One of the things that I love about being a Christian is God's Word. I read it, and read it again, and every time, I find something new. There are so many moments when I find myself reading through a book of the Bible that I know I have read several times and yet it touches and overwhelms my heart as if I were seeing it for the first time. And in many ways I am seeing it for the first time because although my eyes have previously scanned the pages, my soul has not yet soaked up its truth.
I love how God calls us to "work out our salvation." Knowing God and being the kind of son/daughter that he wants us to be is a process. On the day when Christ saved me from my sin, and humbled my heart enough to confess that sin to him, and strengthened me enough to accept his unreserved, and oh so tender forgiveness, that moment was only the beginning, not the end of my salvation. Back then, I knew very little about the Word. I hardly knew where to find the book of Genesis. I had no idea that the gospels so gloriously unfolded the divine details of the life of Christ. I knew nothing of Paul and the miracles that God did in and through his life and how his passion for his Savior enabled him to write so much of the new testament.
When I accepted Christ I never would have guessed that the majority of the most amazing Christ followers experienced the most atrocious trials. To be honest I thought that life was going to get easier and more comfortable once I accepted Christ. But by the looks of it, according to the Bible, most of us get the most refined by going through the fire before we can come out pure as gold. Prison, beatings, a whale, a lion's den, war, famine, death on a cross, loss of children, empty wombs, boils from head to toe... all clearly far from taking the easy road.
I am reading a book this summer with a few ladies from our church called, Disciplines of A Godly Woman. It's one of those books that you need to remind yourself that you really can't do a whole lot on your own, but you can do a whole heck of a lot with the Holy Spirit at work within your soul... that is, if you'll let him. :)
Any who... One of the 16 disciplines that the author discusses is the discipline of the Mind. And she puts out this verse in a challenge to really ponder and be mindful of the things that we put into our minds.
"I will ponder the way that is blameless. Oh, when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house; I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those that fall away. It shall not cling to me." Psalm 101:2-3
I have been pondering this verse in my heart all week long. I have read it repeatedly. I have thought mainly about the things that I watch. I've thought about how desensitized I am to the things that I allow my eyes to view. Often times it's nothing extreme. It's a crude joke, or a revealing love scene that doesn't necessarily present all the details but there is no denying that it puts impure images in my mind. "I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless..." Does it really matter if I fell asleep last night to Jennifer Lopez moving in with her boyfriend and reading taro (spelling?) cards with her guy friend who happens to prefer sleeping with men rather than women? Those things are all worthless, are they not?
Because this is my blog I feel free to be totally honest here... As of this moment I have absolutely no intentions to stop watching movies a few times a week with my Joey. But I also must confess that this week I have been asking myself, "Why not?" If in one moment of my day my soul is pleading with the Lord, "Lord, I do not want to set before my eyes things that are worthless," and the next moment my soul and my mind are consciously choosing to stare at that little black box with image after image of things that don't please God, how can I expect the Lord to answer me? If I watch things that are worthless then my mind will obviously have things in it that are worthless.
And the opposite will be true just the same. If I read the Bible and listen to wise men and women speak about the Bible, and read books that challenge me to think through godly principles, godly character, godly perspective then the likelihood of me becoming the kind of godly woman that I want to be is a lot more likely. I am starting to think that just asking God to help us be godly is only half of what he requires of us. I cannot be lukewarm... I cannot be the kind of godly women that I want to be and constantly be dipping my feet in the world.
Do I really want to "walk with integrity of heart within my house.. and not set before my eyes anything that is worthless?"
I really do. But in my heart I am pondering the change that will need to take place for me to do so.
What do you think? To extreme? Do you think God really cares what we watch... what we listen to... what we read... essentially what we put into our minds?
Just pondering... :)
PS... After posting tonight I read this quote...
"The Bible makes no room for the idea of the secular. In biblical worldview, there is only the sacred and the profane, and the profane is just the sacred abused, unkempt, trampled down, trivialized, turned inside out. It is just the holy treated in an unholy way.” ~Buchanan
Hmmmmmm....
I love how God calls us to "work out our salvation." Knowing God and being the kind of son/daughter that he wants us to be is a process. On the day when Christ saved me from my sin, and humbled my heart enough to confess that sin to him, and strengthened me enough to accept his unreserved, and oh so tender forgiveness, that moment was only the beginning, not the end of my salvation. Back then, I knew very little about the Word. I hardly knew where to find the book of Genesis. I had no idea that the gospels so gloriously unfolded the divine details of the life of Christ. I knew nothing of Paul and the miracles that God did in and through his life and how his passion for his Savior enabled him to write so much of the new testament.
When I accepted Christ I never would have guessed that the majority of the most amazing Christ followers experienced the most atrocious trials. To be honest I thought that life was going to get easier and more comfortable once I accepted Christ. But by the looks of it, according to the Bible, most of us get the most refined by going through the fire before we can come out pure as gold. Prison, beatings, a whale, a lion's den, war, famine, death on a cross, loss of children, empty wombs, boils from head to toe... all clearly far from taking the easy road.
I am reading a book this summer with a few ladies from our church called, Disciplines of A Godly Woman. It's one of those books that you need to remind yourself that you really can't do a whole lot on your own, but you can do a whole heck of a lot with the Holy Spirit at work within your soul... that is, if you'll let him. :)
Any who... One of the 16 disciplines that the author discusses is the discipline of the Mind. And she puts out this verse in a challenge to really ponder and be mindful of the things that we put into our minds.
"I will ponder the way that is blameless. Oh, when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house; I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those that fall away. It shall not cling to me." Psalm 101:2-3
I have been pondering this verse in my heart all week long. I have read it repeatedly. I have thought mainly about the things that I watch. I've thought about how desensitized I am to the things that I allow my eyes to view. Often times it's nothing extreme. It's a crude joke, or a revealing love scene that doesn't necessarily present all the details but there is no denying that it puts impure images in my mind. "I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless..." Does it really matter if I fell asleep last night to Jennifer Lopez moving in with her boyfriend and reading taro (spelling?) cards with her guy friend who happens to prefer sleeping with men rather than women? Those things are all worthless, are they not?
Because this is my blog I feel free to be totally honest here... As of this moment I have absolutely no intentions to stop watching movies a few times a week with my Joey. But I also must confess that this week I have been asking myself, "Why not?" If in one moment of my day my soul is pleading with the Lord, "Lord, I do not want to set before my eyes things that are worthless," and the next moment my soul and my mind are consciously choosing to stare at that little black box with image after image of things that don't please God, how can I expect the Lord to answer me? If I watch things that are worthless then my mind will obviously have things in it that are worthless.
And the opposite will be true just the same. If I read the Bible and listen to wise men and women speak about the Bible, and read books that challenge me to think through godly principles, godly character, godly perspective then the likelihood of me becoming the kind of godly woman that I want to be is a lot more likely. I am starting to think that just asking God to help us be godly is only half of what he requires of us. I cannot be lukewarm... I cannot be the kind of godly women that I want to be and constantly be dipping my feet in the world.
Do I really want to "walk with integrity of heart within my house.. and not set before my eyes anything that is worthless?"
I really do. But in my heart I am pondering the change that will need to take place for me to do so.
What do you think? To extreme? Do you think God really cares what we watch... what we listen to... what we read... essentially what we put into our minds?
Just pondering... :)
PS... After posting tonight I read this quote...
"The Bible makes no room for the idea of the secular. In biblical worldview, there is only the sacred and the profane, and the profane is just the sacred abused, unkempt, trampled down, trivialized, turned inside out. It is just the holy treated in an unholy way.” ~Buchanan
Hmmmmmm....
