ZIGZAGGING TO A CONCLUSION

ZIGZAGGING TO A CONCLUSION

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Psalm 103:1-5 [A Psalm of David.] Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

2Corinthians [GW] 10:4-5 The weapons we use in our fight are not made by humans. Rather, they are powerful weapons from God. With them we destroy people's defenses, that is, their arguments  and all their intellectual arrogance that oppose the knowledge of God. We take every thought captive so that it is obedient to Christ.

2Timothy [MKJV] 1:7 For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Hebrews [MKJV] 10:38; 11:6 …  "the Just shall live by faith. But if he draws back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him." … without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

  Staying on track in serious thinking can be hard work. Just getting past our own defenses; comfortable bias grounded in familial worldly education and personal preconceived concepts that we consider precepts can be tiresome.

  When I first started rethinking life according to God’s Word it was mentally fatiguing. Then I discovered that the chosen process was a major contributor to my fatigue. It wasn’t the magnitude of enlightening new thought. It was that I was laboring at thinking in linear manner whereas I typically think in intermittent zigzag on and off patterns with items large and small crowding the edges.

  Lest you think I’m focusing on me this morning I am not. The words above actually began with reading article on GIS (The new discipline of not just seeing maps, but the connecting of geography to history.) in Smithsonian magazine. I began then thinking about others and arriving at conclusion that once again I could assist in providing some of you liberation.

  Due to exercise of rote learning in my public schooling I had an area of fear as I was not, am not good at memorization. This old fear was further cultivated after trusting Jesus at age 27. I was repeatedly hearing echoes of public school. “To grow spiritually you must memorize Scripture verbatim.” (KJV of course!) Accompanied by remarks such as “Anybody can memorize information if they really put their mind to it!” The plaguing fear, feelings of failure and rejection, and guilt was not delightful for a guy that still has to think about the alphabet.

  God states in His Word that His children have soundness of mind. He did not, does not, say all our minds work in the same way. We don’t all think in the same manner!

  And now arrives yet another ziggy-zaggy thought that I’ll conclude with this morning: We have no redeeming righteousness of our own. We only have redemption by faith. If we don’t live by faith but shrink back from applying what God says about us, He has no pleasure in us. Would this include clumsy Ed trying to be a basketball standout . . . or you or me trying to think like me or you? I think so, and that the reward in this case isn’t primarily knowledge with understanding resulting in mental and emotional liberation, but for His pleasure, honor and glory.  EBB4