You Have The Mind Of Christ

As I was eating my Raisin Bran Crunch today a little thought popped into my head, "you have the mind of Christ." So what does that mean, having the mind of Christ? A good source might be the scripture passage that states it.

1 Corinthians 2

1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[a] 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

How did this "demonstration of the Spirit's power" present itself? Was it healing, miracles, stigmata ... If it was not men's wisdom and there is no mention in this context of miracles, then what did this power look like? The subject of the message was "Jesus Christ and him crucified" but where and what was this power?

6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

No worldly wisdom was taught but "God's secret wisdom" and it was taught to the "mature". Does that mean that the mature saw this power more clearly than the immature? And what about "the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing"? Does that apply to all rulers of every age, even ours?

9However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"[b]— 10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

If the mature can see by revelation what God has prepared for them, that would be powerful. If it is impossible to see the things of God except by the Spirit of God, then seeing the secrets of God would be powerful, no?

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.[c] 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:

It is becoming inescapable that those "without the Spirit" can not understand these things. Apart from the power of the Spirit of God revealing the things of God, we can not understand the secrets of God. So is this the power?

For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?"[d] But we have the mind of Christ.

If we have the Spirit of God, we have the mind of Christ to understand the things about "Jesus Christ and Him crucified".

Many take this out of context and wish to add power to it. Understanding the secrets of Christ's crucifixion is just not powerful enough these people. They blow right by the empowering truth in search of the spectacular. For them the mind of Christ must understand what stock to buy and power must be raising people from the dead. If Christians could become wildly successful by world's standards or perform eye popping miracles, then the world would come to Christ, is the thinking I assume.

I recall the rich man asking Abraham to send Lazarus back:
Luke 16:19-31
27"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

29"Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

30" 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

31"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

If they do not listen to the Prophets, they will not be convinced (period). The greatest power was in hearing what the Spirit of God has to say. No worldly wisdom compares to God's wisdom, in fact it is contrary to God's wisdom. That should be a mind bender.

The power (all power) lies in hearing the Spirit of God and having the Spirit of God within us. Who knows, the Spirit of God may even perform a few miracles along the way.

BigHugeThing

Alien Invasion?

words

President Hillary Presents New Opportunity

We could become Health Brokers and send people to Mexico.

Is Warren Buffet, Bill Gate's real dad?

Am I trying to start a malicious rumor? Sure, but do you see an eerie likeness (other than billions) or am I just sick of hearing about them.

No BigHugeThing

the evangelical outpost: The Myth of Galileo:A Story With A (Mostly) Valuable Lesson

I can see your eyes glazing over at the thought of reading this. (see link)

I'm often surprised at how much of our "common knowledge" is distortion of the truth, or complete falsehood, and blindly repeated by those who should know better. Galileo is usually pictured as some kind, infallible old genius, innocently going about his earth shattering discovering, when (without provocation) that nasty Pope throws him on the rack. How much crap do we, ourselves, simply repeat as gospel to make our points (and worse, make our decisions), when in reality those facts are mere distortions and/or myths?

Intelligent people feel immune to deception. Once they "know" a thing, it becomes unquestionable. So how do they "know" the thing? Well they heard it or read it from some other bonifide intelligent person of course. Temper this with political or existential bias and you have truth for them. True because other intelligent people say it is true. True because it feels true. True because it makes them feel good about their world view. Sound like you and me? I think so. Whether wildly intelligent or commonly stupid, we are all prone to deception by our very natures.

This might be a good place to mention tempering our truth with the written Word of God (Holy Spirit in written form) and tempering our truth with the living Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth. Should Christians have better insight into the truth? It would seem so. But I suppose the necessity of relying on the Holy Spirit would be a prerequisite. Christians have a choice (by some accounts) whether or not to rely on the Holy Spirit, therefore a Christian's advantage is not automatic.

The longest-serving, wrongly-convicted, inmate in Texas to be freed by DNA evidence - so far! Dvorak Uncensored: General interest observations and t

The longest-serving, wrongly-convicted, inmate in Texas to be freed by DNA evidence - so far! Dvorak Uncensored: General interest observations and true web-log.: "The longest-serving, wrongly-convicted, inmate in Texas to be freed by DNA evidence - so far!
Published on January 4th, 2008
Posted by Eideard in General

Judge John Creuzot is hugged by Charles Chatman

A man imprisoned since 1981 for sexual assault was freed after a judge recommended overturning his conviction.

Charles Chatman, 47, was released on his recognizance after serving nearly 27 years of a 99-year sentence. He was freed on the basis of new DNA testing that lawyers say proves his innocence and adds to Dallas County’s nationally unmatched number of wrongfully convicted inmates."

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comment by BHT
This death penalty issue support from evangelicals is curious to me. It costs a fortune to try these cases and would be cheaper (it appears) to incarcerate the individual for life. Why should we want the person killed? I have to break ranks on this issue and oppose the death penalty just as I crossed the fence one day over to the pro-life side. The courts are too imperfect for the death penalty.

the evangelical outpost: The One-Legged Stool:How the Elites Misunderstand "Reagan Conservatives"

the evangelical outpost: The One-Legged Stool:<br />How the Elites Misunderstand "Reagan Conservatives": "Conservatives in Washington (and New York, for that matter) have a tendency to forget that their way of thinking is anomalous and deviates significantly from most 'heartland' conservatives. They work, and often live, in a liberal, urban environment in which a true 'full-spectrum conservative' is outside the norm. But the fact is that most Republican voters are from rural suburban areas. As this map shows, the dividing line in America is not between Red States and Blue States but between Red and Blue counties:
2004county.jpg"

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I am becoming less political as time goes by. It seems no matter how we vote, little progress is made on the conservative front. But we can't give up on what we think is best for the country. We know from scripture that things are not going to end well for this world in general but that could be some time down the road if Jesus further delays His return. No use letting the whole thing go to pot prematurely if we can do anything about it.

But let's face it, even democracy is not strictly a Biblical concept. There are elements of the US system that lend itself to Biblical thinking. God seems to accept private property rights, people benefiting from their endeavors and such. But mostly the Bible sees all human government as imperfect at best and demonic at worst. Government (it seems to have a life of its own) wants to be God to its people. Communism is the extreme example but even our "democratic republic" is evolving into a Mother Earth that we enjoy suckling and worshiping. This behavior is always Big and Huge in God's eyes because it destroys humanity.

So let's remember that our citizenship is in heaven and the Kingdom of God is not meat nor drink but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. We need to have fellowship with all Christians whether Democrats, Republicans, Independents ... whatever their political label. The Kingdom of God resides within believers where ever they are. It has nothing to do with earthly government itself aside from that Kingdom inside believers influencing governments for good if that were possible.

comment by BHT