Live in His Word

This week I have been working on teaching my students to be more proactive than reactive. I try and explain to them the importance of controlling themselves and their reactions to others. I talk to them about making sure they stop and think about what they should say and do before they act. It is funny how when you are teaching something, that seems to be an area that you begin to struggle even more. Over the last year and a half, I have found myself wanting to react so many times. When I see people say and do things I want to give my opinion and try and get people to understand why I am right. I want to join in the reactive conversations that cause hurt and pain to others as people vehemently declare their rightness and everyone else's wrongness. I have never in my life seen a time when people are so vicious and just downright rude to each other. It also breaks my heart when I see people try and use scriptures to back up their opinion, but use them completely out of context and th...

  I shared a picture of something I wrote on a Facebook Group. It was a rather quick thing, I didn’t think much about it. I wrote down a quote on a sticky note from a speaker that really stuck out to me and put it on my board in front of me. I thought the quote was really good, so I took the picture and posted it. As of right now, it has almost 200 likes, which thoroughly surprised me (although it was a good quote). The funny thing is the more people that liked it the more I looked at the picture and was frustrated with myself that I didn’t write it cuter. I mean I love to write things in a cute way, and this I just wrote quickly and in black ink, not in my best handwriting, just put it on the paper. So I did this thing to try and encourage others and ended up being insecure because strangers, who don’t even know me, will see sloppy handwriting. So much of the time we do and say things because we want to be seen, we want to be known, and we want to be loved- yet more often than not...

Have you ever been around a person who is just negative ALL THE TIME? Everything they say to you is about how bad something is. They are quick to tell you all the things wrong with this world and everyone around you. Is this person you? Are you constantly telling yourself everything wrong with you, with those around you, focused on the difficult circumstances and events in your life? Philippians 4 tells us that we are to think about things that are of good report or some translations say worthy of praise.  I don’t know about you, but when I look at my thought life, unfortunately all too often my thoughts are not worthy of praise. They are more than likely about how annoyed I am, how tired I am, how much I have to get done this week, etc. As I scroll through Facebook, I find myself getting frustrated with people and wanting to let them know. I let myself dwell on things that are not of good report. This isn’t what God wants for us. What does he want? A good report. When we look at t...

  This week in our series on fixing our thoughts we are going to focus on the word “pure.” When we read the list in Philippians 4:8 and we come to the word pure, we might think of it with a sexual connotation, because that is how it is mostly used in our world today. We may even think we are off the hook because we do not feel we are doing anything wrong in that area of our lives. Being pure is about so much more than that. When we look at the Greek word in this verse it is “hagnos”, which means pure, chaste, clear, pure from carnality, modest, and clean. So while it can be a part of how we handle ourselves in our relationships, it goes much deeper. There are several other verses that use this same word and we can gain a better understanding by looking at them. 1 Timothy 5:22b says, “Do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.” This is actually harder than we might think. How often do we sit around with people and listen to the stories they share in jest of things they ...

We are continuing in our study of Philippians 4:8 and thinking about what we think about. Last week we talked about thinking about things that are true- actual occurrences. This week we are looking at the second word in our list- Noble or Honest. Honest sounds so much like truth it could make us wonder why both words are included. Truth is the Greek word “alethes” and deals more with an action or circumstance. Speaking truth, a true circumstance, etc. Honest is the word “semnos” and appears to be more concerned with your character. The word “semnos” appears 3 other times in the New Testament. Each time it is used it describes how someone should be. For instance, it is used for a deacon, an aged man, and the wife of a deacon. It is often translated as grave or serious. I have seen lots of Christians who look grave- like they just sucked on a lemon, but I don’t think that is quite the point here. It is more of a Christian who is sincere and intentional about their relationship with God. ...

Last week I talked about how God keeps in perfect peace those whose thoughts are fixed on Him. Over the next several weeks I want to look at ways that we keep our minds fixed on God. Philippians 4:8 says “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” (NLT)  This week we are going to focus on the word true. When you look up the Greek for this word it is “an actual occurrence. Of God, or loving the truth and speaking the truth.” First I want to focus on the thought that truth is an ACTUAL occurrence. How often do we fix our thoughts on things that haven’t happened and might not happen? We play the what-if game. What if I start a new job and I hate it? What if my kids go out and forget everything I ever taught them? What if I tell my friends “no” and they get mad at me? We can say what if all day long. The thing is- those...