Out of my mind and into Christ's

I decided for the main theme of my plan to draw closer to God I wanted on focus on gaining and remaining in the mind of Christ as defined in 1 Corinthians 2

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
16"For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?"But we have the mind of Christ.

In these verses Paul is talking about how the spirit of man is the only one to know the thoughts of the man and how the spirit of God is the only one who knows the thoughts of God. If it stopped here that would be a pretty depressing statement but he goes on to say that God has given us his spirit in order that we may discern his will for our lives. And How did we gain this spirit? Through Christ who died in place of us so that the connection between God and man would be repaired. He has known the mind of the Lord and now we have it!

When I say I want to gain the mind of Christ heres what I mean: I want to be so filled with the spirit of the Lord that I am always thinking about Christ in relation to everything. Asking “would Jesus approve of me doing this?” “can I use a particular situation to benefit the kingdom” etc.. Even if it means simply maintaining a good attitude when situations are less then ideal, setting a good example, or doing little things to serve others. I want my faith to be so grounded in my life that it is the base on which all my other views build and from which they cannot be separated. The foundation of all my decisions and the final say in all I do

Anyway thats the theme anyway I'll be building off of that as time progresses.

Bonhoeffer on Cheap grace vs. Costly grace

"That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace that amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and whom from sin departs. Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sins that frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap Grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, Baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the hidden treasure in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye that causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at Which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. Costly grace is the gospel that must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ...."

-A passage from his The Cost of Discipleship

A little bit of an update...

I really am having trouble figuring out how I want to word so many different posts, thus why I haven't said much as of late. Its not that I don't actually have things to say. Anyways heres an update post until I get my wording down. So far so good so good on my self improvement goals. All except typing cause I can't find my typing program. I also thought of another thing to add to the list which is to work on not slouching all the time. This also seems to be going well for the most part except sometimes after work my back hurts when I do it. Oh well, no pain no gain...Work seems to be going well other than occasionally leaving me rather worn out. The days go really fast now as apparently does the summer. Its practically half over. I feel like I have so much left to do. I seem to be running into a lot of things of late that stir up a lot of memories (people, places, video games, etc.) I saw one of my friends from before college that I hadn't seen for like 3 years while I was home. He had recently gotten married and he and his wife had been living in California. He seemed to have matured a lot since I last saw him. I wonder if I've grown up much since then? Anyways I'm gonna work on one of my other future blog posts for a bit to see if I can't figure this out.....

Self improvement list

Heres at least some of the things I hope to do as far as my self improvement. This probably isn't a final list but I feel I should at least have what I thought of in writing.

1. Managing my money better. I tend to spend a lot if not all of what I make. I'm going to try to not by a lot of non essentials as I really do have enough stuff in most areas.

2. Bettering my eating habits. Although they have improved over the course of the year, I'm gonna try to cut a lot of sugar out of my diet. Sigh* I”m gonna miss all the koolaid.... Also learn to cook lots of new things and be good at doing it

3. Better my typing. Yeah.....

4. Get closer to God. In lots of different ways. I'm going to try to be more involved in scripture, spend more time praying, reading biblical commentary etc. Also going to church whenever possible

5. Broadening my historical knowledge. Through lots of reading and any hands on stuff I can do.

6. More reading in general. Can't hurt can it? I also have some Tolkien to catch up on..

7. Exercising regularly. So, of course, lots of walking (I'm gonna try to find exciting new paths and places to walk) and also bike riding and other random things as they come.

8. Making sure everything stays clean around the place. It just always seems to become an issue...

9. Stay caught up on sleep. I'm doing good so far but I can see problems eventually arising..

10. have more random adventures. Just getting out of the apartment in general and doing exciting and new things

Well thats what I got for now. Feel free to suggest things. I don't always see all the areas I need to improve in.

You win some, you lose some....

well...time for another post. Its been really stressful these last few weeks with papers and such. I was feeling rather burned up through the middle of today, but now I think I'm recovering. I ended up getting the summer job I wanted here at Bethel which is good. Just need to finish up with some housing stuff. Regretfully however, I failed to gain the student manager position. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find something else to fill my time. I never know what God has in store for next year...Which of course reminds me that I only have a short while left in this one. I hope to accomplish so much in my remaining time, but we'll see...

Odd man out?

I was reading through 1 Corinthians 13 ( for those who don't know this is known as the love chapter) and noticed a verse that kind of stood out from the rest. “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.” (verse 11). At first this doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of these verses. I wonder if Paul's trying to say that this kind of love requires a level of maturity(?) I'm not quite sure and would love to get discussion going on this.....