Old Fashioned Ladies Aren't Perfect; Did You Know?

My life's not perfect. (Shocker.) 

Nobody's life is perfect. (Even more shocking?)

We all understand that, don't we?

Here's the thing: We mostly just post the good stuff on Facebook or Instagram or in our blogs, because it's nice to share a happiness with someone, share a smile, try to uplift, instruct, even make aware of something that you just found out that you think someone else might find interesting or helpful too.

I find it interesting that that's what God wants us to do - encourage, lift up, admonish even from time to time. Share prayer requests and answered prayers. It's not actually bragging or trying to show someone else up. (Of course, some folks do, but they're so obvious.) Your average friend is just like you, and really is just trying to share ... something. Maybe even trying to serve. But sometimes when we think too much about serving ourselves and comparing ourselves with some fancy of "perfection", we might start thinking that when someone "gets" something that we struggle with, that they're showing off.

But, see, don't ever compare yourself with scattered comments and the occasional photo on Facebook or Twitter or any other social media. Those are just passing smiles or lessons shared - not entire lives. Same goes for awesome authors and guest speakers and, ahem, even preachers and their wives. Whether they're bragging or just sharing, it's just a moment or a thought, after all. And you can't strive to be Nancy Leigh DeMoss or Max Lucado, for example, because, not only are they not perfect themselves, those people are already taken. You can't be them. You be you. Imperfections and all.

Once we get that sorted in our minds - and don't berate anyone for not putting all their laundry out on the internet so you can see that they're not perfect; you just gotta know that everybody's not perfect - then we can begin to look more clearly at a big picture of a world of people, of a big family perhaps, who all are different, carrying on with their own lives, many of whom are just reaching out to connect from time to time.

Admission: I used to have trouble with all the "my wonderful kid", "my wonderful husband," "my wonderful church," "my wonderful pet," etc. posts too - sometimes - until I started truly rejoicing with those who rejoice... and mourning with those who mourn. Putting my own jealousy aside for a moment and realizing that those star jump-roping kids might have trouble with a math or foreign language or getting along with each other; those cool husbands got that post because they only cleaned that kitchen or brought those flowers ONE TIME; that really cute dog regularly poops in the backyard and has to be cleaned up after ... Now this is NOT that I rejoice in others' sorrows, but that I KNOW that we "brag" about some things because the whole rest of life is just sort of average, like everyone else goes through. That is, full of troubles AND joys. There is a time to weep. There is also a time to rejoice with others.

I wish I could thank all the moms who post cute little pictures that make us smile, thank all the pet lovers whose little furry and scaly friends make them laugh, thank all those students who keep sharing that something new they learned even if I think I've learned it before. I want to thank all those folks who share simple prayer requests, because it shows a faith in the love and prayers of friends, and the knowledge that God hears our prayers and knows what we need before we even ask or go into detail, and a love and trust for the others who they have reached out to.

Here's another thing to think about: Some young men and women actually think that they have to look like supermodels because that's what media portrays. Now, most of us get it, that we don't have to look that, or else we'd all really look like those poor models. There's hope in that fact that we don't! We really do - most of us - know that nobody's perfect.

If only people would look at the snapshots of the lives of friends and mentors online in the same way - that we're not going to look like our idea of "perfection" on earth - and just get on with living in the great corner where we are with the great gifts we've got.

I've got a beautiful niece/cousin who needs to know that she is beautiful inside and out. Several friends who also suffer from time to time because they don't know this. People I barely know but read about and hear about who have stared so long and so hard at a fantastic unreality that they have confused that unreal place as a goal - but since it doesn't exist, they are thwarted and frustrated and depressed every day of their lives! Beauty, peace, love, hope, purity, JOY - they just are. You can't control them and make them appear at your bidding. Grasp that reality? We're just little people in a great big world after all. That shouldn't make us feel lost, but rather, as children, cared for. We don't have to have or do it all. We just don't have to.

So, does going online or watching TV make you feel "inferior"? Please remind yourself that those images are temporary, abbreviated, sometimes even airbrushed pictures of only a small part of life - but they are not the dirty, busy, troublesome, crazy and sometimes even scary life that is intricate and real and all around all of us. That life is dirty so we can clean up and find the pure and true. Busy so that we can know to strive for peace. Troublesome so that we can remember that we need each other; others need us as much as we need them, even if they don't "look" like they do! Life is crazy sometimes, emphasizing the fact that there is a sane and sober and mature standard to keep working toward. Maturity - that's what's out there. And sometimes, I think life is even scary, and unnerving, to remind us that we don't want to live in fear and anxiety, and so we'll keep on reaching and searching for the strength and goodness that goes beyond understanding because it's from beyond this place. Because there is Something More. Something Better. If this life truly were perfect, wouldn't you just want to stay here for ever? But there is a Place for us.

I could stop trying to encourage others to grow in their faith, or hope, or love, or joy or peace... because I'm not perfect, so why should they listen? And they might see that I'm not perfect and ridicule me and not listen anyway. All of us could do that. Just stop encouraging. Stop trying. Stop living. We're never going to be whatever our idea of perfect is anyway.

No. That's the problem. We aren't here to be some feeble human idea of perfect. We're here to live. To learn. To grow. To help others along the way. To walk together and talk together. To sing together, cry together, laugh together. How dare we look at one another and think, "well, they're not my idea of perfect, so I want nothing to do with them." Or to think of ourselves, "well, I'm not my idea of perfect, so I'm not worthy of anything." How haughty, really. How proud we are to think that we know so much. How dare we "put on airs," and compare ourselves with some imagined idea of perfection and decide that since no one is then we just don't have time for them, or even ourselves.

How about this: the next time someone posts about their honour student, instead of wondering if your kid could beat up their kid, why not be happy with them? Share some of their joy, since you can't seem to find any for yourself.

How about the next time you start thinking that someone else has a perfect life, you say a prayer for them, because there is something that you don't know about.  Pray for the ones that belittle you, including yourself, that we'll all find the truth about things. Pray for the ones that are giving you advice, even if they aren't perfect themselves - because you know, they wouldn't give you advice, however clumsily they do it, however off the advice might seem, if they didn't care about you. Would you remember that?

How about instead of whining about the person that keeps whining, you mourn with them. Walk a mile in their moccasins. With them, or without their knowledge even. Mourn with them.

How about you remember that your life isn't perfect and neither is anyone else's. Don't be jealous of their supposed "greener pastures". Don't be envious and try to work out how to take what is theirs away from them. Just smile with them, and rejoice with them. Remember that they may have some obstacle in their life that you wouldn't be able to handle even if you were paid to do it.

Remember that Jesus, the Son of God Almighty, went through an awful lot because God Loves You, and doesn't desire that any should perish, but that all would come to eternal life.

How about you remember that this world just isn't your eternal home, nor anyone else's. It's not perfect, in any sense of the word.

Someday, our lives will be perfect, in the Creator's sense of the word perfect.

We all can understand that, can't we?

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“But when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”- 1 Corinthians 13:10-12.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” - 1 John 3:2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,  if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule; let us be of the same mind. - Philippians 3

Who Is Responsible for Our Children?

Click to read:
Children stolen by the state | Mail Online

"In care" in Britain is like our "in custody" or under care of an appointed guardian. I'm reading too many cases lately, unconnected, about the dreadful "children's "aid" services" around the world. Children literally taken from their parents arms and put in foster homes, not due to any crime but because of things that really any parent could be "accused" of. In Sweden, due to homeschooling and a cavity; other parents have left the country to avoid losing their children. In Germany, families have left or have lost their children due to differences in child rearing. We all have heard of cases of "child abuse" by spanking and the consequences. You can contest, but courts take "forever" to go through, and I know people who have been in the system for literally years, not having full protection over their own children, because of these "aid" services. We still hear of abuse cases where children have died at the hands of parents, and yet non violent parents have their children taken away. Children report of sexual abuses at the hands of parents, but child services only manage to separate families who don't want to give their children immunization shots. When did we give up parents' rights to the government services? We are not so different from the state of things in the UK, as pointed out in this article.

Caveat: I studied social work for one year in university, along with psychology, and left these studies because my own conscience wouldn't allow me to participate in such arbitrary and subjective fields (and very difficult to supervise therefore). I wanted to help people, but realized that the "industry" of helping people ... doesn't, much of the time. Not all helpers are crooked or merely reporting families so that they don't lose their jobs. Not all supervisors are only about the money to their department. Not all lawyers are callous. But look at the statistics. Look at the numbers. Obviously, something is wrong.

I'm not calling for children aid services bans, no. Let's not be silly. But something is so very wrong in our world, when parents in some countries will sell their own children to adoptive parents on the other side of the world who don't know they're participating in child stealing and selling; when children in normal homes with ups and downs are torn apart; when parents not only live in fear of thugs at public schools but in fear of social working bullies who will act on an anonymous report from a neighbor who doesn't know the family. When a father or mother is automatically removed of rights to their children because of some law or one subjective "psychological report" rather than a careful interviewing of that individual by a gamut of people.

Worldwide, we are "without natural affection". How utterly miserable we all are.

See also:
S.C.O.T.UK (Stolen Children of the UK)
Project Camelot
Justice for Families
an ABC story on Immigrant Families
a LifeSiteNews story on Irish Children's Rights
Protecting Our Children from Being Sold
Friends of Domenic Johansson blog
The Dominic Johansson Case
The Romeike Family case in HSLDA
... just for starters

Depression - a Spiritual Problem

Photo from Far Above Rubies

Coincidence? I was just talking with some folks about depression recently, and then I found this article today. Here's a woman-to-woman talk, the author sharing her experience and some very good ideas for dealing with depression.

Are You Depressed? You Don't Have To Be!
by Far Above Rubies

(Please read the article linked to above)


I hope no one considers this article to be "potentially harmful" because she doesn't immediately point people to psych drugs as the answer (but only as a possible temporary help), instead encouraging you to make a choice to change yourself. She writes: "Medicine may be of some use, but it is not a permanent solution. You must take other disciplines such as changing your eating habits, exercising, praying, meditating on God's word, and spending time with people that challenge and inspire you. Stop hanging around negative people. "

Found in "The Male Perspective: Dealing With Depression" in Secrets of a Good Girl blog

You see, these I have done, never having been labeled or diagnosed during a down time myself, and yet experiencing ups and downs has shown me that this short article does indeed have a lot of merit and advice for climbing back out of the mud puddles and into the Light, where we can see that we were washed and cleansed. For some crazy reason I believed them when they taught that the word of God was infallible, and was profitable for all kinds of correction and reproof, able to make me complete, whole. And I think it works. (So maybe I rely on coffee and chocolate sometimes as my drugs; nobody's perfect. Isn't that a good lesson for the depressed perfectionist?)

Found in "theiemommy" blog

Now, we're not to condemn or judge anyone - that's not my job or purpose here. If you are depressed, you're not judged or condemned, you're just going through a season like everyone else (even David, the man after God's own heart, went through some pretty rough seasons, cf. Psalms 42). If you haven't dealt with it well, you're not condemned or judged, you are merely reading someone's experience who feels that they have learned a better way to deal with depression, and they want to share it so that they can help others. If nothing in this article helps you, then you may shake your head and say, "well, I'm glad it works for you, but I'm not like you." And that is okay with me. But please don't be too negative about it; that may only increase your sense of depression, which is exactly the opposite of why you and I are reading this article in the first place. I just hope that you do read something here or in her article that helps you in some way. If nothing else, find someone to talk about this with.

When I feel down, I tend to look down and in. But I have learned that some of the most amazing things to see are found when you look up and out.

by Robyn Gough

Oh, and don't forget to get some fresh air,  breathe right and drink enough water. ;)


...........................................................

You might be interested to read also: 

"What Does the Bible Say About: Depression?"  From Jack Zavad, at About.com (yes, about.com; it has a good little summary with several Bible links)

For a little more indepth reading, try these links, with numerous links to other articles at the end of the article:
"Are there biblical examples of depression and how to deal with it?" From Paul S. Taylor, in ChristianAnswers.net
Bible Help To Overcome Depression from Bible.ca

And for a LOT more indepth reading, go to this link on psychiatry and the Bible at Bible.ca, which starts with this introduction:

"The wise old church elder said, "Depression is not a medical problem, it is a faith problem."

Since insanity, schizophrenia, bipolar and depression have no biological cause, this essentially banishes Biopsychiatry to the Junk Science Hall of Fame beside Humoral Medicine. It obsoletes psychiatric drugs and shocks as cures. It extincts all psychiatrists who claim to be experts in something they do not think exists ("psychiatrist" lit. Greek: "doctor of the soul"). What is left standing is the Bible and Christians who had it right all along as the historic experts on human behaviour.

--- EDIT --- (same day in the evening) - the last article here may or may not line up with your own beliefs about psychiatry, the Bible and the human soul; please read it to think about, and if you have questions, you may contact the author at the link provided on his website. ---

"The Problem With Low Self-Esteem"

Young women, and the rest of us too, will benefit for understanding the words this young woman offers us. Using the Bible and her own life as a reference, she puts self esteem where it needs to be: away.

The Rebelution: The Problem With Low Self-Esteem
by Ana Harris

Her letter opens this way:

"Hello friend! Thank you for contacting us. I definitely understand the discouragement of feeling like you’re bad at everything and have no talents. I’ve been there too — always comparing myself to others, always feeling bad about myself, always focusing on my weaknesses and wondering if I could ever be good at anything. It is indeed, a miserable way to live! And I have come to believe that it is not only a miserable way to live, but a sinful way to live. Let me explain…

"Most modern people would say that young girls who are perpetually feeling down on themselves have a low self-esteem problem and need to learn to accept themselves for who they are, and even love themselves. I absolutely believe that this is the wrong approach and that “good self-esteem” is a terrible goal to pursue.

"Some people even put a Christian spin on it and basically say that we need to feel good about ourselves because God feels good about us. But that completely misses the point. Feeling good about ourselves was never meant to be the goal of anybody’s life!

"When I was an anorexic thirteen-year-old, I spent a good deal of time thinking thoughts like, “She’s’ more beautiful than me. She’s funnier than me. She’s better at sports. She’s smarter than me. She has more friends than me. I can’t do anything right! Nobody likes me!” Do you notice how selfish those thoughts sound? Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!

"Now, If I had embraced the world’s solutions I would have learned to replace those negative thoughts about myself with positive ones, “I am the most beautiful me. No one else could be better at being me than I am. My true friends love me. I’m good at this and that, etc.” Certainly, thoughts like these are less destructive to my immediate happiness but they are no less me-focused.

"I am so grateful I had parents who offered me a different solution to my supposed “self-esteem” problem; parents who preached Christ and urged me to repent. I am so grateful they recognized how sickly and narrow a self-focused life really is, and spurred me on to love and good works (Heb. 10:24). So now, I want to offer you the opportunity to embrace same solution they offered me."

Please click the title link above to read the full article to find out more about the problem with self-esteem. And let no one think more highly of himself than he ought to think.

Just What You Need!

I want to tell you about a great resource out there for you to find something good to read everyday in, including:

• encouragements, 
• scoldings, 
• poetry and songs,
• stories (about good people and bad people, and the consequences of their choices), 
• illustrations, 
• sermons, 
• and even miracles.

It's got a reading schedule of sorts in it, and you can follow by days of the month or days of the week.

It's for everyone: men, women and children, married, single and widowed, old and young, country folk and city people, plain and PhD'd, saint and sinner.

You may be bogged down with a lot of books and online sources and worksheets and mailings and e-mailings and daily readers - but you can have it all in one, and, bless you, you've already got one or two in your house, and you can find it online, too: it's the Holy Bible! 

Find one small enough to carry with you for reading in the elevator or waiting room.

Put one by your bedside and in your bathroom reading shelf.

Get one that's got a dictionary/concordance in it, if you doubt your own research skills.

Pick one up in another translation to compare and find deeper, more beautiful, broader and more specific meanings.

Find a local Bible study group (they're everywhere) to go even further in your understanding and appreciation, as well as to get encouragement to keep on reading and growing every day.

Cover it with your favourite wall paper or wrapping paper to match your room.

Copy out thoughts on your own choice of paper, napkin, notebook or arm, for re-reading and memorizing throughout the day or week.

Take notes right on the pages!

If you need a copy of the Bible, know that it's the world's best selling book, so you're likely to find it anywhere; just find your local church, and even if they don't practice everything within it's pages, more than likely they will have a book for you to take home and keep.

Maybe you were looking for a blog or a book or an e-mailing or an online group, because you think you need them. They can be a help - for sure! - but this book has got everything you need.

Pick one up today!

 

scripture art above from :  http://www.scripturewallart.com/acts.html

Are You Afraid? Should you be?

This is a good answer for us to consider when very bad things happen:

"Sandy Hook: America Needs To Take A Collective Breath"

I took it a step further in my response to the author. I tend to think a lot, and sometimes it spills out of my head on to someone's blog. I thought I would post it here too, since this is really where my own opinion resides, when it spills out of my head, that it.

(Maybe this is why women are told to cover their heads.)

Rhodes, I agree with you on this - not that it matters if I agree, but that we all agree with what God has taught us, of course - and I wonder a step further:

Should we not only NOT fear death or the loss of our personal stuff, or even our own health, but shouldn't we rather hope for the loss of some of these things? It is a touchy and difficult subject, I know, and I've struggled with it too. But as Christians, as Bible students, we read thoughts like 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14: "Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.  We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him." 2 Corinthians 5:8: "We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord." And even Isaiah 57:1-2: "The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.  Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death."

We as humans want to defend ourselves because... why? Because we don't want to let go of our stuff, our health, our lives, our loved ones. But all that we have is the LORD's already. I have already given my children to Him, to His keeping, and my own life and stuff too. Why become a murderer in order to defend what is already in His keeping, whether it be me, my stuff, or my loved ones? Perhaps this is only the crazed spouting off of a so-termed "pacifist", but it seems to me to be better to be prepared to go and be with Him, knowing as well that my young children "will not come to me, but I will go to" them, and that, as we read in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18: ". . . our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

I think we mourn too deeply for ourselves, though for certain it is no sin to mourn (as even Jesus himself wept more than once, and deeply too). And I am afraid that we fear and panic and fight and defend because we do not trust God to take care of us, whether to protect us and defend us while on earth or to keep us safe forever in His perfect realm. Jesus told us that we "will have trouble," and though we do not seek it, we should be prepared for it, so that when bad things happen, we do not turn secular psychology and governments to help us "get through it", but will actually rely on Him who we gave our lives to, and His family, who have been comforted before so that we can comfort others too (I can't recall that verse)[see below]. Perhaps we didn't really relinquish our "rights" over our bodies, our families and our stuff to Him... and if not, maybe we should.

John 11:25-26: "Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;  and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?""

Romans 14:8: "If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord."

Philippians 2:20: "I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare."

2 Corinthians 1:3-4: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."

Matthew 19:29: "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."


In my head, when I read these things, and when I contemplate them in the larger story of the good news that Jesus Christ brings us, I feel much more peaceful and confident - not in myself, but in that "Greater Power" whom I love. And I am not motivated to follow Him from fear of punishment or of longing for the pleasures of reward, but simply because I really don't have anyone else like him, who takes a genuine interest in my welfare.

I posted on my Facebook today...

I was reminded of this sermon today, and looked it up again. This link is to a video that was made to go along with the audio recording. (Lest you feel distracted by the background noises, remember the song we teach the little children, "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands... shout, "amen!") How happy I am that my citizenship is in heaven, and I can, as a True Monarchist, say, "Long live the King!".

"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire."

That's My King! - SM Lockridge

If you're not already familiar with S M Lockridge's "That's My King!" - then you should be! He speaks for six minutes about Jesus and it's impossible not to ...

For a transcript of the words only, see this blog: http://thatsmyking.wordpress.com/words/

Words

Michelle Sowers Maddocks Today I need to pray for those who hold up this world and its leaders as so important that they will lie for them, kill for them, or even hate and slander for them. I need to pray that their minds will be open to see what is truly important and Who is truly the King of all leaders. I need to pray that they will open their hearts to understand the needs of others, and the lives and situations of others who are different from their own; I need to pray that they will have a heart for the weak and the meek and the merciful and the peaceful, just as their King loves all people, no matter their background, no matter their creed. I need to pray for them to be good parents and friends, to be good children and wives and husbands, that they may honour their King and give due respect to one another as His Children, not tearing one another down or pointing out others' weaknesses in anger and haughtiness, but in love encourage one another as an ever present support. I need to pray that those who have placed too much importance on the things of this world - in their country, their political party, their entertainment, their clothing, their stuff - I need to pray that they will lift up their eyes to things of the Spirit, and see that not only are others in need, but they themselves are in need as well, that there are so much more important things to be spending their time, money, energy and strength on. I need to pray for others because I need to pray for my own tendency to react in anger or disappointment or discouragement or depression, when I feel I'm surrounded by hatred and lies and temporal worldliness, when I feel that those who claim to be Christian don't even understand what it really means and bring shame on the name of the Lord of all lords, and when I remember once again that I have just as many weaknesses as any other. I need to pray for others, that God will bless them with eyes that see, ears that hear and hearts that understand, so that He will be glorified. So that He will be seen as our King, now and always. Forgive me for not praying for those with whom I disagree, and who hurt me or others. Don't make God out to be arrogant and rude just because I have been. He is a good and gracious King, full of mercy and grace. May we all strive to be more like Him.

"Imagine"?

With 9/11 still so sensitive a subject, I cringe as I bring this up. I've seen several posts on facebook sharing a photo of New York City with the word "Imagine" - alluding to that famous song - as a memorial and a hope.  Most of the words of John Lennon's "Imagine" echo the thoughts of so many of us who hate the destruction brought on by selfishness, greed, muddled understandings of Truth and real reward, and false teachings so sincerely believed in that they are not reasoned out before acted on. And so on.

But I cannot quote even the title of Lennon's song in good conscience, because I know what he believed. And I don't need a biography.

The same man who wrote: "Imagine all the people living life in peace" also wrote:

"Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today"

Most folks I know who love and sing this song sing about how beautiful heaven must be every week; why would you want to imagine there not being one? Why would you want to imagine that today is all there is, if you believe in Something More, in a spiritual world?

I understand his reasoning that if we were all one citizenship there would be no warring countries fighting for boundaries, and yet I can't agree with his full sentiment:

"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace"

He lumps in killing and dying for countries with killing and dying for religion - all religion, even that religion which teaches not to kill for religious reasons.  Notice: there is no clarification for any specific kind of religion that he would like to see the world without. He wants all religion gone, if there is to be peace.

I can't recommend the song. It's kind of like a diabetic saying that it doesn't matter if there's white sugar in this pretty candy, or saying that there's only a little poison in that cute alcoholic drink, or only a little dog poo in a great looking brownie. I know many people who watch evil movies "for entertainment's sake", or listen to foul language laced music, or read raunchy books "because there's such a good message in it". And even I will admit that the music to "Imagine" is lovely and that some of the lyrics bring out the hippie in me:

"Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world"

We should be careful what we imagine. We cannot blindly (deaf-ly?) follow along with the thoughts of John Lennon and other brilliant minds of this world. They don't merely want to have the freedom of speech to state their beliefs, they want us follow us into getting rid of all reference and remembrance of God, heaven and hell, past and future, even True Religion.

"You may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one"

Yes, there's a Great Day coming when the world will be as one, but it won't be because we've dreamed and imagined a world without spiritual things and heavenly places so that we can all live in quiet, ungodly peace.

I'm sorry. I used to really like that song too.

Sound Thinking

From Revive Our Hearts radio, October 31, 2008:

Titus 2, verse 2: First of all, “Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled.” There’s our word—sophron—self-controlled. It’s of a sound mind. They’re to be “sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.”

Verse 3: “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women…”

Now, you don’t see the word “self-control” there, but that word “train” is in the same family in the original Greek language as the word sophron. It actually means to train them to have sound minds, to train them to think soundly, to train them to be sober-minded.

You don’t see all of that in the English translation, but that’s what’s behind it in the original. “Train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled” (verse 4). There’s our word again, sophron—sober-minded, of a sound mind. In the New American Standard Bible, you have the word sensible there. Sensible, discreet in the King James, sound-minded, of sound thinking.

That word sophron is something that, as we saw in the last session, is rooted in sound doctrine. First of all, we have to think correctly about God’s Word: Who He is, and what the gospel is, and what it looks like, and how it works. If we have sound doctrine, then that will result in sound thinking about all of life—wise, discreet, sensible, self-controlled, sound thinking about all of life. That will result in sound living.

One Bible dictionary talks about this word sophron—sensible, self-controlled. It says "this is a person that has developed the ability to govern or discipline himself, his mind, his passions, his affections, and his behavior." So it’s putting the reign on your life—your affections, your behavior, your tongue, your thoughts. Everything is being reigned in by the Holy Spirit as a result of having thinking that is sound.