We must cultivate our minds—prepare them to raise crops of life, hope, purity, faith, joy. This means cultivating the mind of Christ the Father has given us. To have the mind of Christ is to think as he thinks so we can join Father where he’s working.
The mind of Christ isn’t air-dropped into us when we become Christians, fully formed and functioning flawlessly. It is something we cultivate, tend to, work on. This won't happen unopposed.
There is a battle for our minds. This is war, as Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
We’re going to need well-tended, carefully cultivated minds to make it in a world that’s hostile to God.
Cultivate Your Mind
October 1, 2017 • Graeme Sellers
Two Wrong Choices
September 24, 2017 • Meg Crossman
This morning we talk about knowing some of the wise ways to cultivate the fields the Lord has given us. Cultivating particularly involves destroying weeds and allowing our seedlings to grow well. This involves knowing how to combat the weeds without destroying the vegetables or plants we want to develop and maintain. Our Lord warns us in John 10:10 that “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 2:11 that “no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.” If we are going to be successful in cultivating our fields, we need to know who our enemy is and how he works.
Why Ask Why?
September 17, 2017 • David Hammerslag
As we press into cultivating and simultaneously being cultivated, many forces can pull us away from obedience. For some of us, one of the most powerful can be a desire to know "why." Our desire to understand how our obedience will yield any fruit can stand forcefully in the way of obedience. Science and faith converge tell us that the knowing we seek is not possible. Chaos theory and the "Butterfly Effect" tell that we can't foresee the end results of even the smallest actions; faith requires that we move without knowing. As Isaiah said, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord."
Going Up | Giving Up...A Dilemma
September 10, 2017 • Graeme Sellers
This is where a number of us find ourselves: thinking we’d be further along by now and wondering, "How much longer, O Lord?" Maybe the field you’ve been cultivating is your marriage, maybe it’s the care of your soul, perhaps it is the ministry theme of inviting. You’ve done all the work you know to do, that you’ve sensed God inviting you to do, and this is result: mountain after mountain after mountain. And you just don’t know if you can do it anymore, if it’s worth it to do it anymore.