The other day I overhead a conversation about whether someone should get a divorce. One person, who I can only assume was a Christian, said, “Well, you know Jesus says in Matthew 19 that you shouldn’t do that.” They went onto give more Bible verses about not divorcing.
I could only cringe. As I was not part of the conversation, I had to hold my tongue. I wanted to say, “Are you serious? Is that all you could say to this hurting individual is that the Bible says don’t do it?”
It’s very easy to focus on outward behavior and words. It’s much harder to listen to the Spirit of God to show us where the real problem is and to give us the scriptural truth we need to hear. I call this “the truth at the point of the lie.” Is it true the Bible says don’t get divorced? Yes. But is that the truth this person needed to hear right then? Probably not. If the second person in the conversation was a believer, they probably all ready knew they shouldn’t get divorced. If they were not a believer, this is definitely not the place to start!
Behavioral change starts with a change of thinking. If we want to see a particular behavior changed, we need to expose the lies in our thinking and exchange them with the truth (Rom. 12:2). Most of the time, however, this lie is buried a few layers under the surface conversation. If we really want to be used of God to see authentic change, we must be willing to slow down and ask the Spirit to show us what’s really going on – the set free truths we need to hear – and then respond how He would have us respond.
Are you only dealing with surface issues? Or will you allow the Spirit to get at the heart of the matter – your faulty thinking? Real change is also a matter of the head.
Monthly Archives: March 2012
Knowledge Dissemination vs. Knowledge Processing
This past week I put in a patio made of concrete pavers. Where did I go to learn how to accomplish this task? YouTube. The information worked great until I ran into challenges they didn’t talk about in the videos – drainage away from the house, the actual size of each stone, cement mixture, etc.
I had the “what” or facts, but I didn’t have the “how” when it came to actually putting in the patio. With the advent of the Internet and then smart phones, we literally have large amounts of data at our fingertips. But do we know how to use that information in real time situations?
I believe the Western Church has become like YouTube – great at disseminating knowledge, but she’s not done as good a job at helping people process that knowledge in daily life. This is the difference between biblical knowledge and wisdom. One is the what, the other is how to use the what. The what is only the first step in making healthy believers in Jesus. The next step is how to use those truths in every day situations that enables Christians to grow in their faith to become more like Jesus and to fulfill His purpose in and for their lives.
This is what a Biblical worldview is all about – it’s the how to think and then act biblically. It teaches and lets believers practice how to apply the Word to the situations they face each day. Only then will believers in Jesus truly be satisfied. This is the purpose of the book and blog, More Than a Sunday Faith.
Are you an information gather or user? Disseminator or processor?
Let’s Get Started!
Thanks for being patient with me. I’m new at blogging. I’ve been in the process of writing a book entitled, More Than a Sunday Faith: A Real Faith that Works in Real Life Situations. I wasn’t expecting to start blogging until after it was finished, but the Lord provided a friend who wanted to see it up and running sooner. He posted articles I had previously written for other websites until I was ready to begin my own blog. I’m now ready.
This More Than a Sunday Only Faith blog will be dedicated to showing you how to live each day the way God designed for you to live, fulfilling God’s design for you life in Jesus’ presence. Jesus created the world to work in a certain way. By choosing to live outside those parameters, your life will only end in hopelessness and lack of fulfillment.
At one time, I used to own a VW bug. I could put a few surf boards on top and a couple of people inside, but not much else. The car was made for transporting people, not hauling cargo. It was only a recipe for disaster to ask my Bug to do more than it was designed to do.
The Christian life was not designed to be experienced for only a few hours on a Sunday (Saturday, you pick the day you attend church/congregation). Jesus wants us to “taste and see” that He is good throughout our day, everyday. This is done through daily living with a Biblical worldview. The believer in Christ lives in enemy territory where our adversary controls the messages we hear each day, if we let him. It is up to the believer to filter out those messages to hear from and live each day with the One we say we love – Jesus.
I define a Biblical Worldview as follows:
It is a biblically-based truth filter (Jn. 14:6; 8:32) used to screen all information that comes to a believer through their senses, which results in the mindset (Is. 26:3; 40:12-14; Phil. 4:4-8), “What does Jesus say in the Bible about this?” (Jn. 5:19) before making decisions, and then through the Spirit’s power living out those truths (Eph. 5:18; Gal. 5:16-25) in any and all areas of one’s life (Gal. 5:1; Phil. 4:9; Col. 3:17) on a daily basis.
I’ve discussed what this means in detail in my book. Thus, it’s my desire in this blog to discuss what a Biblical worldview is in greater detail, to answer questions that arise as you read the book and try to live each day using your biblically-based truth filter, and to continue to give you practical how-to’s in daily tasting the goodness of the Lord. He wants us to eat the refreshing grapes!
Jesus wants us to know Him and to let Him change our lives so that our lives will not only be sweet for us, but also for those watching. Living the life He has for us will not always be easy. Our lives, like grapevines, must be pruned (Heb. 12:1-13). Therefore, I’d like to end by asking a question. Is how you’re currently living working for you? If so, keep doing it! If not, let’s take a journey to get closer to Jesus more than just on Sunday.