Category: Level: Intermediate

How Do I Deal With Unwanted Thoughts? – Part 2

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This is the second of two blog posts on unwanted thoughts. The first post looked at the stages a thought goes through, and when we need to stop it. This post looks at specific strategies for dealing with unwanted thoughts. First: stay calm. Unwanted thoughts gain influence when we fear them, or stir up a lot of emotion. Instead, “be anxious about nothing” (Philippians 4:6) but rather, as the verse states, “give thanks” for what God will do, and “make your request known” to God to overcome this thought.   Offer your thought to God. Pray something like: “I don’t know where this thought comes from but I offer it to you. I depend on You. You take it. And help me to know how I should respond.” Also, “I can’t stop thinking about this, I can’t do it, You need to.” In this way the unwanted thought turns you Continue Reading →

How Do I Deal With Unwanted Thoughts? – Part 1

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You are innocently working on one of your daily tasks and all of a sudden an evil thought comes into your head. It plays for a few seconds, but you don’t embrace it. You mentally fight and reject it. Then you feel a little dazed and confused by its impact. Finally, the thought fades away. Then you start wondering where it came from. Is this from you? Is it some buried corruption you are not aware of? Or is it from Satan? Is it a combination of the two? Is it from neither one, just a quirk of the human mind? Was it triggered by something around you by the power of suggestion? Is it just free association? You can’t really figure it out. This will take more time. Regardless of how it came it is frustrating and sometimes discouraging when unwanted thoughts come in. You want to grow in Continue Reading →

What Spiritual Life Stage Are You In?

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In the last post we looked at the benefits of understanding stages of spiritual growth as well as two repeating patterns. In this post we look at two popular models of growth. The second one is an expansion of the first. These models are non-repeating models of growth. This means they cover the entire lifetime of a believer and do not repeat. These models are part of spiritual theology, or the theology of sanctification. They are based on what the writers saw in scripture and in their experience so they are attempts to do biblical spiritual theology. As you read through this it will help to ask yourself how it applies to your life. What stage do you most identify with? Do you see a flow to your spiritual growth that is reflected in one of these models? What do you think you need to focus on next in order Continue Reading →

A Vision For Community – Teaching Relationships In Our Churches And Schools

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Since Christianity is a relational faith and since Jesus said loving God and others are the greatest commandments it would make sense for churches and schools to teach classes focused on building healthy relationships. Many churches have classes for healthy marriages which is great, but what is needed even more is teaching on all types of relationships. Christians should become masters of relating to co-workers, neighbors, authorities, new acquaintances as well as friends and relatives. Christians should become skilled at saying the right thing at the right time. We should know how to speak words that resolve conflict and encourage others. People should remember us as someone who brings good things into their lives. Here are some ideas for creating a curriculum for building relationship relationships. Five areas of study could be: 1. Biblical teachings on relationships. Students would study the various biblical passages on relationships. Key passages would include Continue Reading →

How Can We Reach the Lost in a Society in Spiritual Decline? – Lessons From History

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How Christianity Transforms People and Society: The Highest Priority for Engaging Our Culture Many believers are disturbed by the decline in their country (e.g. America, England, Germany) of an interest in Christianity or even in living healthy constructive lives. People seem to less able to form healthy relationships and don’t seem to seriously seek a transcendent life. This situation is not too different from what the Christians faced in the first three centuries of the Church. The early Christians did not take an adversarial approach to their society. Sometimes Christian writers would point out the sinfulness of their culture but they did not focus on this. Instead, they focused on living the Christian life. In other words, they had a different spiritual theology concerning social engagement. Perhaps one could refer to their approach as “magnetic engagement”: the Church focused on drawing people by living attractive lives. A few believers were Continue Reading →