Fortune Cookie Faith

I had finished my egg roll, egg drop soup, and cashew chicken. I poured myself another cup of hot Jasmine tea and opened my fortune cookie. Who knew a blog post would follow?

The little piece of paper hidden inside my cookie held an interesting message. Fortunes usually contain a statement that will be true if the person holding the message makes it come true. I read my fortune that day and wanted to live the message as a truth for my life.

My fortune said: “To think is easy; to act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult of all.”

To think is easy.

According to healthybrains.org,Your brain is a three pound universe that processes 70,000 thoughts each day using 100 billion neurons that connect at more than 500 trillion points through synapses that travel 300 miles/hour.” It’s a wonder we don’t have a constant headache!

King David praised God saying, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:13–14). 

God created our brains and then caused us to think millions of thoughts each day. Our brains don’t even shut down when we sleep. Thinking is easy because that’s what God created us to do. It’s also why God knew we would need his guidance.

The apostle Paul was mentoring Timothy when he said, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Timothy 2:7). One of the most helpful things we can do for our lives is to think with God’s guidance. We can gain knowledge as we think, but we gain understanding as God applies his wisdom to our thoughts.

To think is easy . . .

To act is difficult

Forbes Magazine published an article about the twenty-five biggest regrets in life. The list confirmed the message I got in my fortune cookie. All of us have millions of thoughts, but our lives are altered by the actions, or inactions, our thoughts produce in our lives.

Forbes Magazine listed these as people’s greatest regrets:

  • Working too much at the expense of family and friendships.
  • Not standing up to bullies in school or in life.
  • Not maintaining friendships.
  • Losing a true love relationship.
  • Worrying what others think too often.
  • Not having confidence.
  • Living the life a parent wants for us, rather than the life we want for ourselves.
  • Not seeking a dream job. Not pursuing joy. Taking life too seriously.
  • Not disconnecting from technology often enough.
  • Not taking fun trips with family and friends.
  • Not healing a broken marriage or friendship.
  • Not trusting the inner voice and allowing other voices to carry too much influence.

A sin occurs when we choose to do wrong. I used to tell my kids that mistakes were normal and we all make them. I didn’t punish my kids for making a mistake. I did, however, punish them if they chose to do something wrong when they knew to do what was right. That’s the difference between a mistake and a sin.

God will never let us “fall” into sin. He will, however, allow us to choose the path that leads to that fall. Our common sense and God’s Spirit will re-direct and warn us before we fall. God doesn’t want us to fall, doesn’t cause us to fall, but he also doesn’t promise to keep us from falling. God made us with a free will and then gave us a mind that would be able to know how to use our free will. 

It’s easy to think about things. Our problem is we don’t always act on the thoughts God provides.

To act as one thinks is the most difficult of all.

There are a LOT of verses that discuss the importance of our actions. The apostle John taught, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). James said, “You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18). King Solomon said, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13–14).

Our three-pound brains create about 70,000 thoughts each day. Many of those thoughts lead to our actions. Our most difficult task begins with our most difficult choice. Paul taught us to, “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). 

If we want to act on our best thoughts we need to remember to think with God. If we want to walk in his ways, we need to obey the voice of Christ, through his Holy Spirit. Godly actions will require us to think with biblical priorities.

None of us will do that often enough. We certainly live in an era of “arguments and lofty opinions.” We also live with constant access to God’s word. We simply have to make the difficult choice to submit every thought to Christ and then obey his direction.

Fortune Cookie Faith

I opened that fortune cookie, read it, and then passed it to my husband. I liked the message and wanted to share it with him. Normally, I would have left that little piece of paper on the table before leaving the restaurant; but that day I took it home.

Sometimes a fortune cookie gives you a message for the moment. Sometimes a fortune cookie becomes a thought, which when submitted to God becomes an action. One of my 70,000 thoughts that day was, “I want to write about this.”

I hope my fortune cookie faith was a blessing to your thoughts today. God wants us to revere his voice and obey his daily direction. It’s our whole duty and it’s our great reward.

That cashew chicken was really good, but God used a fortune cookie to provide his thought that day.

We all revise our thinking

Last week I saw the Broadway play Hamilton and it was amazing. The next day we kept grandkids and we all watched a movie called The Bigfoot Family.

How in the world did those two very different things inspire this blog post? 

After watching Hamilton and The Bigfoot Family, I realized I was influenced by both productions to view history and the present in ways that weren’t based on complete truth. 

We are hearing a lot about the ways our history and cultural perceptions are being revised by our media and entertainment. People are expressing concerns about what their children are learning in school. While those concerns have merit, they also deserve some practical thinking as well.

I wrote last week about the normalization of homosexuality and the movement to force people to accept something the Bible describes as anything but normal and acceptable. I’m alarmed at the trends, but not surprised.

I saw a lot of things as a child that I’m glad are no longer considered normal or acceptable. I’m glad that my thinking has been revised over the years.

Hamilton and The Bigfoot Family

The play was amazing even though I think I only understood about one-third of the rap lyrics. The costumes, music, dancing, and voices were pure talent. That said, I don’t think I yet know the real story of Alexander Hamilton because I saw that play. I came home, ordered a biography, and plan to read that soon.

The Bigfoot Family is a cartoon movie that describes one family’s fight to protect the land from the abuses of the oil industry and their drilling machines. The movie was entertaining, suspenseful, exciting, and completely misrepresents the vast majority of this nation’s oil field owners, workers, and the benefits of oil itself.

I left Hamilton wondering what kind of man he really was. I watched my grandkids accept the message of the Bigfoot family movie, which presented oil drilling as an evil occupation and completely left out the benefits to our lives because of that industry.

How will our grandchildren wade through these current waves of thought? The same way we did when we were their age.

Gone With the Wind

As a young girl, I read the classic novel Gone With the Wind. Reading came easily to me and I probably read some books ahead of schedule. Books were my chief source of entertainment as a child, and I loved a great novel.

I went to my fifth or sixth grade class in the fall, and when the teacher told us to write down the books we had read during our summer break, Gone With the Wind was on mine. My teacher called me up to her desk and seriously doubted my list. She asked me several questions and was surprised when I answered them. I don’t think she approved.

If the only thing I ever learned about the Civil War came from Gone With the Wind, I would not know much truth about that period in our history. I would not think accurately about the intelligence and abilities of fourteen percent of our American population. I would probably think differently about women, people in the north, and people in the south. I’m glad my thinking has been revised these past fifty-five years.

We all revise our thinking

Romans 12:1 tells us to present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice because we want to make every effort to please him. Then, Romans 12:2 tells us how to do that. The apostle Paul was inspired to write, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” 

No one in Scripture experienced a greater transformation in their way of thinking than Paul! He had been utterly conformed to obey all the rabbinic teaching, even the laws the Jewish leaders wrongly presented as God’s truth rather than their own. He was driven to persecute the very people that had followed God’s Messiah—God’s New Covenant will for the world.

Thankfully through the power of God’s Holy Spirit and a personal encounter with Christ, Paul’s thoughts were transformed and his mind renewed to God’s word and will. Paul lived the rest of his life for what was “good and acceptable and perfect” to God. 

God will continue to do what God has always done. People’s thoughts will be revised when they encounter the power of God today just as Paul’s thoughts were changed more than two thousand years ago. 

Everyone reading this blog post who has yielded their minds to God, has revised their thinking at some point in time. Hopefully we have learned to aim at what is “good, acceptable and perfect” in God’s eyes.

Let’s be aware and optimistic

Revisionist thinking isn’t a new way of thinking. Times change and so do our thoughts, our prejudices, our opinions, and our values. We are people living amid a fallen world, satanic influence, and changing generations. That’s why God gave us his unchanging word. That’s why God gave us guaranteed grace through Jesus. That’s why God gave us his powerful guide, his Holy Spirit.

Maybe you feel shocked at times by the thoughts and ideas that are spoken, shouted, printed, and even preached. I know I feel that way sometimes. But let’s not be afraid to think new thoughts, as long as those thoughts agree with God’s word. Let’s not be afraid to be open-minded as long as we have opened our minds to God’s direction. Let’s be aware of the changes around us but always optimistic because we serve an unchanging God.

The last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, has a simple theme: In the end, those who stand with God, win big!

God would tell us exactly what he told the prophet Jeremiah: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

We all need to revise our thinking these days. We have a great future and a great hope as we trust in our perfect God.

Faith doesn’t always fix it, but it has an effect

What was your first thought when you learned about the death of Naomi Judd

I really appreciated the family’s honest but private announcement. Everyone deserves that protection, even though the public will likely not honor it very much.

I was saddened because Naomi Judd was a person who was public about her faith in God. At the same time, I was worried about how that would play out in the media. Neither God’s people nor the world’s are very good about offering grace for mental illness. Brains get sick too, and we would be wise to understand that.

Our Christian message is that faith will fix the darkness and that is truth, but even truth isn’t perfected this side of heaven. Faith won’t always fix the world’s problems. Sometimes our faith simply helps us see beyond the problems to their eternal solutions.

Christians are called to be the “light of the world.” Is it time we should feel more responsible for bringing the light than revealing the darkness? I put myself under that admonition too.

Ancient wisdom for modern days

Isaiah 32 is an interesting chapter in Scripture. Is it about Israel, or is it about the days when the Messiah will come? The best answer to that question is yes. One of my favorite things about Scripture is the eternal nature of God’s truth. 

Israel thought they were doing okay. They knew they had strayed from what God most wanted in their lives. They knew times were darker, and the prophets were warning them that God wasn’t pleased with their choices. They knew their kids didn’t care about God’s word as much as their grandparents had cared. But they had crops to grow, businesses to run, clothes to wash, and meals to prepare. 

The Israelites knew their culture wasn’t okay with God, but they were too busy to care enough and felt helpless to fix the problems. Besides, God loved them and had made them promises. So, they continued to accept their flaws, hoping God would too. 

Isaiah, their prophet, told the people what God’s judgment would look like when it came. They had broken God’s covenant and things were going to change. But Isaiah also told them there was hope for their future generations. God would send a Messiah and enable people to, once again, be right with God. Isaiah made a bold statement about the power of change through the coming Messiah. 

Receiving salvation through faith in God’s Messiah, Christ Jesus, enables a person to be made right with God, and being right with God is righteousness. Isaiah wrote, “the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever” (Isaiah 32:17). Spend just a minute and think about Isaiah’s words. They describe the potential life and witness of Christians today, those who live rightly with God. 

Our question this month is: What effect is our Christian life and witness having in our culture today?

Our world needs a “righteous” witness

I read an article from Johns Hopkins about the statistics for mental health in America. Those statistics are likely to get more attention in the days ahead. 

The two statements that stood out to me were:

  • “An estimated 26% of Americans ages 18 and older—about 1 in 4 adults—suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.”
  • “Approximately 9.5% of American adults ages 18 and over will suffer from a depressive illness (major depression, bipolar disorder, or dysthymia) each year.”

Faith plays an important role in a person’s mental health; however, Naomi Judd and many others illustrate the fact that faith doesn’t always cure mental illness, or any of the other illnesses either. The effect of righteousness is “peace, quietness and trust” but the permanent promise is for “forever.”

Christians are the “light of the world” but sometimes, this side of heaven, the batteries wear out and even Christians find themselves in the darkness. The good news is that we don’t all “wear out” at the same time. God created us to need one another and gifted us in ways that can help.

How will your life affect the darkness this week?

If one in four people is struggling with the darkness today, how can we help?

First, look in the mirror.

If you are in a dark place today, admit it. You are in good company, even among your Christian friends. It’s okay to be going through a rough time because everyone does. 

Righteousness means you have peace, quietness, and trust as your promise, but remember that Scripture also promises “in the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). In the same verse, the Lord also said, “I have overcome the world.” 

The best witness isn’t the person who never struggles; it is the person who learns to “overcome” their struggles by seeking help and by offering help.

Second, if you have a friend in a dark place, do more than pray for them.

Prayers surely will help the person, but often our prayers will lead us to be their help. Offer prayers for the person and offer yourself to God. Jesus is the light of the world, but he said the same thing about Christians.

Finally, never doubt that if people know you are a Christian, your witness is watched.

People want to know if Jesus is real. People want to believe there is a heaven, and they hope they can go there. Christians are the light of the world. We are righteous because of Christ, but we will never be perfectly right. Righteousness is our gift, but it is also our goal this side of heaven.

The impact of our lives on others will be profound if we simply live with the honest hope of heaven.

The “effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever” (Isaiah 32:17). 

Peace. 

Quietness. 

Trust. 

That person will be a “light” in our world. 

At least one in four people you see need some of that light today. 

Maybe the person in your mirror could use some light. 

The best way to surround yourself with light is to become light. May that be the “effect” of our righteousness this week. 

Amen?

The Voice of Your Inner Thoughts

I watched the Emmy Awards Sunday night with a different kind of interest. It might have been because I am teaching from Corinthians this year and am often amazed at the cultural comparisons. 

The program itself was not very good. Hollywood can’t settle on a host for the show, nor can they settle on any standards for behavior. Many of the presenters struggled to read the teleprompter or make acceptance speeches. I’m not sure how often words were bleeped out, but there were a lot of speeches with multiple breaks. 

The whole show was pretty much a train wreck from the beginning.

Having rights is different than being right 

I’m probably not surprising any of you when I say that Hollywood has a very real darkness these days and, surprisingly, they see themselves as enlightened. 

Many of the award recipients made lofty-sounding statements on politics or personal morality. Interestingly, I don’t imagine many (or any) majored in political science, history, or philosophy. 

Several spoke about women’s rights while wearing dresses that had to be taped to their chest to prevent possible wardrobe malfunctions. We saw men kissing other men and transgender people treated as heroes or groundbreakers. 

Hollywood preaches about people’s “rights” but rarely about the need for people to behave rightly. In fact, their message is that personal choice determines what is right—unless, of course, someone’s personal choice disagrees with theirs. 

The ads during the program often targeted upcoming new shows for the fall season. I was amazed at the number of these programs that involved the supernatural and often the occult. They are dabbling in areas they have no idea are actually dangerous for people to think about.  

Hollywood has shouted about gun control, but I’ve never heard a network news show blame their own evening programming. How often do the networks air shows that feature a hero with a gun? How many of our random shootings are prompted by a warped sense of wanting to be popular like that? 

Hollywood is shouting for an individual’s personal right to choose. God created that concept. But God also created the Law so that we would know how to choose rightly. There will always be consequences when people make wrong choices. Sadly, that message was completely left out of the speeches that were made. 

Rethinking our thoughts

I wanted to watch the Emmy Awards because I believe our televisions have influenced our inner thoughts and we need to rethink our thoughts.  

  • When last were you saddened by an unmarried couple in a sexual relationship?
  • Are you beginning to accept homosexuality as a personal choice?
  • Are you intrigued by television shows that dabble in or elevate the occult?
  • Do you grieve the jokes that are made about the clergy, or even the Lord, on sitcoms or talk shows?
  • Has your thinking changed to include tolerance, acceptance, or even appreciation of things that God’s word has called unholy or sinful? 

The reason I ask you those questions is that is what is happening in my inner thoughts sometimes. I’ve become more anesthetized to seeing shows about Satan introduced to primetime television. It’s rare to see a committed, married couple on television who live with biblical standards. 

There are popular shows about polygamy, “queer eyes,” and every kind of violence. When did those things become possible? Normal? Acceptable? Appreciated? 

The pattern has been around from the beginning and will always be Satan’s method. Jude 1:4 describes that method this way: “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”  

Hollywood hypocrisy

Does it matter if it is just a “television show”?  

Hollywood thinks it matters—but only when it is convenient for their message. 

  • Gun violence matters—unless it’s found in a show they are acting in or producing.
  • Violence against women is terrible—unless they are offered the role of an abused woman or her abuser.
  • Education is important—unless they have to drop out of school to play a part in a movie or sitcom.
  • Equality is demanded—unless they are competing for the part or acting in a particular role.
  • Honesty matters—except when they are pretending to be someone they are not, or shouldn’t be.

The Voice within is a Person 

This week I’m teaching from the second chapter of 1 Corinthians. Paul taught a strategic lesson to the church in Corinth about the function of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If you are a Christian, you have been given the Holy Spirit.  

Paul wrote, “For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11).  

The Holy Spirit knows what God thinks. When we see something on the television that makes us cringe, that is the Holy Spirit telling us what God thinks. When we see something that seems disgusting or revolting, that is the Holy Spirit telling us how God feels. When we feel saddened by what we see, that is a touch of God’s grief.  

The Holy Spirit knows what God thinks, and his role is to inform us so that we can think and feel like our Creator.  

You can know God and his thoughts 

How can you know what God is thinking? 

Paul answers that question in this way: “‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). 

That is one of my favorite descriptions of the Holy Spirit. There is a voice within every Christian who speaks thoughts from the mind of Christ. That voice competes with others but shouldn’t have to. Why do we let Hollywood and other worldly thinking influence our thoughts when we can listen to Jesus’ opinions instead?  

Hollywood is enticing and  tempting—but we know the source of that type of thinking. Satan has a voice as well. 

The Holy Spirit within you is the mind of Christ. Pause often to listen for his thoughts and opinions. They are truly the only thoughts worthy of our time, focus, and especially our opinions and standards. We have been given the mind of Christ, but we have also been given the right to choose his thoughts.  

The mind of Christ will always reflect and agree with the word of God. That’s why we call the Bible his holy word. Many of our thoughts will be authored by God’s Holy Spirit today. 

Let’s choose to listen well.

New Every Morning

I raised two sons and, years ago, taught second grade. I remember clearly the excitement, stress, and potential the phrase “back-to-school” used to mean. 

This is a big week for a lot of people, but it is just another week for a lot of people as well. For some, “back-to-school” means huge changes to the weeks and months ahead. 

For people like me, it just means I should pay attention to those blinking school-zone lights while I’m driving.

An eight-month-old teacher

I had the joy of watching my grandkids recently. One morning, I sat with a cup of coffee and really watched them. My youngest grandson, Wells, is eight months old, and God spoke through his young life to remind me of something I tend to forget. 

No matter what I put in front of Wells, he reached for it, touched it, chewed on it, and shook it around. He didn’t want to miss anything. If something was out of reach, he strained for it and didn’t stop trying to get his hands around it. 

For Wells, every day is full of new experiences, and he works hard to learn about everything. “Back-to-school” is every moment of his life. 

God created us for growth

I was watching Wells stretch to reach everything around him when I “heard” my thoughts become these verses: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22–23). 

I thought about the fact that God created us to learn, grow, and strain to know him. Watching my grandson reminded me that one of the great joys of life is that every morning is a new opportunity.  

But, why don’t we always see the newness amidst the sameness

Those two verses of Lamentations offered a lesson about God’s greatness that all of us should strain to learn. 

Only God is both unchanging and new

  • God’s love is steadfast, unceasing. The only thing in our lives that stays the same is God’s love. Everything else changes. Why?
  • God’s mercies never come to an end. God could have made every person, every day, and everyone’s experiences the same. Instead, God created a complex, ever-changing world. Why?
  • God’s mercies are new every morning. God wanted us to wake up every day with the knowledge that we can do and learn something new with our daily moments. Why?
  • Great is God’s faithfulness. God created an always-changing world so we would understand that he is uniquely steadfast. The only thing in life that is unceasing is the powerful love of God. And his mercies are new every day.

“Back-to-school” is for everyone

Proverbs 18:15 says, “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” 

In other words, is there ever a day that wisdom allows us to stop learning? 

God literally created change so we would know his uniqueness in our lives.

God is the only unchanging, steadfast “rock.” The Lord has something new to teach us about himself today. 

We should be straining to fully experience that lesson.

Remember to chew on truth

Wells is sprouting new teeth these days. I had to keep an eye on everything he touched because, if he could get his hands on it, he was going to chew on it.  

Just another of my lessons from an eight-month-old. God doesn’t want me to just hear, read, or realize his truths. I ought to chew on them as well. We need to fully experience God, and, to do that, we need to think about, ponder on, and strain to fully learn his steadfast, unchanging, but always-new mercies.  

Do you need to go back to school today? 

Open God’s word, pray your way through the day, and you will experience God’s new mercies. And the same will be true for tomorrow.   

God spoke to me through my eight-month-old grandson. Let his voice surprise you today. 

It’s a new day—and God is faithful.