1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Our minds are the gateway to our hearts - what we place into our minds and what we regard as important to us, can ultimately determine the course of our lives and the degree to which we grow spiritually. Our minds are a battleground, where the enemy attempts to gain a foothold to bring about destruction in our lives and render us unproductive for the Kingdom of God. So, we have to keep our priorities in sight and make sure that we are in the process of mind renewal, allowing the Word of God to keep us thinking straight.
In Isaiah 26, we can see the description of a component of a productive Christian life:
2 Open the gates, That the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.
3 You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.
4 Trust in the Lord forever, For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.
There has been a rather odd occurrence on the campaign trail involving one of the Democratic Presidential candidates - frontrunner Hillary Clinton. According to a Christian Today story, a women's chorus called Voices From the Heart replaced the name "Jesus" with "Hillary" in singing the African-American spiritual song "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind On Jesus)" for her campaign stop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire a few weeks ago.
The song lyrics went: "Woke up this mornin's with my mind stayin' on Hillary."
The article says that Fox News commentator Todd Starnes called the rewriting of an old gospel song as "just plain creepy" and "downright sacrilegious."
He recalled a time when school children were ordered to sing praise songs to the president, "Barack Hussein Obama—mmm mmm mmm."
In fact, Starnes said, one of Obama's "disciples" at MSNBC "actually called him God!"
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In Isaiah 26, we can see the description of a component of a productive Christian life:
2 Open the gates, That the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.
3 You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.
4 Trust in the Lord forever, For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.
There has been a rather odd occurrence on the campaign trail involving one of the Democratic Presidential candidates - frontrunner Hillary Clinton. According to a Christian Today story, a women's chorus called Voices From the Heart replaced the name "Jesus" with "Hillary" in singing the African-American spiritual song "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind On Jesus)" for her campaign stop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire a few weeks ago.
The song lyrics went: "Woke up this mornin's with my mind stayin' on Hillary."
The article says that Fox News commentator Todd Starnes called the rewriting of an old gospel song as "just plain creepy" and "downright sacrilegious."
He recalled a time when school children were ordered to sing praise songs to the president, "Barack Hussein Obama—mmm mmm mmm."
In fact, Starnes said, one of Obama's "disciples" at MSNBC "actually called him God!"
He recalled a time when Newsweek put on a cover story depicting President Obama as the "Second Coming" and an artwork depicting him as the crucified Christ.
I think this unfortunate incident can be sobering for all of us. For one thing, I think it shows how there is a tendency to "deify" certain political leaders or celebrities to a certain extent. Even though Starnes is pointing out this phenomenon regarding Democratic candidates, those who support Republicans could very easily do the same thing.
In following the life or activities of a high-profile person, we can place someone on such a pedestal that a person can do no wrong and we lose our sense of objectivity. Or, we develop a certain fascination with personality - no wonder the grocery store checkout lines are full of magazines that deal in the latest celebrity gospel. Even in our political consumption, I see a certain "American Idol"-ish flair that emphasizes style rather than substance, sound bites and zingers rather than reasoned discussions of policies. We have to be careful that we do not regard celebrities or politicians as gods, and that we seek God about the politicians we elect.
And, I thought about the temptation in our own Christian lives to replace "Jesus" with another name. We, of course, can remember that the name of Jesus is the name that is above all others. But, while Colossians tells us to fix our minds on Christ, there is a human tendency to drift. The Bible teaches us to put Jesus in the first place in our lives, as the Lord of all, but if we are spending time thinking about other priorities that would be exalted over the priority of pursuing holiness in a relationship of love and obedience to Christ, then we have to make adjustments. Our devotion to Christ can be appraised as we evaluate the amount of time and energy that we expound in spiritual activity each day. We have to make sure that we are not replacing Him with the pursuits of this world.
I think this unfortunate incident can be sobering for all of us. For one thing, I think it shows how there is a tendency to "deify" certain political leaders or celebrities to a certain extent. Even though Starnes is pointing out this phenomenon regarding Democratic candidates, those who support Republicans could very easily do the same thing.
In following the life or activities of a high-profile person, we can place someone on such a pedestal that a person can do no wrong and we lose our sense of objectivity. Or, we develop a certain fascination with personality - no wonder the grocery store checkout lines are full of magazines that deal in the latest celebrity gospel. Even in our political consumption, I see a certain "American Idol"-ish flair that emphasizes style rather than substance, sound bites and zingers rather than reasoned discussions of policies. We have to be careful that we do not regard celebrities or politicians as gods, and that we seek God about the politicians we elect.
And, I thought about the temptation in our own Christian lives to replace "Jesus" with another name. We, of course, can remember that the name of Jesus is the name that is above all others. But, while Colossians tells us to fix our minds on Christ, there is a human tendency to drift. The Bible teaches us to put Jesus in the first place in our lives, as the Lord of all, but if we are spending time thinking about other priorities that would be exalted over the priority of pursuing holiness in a relationship of love and obedience to Christ, then we have to make adjustments. Our devotion to Christ can be appraised as we evaluate the amount of time and energy that we expound in spiritual activity each day. We have to make sure that we are not replacing Him with the pursuits of this world.
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