Spiritual Ponderings

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name... (Philippians 2:5-9) I have been learning a great deal about humility over the past couple weeks. No, I am not saying that I have been humiliated greatly, shamed or put down. I believe that humility and humiliation are dramatically different things from my perspective. I am talking about the true kind of humility and the fact that it seems like hardly anyone has a clue as to the real meaning of what that word really involves. What I have been discovering is that true humility is not the absence of prid...

Every once in awhile I have what some call an epiphany, a moment breakthrough when some truth suddenly snaps into much greater clarity within me and I see it in a light that I had only heard was possible before that time. I believe there may be several factors involved in preparing a person for such a moment. There are many things that are simply too large, too expansive, too profound to be contained in the smallness of the immaturity of my brain which is why most concepts simply cannot fit into my comprehension until I have a number of other more basic beliefs in place. But in addition to that, it is vital to also understand that these kinds of profound truths can only really have a deep impact on my thinking if they are grasped far deeper at the heart level of my being rather than just as an intellectual appreciation. It is true that a person mostly focused on left brain intellectual pursuits can have exciting breakthroughs and can assemble a large mass of sensible information a...

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus... (Philippians 2:5 NRSV) Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself , taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name... (Philippians 2:5-9) Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame , and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2) Having our eyes fixed on Jesus, the guide and end of our faith, who went through the pains of the cross, not caring for the shame , because of the joy which was before him, and who has now taken his...

“Not my will, but your will be done.” I am starting to perceive dimly that there are two ways of viewing these words. One of them I am very familiar with. That perception is a result of how I was taught to relate to God most of my life. It reflects an attitude of forced submission, of relinquishing my will by a painful releasing of my own desires and pleasures and sinking into a dark feeling of defeat as God once again gets His way instead of me being allowed to feel good and getting my way. But what suddenly flickered past my emotional screen a few minutes ago when I said something similar to this as I prayed was something quite different than the dark feelings I have always experienced whenever I heard these kinds of statements in the past. It was a notion that this might well be what would be heard coming from the mouth of a person madly in love with someone else. It could come out of a heart overflowing with affection, adoration, even mushy 'puppy-love sickness' as we m...

The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8) For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. (Romans 8:14 NRSV) As I was praying yesterday morning on my way to work sitting in a van with my friend who was driving, I found myself thinking about how much I want to be in sync with God's Spirit and will. I was thinking about a number of people that I wanted God to touch with His Spirit and was praying for my own spirit to perceive them through God's eyes more than how I feel about them. I want to be led by the Spirit of God every moment and to see reality and every situation through heaven's eyes and to remember who I really am from that perspective. Then an analogy came to my mind that I found very compelling and I thought of the verses I just quoted above. I want my life to have the kind of relationship to God's Spirit just l...

Blessing. I found myself blessing God this morning. Then I began to ponder just what is involved in blessing. I remembered that blessing is speaking well of someone, affirming their good characteristics, praising their good qualities. Of course that is very easy to do with God because that is all that He has, He doesn't have any negative character traits. So to bless God is simply to acknowledge and affirm all the good things about Him that I can think of and to dwell on those in my mind and heart. That in turn begins to allow my own heart to begin to reflect those same things in how I relate to others. But then when I immediately think about wanting Him to bless me, I start to think about all the reasons in my life why it would be much harder for Him to affirm my positive traits. But that is not how God sees me. He looks beyond what I tend to view as my identity, those things that I have failed to become, the many mistakes I have made, the screw-ups in so many relationships t...

Something rather strange-sounding is beginning to emerge in my attention. But it is probably only strange because I, like all everyone else on this planet, was born with inverted assumptions about what is 'normal'. What is bringing this to my attention right now is that I am facing some deadlines in my business that tend to impose themselves on my heart as sources of potential discouragement. I say 'potential' precisely because that totally depends on what I choose to use as my reference of reality. You see, if I view my situations the way I often have done and the way pretty much everyone around me views it, then it appears that things might be looking rather desperate for me meeting my goals for this month. And since meeting my goals requires much more interaction in the arena of interpersonal relationships, especially establishing new ones which does not come very natural or easy for me, my heart is under pressure to begin allowing thoughts of failure and fear an...