Navigating the Mind Field

Then he touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it done to you. -- Matthew 9:29

I think Jesus knew what He was talking about.  I am not going to go all New-agey deepaking on you, but I do believe my life has unfurled according to the things I believe, whether I was always fully aware of those beliefs or not.  I am in the Way, and the Way is in me, and He is working all this out. 

We can have toxic beliefs hiding back there out of sight -- booby-trap beliefs.  They are lying there quietly and unnoticed until we do, think, feel, or experience something that trips the trigger and BOOM!  We have no idea where that came from.  Wouldn’t it be good if we could sweep our subconscious minds to find those tripwires and mines?  How do you suppose we would go about that? 

There is a positive way in that as we embrace more and more of the truth of the Bible and traditional Christian teaching.  We study the Word and that exposes and disarms some of those booby-trap beliefs.  We replace bad ideas and bad theology with good theology and a right understanding of who God is and of His infinite love for us. 

Another way is through prayer.  We have talked about this from time to time.  Suppose you knew someone who came to you for advice.  He or she started talking about the problem and all the issues around it, all the bad outcomes, and everything that is wrong.  Then when the person finished he simply got up and left.  You might not have the answer or you might.  The person is never going to know because you never got to a chance to say anything.   Too often for too many of us, that’s the prayer model we follow.  That is one belief we need to get right.  A lot of us do not expect God to speak to us so we never bother to listen. 

What if we went to God and said, “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.  Open my ears to hear Your Voice.”? If we wait before the Lord, listening and meditating upon His Word, it could be that He would, in some way, expose some of the erroneous beliefs and axioms the world has built into our thinking.  I am pretty confident that He will, that He, in fact, longs to deliver us from the potential destruction of lies and disbelief. 

The world is going to believe in its idols.  Right now, Caesar seems to be the obsession of those who are conformed to the fashions of the flesh and the fleshly mind.  Government will create heaven on earth.  This is especially true during this political season.  Some leader has the answer to all our problems if we can just vote the right person into office.  Except it never happens.  The mark of our insanity is plain:  we keep trying again and again, every two or four years. 

Believing the truth about ourselves and reality delivers us from the alluring delusion of a utopian society.  Strangely enough, though, if we were to, as individuals, live righteously and responsibly by biblical truth and biblical principles in our everyday lives, we would find ourselves a lot closer to heaven while on this earthly journey.

One, Two, Three,

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.  -- Matthew 18:20

Our God is omnipresent.  Why would Jesus make this statement?  Here is another:  Wherever there are (two) they are not without God, and wherever there is one alone I say I am with him.  Then this , too, is attributed to Jesus:  Raise the stone and there thou shalt find me, cleave the wood and there am I. 

In Christ the Eternal Tao, we read:  Two is the number that separates, / Three the number that transcends all separation.

The Lord was teaching about binding and loosing, forgiving and correcting, and the power of agreement in prayer.  A.T. Robertson, in his Word Pictures, explains about agreement:   Shall agree (συμφωνησωσιν). Our word "symphony" is this very root. It is no longer looked at as a concord of voices, a chorus in harmony, though that would be very appropriate in a church meeting rather than the rasping discord sometimes heard even between two brethren or sisters.

Something happens when we agree not only in words but in spirit.  A symphony of spirits transcends the barriers of physical existence.  It is one of the best reasons to attend church, or, at least, gather occasionally with fellow believers.  I sense it sometimes in the congregational singing, in our time of communion, sometimes when we engage in corporate prayer, that heaven comes down or we rise up.  Worldly worries, concerns and limitations are left behind. 

Ecclesiastes talks about how two are better than one alone (4:9-12).  Together we lift up the fallen and keep one another from becoming cold, forgetting God and losing our passion for Christ and our perspective in difficult times.  By having brothers and sisters standing with us and encouraging us, we are able to overcome adversaries and adversities that might be otherwise overwhelming.    

Christ the Eternal Tao talks about Mind, Word, and Breath. The Breath of God within me prays through the Word of God to the Mind of God.  

Four.

Return of the King

But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!  Then we shall not turn back from you; give us life, and we will call upon your name! -- Psalms 80:17-18

Abraham was told that he would be the father of many nations.  His descendants were multiplied and ruled over the Land of Promise, reaching an apex in the reign of Solomon.  Apostasy led to fracture, defeat, and exile, but the children of Abraham continued to be fruitful and many returned to settle back in their homeland.  Meanwhile, the Lord had gone from widening the cone to narrowing it until it came to one young maiden to whom an angel made the most significant announcement in history.  As Paul says, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, And to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, And to your offspring, who is Christ “(Galatians 3:16).

It all comes down to Christ.  Here is the Israel of God, the Prince who “…went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return” (Luke 19:12).  The Lord did indeed go into a far country, into the depths of hell and death, and He returned. 

If we read Luke’s version of the Parable of the Talents, it is a little different, for it includes the detail that the citizens of the country over which this nobleman already ruled, when he had departed to receive his new kingdom, sent a message after him that they did not wish to have him as their lord.  When the man returns, he distributes his favors to the faithful, but he also deals with the rebellious:  But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me (Luke 19:27).  The gentle Jesus, meek and mild.  When judgment fell upon Jerusalem in 70 AD, this parable was at least partially fulfilled. 

That is the bad news.  The Good News is that the Lord lives and reigns today in His kingdom which shall have no end.  Through His death, burial, and resurrection, He offers life to all.  Those who are made alive in Him may be confident that when they call upon Him, He will answer.

And When We Pray

And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  – Matthew 6:5-6

Back when I used to teach in church, I did a lot of studying.  That goes along with my nature.  I enjoy reading.  With a couple of translations of the Bible, a Strong’s Concordance, Vine’s Word Studies in the New Testament, and resorting on occasion to a commentary or the footnotes in my fat NIV Study Bible, I could have a fine time putting together a fairly substantial lesson for the Adult Sanctuary Class.  Reading the Bible was never an issue for me.  What did nag at me in terms of spiritual discipline, from the moment I began to follow Christ, was my neglect of prayer. 

Of course, I prayed when I was in a bind and my wife was sick or the kids were in trouble or I needed a job or I could not pay the bills.  I would pray early on Sunday morning as part of my preparation for teaching.  I prayed in agreement with others during church services.  Sometimes I would go down and pray at the mourners' benches in a Sunday evening service, either as my own response to a message or in support of someone else.  In spite of that, prayer for the sake of prayer, or more rightly, for the sake of talking to my Father remained a difficulty. 

Sometimes I would make an effort to set aside time in the morning, or I would commit to a time in the evening.  I had a rosary for a while.  I have tried to follow that ancient practice sometimes called the daily office or liturgy of the hours.  I think that would be a good practice for some, but at this point in life, it does not work for me.  (If anyone is interested, there is a recent book on it called In Constant Prayer by Robert Benson.)  One day, after using the Psalms for prayer, I realized, finally, the real nature of my problem.  Left to itself, my mind is like a hungry goat that has escaped from the pen.  Everything thing looks edible, and there is edible stuff everywhere.  Without something to focus on, I am like “a leaf on the wind” to quote Wash from Serenity. 

Praying the Psalms worked for me as a focal point, but it was a little too much like, well, like reading the Bible.  What I needed was more than a prayer list; I needed something like a personal psalm.  I got a little cheap notebook that I could hide because there are things I pray about that are no one else’s business (see the warning above about "street corners").  The first page is a single statement of how I see my purpose in the world.  The next few pages are just about me, asking God for help with specific struggles and talking about the places where I need help and where I stumble.  Following that are sections for specific people and situations.  I try to leave some blank space -- at least the back of a page, for new requests for an individual.  Except for the opening page with its reminder of what I am doing, everything is written in pencil.  I sometimes need to re-word things a little, or I realize my understanding of a situation was incorrect and a prayer needs to be phrased differently. 

These are not long prayers.  I try to make my requests as brief and as specific as possible to guard against "vain repetitions" and empty words.  I may have multiple requests for a given person, but each is separate.  If one is answered, it becomes a thanksgiving instead of a plea, a standing stone attesting to God’s grace and power.   

You may have noticed that I used the word “specific” several times.  A while back it was mentioned that Jesus often asked people what they wanted Him to do for them.  The story of Blind Bartimaeus from Mark 10:46-52 is a case in point:  

And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”  And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.”  And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.  And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.”

Do we think that Jesus could not see that the poor man was blind?  What did He think a blind man might want?  No, the Lord was not unaware of the blindness, but He wanted Bartimaeus to know what Bartimaeus wanted.  There are times when it is quite appropriate to fall down before God and cry out, “Have mercy on me!”  We can be overwhelmed by circumstances that are beyond our comprehension and understanding.  There is nothing wrong with a general plea.  But if we have a problem that can be defined in detail, we should address it in detail.  As the old song says, “Jesus on the main line, tell Him what you want.”

My method is very practical and appropriate for me.  Most people have better mental discipline than I have and can afford to be more spontaneous.  Oddly enough, I have found that writing my prayers down this way makes them more accessible to me when I find myself with a few spare minutes.  One of my requests will often come to mind as I am getting ready to go to sleep or as I am waking up in the morning.  Very slowly, prayer is beginning to infiltrate my life. 

The Play is the Thing

We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. – 1 John 3:16-24

Despite what we might think, our English word hypocrite is not transliterated from the ancient Greek word for socialist politician, nor is it from the related word for journalist. A hypocrite was an actor – though, admittedly, Hollywood elites do show an amazing affinity for fascist third-world dictators and warlords.

When Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites, He was not implying merely that they said one thing and did another. He wanted His hearers to know that the Pharisees were actors, players in their own little production, pretending to be something they knew in their own hearts they were not. They spoke their lines and played their parts before the world, but their lives were another story. William Shatner was never a starship captain, and he knows that. Tom Cruise knew that he was not a Navy pilot. Sean Penn pretended to be Harvey Milk, but we know and he knows he is not a gay politician because he is married to Robin Wright was once pretended to be Princess Buttercup. Sean Penn also played a mentally challenged person in “I Am Sam” – the exception that proves the rule.

I have claimed to be a Christian for some years now, and I have also done things that are very un-Christian, even in that same time frame. My heart has not always been convinced that I am what I say I am. I have lived with self-condemnation. It is a miserable condition for a believer, and it is a condition that must be addressed. To live in that state of conflict for any length of time would surely result in insanity. John says that the remedy for condemnation is self-sacrificing love. Our actions, our deeds will reassure our hearts.

Who but God could have come up with such a counterintuitive plan for freeing us from the doubts of our heart? And it is the heart of man that is the whole problem. Jeremiah tells us that the heart of man is desperately wicked, and, he asks, who can know it? Yet God knows us perfectly. He does not need to be convinced. Our need is not to win Him over to our side. He’s already on our side, having made provision in His Son for us to be His children. Or, as Romans 8:32 says, He did not even spare His own Son, but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him freely grant us everything?.

Our good actions do not secure salvation for us. They do not put God in our debt. There even seems to be something contradictory in thinking that we are “here to help others”. Isn’t everyone more or less in the same boat? Sure, some people are born with more limitations or disabilities than others, but most of us, apart from government bureaucrats, politicians, ACORN, and the SEIU, consider it undesirable to be freeloaders, dependent on someone else for our bread and NGC (non-government cheese).

The one who benefits from my doing right is most of all me because I am the one who doubts and feels alienated. I am the one who needs to be convinced and assured and confident in my standing in Christ. My obedient interactions in the horizontal translate to greater confidence and assurance in my vertical interaction. I can converse with God in complete faith that my prayers will be heard and answered for I now know that I am abiding in Christ.

I am not always going to feel “right” any more than I always feel married. If I were counseling potential brides and grooms, I’d tell them it isn’t how you feel that keeps your marriage intact, it’s what you do. If we allow our feelings to dictate our actions, we will soon find ourselves in despair. If, conversely, we do right, our feelings will follow our deeds.