalm 119:41-48)

“I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees.” (Psalm 119:48)

IN WORD:
Modern hearers of the Word often hear so much truth with so little change in our lives. We hear a sermon at church or on the radio or TV, or we read a Christian book, and even though the message may be powerful and true, we’ve often forgotten it within a matter of days or even hours. Why? One reason is that we don’t take time to meditate on what we hear.
Most of us have busy lives. Church is followed by other Sunday activities. Personal Bible study is followed by work or family responsibilities. Our days are packed with clutter, and we have little time to sit and think. But sitting and thinking are essential. When we don’t take time to think, we jump from truth to truth, with the illusion that hearing is the same as learning. Truth needs time to seep from the intellect to the depths of our soul.
When we hear or read the truth, our mental agreement is only the first step. For many, it’s also the last step. God has so much more work for His Word to do in our hearts. Meditation takes it deeper until it becomes a part of our lives. Only then does it affect us. Our minds are not changed until our hearts are transformed. Only in the hours of meditation are the deep truths of the gospel stirred into our whole being, changing us from within. Without such stirring, we are as those who agree with the gospel without really believing the gospel. True belief comes out of the core of our hearts.

IN DEED:
Does the Word lack power in your life? If so, perhaps you lack time in the Word. And no mere addition of minutes or hours will help. The time spent in the Word must be time spent chewing on the Word, figuring out its ramifications, allowing it to sink deep, and letting it refresh your life in the Spirit. We must ask questions of God’s Word and allow Him to answer. Only then does it become a powerful tool for change. Our lives can then be transformed.

“Meditation is holding the Word of God in the mind until it has affected every area of one’s life and character.”
-Andrew Murray-

July 2 – The Word of Delight (Psalm 119:97-104)

“Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.”
(Psalm 119:97)

IN WORD:
Even when we are convinced of the necessity of reading our Bible daily and applying its truths, we can get bogged down in the obligation of doing so. Somehow, perhaps not coincidentally, when we determine to learn Scripture with an open heart, the rest of life seems to close in around it. Schedules get more complicated, demands get more intense, pressing needs seem to preclude our time of meditation. Our enemy makes sure of it, and God allows him to — it’s a test of our devotion to the Word of life.
But even when we stick with it, there are times of delight and times of passive indifference. It’s human nature. What thrills us one day can often bore us the next, even when the subject is something as substantial as God’s Word.
What are we to do? How can we maintain our delight in the Bible? Perhaps it is a matter of perspective. We can easily come to view the Scriptures as irrelevant relics of a different age — one that has little consistency with an era of global multiculturalism and technological marvels. We need to remember that the human heart and its relationships are essentially the same as they were thousands of years ago — steeped in self and sin and prone to conflict and dissatisfaction.

IN DEED:
If you see the Bible as a collection of ancient writings, it might impress you, but it will not change your life very much. If, however, you see it as the vessel that holds the deep mysteries of God, the key that opens life’s secret ways, it will have amazing transforming power. The Word of God could do no less — it breathes life into dead souls and causes all that was stale and stagnant within us to flourish.
When the Bible becomes boring to you, perhaps it’s because you have reached a spiritual plateau on your journey into God’s heart. Ask Him to take you deeper. It is hard to imagine any good father who would reject such a request from his child — least of all ours.

“The Bible is a window in this prison-world, through which we may look into eternity.” -Timothy Dwight-