April 30
Truth Thinking
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”
What truth do you need to hear to not be in strife?
Come to the Father,
Go no farther.
Truly, there is no other way to live this life.
John 14:6 Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Buy Truth Thinking
These April limericks caused me to think deep.
To think is a powerful way not to sleep.
A rich mind,
A rare find.
Buy the Truth, but don’t sell it, it isn’t cheap.
Proverbs 23:23 Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)
23 Buy the truth, and sell it not;
also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
April 28
Decision Thinking
There once was a mind that could decide,
Free will, emotions, a steady ride.
What a gift,
Till that rift,
Tilted the course into downward pride.
Lucifer was the first angel. He was beautiful, brilliant and the worship leader of heaven. Why did he rebel? What was in him that he wanted to be like God? (Isaiah 14:12-17)
Pride.
Lucifer, in the form of a serpent enticed Eve with pride. Don’t you want to be like God? You can know all things he said to her. It was tempting. So tempting a decision was made. Eve bit the apple.
Eve’s pride blamed the snake, Adam’s pride his wife. The consequences effected all generations after that.
I used to wonder why Adam and Eve’s decision affected us. I mean it was their decision to disobey. I wasn’t in the garden.
God gave free will to all of us. Jesus too. He could have said no, it wasn’t my fault Adam and Eve chose to disobey God.
The sin of pride says I don’t need God. I am my own God. Free will gives you the authority to say no to God. God doesn’t force anything on us. He leaves the decision up to us.
Isaiah 53 New International Version (NIV)
1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
April 27
First Man Thinking
There once was a first man named Adam,
Created by God, not at random.
First human.
First man.
Jesus was God, man and last Adam.
45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.47 The first man is from the earth, [n]earthy; the second man is from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, [o]we will also bear the image of the heavenly.
April 26
Spirit Thinking
There once was a spirit, resided within,
The body and soul of a human kin.
God created all three,
Beautiful trinity.
Now let Holy Spirit speak true life therein.
John 6:63 English Standard Version (ESV)
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
April 23
Poverty Thinking
You cannot two masters serve,
Life becomes a great big swerve.
God or money,
C’mon honey.
Decide if you have the nerve.
Did you grow up believing to serve God meant you had to be poor? As long as you had enough to get by that was all you needed? Or worse, you were undeserving of being wealthy?
Poverty thinking is one of the caftiest deceptions satan has caused the church to believe. Scriptures have been taken out of context to perpetrate this lie. A perfect example:
And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20)
Jesus was telling the scribe in this story that if he wanted to follow Jesus he needed to count the cost. It is true you will need to give things up, things that do not honor holiness but it certainly does not mean you will be poor and homeless. That is what I believed for a long time. My concept of Jesus was He had no home, no money, no friends. But look at what scripture says here:
He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali… (Matthew 4:13)
When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. (Mark 2:1-2)
Clearly Jesus had a home and lots of friends. He was well liked. He had a job and was a hard worker. He made money. When it was time to begin his ministry he was not broke. Ministry takes money. Judas, who betrayed him, was His treasurer. The danger is not the money, but the love of money. Judas loved the money. Clearly, Jesus being the Son of God (as well as Son of Man) could do anything without money but we needed Him to show us how to let money serve us for good and not evil. We are masters over money. The world is always trying to make it the opposite.
It takes courage to serve God.
We are programmed to trust money as our source of survival. Growing up there was never enough and you often felt you weren’t worth enough to have any spent on you. How can I trust God to take care of me? HE didn’t seem to take care of my parents. That thinking spilled over into adulthood and it has been a long journey to get free of it. As I serve God He keeps revealing it has nothing to do with being poor but everything to do with serving the God of more than enough.
It always comes down to trust.
Sometimes I miss the mark and revert to my old ways of thinking. I settle for less than what I could have. That old poverty mind-set tries to get me to believe I am less than enough and so deserve less. That thinking overflows into all areas of life as well, not just money. Take my book for example. I started writing a few years ago. I adjusted some things to stay on target but have not completed it yet. The poverty lie wants to dictate, “You don’t have enough drive, vision, skill and on and on to complete a book.” On my own I probably don’t but I trust the One who can help me be more than enough to finish it.
Today let’s remember who we serve.
If you have never made God your master, get up the nerve to do so. Ask Jesus to be your Lord. Trust Him with all the courage you have and ask Him to lead you in all truth.
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
April 22
Waking Up Thinking
There was a thought, came in the morning.
Happened just before she stopped snoring.
Profound,
No sound.
It went away without a warning.
There you are in the sweetest of sleeps. You somehow know you will be waking up soon because you sense a connection to your subconscious mind and conscious mind. A project you are working, an engaging conversation, a great idea: all these thoughts are flowing through your mind.
Now you really are waking up. You are going over those great thoughts believing you will remember them as the day goes on. Yeah, that is what I tell myself. But the truth is I have in my mind written some amazing limericks, repeated them in my head and told myself I will write it out later in the day when I have the time.
Sure Paula. That is awesome. You know what happens, repeatedly? I forget what I didn’t write down. One would think I may have learned my lesson yet but I am still working on it. I even have said just turn your phone on and speak it. It’s not that hard.
This is all comes around again to the ability to give yourself a command and follow through. I can be so diligent about certain things, like never forgetting to recharge my phone, which is highly important for my business, but still struggle with doing something I know will propel me to another level of success. The warning here for me is not so much the great limerick I wrote in my head, it is the warning to stop listening to the lie I will remember it. And the deeper lie … because I cannot remember is somehow a character flaw.
if I let those sabotaging voices continue they would talk me right out of ever writing again.
Maybe my limericks are only great to me. It’s not the point. Feeling good about commanding myself to be in charge, stay in charge and finish my goal will do far for me than the whole world reading my writings. Of course I still want the whole world to, but I will just keeping working on that.
Warning….listen to those morning thoughts and write them down. Our subconscious mind has lots to say.
Soul Thinking
April 24
